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

0 f @) c I e n c e 221 fields will vie with each other for supremacy. Also, as the scale of admission price becomes gradually quite similar for both, the managerial effort to entice the millions of low-priced amusement seekers into theatres where celebrities now popular on stage and screen alike hold forth, if crowned with success, is certain to induce many now inactive producers to emulate Mr. Frohman's expressed intention of resuming stage productivity. It would seem, however, that a little discernment in the scale of prices according to the size of the auditorium, would greatly help to realize the aims of men who appear to wholly ignore that the basic foundation of moving picture prosperity has been the low prices which enabled the poorer classes to become persistent patrons, which attracted millions who never had attended a regular theatre, but who now, v/ith their families, flock to the neighborhood theatres — as often as three times a week. Slowly but surely, this tremendous public is forced even in the photoplay houses to increase its expenditure for entertainment, and as the standard of productions on the screen was raised, the desire for the multiple-reel feature was so clearly and generally expressed, that now aside from the still existing nickel houses, the demand for a full evening's entertainment in one-film productions has induced practically every important play producer to enter the film industry on a large scale. And as the majority of these producers in the older field are now affiliated with the established film manufacturers, such of these as Charles Frohman, Henry W. Savage, David Belasco and Klaw and Erlanger, who still have extensive interests in the theatrical field, are certain to obtain a firmer grasp on the public pulse