Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

Suggestions Invited, Questions Cheerfully Answered Address: Exhibitors' Department, The Motion Picture News |N the management of a theatre, the *■ exhibitor should know, and he would know if he was looking at the pictures himself, that there is nothing more annoying than to miss a title or a sub-title. To miss the first title is practically to lose the sense of the picture, as this first title is generally a sort of introduction to the story. To miss a sub-title in the middle of the reel often disconnects the whole story. The great drawback of the motion picture theatre is the constant stream of patrons walking in and out during the performance. If you have to move from your seat to allow some one to pass at the time of a sub-title, you lose the thread of the story. Same when the selfish man in front of you insists on standing up while he removes or puts on his overcoat. If he was a gentleman, if he had any manners, he would wait until he reaches the aisle or lobby to put on his overcoat. Ladies are as selfish — they will raise both arms to either remove or push in their long hatpins, etc I don't know if the managers have realized this annoyance, but if so they seem to pay a very little attention to it, not to say that they add to it by running the pictures in too quick succession without the least intermission. The new picture jumps so quickly on the curtain that too often the patrons don't know if it is the same picture or a new one. We all know that at the end of a picture there is always confusion in the auditorium. So many persons walk out, so many other patrons from the rear seats run to get the newly vacated front seats, and add the numerous persons who have been waiting in the lobby for seats. According to the size of the auditorium, this confusion varies from one to three minutes, and during this confusion the seated patrons cannot enjoy the show. There should be an intermission between each picture, and if the lights were to be thrown on during said intermission, there would be less confusion as, by being able to see the seats, there would be less time wasted on the part of the patrons. A short intermission would rest the eye and the mind, and not only facilitate the service, but please the lovers of motion pictures who do not like to miss part of the story. To-day an intermission is more urgent than at another time, since the fad came to throw on the screen the cast of the play with the names of the actors, and since the patrons are taking such a deep interest in the photoplayers. How can anyone read the cast during the confusion of changing of seats if the new picture is thrown on the screen at the tail of the previous one? The main trouble is that most of the managers do not mix with the audience. When they look at the pic tures, it is generally at the first show, when the audience is very slim, consequently no confusion. They seldom visit other motion picture theatres, and when they do so, they generally take in part of the show, standing in the lobby talking with the owner of the place, paying very little attention to the show proper. If some of the exhibitors and managers would sit in the audience, watch and listen to the different comments, they would learn many things. For instance: It is very annoying for an audience to hear the operators talk, laugh and pass comments in the operating booth, or, as it was the case in a New York theatre, to have the usher step in the operating booth and fight the operators — not w'th his fists, but with his tongue. It was out of place during a love scene depicted on the screen, to hear the operator say: "If you don't shut up I will SCENE FROM "THE MESSAGE OF THE DEAD" Eclectic Film Company