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88 A HISTORY OF THE MOVIES
window of the fortunate theater, while competitors with less attractive offerings wondered why their houses were suddenly and strangely deserted. Movie stars were accepted into the public's affections to an extent the stage had never known. The principal stage players of the day continued to be known even to their most ardent admirers as Mr. Sothern, Miss Adams, Mrs. Fiske. But almost at once movie fans began to talk about "Mary" (Mary Pickford), "Bunny" (John Bunny) "Broncho Billy" (G. M. Anderson), "Tom" (Tom Mix), "Theda" (Theda Bara), etc.
This familiar attitude toward screen celebrities, contrasting sharply with the more formal custom of stage followers, is significant not only in revealing the emotional responses of American democracy, but in indicating the feeling of propinquity, of close, personal acquaintanceship, engendered by the screen and not by the stage. The shadow personalities presented by the film have seemed to spectators to be more real, more human, more intimately associated with themselves, than the flesh-and-blood players behind the footlights. Many players have, as shadow persons, penetrated into the thoughts and influenced the actions of audiences more deeply than the same artists have been able to accomplish in actual appearances on the stage.
Having learned the names of their favorites, theater patrons could not now see enough of them. Until death closed his career, John Bunny, Vitagraph's funny man, was welcomed in as many one-reelers as he could make — about two dozen a year. A weekly Broncho Billy film packed the theaters with his admirers, and presently Tom Mix was offering vigorous competition. Mary Pickford was appearing in about twenty pictures a year and her fans regretted that they could not see her every week instead of only twice a month.
The instantaneous spread of star interest astonished everyone in the industry — the trust as well as the independents. In response to an apparently insatiable public appetite, all sorts of hitherto obscure players were thrust into glory as quickly as their names could be inserted in credit titles and posters. The anonymous raw material of last month's canned celluloid was transformed into