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

238 Cfje Cfteatrc tant to give over their columns to screen productivity, are now^ awakened to the significance of things. Publishers and editors alike are vieing vi^ith each other in an effort to secure precedence. The "New York Sun," in its Sunday issues, has persistently presented elaborate and profusely illustrated articles, not infrequently two or three in its magazine section alone, and the double-page descriptions of some of the intrepid expeditions of camera men are by no means the results of exploitation; in fact, these have invariably come as a surprise to the publicity departments of the film concerns. The most important of the many publicity innovations and the one to have the greatest influence in its after effects was accomplished through an affiliation between the Edison Company and "The Ladies' World," a McClure publication. The Edison Company, from its Bronx studio, released a serial photoplay in 1913, entitled "What Happened to Mary," and as each chapter was shown on the screen, "The Ladies' World" presented the fictional story. If this was not the first undertaking of the kind, any previous one was never brought to my attention. The success, however, in this instance was truly sensational. In the city where I reside one dealer informed me that where previously he sold five copies, the sales increased with each installment until they exceeded one hundred — this being in a city of 30,000 where there are a half dozen newsdealers of about equal influence. What the actual increase in circulation amounted to as an entity I may not state, but Mr. Gardner W. Wood, the editor of "The Ladies' World," informed me that on newsstands alone the sales during the first