The Moving Picture World (1908)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 5ii POLITICAL SUBJECTS DESIRED. A correspondent of the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" says: •] should like to ask through your columns why the moving picture show companies do not make arrangements for a reproduction of the proceedings of the Republican and Dem- ocratic national conventions that are to be held soon? It would be very interesting and instructive, and millions who are unable to go to the convention halls would like very much to see it. And other notable gatherings should be reproduced." NEW COMPANIES. Majestic Amusement Company, Los Angeles, Gal. Capital stock, $25,000; amount subscribed, $300. Directors: E. W. Willey, of Long Beach; H. H. Mears, of Los Angeles, and Louis W. Myers, of Los Angeles. Garden Theater Company (Inc.),, Norfolk, Va. C. Nash Reid, president; R. E. Jordan, secretary and treasurer; J. H. Johnston, vice-president; all of Norfolk. Capital stock, $5,000 to $10,000. Objects and purposes: Moving picture shows. "MACBETH" PRUNED IN CHICAGO. Lieut Joel A. Smith, of the squad of police recently de- tailed by Chief Shippy, of Chicago, to censor films, has ruled against the realistic acting in the "Macbeth" production. The scenes showing the duel between Macbeth and McDuff, the stabbing of King Duncan and the brandishing of the bloody dagger, were ordered to be cut out. Lieut. Smith said: "1 am not taking issue with Shakespeare. As a writer he was far from reproach. But he never looked into the dis- tance and saw that his plots were going to be interpreted for the 5-cent theater. "Shakespeare has a way of making gory things endurable, because there is so much of art and finish. But you can't reproduce that. The moving picture people get a bunch of Broadway loafers in New York to go through the motions and interpret Shakespeare, and when it gets on the canvas it's worse than the bloodiest melodrama ever. "The stabbing scene in the play is not predominant. But in the picture show it is the feature. In the play the stubbing is forgotten in the other exciting and artful and artistic crea- tions that divert the imagination. On the canvas you see the dagger enter and come out and see the blood flow and see the wound that's left. • "Shakespeare is art, but it's not adapted altogether for the 5-cent style of art. ■ " 'Romeo and Juliet,' on the other hand, is different. There are violence and suicide and duelling there, too. But the manager knows that the love element, not the fight element, predominates, and he knows that when anyone pays 5 cents to see 'Romeo and Juliet' he pays to see love. When he pays 5 cents to see 'Macbeth' he pays to see a fight. So love is the feature of the 'Romeo and Juliet' films, and love is fit for children to see, if kept within reason." SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. The managers of the moving picture shows in the big theaters have become so thoroughly imbued with the idea that they should get everything they want in the way of slides for nothing, that they are the most parsimonious .lot ever known when it is necessary to buy something. Most of them make a cheap show of themselves when they throw an announcement on the screen. Instead of buying a beauti- fully painted photographic slide, they use plain glass coated over with opaque, with the message scratched through, which to a person who desires to see a perfect show causes a thrill of disgust. These managers think because some music pub- lisher has furnished them a few sets of song slides free they should get announcement slides free also. The meanest look- ing announcement slides, poorly written and almost illegible, are used at the Grand Opera House. NICKELODEONS AND LITTLE BOYS. The editor of the St. Louis "Globe-Democrat" takes a sensible view of the agitation against admitting children: "Nickelodeons are so interesting and alluring that they are making all the little boys wicked, and how, do you suppose? Why, the little boys are so fond of going to see the pictures that they commit petty thefts, so it is said, to get the money to gratify their taste for the romantic and exciting scenes which are displayed in moving pictures. It is too bad that the pictures are so attractive—a pleasingness that we our- selves will confess to—that it leads youth into crime; but as we could never see our way clear to abolishing ice cream and chocolate caramel*.because some boys might wrongfully get the money to indulge their appetites, we cannot see clearly how the nickelodeons are to Be held responsible for this reported wave of crime; nor can we do away with merry- go-rounds for the same reason, or tops, or baseballs, or marbles, or other objects beloved of the juvenile heart. So long as the pictures in the nickelodeons are good, are entirely unobjectionable in their character, as most of them are in the better places, and highly instructive in many instances, we cannot feel that they are the millstone around the neck