Moving Picture News (Jan-Dec 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 7 This chap must ha\ e brainstormitis to write such tommybosh. "The much admired Biograph picture is the result of British brains, Mr. Griffith, their w ell-known producer, who is responsible for these pictures, being an Englishman. And not to labor the point too much, there is hardly a film plant in this country which does not rely more or less upon British help." Another special thing we note is the remarks concerning our friend Friese-Greene and for a non-infringing camera, we would reply to this invective that we already know of several non-infringing cameras so that the writer need not Avorry himself at all on this point, full pviblicity will be given in the News in a week or two. "I expect Mr. Friese-Greene will return to your side shortly, although he is inclined either to remain here or to come back. H'e is desirous of putting his color process on the market.'' "The field is open for the inventor in respect of a new camera which does not infringe any existing principle. It is a very thorny problem. Still, if such a camera were put on the market, it would be an unquestioned success. I commend the idea to A. S. Newman. "I have been traveling about the country recently, and have observed that the picture is enormously popular with provincial audiences. They treat it very seriously. In large cities it is pretty well a filler in the way of entertainment. In country towns, however, it is taken more seriously, and unquestionably fills a void which the cheap melodrama left. "Risking your editorial frown, I must give you the item of news that at the moment of writing the Trust section of the business bids fair to assume control of it. Litigation has gone badly against the Independents." The last paragraph "tickles us to death" (if we may use a slang expression), litigation goes badly against the Independents; well, it is to laugh, and laugh heartily, but why the Independent manufacturers allow a prejudiced alien to rap them on the knuckles like he is doing, is more than we can imagine. The writer evidently must have seen double or read the litigation wrong, like he did in another celebrated patent case relating to a trade-mark which is well in the memory of our readers, both on this and the other side of the Atlantic. It certainly is a very bad lapsus-linguae. Another point this learned gentleman makes mention of is as follows, regarding the question of color cinematography : "There is the question of color, which has been a subject of interest to me for many years. I have gone over the ground several times, pointing out that practically no novelty attaches to the color processes at present before the Avorld. 'Regni' confirms me in this. He analyzes the Friese-Greene, the Lee-Turner, and other processes, and arrives at the same conclusion as I do, namely, that there is nothing in them that is novel, and also little that is practical. "No color process can claim to have really solved the problem, because none of them, so far as I can discover, is based upon a close study of first principles. We must, before finality is reached in this matter, pay closer attention to the work of the early experimenters, such as Henry Collen, James Clark, Maxwell, Captain Abney, and others who have interested themselves in the theoretical side of color." ^^'e cannot understand why he writes in the manner he does, and further than that, why he does not bring out his great master patent of color photography which the world is very anxious to see. We looked for great things, we sought a mountain, and, behold, we found — a mole hill ! THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR If ever there was a tough old rugged road, filled with pitfalls, punctured with the thrills of chilling alarm, interspersed Avith the cold, creeping feeling of the culprit about to be unmasked, productive of cold sweats, clammy extremities and interior tremors, it is the road frequented by the transgressor. The hideousness of impending disclosure to one posing before the public in the mask of honor, virtue and integrity cannot be adequately depicted with pen or brush. The awful uncertainty, not so much about the form and manner as about the time of the event forecasted and sure, burns down deep into the vitals and the mentality of its victim, as he awaits the public denunciation which ultimately sets him forth as a living lie before the very friends and neighbors whose esteem through many years of ceaseless toil he has endeavored to earn and in the hour of exposure prizes in a priceless value. The efiforts of toil swept into the great beyond; the prized friendships swept away; the impending success as it approaches its zenith backsliding into the pit of failure much after the manner of the avalanche descending the steep incline of a mountain side ; and in the end all' is gone. All may and frequently includes life, I'berty knd prosperity. Many such examples are in our county, state and federal prisons — one is enough, not mentioning names, the indication is sufficient in the words the Ice King. There are other transgressors of lesser moment who sometimes are so very fortunate as to attain a competency, secure a limited degree of local respect and escape the public headquarters maintained solely for undesirable personages possessed of inclinations bending toward the positively criminal. These approach so closely the border line between the statutorily criminal and the morally upright as ever to live in the great expansive land of uncertainty not with regard so much to personal liberty as to standing in society. Ostracism is seldom enforced by that money sodden group of persons denominated "Society," because if the truth were known so very many are tarred with the same stick and plumed in the same feathers. We are not mentioning any names nor handing out any specific instances, but there have been occasions in the history of the United States of America, short as it is, where alleged inventors of great repute have endeavored to take unto themselves the original work of the real discoverers of new and useful mechanical contrivances, wherewith to dece've the gullible public into according glory, laud and honor unto the impostor and the investing public into parting with golden streams of the circulating medium in exchange only for a worthless paper bearing the Patent Office seal. And during the same period there have been instances of the detection and exposure of the attempted fraud, much to the chagrin, vexation and mortification of the villainous impostor whose sole penalty all too frequently is loss of caste softened by large pecuniary gains but a freedom from any interference with physical liberty. The way of the transgressor is not confined by any means to that i^articular class of alleged inventors who are little other than impostors. It is found also in the journalistic field and elsewhere. Our labors, however, have been so closely confined to journalism and particularly to that special branch thereof which is de