The Moving Picture World (1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE. WORLD. 4* ing scenes. They generally came out with smiling faces. At any rate, they did not begrudge the small 5-cent sum invested. Business picked up so rapidly for the "minia- ture" theatre that it was with difficulty the crowds that surged in and out of its doors were accommodated. Some thrifty-minded individual noticed this, and rea- soned out that Dallas was big enough and her population theater-going enough to afford two of the low-priced shows. He accordingly set up a rival establishment across the way. Business in a very few days grew larger for both shows than it had been for the one, and the number* was accordingly changed into three. Then it began to grow as the "fever" spread, and the momentum seems to have gained and developed every day since. It is almost impossible to walk half a dozen blocks in the business district to-day without passing a building—often two or three of them—being remodeled and converted into a moving picture theater. Often they grow up in two or three days. For instance, those passing a certain build- ing on Main street last Friday might have noticed a stock of goods being moved out. Carpenters were at work on one side of the building being so hurriedly emptied, and it was apparent that some new enterprise was preparing to make its home in the building remodeled and over- hauled. All that day and until far into the night they worked, and the next morning it was plainly evident that a new moving picture show was to be added to the long list already established. More carpenters were added Saturday morning, and by the middle of the morning painters were added to the working crew. The electrician was on the scene by noon, and all were as busy as bees. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and while the electrician was hanging the showy new electric sign, the painter smearing on the last coat of paint, and before the car- penter had driven the last nail the doors were thrown open to the amusement-loving public and a new 5-cent theater added to the "mushroom"'-list. Sunday morning the new establishment had all the appearance of having been "one of the original," and its patronage was appar- ently as large as if conditions had been as they seemed. And the fever is spreading to every large center throughout the States. Among the corporations to file certificates of incorpora- tion with the Secretary of State recently we observe the Mobile Amusement Company, of Mobile, Ala.; cap- ital stock, $10,000. * ■ * * - - Harvey B. Mogle, of Shoemakersville, Pa., has em- barked in the motion-picture business. He purchased a first-class machine and enough pictures to give a two and a half hour's entertainment. *r-. * * Macon, Ga.— The procx'eds of all the moving-picture galleries in Macon on Monday, March II, were turned over to the Macon Hospital Association, and the ladies who are the members of this organization will devote the proceeds in paying for a new heating apparatus that has just been installed; 'M '■"■■';! [We commend this action of the Macon fraternity to others of the cult, elsewhere.—En.] ; In Auburn, N. Y., the residents are wild over moving pictures. Two little moving picture "theaters" have been doing a rushing business for a long time, and others are soon to be'open. Several saloonkeepers are of the opinion that the moving-picture business has hurt their business, and they are talking about installing machines themselves. A minister is considering the use of moving pictures in. his church. "We are always ready to checkmate the devil," he says. * * * "Yellowstone Park" was the title of a lecture delivered in. Charleston on the 14th by Mr. E. C. Culver, a veteran stage driver, who has spent twenty years in Yellowstone National - Park. Mr. Culver's long personal experience in this region, and his intimate knowledge of its history, its. marvelous phenomena, and its wonderful scenery qualify him to tell of its attractions in an unusually inter- esting manner. This lecture was illustrated with moving pictures of. the great geysers, mammoth paint pots, wild game, .moving troops of cavalry, stages and trains of tourists, and of the Great Falls of the Yellowstone, and also with beautifully colored stereopticon views of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Firehole River, Yel- lowstone Lake, Hot Springs, terraces, mountains, and of buffalo, elk, deer, mountain sheep, antelope and bear. Mr. Culver is assisted by Mr. E. B. Thompson, former- ly connected with the Interior Department at Washing- ton, and Mr. George Breck, superintendent of the Yel- lowstone Park Transportation Company. Ferd Jennen, proprietor of "Wonderland," 119 Main street, who first introduced moving pictures as an exclu- sive entertainment in Little Rock, Ark., so far from being alarmed at the recent competition, is inclined to welcome his competitors to the field. He says: "To use an old phrase, 'the more the merrier as far as I am concerned.' When I began the moving-picture busi- ness here people said 'it will never pay.' Well, the patron- age kept on increasing until I had to open up in a larger and more costly place. At first a few came. They liked the show and told their neighbors and friends, and chil- dren got to coming regularly in the afternoons, and men alone, and with their families filled the house evry night. The more people who saw the pictures the more wanted to see them. "Very well, now there are three places and another to come. That means that still more will get the habit. People are being educated to the real value of moving pictures'as a means of education. People unable to travel have Paris, London, the Alps, every part of the world, brought to them. Not mere panoramic pictures, but pictures of living, breathing men and women, street scenes, mountains, rivers, all that the traveler ever sees, is brought to you at home. Why, a child can learn more of Europe- in a few pictures than he could out of a book in a year. And at such ridiculously small cost—only 5 cents a visit"