Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 199 It may have been one year ago, or it may have been two, three, four or five years ago, the prediction was made, that the small exhibitors would eventually give way to the onward march of the larger one. If I am not mistaken, the prediction was made at a time when the municipal authorities were working against what was, at that time called, the tenement house nickelodeons. At that time every tailor, grocer, fruit dealer and tinsmith who could not see money coming in fast enough to meet his expectation as compared with the receipts of a small nickelodeon on a neighboring block, was imbued with the thought that his whole salvation rested in the moving pictures. * * # We all know the result. If the municipal authorities had not stepped in with their regulations, there would not be any small commercial storerooms in existence, and the fire insurance companies would never been driven to the wall by losses. However, they stepped in and people who lived over a popular place of amusement had to move. * * * So, through the gradual transformations, reformations and other actions, we find that, even with the tenants removed— even with the most delicately contrived means of exit and the most ingeniously planned means of ventilation, the small show is doomed to go. Tough, isn't it? * * * Have you heard of the latest municipal regulation about to be launched? No? Listen! After January 1, 1912, if all signs prove true, there will not be a moving picture place seating less than five hundred (500), in Greater New York. As I understand it, the seating capacity for moving picture houses will be increased in the very near future to five hundred (500), and the license fee for the houses will be increased from $25 to $100. I was told this was advance information, but nevertheless correct, that the spirit of advance was behind it and idle-lying capital was prepared to step in and supply all sources of amusement that might be killed by it. I do not doubt, in the slightest degree, the sincerity of my informant, for I know that within the past twelve months the motion (or moving, if you will), picture has at last imbedded upon the minds of many people, who heretofore ridiculed it, a retrieving thought. * * * A recent number of one of the most prominent theatrical publications in the City of New York proved this. I refrain from designating the source of publication for the reason that it simply reiterates what the papers devoted to the interests of the moion picture business have been contending for years past. I will be content in quoting in one paragraph the headlines of the articles this prominent journal used in its efforts to arouse the public to a realization of how important a factor the motion picture is in the amusement world. This is how the headline read : "Is it not time to take a hand in 'Censorship' some? The professional 'reformer' is running amuck and there appears to be no organized effort to stop his pernicious work, which is gaining ground all the time, absurdity that is a menace. Moving picture interests attacked as was no other reputable body of industry captains." Oh, my ! and after all these long days — I will not say years — we have a champion coming forth from the legitimate theatrical field ! Well, it is gratifying to have friends, regardless of from whence they come, but there is a measurement for friends. The utterances quoted are true, even if they may not come from the whole wool, and the people who have given voice to them through the darkest days should receive first recognition. The Moving Picture WbRLD has been voicing the sentiments quoted for a long time and I, as one of its correspondents, suggest that if the outburst is to produce any bouquets, that the first be thrown at the men who have stood behind the guns. Yes, the professional reformer has been running amuck, in spite of the fact that the work it attacked has been endorsed by true reformers conscientiously performing their work. Yes, such has been the case in spite of the constant plea of the motion picture people that they were backed by a "reputable body of industry captains." Heretofore, the regular theatrical journals who were not fed by advertisements have treated the pictures as a joke, the manufacturers as criminals, and the exhibitors as abettors of a crime. Now, we quote from the Morning Telegraph of a recent date, "the men engaged in the moving picture business are numerous enough, and of commercial and personal standing sufficient to put a stop to these unjust attacks." But let us go a step farther and read: "This espionage of a reputable business is outrageous. The Motion Picture Patents Co., and the Sales Company would be entirely justified in taking the young men who sit around their places to 'censorize' films, gently but firmly by the ear and lead them to the door, with the grim order to stay on the outside. Never before in the history of the world, has a body of men engaged in a high-class work, and one that is adapted to the highest civilization, 90 complacently suffered themselves to be misrepresented and their interests assailed." # * # Now, what do you think of that? And it did not come from a trade joudnal, either, but from a purely disinterested theatrical journal. I never thought I would reach such a fountain of truth until it became my happy lot to reach the hereafter. I was inclined to doubt the sincerity of the writer until I re-read his article and I struck that passage, "a splendid business crippled by slander and 'fake' reformation." Then I knew he was in earnest and I did not expect to meet him with a special advertising scale. I like spirit in which the article from which I have quoted is written, and I hope the publication will back up the spirit in future issues, maintaining in all its sense the loved declaration of ages, "Let justice be done, though the heavens should fall." * * * In opening his sermon one Sunday, an old Southern preacher said: "A false balance is an abomination to the Lord; but a just weight is his delight." Look out, Mr. Advertisingman. Do you know Mr. Ganes? Don't ye? Why, yes yer do. He runs a purtty little picture house up on Broadway -in New York. Yas, and he didn't want to become an abomination, so he put out a lot of galvanized iron tubs in front of his picture house and filled 'em with water, so that the poor, over-heated horses could get wet outside as well as inside. He told his men to turn the hose on them when they came along to drink. An' what do you think? The water department got at him and threatened him with a fine of five dollars a day for using the water that way. Like Eva Tanguay, Ganes didn't care a million. He said to his men, "shoot 'er up," and they did, and, ha ! ha ! le' me tell you, the people just flocked there to all the disturbance. Mr. Ganes didn't care. He just said, "Turn on the water! Put on another roll of tickets!" And he had the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals behind him. They were on duty outside the house, of course. But here's luck to Ganes. The ingenious constructor of advertisements is busy in my part of the moving picture field. One house in the Bronx displays this sign : "The coolest place in the city. This theater is twenty degrees below the street." In Brooklyn a man tries to kill the opposition of an airdome with this sign : "Come into the iced air and enjoy the beautiful ballads, where the mosquitoes do not bite." The opposition is spending his spare moments in the Jersey meadows trying to get hip on the process for the abolition of mosquitoes. Union City, Tenn.— The Gem Theater, Mr. W. C. Morris, manager, is one of the most up-to-date show houses in th* South, playing to capacity with pictures only. Seating capacity 340, all upholstered opera chairs. The Scenario Theater, Ocean Grove, N. J., has recently installed a set of Deagan's Musical Bells which seem to delight the audience very much. The "Scenario" is turning them away under the management of Salo Ansbach.