Moving Picture World (July-Dec 1909)

752 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD tricity, the telephone, and other scientific marvels received their full meed of appreciation from the public. So it is with the moving picture, which, in many minds at present, is merely an interesting trick of the camera for entertaining and amusing the idle. You do not realize that the moving picture, as it is popularly called, is the scientific synthesis of motion. Motion, as we know by observation and teaching, is life itself, of which heat, light, sound, electricity are just so many manifestations. People, as we say, are accustomed to look upon the moving picture as a trick. Few realize or understand that it has far nobler uses than this. It is just as useful in human progress as the lancet of the surgeon, the pestle and mortar of the chemist, the theodolite of the engineer or the compass of the mariner — it adds to the sum of human knowledge that progress and achievement. If. as Shakespeare puts it, "all the world is a stage," then the moving picture camera is the recording agent of what takes place on that stage. So we read with feelings of extreme pleasure the statement that the moving picture camera is to figure this Winter in the public schools. Of course, we know that in colleges and universities, and scientific institutions generally, the moving picture camera, or rather the moving picture projector, is no stranger; and — here we write under correction — that it has been adopted by State authorities for the purpose of elementary education, which is what we most desire to see. We want to see the child of the State, as every child is, taught his lessons as far as possible by means of moving pictures, so that the infantile mind can more readily grasp the fundamental facts of geography, physiology, history, and maybe other subjects which can be illustrated by means of films. We all know, of course, that the ordinary picture or illustration occupies a conspicuous place on the walls of every schoolroom. We have all sat and suffered under it. These diagrammatic instructions, however, have served their purpose. The age demands more rapid methods of teaching, and in those methods we include illustration by motion. There is an enormous field open for educational uses in the moving picture, and the extent of that field is hardly realized by the people in the business, who are just now simply content to make subjects to please the amusement seeking public. The Poster End. The poster is or has been the Ishmael of the moving picture business. Until recently nobody seemed to care for him. ' Any old thing in the way of a crude design and crude printing suited your indifferent moving picture theater exhibitor — any old thing with some idea of the dramatic situation and plenty of crude color was considered good enough to put outside the moving picture theater. But a little while ago it occurred to some alert minds that better things than these could be done, and so the manufacturers and others have been sending out especially made posters illustrating the particular pictures shown. One or two of the manufacturers have had pieces of their film subjects suitably enlarged, and these when surrounded with striking borders make very effective posters. This is symptomatic of the progressive instinct. The moving picture theater is progressing all along the line, in the quality of the pictures, the house, the audience, the music, and so it is only reasonable to expect progress in the matter of such an important item as the poster. The poster to an ordinary theater is of vital importance. You have only to look on the billboard of any large advertising station to realize it. Money without stint is spent on these posters. The best work of the color press is put into them ; the brain of the designer or the artist, as he may choose to call himself, is utilized to the utmost to make pictures for some striking scene in the play advertised which shall arrest the attention of the passerby and cause him to visit the theater. And this is true of both small and large posters. It is a fundamental axiom of theatrical management that money must never be stinted in respect of posters. Is the moving picture theater coming to the same state of things? Are we near the time when the billboard will contain 24-sheet posters illustrating some scene in a Pathe or lliograph film? Shall we see fine specimens of color printing, good designs and all the rest of it, advertising the films all over the country? Are we, in short, to witness the theatricalization of the moving picture at the poster end of matters? It certainly looks as if we were, judging by the trend and the tendency of the moving picture at this very moment. For, as we have pointed out over and over again, it is rapidly becoming theatricalized at all ends of the game. There seems, indeed, no reason why as much money should not be spent in advertising the film representation of "Rigoletto," as in advertising the opera. One is simply a manifestation of a series of light waves: the other merely the expression of a number of sound waves. One primarily appeals to the eye. the other primarily appeals to the ear. And this is all the difference between a moving picture, the play, or an opera. If we are on the eve of a reform in the poster end of matters, and if we should get an artistic and commercial development of the moving picture poster, the mind is staggered by the possible extent of the business, which is bound, in the nature of things, to multiply so enormously that the existing manufacturers in the field will hardly be able to cope with the demand likely to be thus created. Of course, the moving picture poster is bound, in our opinion, to come, and to come very quickly, as anybody with eyes in his head can see for himself in New York City and other large cities. It already exists in a somewhat mild and apologetic form. Let the moving picture poster be produced on the same scale of size and quality as the ordinary theater poster, and no man can tell how much money exhibitors, renters and manufacturers will make. They will all be multi-millionaires in the Carnegie or Rockefeller class. To be serious, however, we are aware that efforts are being made to put the quality of the moving picture theater poster on a high artistic and productional plane, and all this is, therefore, bound to favorably influence the business. Exhibitors in certain sections of the State of New Jersey already have their associations for purposes of mutual help and co-operation, notably those of Newark. Jersey City, West Hoboken and Union Hill. Then there is the Hudson County Proprietors of Entertainment Association, which looks after the interest of moving picture exhibitors. The policy of the State Legislature with regard to the moving picture is such that it is highly desirable all moving picture theater exhibitors in the State should unite for the purpose of watching that legislation and if necessary defeating it whenever the interests of exhibitors are threatened. We request all exhibitors in their respective cities to get together and form associations with a view of federating into a State association. There must be many hundreds of moving picture theaters in New Jersey. The question of the age limit of children, Sunday licenses and others, are continually cropping up. an'1 i<" would be well, therefore, if the Jersey exhibitors united.