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ZUKOR BECOMES A SHOWMAN
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To-day, the radio is passing through somewhat the same period of development. And, being mechanics, they thought of art in mechanical terms. The first curiosity of the public had died away. People no longer came to the films just to satisfy their sense of wonder at seeing a photograph move. They wanted now something which stirred the mind or emotion, just as on the spoken stage. And generally these early producers tried to satisfy that desire by mechanical “stunts” — a city destroyed at the touch of a magician, or a realistic devil bursting out of a volcano. The startling mechanical effects of the screen, such as the fade-in, long preceded the real film story. Instead of working toward Ramsaye’s vital principle, “The public likes to believe,” these early producers were working away toward unreality.
I Nevertheless, the narrative element began to worm its way in. But with less than five minutes to a story, these first film narratives were primitive and childish — the pranks of small boys, the lollygagging of comedy lovers, the escape of a bicycle thief. The imperfect machine still blurred slow motion with irritating flashes; rapid action suited it best. Hence rose the “chase pictures”; in half the films of that period, someone ran after someone else. And yet the people of our less affluent city districts paid in increasing numbers their nickels at the box office; restrained as it was by sheer human blindness to commercial possibilities, the film was going ahead.
Adolph Zukor saw no more than the rest. He went