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16
THE CINEMA.
July, 1912.
THE PICTURE THEATRE OF TO-MORROW.
A PEEP INTO THE FUTURE.
By STETCHWORTH ASHLEY.
would not be too great a prediction to anticipate that before very long the moving picture world will be reckoned as the great fundamental property, the one great essentiality, in the education of the children of our future days.
A peep into the picture theatre of to-day almost tells us that. Enter any theatre at an afternoon performance and you will see scores of children with wondering eyes gazing wildly at the screen, drinking in every scene which rushes before them. One vivid picture shown on the screen to a child is more convincing than a dozen lessons, no matter how they are illustrated and told.
But this is merely one sidelight of the marvellous advancement made during the last few years. To realise that the leading light of the dramatic profession, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, has played with his own selected company for a reproduction on a cinematograph film, is, in itself, a slight suggestion of the possibilities of the future of the cinema. Ten years ago it was in its infancy, and it has scarcely passed even that stage now. Yet the next few years, I venture to predict, will show many astounding changes throughout the whole world.
This wonderful industry's chief quality and charm lies in the fact that, while it not only amuses it also educates and instructs — a threefold boon, combining pleasure with learning. It is to the masses, to the workers in the world, what travel is to the rich. It places before their eyes actual reproductions of sights and ceremonies, which to them would otherwise have to remain largely in the world of imagination. For the modest sum of threepence the commoner may sit back in a cushioned seat and gaze at the doings of his king. And all this has happened, all this has been brought into play, during the last ten years. Little children beg to be allowed to feast eager eyes upon the cinema screen, all of which unconsciously tends to make their lives fuller and more interesting — their knowledge more real and complete.
But stay ! It is on to-morrow we must try and fix our attention — to the screen to which our children will raise their eyes when our film has reached its end.
What can we see ?
One dare not venture too far lest the picture the future paints for us may make us envious. Already the cinema has been introduced into many of the schools and has proved wonderfully successful, thus making it safe to assert that before very long the living picture will not only be reckoned as a source of amusement, but as a means of bringing before millions of people the great and marvellous wonders of the world. Those who have seen the latest Kinemacolour pictures at the Scala Theatre will have no need to think out this possibility to vts natural conclusion. There, in a nutshell, you have the future of the cinema. Coloured pictures will be the rule.
But there are other possibilities. By-and-by there will come — in fact, the invention is already patented, I believe — the talking picture, when, instead of waiting weary hours outside a theatre we shall be able to walk into 'one of these pleasant little picture houses and witness charming plays that not only show beautifu acting, but the characters will speak from the screen themselves.
It is a recognised fact that the coming of the cinema has had a draining effect upon many of the theatres — and can one wonder ? They offer the tired, jaded individual just the light recreation he needs. An hour or so is quite sufficient, whereas a visit to a theatre takes up three and sometimes four. Besides, it suits the poor man's pocket, and, after all, it is the support of the poorer classes that has made the cinema world the thriving industry it is to-day.
Had anyone foreshadowed such a revolution in the entertainment world as this ten years ago we should have laughed at him, yet, here they are, happy little homes of the cinema, coming into the dull, monotonous lives of all classes, rousing their slumbering interest in the world, and breathing an atmosphere not unlike the effect of the cool evening breezes after the heat of a summer's day.
But there are certain problems to be faced in regard to the cinema. There are its dangers. Already it has proved how powerful a force for good it can be, though still in its infancy.
But here also lies its chief danger. Millions gaze at the cinema screens all over the world who seldom turn over the leaves of a newspaper. They can be influenced for good or ill. The influence is on the right side be it said. But there is a tendency in some directions to obtrude politics into the picture theatre. That way lies danger. Once politics touch the picture zone, it will be then and only then that the cinema will begin to lose its hold. If this happens it will be the greatest calamity in its whole history.
The possibilities of the cinema, if only kept clean and straight, are practically unlimited. It will revolutionise the entertainment world. It will become the most powerful preacher ; its silent sermons making an appeal so eloquent that few will be able to withstand it, and an. appeal" so general that all will be able to comprehend the full meaning of its message of faith and hope.
What we have already seen is wonderful, yet it is a detail compared to what the future has yet to show. We have watched the Derby in Oxford Street, less than four hours after it was run. We have seen the Boat Race in less time than that ; but the day is yet to come for the inventor to discover the means of showing on a screen a reproduction of a ceremony at the same time as it actually occurs. It is possible and probable, and may become an accomplished fact in the near future.