The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

December 2, 1922 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 429 Fox Educational Entertainments Off to Flying Start; Second Series Ready Novel Short Features Win Public Approval; Latest Productions Universal in Appeal II By HERBERT HANCOCK The stamp of public approval has been put to Fox Educational entertainments, the latest contribution of William Fox to the progress of the screen. Immediately after the first series of six Fox Educational Entertainments were released, the American theatre audience was quick to appreciate the novelty amusement value and valuable knowledge contained in them, if the hundreds of reports received from leading exhibitors, noted educators and heads of public institutions throughout America can be taken as a criterion. That Fox Educational Entertainments have fulfilled every promise made for them, has been proved beyond doubt. Exhibitors and theatre owners are virtually unanimous in commending their quality, not only from a standpoint of amusement value, but as a medium through which the theatre can make friends with the best people of the community who previously have been more or less opposed to the motion picture theatre. They not only have pleased tlie regular patrons of the picture theatre, but also have proved a big factor in building a new and greater patronage, creating a following among a class of people who heretofore have only occasionally attended the theatre. Audiences everywhere were quick to appreciate the novelty of the reels. In New "i'ork first, then quicMy following in Chicago and Detroit, the leading theatres benefited by the ready acceptances that Fox Educational Entertainments found with thoir patrons. "Old Spain." the first of the initial series to be released, brings to the American screen the unaccustomed scenes of a country whose grandeur and glamour have been glowingly described in books for centuries. They need no longer be mind pictures, for they are actual happenings, vivid, pulsing with life. The film shows their reality, their form and color. Cities that were built a thousand years ago still exist, and the people living in them now seem to retain many customs of their ancestors. But new ideas will creep in. Many Spanish beauties prove that although woman's charm may be old as Eve, it is still as new and fresh as tomorrow's bouquet of roses for the leading lady of a musical comedy. The prize winner of the national beauty contest clinches the proof with her smile. "Old Spain" is a full reel in length. If you are interested in ducks, particularly for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, "Pekin Ducl:s" will make a timely topic. This half-reel shows a duck farm and the methods of raising the fowl. Everybody wants to know how other people live. A swift sketch is "Unter den Linden" in Berlin and on through the places of the city that have been mentioned innumerable times by world travelers. On further to Monte Carlo, where many fortunes have been lost, but very few have been gained. The tinsel splendor of the pleasure resort reminds one of the kings of Europe who placed their countries and their peoples in pawn for the satisfaction of outward show. .All the money ever won HITTING THE HIGH SPOTS IN THE ALPS, FROM "BITS OF EUROPE," FOX EDUCATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT. SCENES FROM "BIRD LIFE," FOX EDUCATIONAL ENTERTAINMENT. at Monte Carlo could not pay the cost of lives and nations destroyed to gratify the vainglory of an emperor who loved pompous display. While we muse on the crimes of kings, the camera lens brings Venice into focus. Here motley gondolas are poled along winding canals. Being the only means of transportation in the city, they are aptly termed "the floating taxicabs of Venice." The scene changes to Versailles, where French monarchs held court, where nobility danced and royalty paid the utmost penalty for their extravagances. The beauty of the Versailles gardens is world famous. This former playground of the crested families of France contains fifty-one fountains of extremely artistic design. Their splendor makes this screen creation a distinctly attractive novelty, which rises to a climax with a pulse-beating climb up the Alps. "Camphor" is a half-reel describing the manufacture of camphor from a tree found very extensively on the island of Formosa in the China Sea. The cameraman who made the film risked his life among a savage tribe of headhunters, and his camp was protected by a high tension electric wire that carried alternating current. "Bird Life" is a reel showing various feathered creatures in their natural surroundings. They were filmed as they built nests and fed their young. Because of the instinct to protect themselves and their offspring, it was necessary to build blinds from which to operate the camera. Several attempts to photograph birds were fruitless, due to their wariness. This reel includes the official film of the National Audubon Societies, photographed by Herbert K. Job, a noted bird au thority. Any exhibitor who plays this reel can get the co-operation of the local society in his community by telling the organization head about the official film. This subject also contains a scene wherein a professor of the University of Washington hangs perilously off the edge of a clifll to gather rare specimens of eggs The last of the set is a reel entitled, "The Runaway Dog." Il has all the action of a dramatic feature. The actors in this reel are a mother dog and twc puppies, a mother cat and hei kittens and a hen and her chicks The unusual part of this miniature photodrama is that no human beings appear in the picture After seeing this screen offering an exhibitor won't be satisfied until he plays it. Then his patrons will be satisfied when they see it Although "The Runaway Dog' has no people in its cast, it wil' probably hold the spectator's interest as closely as any dramatic subject. The director used painstaking care to make the characters go through their parts naturally. Nowhere is the effort ol human beings allowed to creef through to spoil the realism of the story. Fox Educational Entertainments will be released once i week in lengths that will run fron 350 to 1,000 feet, and according tc officials of Fox Film Corporatior each one of them will be ; separate and distinct subject with out any attempt at "padding" ii order to reach a definite length That their length will be basec entirely upon the requirements o' the subject, is evidenced by th( fact that no definite footage ha; been scheduled for any subject each one consumed whatevei footage was actually required foi presenting the subject in the mos' ' interesting and instructive manner.