Visual Education (Jan 1923-Dec 1924)

March, 19 2 3 81 more at Louisville and Nashville, mounts up in the course of a year, until the bill reaches staggering proportions — enough to build thirty new locomotives, or replace and repair every bridge in the system. During the past summer these "Loss and Damage" films gave powerful assistance to a "No Exception" drive, in which each division set out to beat the record of other divisions as well as its own record of the year before. Movies for the Farmer In addition to these eighteen reels on "Loss and Damage," the Illinois Central Railroad has produced other films on methods of engineering and switching. Its "visual education department" boasts a collection of 6000 slides, in addition to nearly half a million negatives of still photographs. There are likewise motion pic tures made xpressly to educate farmers along the road's right of way in modern scientific methods of poultry raising, soil treatment, dairying, potato culture, and packing produce for shipment. A force of industrial agents maintained by the railroad holds farmers' meetings at which talks and films are the order of the day, and conducts field days and other get-together affairs where "the movies" constitute an always dependable attraction. A Two-Million-Dollar Saving A multiple-reel film on "Fuel Economy" teaches firemen modern economical methods of firing and stoking. This film is shown by two experienced railroad men, J. W. Dodge and O. L. Lindrew, who travel over the system in a private car to which is attached the "lecture car" — a complete movie the ater on wheels, equipped with seats, screen and projection apparatus. "In the five years since we started our campaign on fuel economy by means of lectures, slides and films," Mr. Melton replied to a query as to the actual value of such pictures in terms of dollarsand-cents, "we have saved over two million dollars in fuel!" And he concluded : "You can reach most of the higher-grade, more intelligent men — the station agents, yardmasters, trainmasters and master mechanics — by means of printed bulletins, although even they prefer pictures. But when it comes to dealing with the man who cannot read or write, or who reads only with difficulty, you must get your message across by way of the screen. The motion picture is your universal language today." The Movietorium — A Railroad Theater Car M OTION pictures in palatial movie theaters are a part of our everyday existence. Motion pictures in schools and churches no longer evoke exclamations of surprise. Motion pictures on moving railroad trains, however, to relieve the tedium of the trip for passengers, are a decided innovation. Indeed, until the Chicago & Alton's first "Movietorium Show" on February 12, the practicabilitv of such entertainment had not been entirely proved. Several roads had made test runs, but no one had hitherto put on pictures, in a special car, as regular equipment for the traveling public. February 12, therefore, when pictures were shown on the Chicago & Alton's "Red Limited" train between Chicago and St. Louis, marked the date of the first really successful picture show on a moving train. The program was repeated on the return trip of the following day. In the words of the trailer intro ducing each show: "This event may become historic. Passengers who used the first Pullman Sleeping Car or the first Dining Car were no more pioneers than you who witness this first Movietorium Show." Solving Problems of Installation In introducing this novel entertainment service, the road had the co-operation of the Universal Pictures Corporation, which supplied a two-hour film program that had not (Continued on Page 94) IN THE FIRST "MOVIETORIUM" COACH