Moving Picture World (Mar-Dec 1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 155 A distant subscriber informs us that on the night of April 4, a fire occurred in Bombay, India, at the Paris Cinematograph Company’s exhibition and the tents were reduced to ashes in about fifteen minutes. It is said that the hot fragments from the arc carbon were the cause of conflagration, these igniting the loose films which were allowed to fall under the machine stand, there being no take-up device or fireproof magazine. The loss amounted to nearly $2,500, but fortunately no personal injury was done. The proprietor of the concern is a Parisian and had a large collection of Pathe films. * * * Last Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, at Tremont Temple, Wakefield, Mass., Burton Holmes closed his double series of finely illustrated travel-talks with “Vesuvius and the Eruption of 1906“ as his subject. Mr. Holmes had the good fortune to sail into the Bay of Naples the day before the serious outbreak of last April began, and he was, therefore, an eye-witness of the earlier days of this awe-inspiring outburst of nature’s forces. Being on the spot and with a battery of motionpictures and other cameras, he and his fellow traveler and assistant, Mr. Depue, were enabled to record photographically the many exciting episodes of the eruption ; the terror-stricken crowds of refugees, the destruction of the villages, the religious processions and ceremonials intended to put a stop to the lava flow, the torrents of molten lava and the terrific column of smoke, ashes and cinders pouring from the crater of Vesuvius, all gave to Mr. Holmes exceptional opportunities for the exercise of his photographic genius. It is needless to say that he and Mr. Depue embraced each and every opportunity, and his closing lecture is, therefore, a marvelous “scene-transference” adding to its travel-interest an historic value as a record of the greatest eruption which has occurred at Vesuvius in the last century. * * * That the amusement field of Wilkesbarre must be an attractive one to many outside promoters has been evidenced on several occasions in the recent past. For several days a representative of a Pittsburg amusement syndicate has been in the city looking over the field for a suitable location for an amusement enterprise of considerable magnitude. If successful in obtaining a site suitable for the purpose, Pittsburg and local capital will be combined in a handsome brick pavilion of about the same proportions as one now in operation in the Smoky City. The basement provides well-lighted quarters for billiard rooms and bowling alleys, the ground floor is equipped for roller skating, and the second floor is so arranged that it may be used for vaudeville, a dancing pavilion and the end near the entrance will contain a section devoted to kinetoscope and phonograph entertainments. Options on two sites have already been taken, one on Northampton and a second on Washington street, and both the local promoters and those in Pittsburg give assurances that the enterprise will be a certainty before next fall. GAUMONT FILMS The Hundred Dollar Bill or The Tramp Couldn’t Get it Changed A GREAT COMEDY SUBJECT LENGTH 800 FEET-PRICE, $96.00 DESCRIPTION This film opens with an attack by foot-pads on a gentleman and his wife returning from the theatre. As the man is being overpowered, a tramp appears unexpectedly on the scene carrying a big stick, which he uses to such good effect that he puts the robbers to flight. The victims of the thieves feel extremely grateful, and the husband rewards the tramp with a One Hundred Dollar Bill. The tramp almost faints with joy at the unexpected good fortune. Visions of square meals good beds, high living, pass through his brain. He had never before realized that there was so much money in the world. Early next morning he goes to a first class restaurant, and is served with suspicion. When he gives the waiter the bill in payment, the man staggers, and after a moment’s absence returns to say that the house cannot cnange it. When he next offers his bill the proprietor sends for the police and he is arrested. After explaining to the magistrate how it was obtained, the hundred dollar bill is returned to him and he is released with a warning. Despairing because he cannot obtain change for the bill, he passes dejectly along a stream in which a man is disclosed bathing. The tramp has a brilliant idea — the man’s clothes are lying on the bank; the tramp takes them and leaves his rags behind. Once more a restaurant; but now, attired like a gentleman, self-confidence in his face and contentment on his brow, he eats a leisurely meal and smokes a good cigar, knowing that his appearance will at last warrant the changing of the one hundred dollar bill. But alas ! when the waiter comes to collect every pocket is searched and emptied, but no one hundred dollar bill is found and the rejuvenated hobo remembers at last that he left the money in his old clothes. In the meantime the swimmer goes ashore, and is astounded at the metamorphosis of his clothes. Finally he departs in anger to the nearest police station. He complains to the judge, and is at the point of showing him tne one hundred dollar bill which was found in the tramp’s clothes, when the hobo is himself brought in, arrested for beating a restaurant. The ex-swimmer recognizes his clothes upon the tramp and explanations follow. The judge fines the tramp ten dollars for his offence and takes it out of the one hundred dollar bill, giving ninety dollars in small change to the delighted hobo, who departs with his original clothes. 52 STATE ST. 1 662 SIXTH AVE. CHICAGO. NEW YORK