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

of%cience 285 the "wonderful lamp" and its reflected visions upon the screen surcharge the arteries of commerce with its never-ending flow of dollars and more dollars. From pennies to millions in seven brief years ! This is the history of filmdom in California. The invasion was signalled by a solitary Selig camera, mounted on the shore of the broad Pacific at Santa Monica. Monte Cristo, haggard and in rags, stood upon a rock amid the waters, and, marshalling his feeble physical forces, cried in wild triumph: "The world is mine!" The words were portentous. What Monte really did was to signal an entirely new world on the sunlit coast — the world of motion pictures to follow this first scene ever taken from the screen story west of the slumbering Sierras. Following this pioneer movement of the Selig Polyscope Company, under the direction of Francis Boggs, an Essanay Company came to the wonderful backgrounds of Southern California. A year later W. N. Selig established a permanent studio at Edendale, a borough of the city of Los Angeles, with Mr. Boggs as manager. The architecture and landscaping of this plant were very striking. The following year came the Bison studio of the New York Motion Picture Company. Then came a Pathe organization to do Western pictures. Next was the Biograph Company, which began paying annual visits to the city. The Vitagraph, Kalem, and Edison appeared in the order given. In sharp contrast to the single camera operating for a brief time on the shores of the Pacific seven years ago is the present filmland, covering practically all of Southern California. At Santa Barbara the American