Motography (1912)

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31 is MOTOGRAPHY Vol. VIII, No. 9. Statement of the ownership, management, etc., of MOTOGRAPHY, published bi-weekly, at Chicago, 111., required by Act of August 24, 1912. NOTE This statement Is to be made in duplicate, both copies to be delivered by the publisher to tlie postmaster, who will send one copy to i be Third Assistant Postmaster General (Division of Classification), Washington, l>. C, and retain the other in t lie flies of the postofflce. NAME OF POSTOFFICE ADDRESS Editoi I'm i 11. Woodruff, 7025 Vale Ave., Chicago, 111. Managing Editor and Business Manager — Ed J. Mock, 6549 Harvard Ave.. Chicago, 111. Publisher— Electricity Magazine Corporation, 1457-1460 Monadnock llldg., Chicago, 111. Owners: (If a corporation, give names and addresses of stockholders holding 1 per cenl or more of total amount of stock.) Eo. J. Mock, 6549 Harvard Ave., Chicago, 111. B. C. Sammons, Blue Island, III. J in Crocker. Maroa, 111. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders, holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: There are no bonds, mortgages or other securities outstanding against Motograpiiy. Ed J. Mock, Business Manager. Sworn to and subscribed before me this first day of October, 1912. (SEAL) Leona J. Ekstrom, Notary Public. (My commission expires August 17, 1914.) turned out with improvised machinery much the same as the first knit sweaters were turned out by the skeptical stocking manufacturers, high in price and poor in quality as compared with present standards. The decision reached by both the Edison and Biograph companies to cease their expensive litigaiicn. license each other to operate under the conflicting patents and divert the legal war appropriation to the production of a better film product, was easily the biggest thing done for the exhibitors and the general public up to this time ; and followed shortly after by a licensing of Vitagvaph, Selig, Pathe, Essanay, Lubin and others, making" for a still more solid industry with a recognized standardization of reel footage and the establishment of brands that stood for something, less the harassing fear of patent infringement suits against daring exhibitors. For the first time raw film stock production became a vital factor and chemistry, science and engineering ability were enabled to play their parts in improving the product. Needless to say, experimentation and scientific research is still going forward to make a better raw negative. To the exhibitors this makes for better projection, a sharper, clearer picture on the screen, with less flicker, more equable light values and a consequent more pleased patronage of his house. To the manufacture it will make for a quicker negative to handle, ability to take advantage of cloudy and dark days which are at present a tremendous tax on the production cost, less waste of negative and a stronger, clearer picture. No exhibitor, no matter how strongly he may feel against the arrangement effected by the members of the Motion Picture Patents Company, or for that matter the members of the independent faction, can help but admit that standardization of the various manufacturing methods under this licensing arrangement has improved his program many thousand per cent, and few exhibitors know much of the thousands of dollars the manufacturers are spending monthly devising improvements, little refinements that will go to make a more pleasing film and a more pleased picture show patron. These improvements are not all made with an ultimate gain for their end, except as that gain affects the exhibitor and a resultant larger standing order, but come as a natural result of the pride every manufacturer takes in the product of his factories bearing his name or trade mark. Less attention is paid to the comfort, needs or care of his patrons by the average moving picture theater owner than is paid daily to the niceties of his film product by the manufacturer. To compare theaters built since the formation of the M. P. P. Co. with the converted stores and shooting galleries which were styled moving picture theaters some years ago will make the most cynical exhibitor admit that organization has accomplished something, has enabled him to make more money, give better shows, fight down newspaper criticism; and when you hear a man bellow about trusts and combinations of capital against him, you can make up your mind that he is a newcomer in the business. THAT NEW MOTOR DRIVE DEVICE. AS PROMISED two weeks ago, we are presenting in this issue the description of a recently perfected device for making motor driven projectors safe and fool proof. The details should be clear enough in the article so that no repetition of the description is needed here. It is enough to say that the arrangement is, to all intents and purposes, automatic. It relieves the operator of the purely mechanical duty of turning the crank, but does not leave the irresponsible machine to its own pleasure. In fact, by eliminating the human element it actually increases the factor of safety to practically one hundred per cent. For the machine is always surer than the man. The only problem has been to get the machine. Granting that the improvement does all that is claimed for it — and it must, or it would not have passed the National Board of Underwriters and the Chicago Electrical Inspection Bureau — it means the adoption of motor drive universally in the course of time. Many exhibitors do not appreciate the advantages of motor drive. They think of it as merely a relief for the operator — and perhaps they do not see any good reason for relieving him. But it really means a great deal more than that. We require of our operators that they possess intelligence and experience. We want those qualifications to be at our service in making our shows as nearly perfect as possible. The operator is really the mechanical and electrical engineer, the technical supervisor, of an art that relies wholly for its effects on the sciences of optics and electricity. Yet how can the operator exercise those functions when his attention is wholly engrossed in the turning of a crank ? With a projecting machine of the most improved type, driven by an electric motor, and provided with means for the absolute, automatic safe-guarding of all possible danger points, the operator becomes a vastly more valuable adjunct to the high-efficiency show. Y. IV. C. A. TO USE PICTURES. The Young Woman's Christian Association has annexed the moving picture machine. The use of the films to convey the •association's message of charity, philanthropy, religion and work was commended at a recent conference of Y. W. C. A. secretaries. Miss Lillian Truesdell, general secretary of the St. Paul association, told of the extensive use of picture slides by the St. Louis association. Miss Truesdell recommended the moving pictures as a means of interesting junior Bible students in Bible study, and she told of excellent colored pictures now available representing the life of Christ, Moses, the prophets and apostles. Mrs. Emma F. Byers, Minneapolis, announced that the territorial committee of the Y. W. C. A. would soon have in readiness slides showing scenes in the Holy Land.