Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

94 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. V, No. 5. Picture Snow Difficulties in New York There is much agitation now going on in New York City relative to the bad conditions surrounding motion picture shows. John Collier, secretary of the National Board of Censorship, attributes many of the evils to a lack of satisfactory municipal regulations. "It is just there," Mr. Collier said, "that the trouble with New York moving picture shows comes in. A house seating less than 300 people ranks as a 'place, of assemblage.' The law under which it is licensed by the Mayor's bureau is that under which strolling jugglers and minstrels were licensed formerly. The fee is $25 a year. The regulations are practically none, and what few there are are diffused through six city departments. I myself after long study do not know what the Fire Department, and the Health Department, and the Building, and Water Supply, and Police Departments really require. "If I had to know in any one case, I'd have to beg as a privilege from some clerk that he look the matter up for me. My success in finding out would rest upon his disposition to really make the search through a great mass of rules, all subject to overnight changes by the department heads making them. "Obviously, since a house, when it puts in over 300 seats, has its license jumped from $25 to $500 a year and comes under all the drastic theatrical regulations, it is not inclined to make the change. When a proprietor goes in for seven-foot areaways behind the last row of seats, and asbestos curtains, and fireproof construction, he has to have a large box-office business. "Under the present law, a moving-picture house must keep under 300 or go above 1,500. There is no intermediate possibility. That is sadly wrong, and the result is that the city has 700 moving-picture licenses out, most of them being for small, unventilated, dirty rooms. Boston, with efficient legislation on the subject, has only thirty moving-picture houses, all of them commodious, well ventilated, and giving performances of a high quality. "Here a manager cannot afford to spend much money fixing up a place to seat 299 persons. He can't give much of a performance, for his income depends upon completing a programme rapidly and filling the house again and again through an evening. "And there is another serious trouble. The Mayor's license ranks not as property, as does a theatrical license secured through the Police Department. It is regarded as a privilege, and is revokable whenever the Mayor may choose to terminate it. In such a case the moving-picture man has no recourse to the courts. "Now, when his living depends upon his license, the license is to him property of a very real nature. Either he should have protection from the courts or the theatrical competitors, who operate under the other kind of license, should be without it equally with him. "We regard these moving-picture problems as fundamental. All questions of individual morals and individual betterments will be easily handled once we accomplish these reforms. "We do not fear the small, squalid house, if only we can make it possible for houses seating 600 to 700 persons to open. The managers would rather give one audience of 700 a good performance lasting an hour or more, and turn them out satisfied than to give two audiences of 299 persons a curtailed show that would send them away in an unfriendly mood." Films in United Kingdom Consul General John L. Griffiths, London, reports that there are no official returns showing the imports of cinematograph films into the United Kingdom, but it is stated that from January 1, 1911, separate statistics will be preserved, giving the values and countries of origin. Those conversant with the business of picture shows state that the large majority of cinematograph films is imported from the United States, the amount varying from 60 to 75 per cent. The other countries, in order of importance, are Italy, France, and Sweden. Cinematograph theaters have proved so popular in Great Britain and so remunerative, especially to the pioneers, that every town of any size has one or more of the "picture palaces." Indeed , in the suburbs of London, where the population is congested, there are often three to five of these theaters in the same street. The customary program consists of six to eight pictures, and the charges for admission range from 6 to 50 cents. Pictures for Scnool Houses The giving of picture shows of an hour's duration every evening in alternate public school houses under the direction of the board of education is an idea that was presented to the Kansas City school board by Alderman C. A. Burton. "As a member of the council committee that has been investigating the picture show houses," said Alderman Burton, "I have reached the conclusion that, if we are to keep school children from attending them, we must provide something of the kind under the direction of the school board. The pictures displayed at these public places are unfit for the eyes of children, but they can be weaned away from them by the giving of picture exhibitions in the schools. Subjects both interesting and along the lines of education can be leased from film exchanges at a small cost, and the only expense would be a movable apparatus from which they could be displayed." Films Aid Justice Motion picture views taken during the champagne riots in France of April 12 are proving useful adjuncts to justice. The public prosecutor at Rheims had several views displayed recently before eye witnesses of the riots with the result that many of the paiticipants were recognized. Warrants have been issued against persons who. in the pictures are shown to have insulted the army, as well as against many who participated in rioting. Biograph Notes The Biograph company after a sojourn of several months in southern California, where they have done some of the best work of their career, will leave for the home studio at New York City on May 21. Margaret Loveridge, a former member of the Burbank stock company at Los Angeles, has joined the forces of the Biograph company.