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

260 Cf)c CDeatre producers up to very recently, are now adopting entirely new policies in an effort to compete with the big city Sunday newspapers which, as George Cohan would say, have "beat the magazines to it." Harold MacGrath has been overwhelmed with offers from film men and publishers to such an extent that he has been in a state of bewilderment as to which field should best justify his exclusive attention, for it is obvious that he must choose between the two if for no other reason than that the trend is toward serial photoplays of such length that the twenty-seven-reel production of "Kathlyn" a year hence will be regarded as the product of a primitive era. The writer wished to obtain an expression from Mr. MacGrath as to the impression the "Kathlyn" vogue had made upon him and also requested his views on the future of the photoplay and its influence on his own calling. I quote the novelist verbatim: "Yes, I am at work on another thriller, this time a mystery yarn, to run exactly as the 'Kathlyn' series did. I've been dumfounded at the success of this sort of thing. Half the continent seems to have gone crazy over the idea of reading a chapter in the newspaper and then going to the 'movies.' "The possibilities of the story photoplay cannot be imagined as yet. We are only in the woods now, but it is my belief that the photoplay will eventually act as a wonderful educator. People with only five or ten cents in their pockets can go where it has cost me thousands to go — all over the world. They will be shown beauty, heroism and the marvels of the sea and air. "In this 'Kathlyn' series you are shown Durbars, the customs of India and wild beasts — about all there