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

of^ciencc 27 as far as he was concerned. Showmen all over the country were brought to realize that a new manner of presenting an entire "show" was now possible without any need for worry as to whether the "ghost would walk" on salary day. What Rock had discovered years before he joined Blackton and Smith was now apparent to all. Marcus Loew had not yet entered the show world ; in fact, previous to 1900 moving pictures, while popular to the extent that they were used as a time-killer mainly because of the cheap cost of the service, had not attracted the public unless accompanied with vaudeville. This condition, of course, was greatly due to lack of intelligent effort to typify the attraction itself. In the small towns a few showmen made money because they announced a "picture show," and on Sundays played to capacity. It was the big crowds attracted on the Sabbath throughout New England in opera houses and halls, with a combination of moving pictures and illustrated songs, that first revealed to local managers the new public created. In a city like New Britian, Conn., where moving pictures attracted little or no interest during the week, as a number in the vaudeville house, all of the three playhouses, and every available hall was utilized on Sundays, and though admission prices were higher than now, the attendance was overwhelming for all. Julius Cahn, at this period, had a virtual monopoly in New England, as far as the best theatres is concerned, and the part that Cahn and his partner, Grant, played in the evolution of the moving picture is little knov/n; at least, one never hears their names mentioned these days, nor do we hear or read of the part Archie L. Shepard played in film history, yet the writ