The Motion Picture Story Magazine (Aug 1913-Jan 1914)

Harsh criticism is the accepted, mood of some of us, for it takes all sorts of persons to make up this old world of ours, you know. These few of us spend futile lives in searching for something to consume. Goats browsing on morning-glories would perhaps classify them. He who, finding within him powers of satire, gives himself solely up to that, might as well be a wasp stinging the bare feet of children. Filmland suffered much, the past year, from harsh criticism, but Father Time heals many a sore wound, and the Oracle promises better and fairer judgment in the gladsome year of 1914. Many of those most severe in their condemnation of Motion Pictures have seen the error of their ways and, in the New Year, will be numbered among the warmest friends and promoters of the Great Art. Talk all you will of the decline of the stage in America ; dwell as you may on the good old days of Booth and Boucicault ; sneer if you must at "The Lion Tamer's Revenge," in three reels, but remember — Moving Pictures will exert a greater influence in literature than the work of a thousand famous actors in the New Year. A recent demand for a new edition in book form of ' ' Quo Vadis % ' ' and a new edition of Lytton's "Last Days of Pompeii" is due to the Motion Picture screen. Thousands who never before heard of Sienkiewicz 's great novel witnessed the story in film form and fell in love with it. It is the same with Shakespeare, the great poets past and present, and even ancient and modern historical treatises are coming into vogue, according to librarians, and all because of the Motion Pictures. In view of this fact who shall say, thru harsh criticism, that Cinematography is not a power for educational uplift? If the Moving Pictures are the direct cause for bringing good books into the homes of the many, it shall not have labored in vain in this year of our Lord 1914. For the coming year in Filmland, Moving Pictures in the home is the prediction. Architects are being requested to plan for the wealthy homebuilder a Moving Picture room in which the family and their guests can enjoy a select program of the latest productions. A projecting machine suitable for the home is not costly, and the films will, doubtless, be delivered weekly. Another new industry that promises to become popular in the New Year will be film photography. Children's birthdays, garden parties, weddings and other functions will be filmed, which later will recall pleasant memories. Even now the transient Moving Picture camera man has superseded the traveling photographer of old, and maybe his booth will supersede that of the "tintype" man at the county fairs. Among the good things accomplished in the year 1913, and to be pursued unrelentingly in the year 1914, is the headway made by wideawake exhibitors and others in a warfare against the term "movies" as applied to the Moving Picture art. Newspapers have utilized the synonym because it fits readily into brief head-letter. We do not think that disrespect was meant by universal use, but, nevertheless, the term "movies" tends to lower the dignity of a great art and a great industry. The introduction of Cinematography into the public schools and the churches, its use by the Government, and its adoption by colleges and medical clinics augur well for the future. The coming year in Filmland will show a great improvement over the usual loud and ridiculous phases of human life; harsh criticism is even now merging into an ever-increasing murmur of approbation, and the poor man's source of entertainment and education is finally coming into its own. 104