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

158 Cbe C&eatte went out through the front of the house. His name will be kept a secret. He has since then become, and is now, a leading man on Broadway. "Jake" Speis, the erstwhile dramatic agent, next thought well enough of young Handworth to place him with the "Country Editor." That attraction also stubbed its toe after a short run, and silently faded into oblivion. Several seasons of successes and failures followed, when he signed with Joe Murphy, in the following year, and played Jack Biddle in a "Desperate Chance." Next he was starred in "The Gunner's Mate." In 1905 he organized and headed his own stock company, and met with great success, directing all his own productions. In 1909 he noticed the advances moving pictures were making. The handwriting on the wall was plain to him. He clearly saw how dramatic productions must suffer by the inroads being made by the then despised film industries. Many theatrical managers and actors sneered, and tried to ridicule the picture game, but in their hearts they trem.bled at the onrushing Goliath. They put their backs to the wall and tried to fight it off. They lost no opportunity to slur it in their current plays. The managers even refused to engage actors for their productions who had ever worked in moving pictures. Such was the condition of the film business only five, four, and even three years ago. What a change a few years has brought about! The photoplay has swept through the amusement field like a prairie fire, wiping out those who would not see, creating new and fertile fields for those managers who kept their ears to the ground. This has brought about a general improvement in the class of film brought before the public. The cream of the theatrical producers are engaged in the filming of their