The theatre of science; a volume of progress and achievement in the motion picture industry (1914)

of^cience 23 ured in the best Metropolitan vaudeville theatres; in fact, I believe that Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre did not cease to exploit the Vitagraph as a regular number on its programs until long after the advent of photoplays. The grovi^th of the Vitagraph organization is but a tribute to the prolonged team work of three pioneers, Messrs. Blackton, Rock and Smith. The former I recall in the early days of refined vaudeville, when he came forth with an artistic offering clearly over the heads of the vaudeville patrons of that day. Rock was one of the very first to go about the country exhibiting motion pictures in halls, stores and tents; as early as 1896, v/hen the Cinematograph was astonishing New Yorkers at Keith's, Rock was coining money in New Orleans. A little later in New England, so the story goes. Rock affiliated with the local manager of a small town "op'ry house." The two did not get on long together. The local manager could not see any future in exhibiting films, so he went back to the town where he had his "op'ry house," and Rock, possessing the showm.anship instinct, determined to go it alone, while the "op'ry house" manager, when last heard of, was yet in his native town, though the lure of the camera was so persistent that he abandoned the stage and, like hundreds of others, solved the problem of attracting his pubHc by the now-accepted m_ode, which has converted more than ninety per cent, of New England's regular playhouses into dividend-paying institutions. But Rock looked longingly on the big metropolis. His two years of exhibiting about the country had not only enriched him beyond all expectations, but had convinced him that the time was ripe to