The Moving Picture World (April 1908)

2Cp THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD value to the original than a photographic copy bears to an object of plastic art, what an intense interest it will hold for those who come after! The art value of a photograph increases to a fabulous amount.when one reflects how price- less would be the reproduction of a lost Leonardo da Vinci portrait, if only on a camera's film. Daniel Frohman, who is the most energetic of New York theatrical managers in the campaign to prevent the encroach- ment of moving pictures of acted plays upon the business of legitimate theatrical management, admits that their ultimate effect will be beneficial to the drama. "Moving views of stage performances," he said, "have been perfected to such a degree that they really have a definite educational value. This value, of course, will be greatly in- creased by their combination with the phonograph which records the dialogue and the voices of the actors. The dan- ger which some managers scented in the case of the cheap stock companies and continuous performances a few years ago had the actual result of increasing the audiences in the higher-priced theaters. Mechanical devices will never quite satisfactorily reproduce dramatic art, but they may lead to a wider appreciation of the art of acting and plays, and certainly to a more definite knowledge of the stage of a preceding generation. "Anyway, we have arrived at the point when theatrical managers must make a vigorous effort to protect themselves against an entirely new and quite unexpected element which has entered their business. Few people realize how great a part the representation of dramas in motion by the camera has taken in public entertainment,-how enormously it has been developed and what wonderful possibilities lie in its future." COPYRIGHT LAWS VS. MOVING PICTURES AND THE CAMERAPHONE. The competition of the picture play is attracting the at- tention of the leading theatrical managers of the country, who are speculating on the effect of the development of the scientific combination of the cinematograph and phonograph upon the theatrical playhouses. The vogue of moving pic- tures has already provided competition for the vaudeville theaters, and Keith & Proctor have recently substituted mov- ing picture shows for vaudeville in the Union Square and Twenty-Third Street Theaters in New York. Now word ■ comes from France that a number of the leading dramatists have been retained to write plays for moving reproduction on a screen, and that several of the leading actors on the Paris stage have been engaged to act them before the cam- eras. Among the former are Victorien Sardou, Maurice Don- nay and Alfred Capus, who have fallen in under the leader- ship of Henri Lavedan, the first to turn an honest dollar in the new scheme. Some of the actors who, it is said, ■will perform the characters are such celebrated artists as Le Bargy, Jeanne Granier and Bartot. Louis V. De Foe, dra- matic critic of the New York World, says: "It is idle, of course, to fear that the animate drama as an art will ever be greatly affected through its reproduction by moving pho- tography or photographic record. The relationship of the two will remain similar to that of the photograph and the living subject. who poses for it. However interesting or minutely perfect may be the reproduction of the picture framed by the proscenium arch or the'record of the sounds which proceed from it, there must always be lacking the throb of life itself which is the vitalizing essence of drama. Therefore, the art of the stage will supply its own psycho- logical defense against the ingenuity of science. But the business of managing theaters is quite another matter. A great portion of the public is satisfied with a reasonably good suostitute for the real article, providing it can be obtained at a sufficiently reduced price. Therefore, this fear on the part of theatrical managers that moving picture shows, if unrestricted, will not only take the novelty off their regulat productions when performed 'on the road' in advance of the travelling companies, but that they will also seriously reduce the patronage of theater galleries." The managers are already organizing to amend the present, copyright laws so they will cover the mechanical reproduc- tion of plays as well as actual dramatic manuscripts and per- formances. They were led to this action by the recent de- cision of the Supreme Court that there is no law to protect the music composer. Mr. Souza can copyright the written music and secure a royalty from every sheet sold, but a brass band may play one of his marches and phonograph rolls produced without limit that, will produce the music in every village parlor, without a cent of remuneration. The exist- ing copyright .laws control only the tangible means to a theatrical representation, not the representation itself. They do : not cover pictures or sounds pn the stage or the deuces by which they may be recorded and reproduced. The man- agers, however, are anticipating with 'misgivings the day when playwrights may find it more profitable to deal with the moving picture and phonographic impresario than with themselves. The justice of the claim is not to be disputed. The difficulty'of all the copyright laws have now to deai with modern invention. If the composer or the playwright is to have ownership in the printed publication there is every reason why he should share in the earnings from the sale of the new medium of record.—New Bedford Mercury. AUTHORS AND MANAGERS GIVE MACHINES A TRUCE. Compromise to Be Effected on the Basis of a Royalty. Washington, March 28.—It was predicted to-night by mem- bers of the Senate and House Library committees that a compromise will be reached which will settle the controversy between the manufacturers and purveyors of mechanical mu- sic-producing machines and moving picture machines on the one side, and composers, playwrights and theatrical manag- ers on the other. The basis of the compromise,-1 it is said, will be the payment .of a percentage by the mechanical de- vice people to authors and composers when their works are reproduced, the mechanical interests to have a license in consideration of the percentage. This compromise is to be perfected at a meeting of the interests involved to be held iik the near future. The basis of the settlement was reached after three days of argument before the Senate and House Committee on Library in joint session. A compromise would relieve the demand for. legislation on the subject, and con- sequently remove from the pending- edification of his copy- right laws one of the most serious impending problems in that measure. Representatives of the * talking machines argued that the proposed bills were unconstitutional, and that decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States show that that court does not regard mechanical mechanisms as within the pur- view of the idea of the copyright; also that perforated rolls and talking machine records are pieces of mechanical in- struments. MOVING PICTURES IN ITALY. Milan, the center of Italy for the moving picture machine trade, has already about forty moving picture theaters. Every available hall is being turned into a moving picture show, while nearly every second and third-rate theater and ''cafe chant ant" finishes the evening's entertainment with a few cinematograph pictures. During the dull Summer season even the larger theaters are used. The films come chiefly from London. Italy also has a few film making firms, the chief of which are to be found in Turin and Rome. Oc- casionally films are exhibited from the United States. Dramatic and tragic scenes, natural scenery of an interest- ing nature and comical farces are sure to fill the hall at any time in Italy. The Italian loves to see living scenery; for instance, a moving picture view of Niagara Falls was a huge success here a short time ago. The Italian also likes to see typical scenes of national life, such as. for instance, bull fights in Spain, and Winter sports on the „ snow and ice in Switzerland. "Railway scenery is very acceptable, as are views of large towns. Pictures of the larger towns in the United States would be a huge success in Milan. Occasion- ally typical scenes from American life have been thrown on the sheeting, such as cowboy life and train" wreckers. The Italian is disgusted, if not already surfeited, with pictures of singing and dancing women; neither does he like fan- tastical scenery from fairy tales. 'American film making firms should see that the film headings are printed in Italian. Pic- tures with foreign titles are not appreciated in Italy. The consulate has been informed that American picture machines are not liked in Italy, being too complicated tor tne operator. The person interviewed by the consulate said that he has been in the trade for several years, has used all kinds of machines, and has found that the best are those where the operator's attention is not required in looking after tne mechanism, but in watching the films themselves. In tne case of American machines he had to devote all his time i» looking after the machine, thereby cot paying any attention to the films, which wore out in half the time they otherwise should have done.—United. States Consctlarj Report. ;:i ) ■