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

0 f ^ c f e n c e 199 as a motion-picture expert and sent over to America as a representative of the Gaumont interests before some of the present moving-picture magnates had even taken the trouble to enter a picture theatre or learn the number of feet in a reel of film, Herbert Blache is as much at home writing a scenario, editing a picture drama, cutting and titling a photoplay, or directing big spectacular scenes of a pretentious multiple-reel feature as he is managing the affairs of two large flourishing producing companies and acting as president of the Exclusive Supply Corporation, with his sensitive fingers continually upon the active pulse of the whole motion-picture market, both in this country and abroad. Fev/ men, recognized as important factors in the affairs of the film business, are better known than Herbert Blache. Having the double advantage of an exceptionally strong and likable personality and the respect-commanding quality of a knowledge of his business so thorough that he stands quite alone in his position as an executive who manages personally every department of his extensive business and produces exceptionally clever and successful pictures, as well as the prominent position he holds in filmdom, must be credited to superior mentality and exceptional ability rather than to any whim of the Goddess of Luck. The prominence of his position as an important figure in the exploitation of feature productions is unquestioned. But, added to that, is the undisputed fact that he stands in the very front rank as a producer and master of the technique of the photodrama. Among the first multiple-reel subjects ever staged I find notable productions by Herbert Blache, and it is doubtful if any director in the world has a keener dramatic