Moving Picture World (July-Dec 1909)

876 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD can he put in successful operation. The film exchanges are should always be on t lie alert, in case of failure of the takeup; and it would be better to discard the friction drive altogether, and resort to hand winding. Any hoy can be taught in a few minutes to wind satisfactorily, and the running of the projector will be much more easy and sweet without the brakii on of the friction drive. Some rather compli cated mechanical devices have been invented for the purpose of making the rewinding of film certain and easy. So far. of them have come into use, and the projector is hamI by an amount of friction constantly increasing from the time of starting the spool till the time when the same is mil up. The difficulty of the problem is somewhat great and has exercised the minds of inventors for many years past, not only in its application to projectors, but also in the thousand and -one cases in which, by a mechanical operation it is required to coil, up an increasing sized roll of paper linen, cloth, etc., and in doing so put an even tension on the machine by which it is manufactured or delivered. A for tune awaits the inventor who can achieve this result prac tically, simply, and cheaply. (To be continued.) " :'k ~~T Observation ^BY OUR MAN ABOUT TOWN.Sj A SETBACK. Moving picture men throughout the country have grown in some way to look upon the noted entertainment house of Keith & Proctor's as sympathetically inclined towards the moving picture as such. That is to say, an impression has got abroad that the Keith & Proctor mind wherever it is and whoever possesses it, either in New York, Boston or elsewhere, was formally set on exploiting the moving picture as a progressive and profit-making form of entertainment. In other words, Keith & Proctor were looked upon, as in some sense assisting in the uplift of the moving picture — in its dignification and proper presentation to the public. We, ourselves, have never neglected an opportunity of praising Keith & Proctor for their attitude, assumed or real. We have praised the conduct of their houses in this city, of which there are four or five, both in print and by word of mouth; we have held them up as an example for other moving picture exhibitors to follow. Again, our own personal preferences, or sentiment, if the reader so like it, have leaned towards the Keith & Proctor houses, so that whenever we wanted to enjoy a moving picture, as we sometimes do, aside of the business of writing about them, why we go to Keith & Proctor's. Your Keith & Proctor, or the moving picture department manager, or somebody we do not know who is connected with this enterprise, has rudely shaken our faith in them. They have disappointed us; they have annoyed and disgruntled us by going back on their own policy, our predilections, and what we consider the best interests of the moving picture field; in fact, they have given the moving picture business a blow by introducing at their Fourteenth street Bijou Dream house vaudeville, such as "strong men" and other amusement items, so utterly foreign to the general run of the Bijou Dream programme, so utterly to the distaste of large numbers of their patrons, so utterly to the distaste of ourselves, and we believe so utterly to the distaste of the moving picture field throughout the United States, that we cannot help asking them, in their own interests and in the interests of everybody else, to cut these items out of their programme forthwith and revert to the old order of things. Miscellaneous vaudeville turns or acts are out of place in a moving picture programme. This is a fact that admits of no discussion. We have ascertained from innumerable members of the paying public, educated men and women, intelligent children, from those best competent to give an opinion, in fact, that it is the picture, the whole picture, and NOTHING BUT THE PICTURE that the public wants. We mean the great five or ten million moving picture public in the United States, probably the largest entertainment public in the world. Vaudeville acts at a moving picture house, or we should say an established moving picture house, may temporarily increase the receipts, but they will permanently injure the business, we are convinced. Picture lovers will stay away. The Keith & Proctor house, like many others in this country, is supported by picture lovers. We do not think the officials of this company quite realize what sort of public the moving picture public is, otherwise we doubt whether in this little noted Fourteenth street house they would give us such a setback as we have experienced this week. We hope to see the Keith & Proctor programme restored to its former condition of suitability for the moving picture public — and we hope to see it done at once. Fight Pictures. What are you betting on the Jeffries-Johnson fight? Will the pictures "be a success, or not? What? We are talking through our camera? Not at all. We are referring to the main point at issue. It is not a question as to who will win the fight. That was the issue in the olden times. Now the main point at issue is the success of the moving pictures — before and after taking, as the medical advertisement reads. Of course, in the affair just arranged the two men have been matched to appear in the ring and arrangements have been made to provide $101,000 as an incentive for the struggle. Thatis supposed to be the incentive, but it isn't. The fighters, the newspapers, and everybody else tell us the $101,000 is only a joker; that the men will really fight for the picture receipts. Do not misunderstand this as a sporting item. It is not. The object is to place one more winner to the credit of the moving pictures. Croak as the croakers may, they cannot keep the pictures down. They will force themselves to the front. One of the foremost sporting news writers of the country stated immediately after arrangements were concluded for the affair: "It will be a moving picture fight. Mark me." And this sentiment has put the sporting fraternity of the world in a state of almost painful apprehension. The great question seems to be how long the fighters can successfully pose before the camera. One of the men says he will try to put his opponent in the land of nod within a few seconds after the fight starts. If he is not joking, his friends will soon have him in some institution for observation as to his mental condition. * * * People in all quarters contend and admit that the moving pictures have forced almost a depopulation of the vaudeville profession, and expression . of opinion as to what the pictures have done, or will do, to the pugilistic arena will soon he in order. The police authorities and legislatures have failed to knock out the sport, but keep your eyes on the pictures and see what the pictures will do to it. It is the safest kind of a wager that after Jeffries and Johnson have strung out about four or five thousand feet of negative, public interest in such affairs will drop to the zero mark. The pulpit orators who have so persistently denounced moving pictures will then have an opportunity to do them justice and acknowledge that the pictures form a powerful reforming factor. * * * There is no disguising the fact that the discussion of and prominence given the moving picture part of the fight details has done more harm to the immediate interests of those who engage in such affairs as principals or otherwise than anything else has ever done. These people have really gone picture mad, and those who follow up such affairs as spectators or speculators have been stirred up to a decidedly suspicious state of mind. An immense amount of money has been made by the owners of the Johnson-Ketchel fight pictures, and the pictures to be taken of the coming fight are looked upon as a gold mine. Think for a moment of the stupendous amount of faith put in them. The purse to be fought for is fixed at $101,000! The receipts from the pictures of the affair are figured at no less than $160,000! There is good reason for this enthusiastic expectation. Thousands upon thousands of people — yes. the millions of them — will be unable to go to the scene of battle, but all will have a reproduction of it brought to their doors. The pictures will be a record money-maker. The enthusiasts will scramble over each other to see them as the next best thing to the fight itself, and the skeptics will pack the theaters and halls to see if the fighters prolonged the affair to give the public a run (joke) for their money. Who said moving pictures had seen their best days' Why, their influence is only beginning to manifest itself. * * * The Johnson-Ketchel Pictures as a Money Maker. Some amusing stories are told by Sam Bullock, manager of the Johnson-Ketchel Fight Department of the Lake Shore Film & Supply Companv, Cleveland, Ohio, in connection with the showing of the Johnson-Ketchel fight films. Sam is something of a lecturer, and in describing the contest round by round he injects considerable humor into the subject at hand, especially when the colored folks are in evi