Moving Picture World (July-Dec 1909)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 87i Moving Picture World Pounded by J. P. CHALMERS. Copyright, 1908, by The World Photographic Publishing Company, 125 East 23d Street (Beach Building), New York. Telephone call, 1344 Gramercy. Editors: J. P. CHALMERS, THOMAS BEDDING, F.R.P.S. Subscriptions $2.00 per year. Post free In the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Advertising Rates: $2.00 per inch 2%-inch col.; $3.00 per inch 8% -inch col. Classified advertisements (no display), 3 cents per word, cash with order. Time discounts: 5% two or more insertions, 10* three months •rder, 1524 six months, 20% twelve months. G. P. VON HARLEMAN, Western Representative, 913-915 Schiller Building, Chicago, 111. Telephone, Central 3763. Entered at the General Post Office in New York City aa Second Claaa Matter. Vel. 5 DECEMBER 18, 1909 No. 25 Editorial. Pictures and Pugilism. The fortunes of the prize ring are apparently interwoven with those of the moving picture. Without the moving picture your modern prize fight would be shorn of most of its financial glamor and possibilities ; without the prize fight the moving picture would not appeal to so many people as it apparently does. Here in New York City one of the most popular acts at Mr. Hammerstein's entertainment hall on Forty-second street is the moving picture of a noted fight. It is not only so in New York City, but in all large cities. Public interest in the doings of pugilism seems at times greater than the doings of the nation's President. We doubt if the junior members of our own staff could tell off-hand the names of all the Presidents of the United States, but we are tolerably certain that they could inform us at once, as to who was the victor when Mr. Corbett and Mr. Fitzsimmons last met in mortal combat — we mean in the prize ring. We do not know, and what is more, we do not care. Of course, a love of sport underlies the admiration of the pugilistic art; the undying desire to see two well and equally matched men pitting their prowess against each other — whether it be in the prize ring, on the racing track, or on the golf course. And clearly when it is a question of fists or the gloves we are getting down to the primitive in human nature, for one of the first things man had to do, or was taught to do, was to defend himself, and that is just exactly what Mr. Jeffries and Mr. Johnson will be doing some time next year when this long-talked-of fight comes off. A story is going the rounds that the Associated manufacturers have made a bid for the moving picture rights of the contest and that the Alliance manufacturers have outbid them. We do not think that this is correct. If, however, it is, it shows what an enormous amount of interest is taken in the photographic end of the contest. Also it induces the permissible suspicion that the fight is not, or will not be, in the common parlance, "a square deal." The purse is to be such a big one, the money to be paid for the picture rights such an enormous sum, that the "cutting up" or rather the dividing of two or three hundred thousand dollars between Jeffries and Johnson is possibly too strong a temptation to be resisted. So it is open to conjecture that the fight will be prearranged in order that the photographic end of matters may be suitably provided for. By suitably provided for we mean a nice long picture with plenty of incident and the culmination of the contest in a draw. We know nothing about fighting, or the ethics of fighting, but it is the picture end of matters which has started us thinking. And these are the thoughts we think. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the picture of the contest, if there is anything like a contest, will be enormously popular all over the world. And then again, we confess that we would rather look on a film of a good, well-fought fight by good sportsmen than on films carrying the inanities and idiosyncrasies of dramatic .construction which are so plentiful on the moving picture screen. So we hope Jeffries and Johnson will make a good fight of it and that it will be a good picture, and that everybody all around will make money out of it. Pictures of the Roosevelt Hunt. A Remarkable Series of Films. Several weeks ago we wrote a short editorial apropos of the return of A. R. Dugmore, the well-known photographer of animals, from Africa, where he had been photographing in the company of Mr. Roosevelt. We regretted that moving picture apparatus did not form a part of Mr. Dugmore's outfit. We also regretted that there seemed to be no record of a moving picture camera having been used in the course of the ex-President's hunting experiences. We pointed out that such pictures, if they could be, or were, obtained, would be of vast interest to the American public, irrespective of their scientific value. We regretted, in short, that such a fine opportunity had been lost. It is an agreeable surprise to us, therefore, to learn that our regrets were not justified. The opportunity has not been lost. It seems by a cable dispatch published this week, in the New York papers, that a well-known British photographer, Richard Kearton, probably one of the most famous photographers of animals in the world, was present with Mr. Roosevelt on his expedition and took with him a moving picture camera. Kearton, we may explain, will photograph birds in their nests, eagles in their lofty rocks, birds in flight, rare wild animals and similar subjects. Moreover, he has been successful in making the mechanism of his moving picture camera so silent that he can approach within a few feet of his prey without disturbing it, and so is enabled to secure the most wonderful photographs of nature subjects it is possible to think of. In other words, he lays bare the innermost secrets of the animal kingdom by means of the moving picture camera. The message to which we refer appeared in the New York Times last week, and is as follows : "Mr. Kearton, whose exploits with the camera in the field of natural history had already gained him a great reputation, has been getting pictures with a cinematograph in that part of East Africa where ex-President Roosevelt has been hunting. Mr. Kearton this afternoon gave an exhibition of his films at the Alhambra Theater. Among the audience were the Duke and Duchess of Connaught and the Princess Patricia, who shortly are going to follow in the ex-President's footsteps. "Mr. Roosevelt was shown watching a native war dance, being carried across a stream on the shoulders