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

350 Cl)e Ci)eatre Irish farces which the comedian was wont to conjure with in the days of the variety show, which also indicates that while Mr. Edison is lying awake nights to hasten the day when Caruso, Amato, and Farrar will be heard and seen alike for a dime, the Kinetophone will be confined to vaudeville offerings — in fact, this same Kinetophone is yet a dividend payer, with improvements constantly progressing. As the writer sees the talking picture situation, the outlook for its survival as a tremendous factor in public entertaining is better than it has ever been — but it should never be regarded as a competitor of the moving pictures. The latter are now evolving into their vital stage of development with 1914 recording a far higher plane for their productivity than all the years that have passed combined, whereas the effort to accomplish a perfect synchronization is yet in the primitive stage; but the Wizard of Menlo Park never uttered a greater truism than when he predicted that the final achievement in reproducing the $5.00-a-seat grand opera for a dime will be the greatest boon to mankind the world has ever known. Viewing the subject as an entity, the writers in the trade press who so recently expressed their opinions as to the comparative fiasco of the talking pictures must confess that the latter are far from "a dead issue." Just as soon as world-famous stars are secured, the talking-picture problem will begin to solve itself. Mark M. Dintenfass was a conspicious figure in that group of independent producers of photoplays who began in 1908 to greatly enlarge the nation's film output for entertainment purposes. Mr. Dintenfass, however, started two years before the independent move