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

of^cience 35 tonishment of other theatrical managers, he leased the Manhattan Theatre, at 33rd Street and Broadway, New York, which until then had housed only notable productions at $2.00 prices, and installed a continuous hourly performance of moving pictures from 12 noon until 11 o'clock at night, at 10 cents admission. At first this audacious venture brought forth some ridicule and more sympathy from his well-meaning friends, but in a short time many of the crowds were unable to secure standing room, and the Manhattan Theatre during Mr. Shepard's tenancy made larger weekly profits than ever before during its eventful history. Soon after this. Proctor's Twenty-third Street, the Fourteenth Street, Keith's Union Square, and several other theatres adopted Mr. Shepard's policy with like results. As Archie L. Shepard was the first to see the great possibilities, and exploit moving pictures as a separate and distinct type of theatrical amusement, successfully bringing about their popularity as such, he likev/ise was the first to give this form of amusement of his creation a permanent home in a first-class Broadway theatre at popular prices; and to his foresight and venturous persistence this great industry of the present day owes much of its growth and evolution. In the amusement field David Horsley has had one of those interesting careers such as only the first two decades of the twentieth century can record. The growth of the film industry has brought many men to the front in a few years, but the rise of Horsley was accomplished as a result of adamantine persistency in the face of never-ceasing disappointments. Like nearly all of the successful film men of to-day, Horsley began as an exhibitor, and, like so many oth