Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1913)

340 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD ■I Facts and Comments EXHIBITORS from almost every state in the Union are writing to The Moving Picture World urging it to keep up the agitation for a proper Sunday entertainment and asking for materials which may be used in conducting a. campaign of education for the benefit of the opponents of Sunday pictures. This demand has been persistent enough to exhaust our back numbers with the articles on the Sunday question and we have therefore prepared a typewritten summary of sound arguments in favor of a proper Sunday entertainment. This typewritten summary will be sent to any exhibitor upon request. * There is just one word of special caution we would like to say to exhibitors who are called upon to take part in the agitation for a liberal Sunday. We would urge them to use diplomacy and to treat old, deeply rooted prejudices with tenderness and toleration. A man may differ from us and be just as sincere as we hope we are. Let us therefore avoid all personalities and all intemperate language. Let us not yield to the temptation of going away from the real issues of the case. A campaign conducted with dignity and courtesy is the only campaign worth while. Whenever the opponents of the proper Sunday entertainment are carried away by their excess of zeal and begin to throw epithets, set them a good example by sticking to the point and ignoring personal arguments. IT is a well-known fact, that the yellow press frequently replenishes its vocabulary from the gutter. The hideous expression "movies" to designate the greatest educational factor in modern civilization was no doubt fished out of the unwholesome debris found along the edges of the highways of literature. One of the yellow sheets has now invented a similarly elegant and classic name for the new Edison kinetophone. We do not like to touch the thing, even for the purpose of putting it in the pillory, but the word is "talkies." What fine and noble additions to our impoverished language ! Now let us drop the time-worn word book and call it "readie" and let the theaters henceforth be known as "lookies." With a little assistance from the Chinese Laundrymen's Association we ought to make great strides in simplifying and revising the poor English language. * * * FROM all present indications it seems that the feature film, as the newest development in the moving picture field, will hold a position near the centre of the stage for quite some time to come. Even the smallest theaters are ready and anxious for features. A curious fact in the situation is the scarcity, not to say the almost complete absence, cf features dealing with American subjects. There are plenty of feature films produced in this country, but the subjects are generally of European origin. Manufacturers seem to prefer European history and European literature. Just why this should be so is one of the unexplained mysteries of filmdom. Some American historical films have been made, but the field has scarcely been touched. American literature has been neglected, though there are signs of future improvement. No one will deny that we enjoy vigorous national health with plenty of proof in literature and on the speaking stage. American multiple feature reels, it seems to us, ought to meet with an immediate and profitable response. Legends of old Japan and tragedies of ancient Egypt are interesting to be sure but there are valuable materials right at our doors. "^TT^HE innocent exhibitor should not suffer from the I follies of the few radicals." We take this sen tence from a letter written to us recently by a friend of the motion picture in Milwaukee. Echoes of the same sentiment are heard frequently wherever exhibitors meet. Our correspondent speaks of probable hostile action by the authorities, caused by the antics of one exhibitor who persists in showing objectionable films and displaying even more objectionable posters. Here is a matter which plainl}' calls for concerted action by the organized exhibitors. A I A HE future progress of the educational film generalI ly ^nd the educational feature in particular depends to no small extent on the treatment it will receive at the hands of the average exhibitor. If the exhibitor is pleased with such films and wants to make the best of them, he will call to his aid the advantages of special and well-rehearsed music, a suitable lecture, and vigorous publicity methods. The frame in which we see a picture always influences us. None except experts will recognize a Rembrandt in a cheap and dirty frame or in no frame at all. On the other hand a mediocre painting may be set off to great advantage, when placed in a fine, artistic frame. The frame should always be worthy of the picture. Exhibitors should realize that in giving its proper due to the educational release on their programs they are bound to help the cause of the moving picture generally. If they slight the opportunities offered them by progressive manufacturers they hurt not only the industry, but in the long run they hurt themselves. If the moving picture is to progress and expand along the right lines we cannot get enough support from the intelligent and educated classes of the community. * The kinematograph must aim to be the poor man's library. It must give in pleasing form to all the people. what the shelves of the library now offer only to the favored few, to wit, the benefits and knowledge that come to us from an acquaintance with the masterpieces of literature and art and science. The kinematograph is the great popularizing agent for the works of great minds, that have existed before us and have only expressed themselves through the printed page. If the kinematograph aimed at anything less than this the picture would soon be degraded to a toy or a fad. The permanency of the motion picture depends on the utilization of its educational value.