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

218 ^fit CJjeatrr every reason to believe that the American's future artistic status is safe in Mr. Ayres' hands. The Santa Barbara Film Company is the new organization of which Lorimer Johnston is the general manager, and its advent as a potential factor in the industry has been heralded by no little display of elaborately prepared literature, the substance of which is an apparent aspiration to aim higher artistically than any of its established competitors. The engagement of Mr. Johnston was not affected until long after the company's prospectus was issued, hence one may only conjecture at this writing as to the style and calibre of the productions, but in view of the known facts and a knowledge of what Johnston's ambitions are, it is a safe venture to predict that the new brand of films will be of that character to be expected from a heavily capitalized organization conceived in the year 1914 — a year that will go down in film history as the one in which the production of photoplays reached the highest attainable quality. Frederick Thompson, though regarded as one of the most able directors in the motion picture field, has been less than four years in his present occupation. Yet in that time he has participated in productions so widely different from those he evolved during his twenty years' stage activities, that the writer was interested to learn at first hand which of the two modes of production the director preferred. I quote Mr. Thompson verbatim : "Wholly apart from the financial inducements which, of course, are larger in the newer field, I hope I never have to return to the footlights again. There is not nearly the opportunity for artistic individual work, and I want to remain for all time where I can avail myself of nature's own vast