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

146 Cfje Cbcatre ers, but to make a reputation is one thing, and to preserve it is another far different and far more vital. In April, 1914, an important film-producing company conceived the idea of taking the public into its confidence in a manner so revolutionary and so calculated to dispel the illusions of photoplaygoers that the subject is serious enough for discussion in these pages. Undoubtedly the success of the personal appearance of John Bunny and associates in a silent play at the Vitagraph Theatre provided the incentive for the presentation of "The Baited Trap" at the Republic Theatre. In this last production, the "Imp" players, headed by King Baggot, appeared in person, even speaking their lines; but this was the least serious phase of the innovation. What can have possessed so intelligent a producer as Carl Laem„mle to reveal to the general public "how moving pictures are made" is something few persons interested in the future of the new art can comprehend. In the instance of Mr. Bunny's public appearance, J. Stuart Blackton provided a dainty and artistic play vsrithout words which gave to the inaugural program at "the Vitagraph Theatre just the diversion needed; but at the Republic Theatre King Baggot and his associates, while undoubtedly providing a novel entertainment, seemed to merely emphasize the fact that, after all, the maze of scientific phenomena over which millions of "fans" were mystified was merely the work of ordinary humans and simple mechanics. It is well that this ill-advised innovation found a small vogue in a big city playhouse of high grade. To have presented such a spectacle as a companion offering to the truly artistic "Samson," was in itself an amazing incongruity. If the gentlemen who have been enriched through the remarkable growth of a God