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

of^cience 323 American branch of Pathe Freres has grown into an institution as vast as any of its American competitors. "The Pathe Weekly," the first of the now-common pictorial news issues, was first released in 1908 in Paris. The American "Weekly" was first revealed on the screen in 1910, and quickly became an institution in itself. In 1913 Mr. Hoagland was succeeded by P. Allen Parsons, and simultaneously with his advent a campaign of publicity, national in its scope, was inaugurated for the company's American releases. The Melies Film Company, up to very recently, confined its releases to productions quite different in character from those of its colleagues of the Motion Picture Patents Company, its stock companies being transported to far-off countries in an effort to reveal on the screen the customs of strange peoples, as well as the scenery of unfamiliar locales; hence, the publicity which has been looked after by Paul Melies has invariably typified this distinctive character of its product, but lately the Melies Company has found it advisable to present photoplays of about the same style as have found favor generally in the industry. The Essanay Company, controlled by Messrs. Geo. K. Spoor and Gilbert M. Anderson, began to advertise on a big scale v/hen its Western features, produced and usually written and acted in by the lastnamed gentleman, created quite a sensation. Don C. Meaney is the Essanay mouthpiece, and a vigorous toiler is he. Inasmuch as the productions of the "Broncho Billy" class find favor throughout the world, one may comprehend why more lithographs of these releases go to foreign countries than are used here "The Essanay News" (house organ) is equal in size to the average big-city daily and it is rare, indeed,