The Moving Picture World (1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 645 might be utilized to"good advantage by any illustrated lecturer with a certainty that the interest of the audience would be held to the end and that the word would be passed along to others advising them to go. If one selects; something with which he is familiar and works it out in his own way, developing some of his own individuality, he is sure to command attention. Some- thing new, or better, something presented in a new way. It is practically impossible to present anything new. Every, subject seems hackneyed, yet there are new ways of describing a commonplace and trite subject and new ways of illustrating it which will attract universal atten- tion and those who hear and see will be convinced that they have heard and seen something new. the personality of the speaker is important—perhaps herein lies the source of the failure of so many promis- ing lecturers. They fail to develop their own personality and do not see and describe things as they see them, but as others see them. This is fatal and should never be begun. Look at your subject from your own personal standpoint. See it yourself. Select it with that particu- lar object in view and having seen it yourself then de- scribe it yourself. In this way you will impress it upon your audiences through your own personality and your reward will be commensurate. Important Doeioioia ofSuprene Coari, Now YorK Doe. 2z&«3, A&dctteg Sunday Shows. Until New York's Sunday amusement law as interpreted yes- terday by Supreme Court Justice O'Gorman is amended by the Board of Aldermen or the Legislature, Police Commissioner Bingham will be compelled to prevent, beginning with next Sun- day, the following violations: Presentation of vaudeville or burlesque by twenty-seven thea- ters (in the Borough of Manhattan alone). Sunday evening concerts at the Metropolitan and the Man- hattan Opera Houses. Concerts, "sacred" or otherwise, in theaters and halls through- oat the Greater Gty Sunday afternoons and evenings. All recitals and symphony concerts on Sunday. Sunday night plays in French and German at two theaters in Manhattan. Sunday performances at more than one hundred penny and nickel phonograph galleries and moving picture shows in as many more places. And if it were Summer, the police would be compelled, under- this interpretation of the Sunday law, to shut up every place of amusement at Coney Island, Canarsie, Manhattan Beach and the other seaside resorts, as well as all the roof gardens in the city. ..".' 'The law," Justice O'Gorman says, "is plain, and there can he no excuse for laxity in its observance or enforcement All performances in theaters or other places of public amusement and entertainment on Sunday are prohifcjjed." For forty-seven years the law has been on the books in sub- stantially its present form, yet the excuses have never been wanting to prevent its enforcement, and a complacent public opinion apparently has been satisfied to let it remain a dead ■«ter. It has taken fifteen years of almost continuous agitation to bring the statute to this first decisive test. Few decisions, in the history of the New York courts have affected so many persons as does this one closing the doors of Sunday diversion to 69,000 patrons of Sunday vaudeville in •Manhattan, fully 25,000 who attend Sunday evening concerts sod easily 50,000 more who enjoy divers forms of Sunday en- tertainment in the" greater city. Half a million more patronize *s seaside resorts on Sunday in the Summer. A decisive step was taken by the Grand Jury, of Brooklyn, N. Y., to put to the severest-and quickest test the decision of Supreme Court Justice Aspinall to the effect that shows of any kind on Sundays are illegal and should be stopped. The whole matter hinges on the question of the rights "of the moving pic- ture shows to open on Sundays. Canon Chase, as leader of the Sunday Observance Movement, appeared before the Grand Jury as a witness in the • investiga- tion of that body into Sunday moving picture shows. Deputy Police Commissioner O'Keeffe also was a witness. The follow- ing resolution was given out by the Grand Jury on the subject: '"Whereas, The attention of the November Grand Jury of Kings County has been directed to certain violations of the law in the giving of Sunday shows in the Borough of Brooklyn, and the District Attorney's agents have reported that a large number of such shows were given Sunday, November 17; "Whereas, Judge Aspinall decided in a case before him on November 12 that Section 265 of the Penal Code prohibits such Sunday shows and provides a punishment for them. "Resolved, That this Grand Jury request Deputy Police Com- missioner O'Keeffe to have the law against such Sunday shows promptly and intelligently enforced without delay." It is understood, however, that this resolution was not tne unanimous sentiment of the members of the Grand Jury. A direct test case will be made and the arrest of some manager will follow, and a decision by a jury will be had. Chief of Police Cowles, of New Haven, Conn., issued orders to his men to stop all future Sunday business by the moving picture shows about town commonly known as nickelots. Most of the shows have been in the habit of running Sunday after- noons or evenings, or both. The "outlandish" music, as the chief styles it, from the orchestral phonographs at the nicolets, is a flagrant violation of the Sabbath quiet, he declares, and the crowd of children who may always be found in front of the shows add to the disturbance. "These shows have no more right to run Sunday than any theater," explained Chief Cowles, "and they must confine their business to six days in the week." * * * Business at all the motion picture houses is very big, and seems to be growing bigger. The more there are the more business each seems to draw. "Motion Picture" parties are in order from the suburban towns, is a report from Boston. * * * HERO DIDN'T DIE. Cleveland, November 29.—The moving picture shows in town are being pursued red-hot by Chief Kohler. No vaudeville will be allowed, nor can any sensational pictures be shown. This week a phonograph in one store show was stopped.' In another, where a film called "A Lust for Gold" was being shown, the proprietor was arrested. The police officials said the picture showed a murder and was debasing the public's morals. H. H. Burnett, manager of the Lyric, who was placed under, arrest, replied: "He's a fine guy to say that fellow was mur- dered.' Whoever heard of the hero being killed in the first forty feet of film. Hully Geel He was all right again within the next twenty feet, and married the girl in the next sixty, but that fresh fellow wouldn't wait" » * # Referring to our note in last week's issue re first nickelodeon, a Buffalo correspondent sends the following: Mr. Mark, manager of Theatre Comique of this city, is re- sponsible for the present motion picture craze throughout the country, for just ten years ago.it was his fertile brain which inaugurated a new field of endeavor and enterprise for show men. February 9, 1897, with his brother, M. H. Mark, he opened up the first picture house in the country, leasing a small store in the Ellicott Building, Buffalo, N. .Y., for the purpose of screening motion views at the nominal price of ten cents. The- atrical managers, however, before that time, had taken up the picture business as a part of the regular programme of their vaudeville houses, and few advertisers had been quick to see the possibilities in the new invention. Mark's Vitascope Hall, the pioneer picture theater, was a small store, and when made over for the venture, it seated ninety people at a performance. Each patron was taxed ten cents for a ten-minute performance, and twenty-five exhibitions of one motion picture were given daily. There were no Illustrated songs, and the only music furnished was from the piano player. Froni this point the craze started with a. boom, as Mark's ven- ture, notwithstanding its limitations, was a howling success with the Buffalo people. At this time of the motion picture beginning, the Edison Company and the American Biograph people fur- nished the house with films, while the machine used was one ot the original Edison outfits. "Vitascope Hall" was sold out by