The House That Shadows Built (1928)

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY loi It was an immediate hit; during the first week the queue waiting for admission stretched halfway down the block. For once, Adolph Zukor had found a partner as much in a hurry as himself. The varnish was not dry on their apparatus in Union Square before they had opened another exhibition in Newark, had begun building in Boston and Pittsburgh. The scheme involved a weekly change of programme; Chief Hale, in putting his invention on the market, had raked the world for views of famous scenery filmed from the rear of a moving train — such as the passes of the Rockies, the heights of the Andes, the palisades of the Hudson. The original show at 46 Union Square had changed its bill once or twice when receipts began mysteriously to dwindle. The same thing happened in Newark, Boston, and Pittsburgh — two or three weeks of full houses, and then a slump. Brady, the more experienced showman, put his finger on the weak point. “ It’s a one-time show,” he said. “ I should have seen that ! People are interested in the stunt, not the picture. Once they’ve had the experience, they won’t come again. Better close it up and pocket our losses.” The typical Broadway showman puts out ten ventures at once, expecting to lose on nine of them and to recoup on the successful tenth. The experienced Brady was inured to that process; Zukor was not. He believed that Hale’s Tours would yet pull through, and begged