Motography (Apr-Dec 1911)

130 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. V, No. 6. Out from back of the trees came the prairie wagon train. Horses tugging at the heavy wagons and the mounted men in advance, at the sides and in the rear. As the train approached the camera the occupants in the wagon kept up a low conversation, with many movements of their hands. It was a weird picture as the creaking wagons drove across the Topango Wash. It was a faithful reproduction of the early '50's. It carried one back to the stories of boyhood, when Cooper and Ellis thrilled the youngsters of the present generation with stories of the hardships and thrilling scenes of the wagon trains coming to the Golden West. As the train neared the camera the leader pulled slightly to one side and slowly dropped out of the picture. Not a person of the hundred or more engaged in this scene looked at the camera. That would be Use majeste, punishable with immediate discharge. They can do anything natural, from laughing to crying, but they must never look at the camera. The first time the train moved across the river some of the horses balked as the heavy wagon came up the bank, and the film was spoiled. No astonishment or anger was displayed at this, but the entire train was ordered back to its starting point, and again the trek across the plot of desert sand and river was begun. This time the horses worked satisfactorily, but some of the wagons did not get in line fast enough. Again the film was spoiled. The third time the effort was made everything moved like clockwork, and that part of the film was marked O. K. The band of Indian braves riding pintos bareback, and with a rope fastened through the jaw of the horse, rode blithely into the distance and did themselves effectually back of the undergrowth. Again the wagon train crossed the river and formed into a corral, with the wagons in a circle for defense. While they were forming, the camera was clicking away merrily, recording for all time every movement and expression of the men and horses. During this procedure an Indian crept close to the wagon train and peered over a brush so that his red feathers showed plainly to the camera. Another crept near and also was recorded on the film. Meanwhile the camp fires were lighted and all preparations made for the evening meal. The Indians showed from time to time, carrying out the idea of spying on the frontiersmen. The machine was moved a little and the Indians walked unconcernedly out on the plain and assembled in a pow-wow around a camp fire. They were about fifty feet from the wagon' corral, but as far as the film would show they could have been in Timbuctoo. They held their pow-wow before the eye of the camera and indulged in much passionate gesturing. Finally it was evident from their gestures that they had decided to attack the wagon train after all, but the guards had fallen asleep. At the wagon train the men were rolling into blankets and the women were retreating into the covered wagons. A camp fire gleaned in the center of the corral, and two sentries walked back and forth on each side of the corral. The camera was switched so that it included the corral of wagons and an opening in the underbrush. Suddenly, with wild whoops, the Indians rushed out of their lair, and descended on the sleeping wagon train. Immediately the sleepers leaped to their feet and seized arms. The battle that followed was epic in its fierceness. Men were killed right and left. Indians fell from their horses in a manner which showed long rehearsal. The children crept out of the wagons and helped their "mothers" load the old-fashioned rifles for the men. The Indians were successful and after killing a few of the men folks and some of the women, made the rest captives. Then began the real human interest in the story. The victims were dragged through the underbrush with their hands bound behind them. They were beaten with lashes when they lagged, and for a half hour the camera moved from place to place as the Indians wandered in and out with their captives, seemingly traveling through miles of underbrush, but in reality not moving out of a radius of 100 feet. Another camp was made and under the camera the prisoners were judged. The men were to be burned at the stake, and the women kept as slaves. The post was prepared and a bonfire lighted at the feet of the captives. The camera watched closely every detail, and when the flames arose sufficiently to make the victims feel uncomfortable the clicking of the camera ceased. The victims were released and dummy figures replaced them. The fires were replenished and again the camera clicked as the figures were roasted at the stake. The story moved on through many chapters, and of course virtue in the form of the frontiersmen triumphed. It will take the American Biograph Company fully a week to complete its work on this film. The train is supposed to travel across the great prairies and finally reach California after awful sufferings, and the loss of the majority of their members. The class of the players employed is surprising to the layman. It is thought generally that only the actors who are unable through lack of ability to secure engagements on the stage enters the moving picture field. This is far from the truth. Salaries passing in many instances $500 a week are paid the players for two films a week and fifty-two weeks in the year, so it can be appreciated that it is sufficiently attractive to the player folk for them to enter the realm of the film. Some idea of the world-wide scope of the moving picture business can be gathered from the fact that the company will expend about $5,000 in making this one film, and $5,000 more in developing, printing and marketing it. But when it is finally ready to be thrown upon the screen it will appear simultaneously in thousands of cities, and will be seen in a large department store in Tokio, in Whitechapel, London, in Paris, a hundred villages of Germany, through the isolated towns and cities of Russia, and even in the larger tea houses of China, in addition to being shown in practically every town or city in the United States and Canada. It will be viewed, the company estimates, by over 100,000,000 persons before its days of usefulness are passed. When all of the duplicates are made off this film the total length of them will pass almost around the world. The single film will measure over 2,000 feet, or over half a mile in unbroken length.