Moving Picture World (Jul 1917)

Julv 21, 1917 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 419 g? g-. <& g. g; gg gg gg g ^ ^^gSSEgS^ £S| ^ .> .^ ;g ^ g g g sg ^ yg ^ .3 »^ 77ie W^e/c/*/ Afews /tee/ Beginning and Development of a Screen Feature / k |S g> '^° k ^ **> ^° g ^ *s> ^» sr ^ *:• or « • « is -:•*> '3 -^ •> os cs =1 § •> ^ •;* ^ .> .^ o THE weekly news reel has undoubtedly educated more persons to a respect and a fondness for motion pictures than any other medium. In the days when the word "movies" was generally used in contempt, many persons of taste and discrimination were attending the picture theaters for the sole purpose of seeing one reel only of the advertised program— the news reel. Such persons eventually became steady patrons and found enjoyment in the dramas, comedies, and educationals making up the rest of the program. The debt of the motion picture business to the news weekly is enormous nor is it sufficiently appreciated. The first news weekly ever devised and the first ever to take concrete form and be placed upon the market was the -Pathe Journal in France, the idea for which was Charles Pathe's own. The Pathe Journal was first put upon the screen in 1910. In 1911 J. A. tferst, vice-president and general manager of the Pathe Freres in the United States, became convinced that the news weekly idea was one that should prove to be especially valuable in the United States. At the time the Pathe Journal had not yet demonstrated that the new idea was profitable, but Mr. Berst saw that in it were great possibilities. In 1911 Pathewas one of the group of ten licensed manufacturers making up the General Film Company. Mr. Berst proposed to the other licensed manufacturers that they should each furnish negative material for a news reel, these negatives to be printed, edited, titled and assembled at the Pathe offices in Jersey City, the finished product to be released through the General Film Company, and each manufacturer to be paid from the receipts according to the amount of negative received from him and incorporated into the weekly. ^ This plan was favored by practically all the other licensed manufacturers. The Vitagraph Company, however,, chose to reserve independence of action and at once, upon learning of Mr. Berst's plan, began to plan a monthly magazine of current events. This individual action, of course, ended the hope of accomplishing anything in common in the matter, and Mr. Berst's negotiations were at once broken off. Charles Pathe. Mr. Berst, however, was not satisfied to let the matter drop. With characteristic promptitude he immediately began the manufacture of a Pathe News Reel, to be called the Pathe Weekly. It is said that no . sooner had he left the meeting of the licensed manufacturers at which he learned that his original plan would not go through than he telephoned the Pathe offices in Jersey City, giving orders that the assembling of suitable news pictures be begun at once. Certain it is that the next issue of the Moving Picture World dated July 29, 1911, contained a full page advertisement announcing the birth of Pathe's Weekly, "an illustrated magazine on a film," "the news of the world in pictures," to be issued every Tuesday. On Tuesday, August 1, the first number was released. The Moving Picture World in an editorial in its issue of July 29, 1911, says : "Beginning on the first of next month the moving picture theaters of J A Berst. this country will go into active and, we believe, successful competition with the illustrated periodicals and magazines, for they will be able to show the important news of the world, not in cold type or in still pictures, but in actual moving reproduction. The exhibitors will give their patrons no descriptions or photographs, but the things themselves, 'just as they moved and had their being.' This novel idea, which will revolutionize pictorial journalism the world over is called 'The Weekly Journal,' is edited by the Pathe Freres, and will appear on the screens of , the moving picture houses every Tuesday. The Moving Picture World was privileged to see a European edition of this marvelous picture sheet, and after seeing it we readily believed the statement of a Pathe representative to the effect that the demand in Europe for this film of the world's events far exceeds the demand for ordinary films, and that the exhibitors have gained a new and steady clientele. The reel opens with the title page, 'The World's Events of Last Week.' gives the name and address of the editor, with the telephone number, and then begins its 'articles' with a regulation headline or two. The first 'page' showed a fine moving picture of the flower carnival at Nizza, with views of the aviation meeting held in connection with