of the little boys. Of course, the nickelodeons might make the pictures so poor and flat and uninteresting that the children would not want to see them—or the grown people, either— but we don't discover any good reason why they should." The Somerset (N. J.) "Record" also voices the following: "In almost every city in New. Jersey, there are moving picture establishments in which the exhibits are clean, in- structive and amusing. We know of many cases of parents who are glad to give their boys of 12 or 14 years of age the price of admission in order to be sure that they arc away from mischief or not roaming the streets during afternoons that these parents cannot guard them. From such shows the children obtain nothing but amusement or instruction, and to class the proprietors of them as violators of the law is about on a par with many of the other nonsensical ideas that have emanated from Essex County." MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATION IMPOSES MORE HARDSHIPS ON MOVING PICTURE THEATERS. The moving picture bill introduced in the House of Repre- sentatives by Representative Fay, of Boston, has become a law, the bill having received the signature of Acting Gover- nor Draper. By this bill the hundreds of moving picture shows in the State are hit hard, the bill specifically stating that there must be at least five minutes of light at the end of twenty minutes of pictures. This means that the hall must be fully lighted at the end of the stated period, but bv an amendment proprietors have the right to put on vaude- ville, if they so desire, during the required "rest." There is little doubt but that many will avail themselves of this opportunity, as an intermission at the end of every twenty minutes would be very, displeasing to the audience and in the end would probably affect the patronage of. the house. The programs will probably undergo an extensive change. The argument for the bill was that the continuous display of moving pictures seriously injures the eyes, and it had the endorsement of many Boston physicians. • The bills as approved have been entered on the statutes as Chapters 565 and 566, as follows: Chapter 660, entitled "An act, relative to the use of moving picture machines," li enacted as follows: Section 1. No person, firm, corporation or association of persons shall operate or cause to be operated, and no manager, owner or proprietor of a ball, theater, or other place of amusement shall permit to be nsed or operated. In" any hall, theater, or other place of amusement, any machine or other device for the- projection of pictures upon a screen or other sub- stance for a period exceeding twenty minutes for each film, picture, ur series of pictures. Every person, Arm, corporation or association of persons operating or owning such machines shall, after each Sim, picture, or series of pictures, or at the expiration of said period of twenty minutes, furnish some other form of amnsement or entertainment, for a period of not less than five minutes. But the provisions of this section shall apply only to moving picture machines, so-called, and shall not be construed to include machine* or other devices for projecting pictures upon a screen or other substance, which pictures remain stationary thereon. Sec. 2.' Any person, firm, corporation or association of persons violating any provision of this act shall be subject to a fine of not less than fifty dollars or to Imprisonment for not leBS tban six months. Sections 1 and 2 of Chapter 566 relative to the use of the cinematograph head, as follows: No cinematograph, or similar apparatus involving the use of a combustible fllm more than ten inches in length, shall be kept or exhibited on the prem- ises of a public building, place of public assemblage, or place used for enter- tainment, whether such premises are licensed or not licensed for entertain- ments, unless the dlctrlct police have inspected and approved such cine- matograph or other similar apparatus, and have placed thereon a numbered metal tag. nor until such precautions against fire as the district police may specify have been taken by the owner, user or exhibitor of such cine- matograph or other similar apparatus. In addition, in the city of Boston the location of the cinematograph or other similar apparatus, and of any group or structure surrounding Bald apparatus, shall be approved by the ' building commissioner, who may order such additional precautions against nre as be may deem necessary. Sec. 2. The district police are hereby empowered and directed to inspct any cinematograph or other similar apparatus Involving the use of a com- bustible^'film more than ten Inches In length which la nsed or kept on prem- ises designated In Section 1, and to make such rnles and regulations as they may deem necessary for the safe use of such apparatus. The remainder of the act provides for the licensing of operators of the machine and the employment and registra- tion of assistants. The act becomes operative in sixty days.