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

0 f ^ c i e n c e 303 also called the Strand Theatre and is located at Mount Vernon, N. Y. This bijou theatre, in the city where the writer resides, has adopted various policies in an effort to finally find a permanent appeal. It was in this commodious and perfectly constructed theatre that I was privileged to vwtness, during a period of about six months, many film productions, among the number at least a score of important releases that were never announced in any of the so-called "first run" houses in Greater New York. This and other photoplay houses in my home town, of which there are seven in all, have been operated so as to embrace all of the various brands of film, each confining its releases to a particular service. As a result, on inclement days the writer has been enabled to view as many as twenty reels, many of which were "missed" in the metropolis. If the average photoplay house is conducted with the same intelligence that has characterized the management of these local theatres, one may understand how Messrs. Mark and Spiegel, after years of provincial experience, have come to the Great White Way for conquest, and I was not surprised at the inaugural night at the New York Strand Theatre to observe the amazement of old time showmen, some of whom shook their heads as if to indicate that the prodigious undertaking would "come a-cropper." But there is no record of failure for any similar enterprise seeking to sustain itself through an appeal to the masses with an abundance of entertainment at amazingly low prices of admission, and the "old showmen" may as well become reconciled to the spectacle of 40,000 persons passing through the Strand's portals