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

28 CI)e Cfieatre er believes that Shepard was one of the vital factors, if not, indeed, the most vital, in developing the present-day vogue of moving pictures as a separate attraction. I did a lot of traveling in those years, between 1900 and 1905, and yet I never met this man whose moving picture shows were often given in as many as thirty opera houses and halls at one time. What has become of this real father of film progress, I do not know. Like so many others who solved vital problems, he has seemed to disappear, but the story of his struggles and achievements cannot be ignored in a work of this character. Archie L. Shepard was the first in America to appreciate the great possibilities of moving pictures as an important factor in theatrical amusements, and in spite of almost overwhelming ridicule and opposition by other theatrical managers, after persistently surmounting innumerable unexpected obstacles, to bring his theories into practical and successful operation. Hav, ing a thorough and practical knov/ledge of photography and photo-projection, Mr. Shepard became interested in motion pictures when they were first perfected, and in 1895 and 1896, with an Armat Magnascope, exploited the first motion pictures ever seen in the middle-western states, as an added attraction with dramatic and vaudeville companies. But as few subjects of real interest v/ere available, when the novelty had worn off he discarded the picture machine temporarily and devoted himself to the dramatic field exclusively. It v/as not until 1900, when pictures of a wider range appeared on the market, that he became fully convinced that a diversified program of moving pictures could be arranged to make a complete enter