Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

i6 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS wise and shrewd man, argued recently that school instead of being unattractive to the average kid could be made really attractive by means of motion pictures. Mr. Edison is right. All boys and girls when they reach adolescence or intelligence are interested in the motion picture. So I hope to live to see "Evangeline" made by Mr. Hopkins and his associates passing through the schoolrooms. ^ ^ * ^ I read Mr. Hopkins' letter in the New York Times the other day. He hit out at some of his critics good and hard. No doubt they deserved it. I have been a critic myself and a pretty severe one. I have also been a dramatic author and the most roasted writer in London. I once wrote letters like Mr. Hopkins did and got whacked for my pains and troubles. The whacking I got made me a motion picture man with faith in the boundless future of the motion picture. Nothing like the argumentum ad hominum. Go thou and do likewise, Mr. Hopkins. And upon me sivvy, I would like to see lovely Edna Goodrich on the screen. She looks to me as if she would be a fine image in pictures. ^ ^ 2f£ Ifi. More and more the theatrical men are turning to the picture field as a refuge — something to which they can turn with the certainty of getting back the money and labor which they expend in their productions. The stage at its best is full of uncertainties. If you got the truth from Mr. Frohman, you would probably find that his failures vastly outnumber his successes. Also that some of the other great theatrical names are not always synonymous with uniform or even comparative successes. The picture, on the other hand, is establishing a different reputation. It is this: That with given conditions, success may be made a matter of almost mathematically calculated exactitude. * * * * In other words, you can put down so much money and calculate upon a certain return. I should be betraying secrets (but I won't, s'welp me, never) if I told you how much money the All Star put down for 'Arizona" — how much money they expect to make and will make. They started out on a definite formula, a formula which I have given again and again : a good story well acted and well photographed. "Evangeline" is a mighty good story ; it is wonderfully well produced and acted. All that is necessary now is to have it well photographed, well advertised and it will make money. * * * * "Evangeline" is not the only high-class production here in New York that has been mercilessly knocked during the last year or two. It is commonly said by theatrical people in my hearing now that "this or that piece would make a fine picture." Most good pieces, most good plays will make good pictures. The great plays of the future will be good pictures. The great writers of the future will be great photoplay writers. The ordinary stage is by no means dead. It will always live as pointed out before. It will produce good actors and actresses, some good plays, but it will interest a minority of the amusement loving public. The predominant partner in the amusement field is the motion picture. For the picture interests the majority, and by the law of representation majorities rule in politics and all the other affairs of life. Man is a majority, i.e., he outnumbers the woman by points. And that's why HE rules. Isn't it so, ladies? NICHOLAS POWER (Continued from page 13) beam of rays which shot along the specially erected optical system on the Power stand like a beam of light from the lighthouse at sea. One of the greatest treats you can have is to let Mr. Power take you over his factory downtown in New York City. Downtown ! That is in the purlieus of Brooklyn Bridge. The home of the cameragraph is a busy hive in this crowded section. It was when I was there. Maybe now they have a big plant out in Jersey. Mr. Power himself took me around and personally explained the use of every part in the cameragraph, every part and its relationship with other parts. He virtually took a cameragraph to pieces _and put it together again. "There it is," he said with a wave of the hand; "nothing new about it, nothing wonderful ; it just grew from year to year by experience." You feel when you are in Mr. Power's company that you are in the company of a good man, a good mechanician and a good fellow. Mr. Power is proud of his work and his success and he is devoted to his family. I am going to nail him down to a promise he made two years ago. He was going to take me out and give me a good time. He could not fix a date then. Why? because his time, as he put it in such a noble way, was primarily that of his wife and daughters. Happy man. I am not a mechanician and I know little about motion picture projectors — as yet. Still I may add to my experiences by becoming an operator. You never can tell. The Power's cameragraph always impressed me as a wonderfully ingenious growth, clever, well made, efficient and good to handle. A machine which deserves its success. It helps to popularize motion pictures. As I wrote once before, the first projector that I handled in 18'96 worked like a coffee grinder, but the Power's cameragraph is a thing of "sweetness and light." Nicholas Power is a prominent person and personality in the picture field and a popular one. One of those men of whom you cannot easily see too much. I am writing this "quite unbeknownst" to Mr. Power. I don't think he will like it and I don't