Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

26 REEL and SLIDE iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii^ I Slides 1 M Questions on Lantern Slide Sub g H jects will be answered by mail if g M stamped envelope is enclosed in M M addressing this department. M illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli Editor, Keel and Sltdf Magazine: We have been much interested in your magazine, which we have been receiving since July. We have found much valuable information contained in the copies received. We have a well-organized Visual Bureau as a part oi the E.xtension Division of the University of Pittsburgh. We are distributing slides and films in three states — Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. This service is given without charge, except that the transportation is to be paid by the borrower, to schools, churches, clubs, libraries, playgrounds, and other organizations. The Visual Bureau has been organized by the University of Pittsburgh for the purpose of: (1) Securing and distributing educational films and lantern slides to schools, churches, clubs and other organizations. (2) Furnishing to these organizations, upon request, information in regard to motion picture projectors, equipment, films and slides. The motion picture reel and the lantern slide are serving as effective agents in bringing to the people valuable instruction of a commercial, industrial, educational, social, political, or patriotic nature. Much of this material is presented in such an entertaining way that the element of instruction is greatly enhanced in value. E.xperiments conducted by prominent school officials have demonstrated clearly that visual instruction has more of the mnemonic quality than instruction through the other senses. The power of memory is increased and there is a saving of repetition, time and energy. Miss Philena Syling, Secretary, Visual Bureau, Extension Division, University of Pittsburgh. * ♦ * Since patriotic music and community singing have become popular with the American people, there has been a vast increase in the demand for song slides and sets bearing the national anthem and the anthems of the Allies. Several of the State Councils of Defense have distributed slides to theaters and other institutions for use on occasions when great numbers of people were expected to join in a patriotic chorus. The slide serves its ideal purpose in this way. It can be prepared and shipped in far less time than could printed ballads. It is easier to read in a semi-darkened auditorium. It does away with rubbish that results when hand bills are passed out to a crowd of people and it works for conservation since two thousand people can sing from the same slide, whereas if the printed slip were used, two thousand or more copies would be needed. The demand for song slides — that is, the standard patriotic national airs and classics such as "Old Kentucky Home," etc. — has never been greater than at present, according to slide houses specializing in this line. * * * The best records of the world's great art works are perpetuated on lantern slides. Nothing offers the lecturer or critic a better medium of picturization. Providing the illumination is correct and the coloring properly done, the brilliancy of the slide permits of almost correct reproduction. The Chicago Institute of Fine Arts has developed its slide department greatly in recent months and its lectures on art, illustrated with the institute's own slide sets, are gatherings of considerable and growing importance in Chicago. Walter Scott Perry, director of the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, recently lectured on India at the Chicago Institute before a large mixed audience. He used a set of magnificent stereopticon slides, covering the art and religion of the Buddhists and Hindus. _ The collection of the Chicago Institute is being gradually increased. A well-organized department is in operation and considerable extension work is contemplated. » « • There are Sunday schools where every Bible lesson is illustrated with a few well selected pictures thrown upon a screen. And the little ones grasp the meaning and the import of the story so much more rapidly. Abraham with his flocks and herds, Rebecca talking to Jacob at the well, Joseph and his brethren, all the romance and abiding interest of the Old Testament stories are visualized and made real. And the beautiful stories of the New Testament — the shepherds and their flocks, the manger, the flight into Egypt, the hundred and one incidents which make the child see and understand the eventful life of the Nazarene, with its nobility and pathos, are brought home and made understandable as mere words cannot do. Interest in pictorial Bible history is not confined to the very young. One of the most celebrated teachers of men's Bible classes in the United States uses a stereopticon to show maps of the Holy Land and of the parts of Asia, Africa and Asia Minor familiar to students of Holy Writ. Instead of having a map spread upon a table, around which only a small proportion of his class can stand, this succesful teacher flashes a greatly enlarged map upon a screen, and, pointer in hand, carries every member of his class to the spot he desires to talk about. And sustained interest on the part of older students is maintained by showing pictures of various historic places as they are to-day — the house of Simon the Tanner in Jaffa, the Place of I ?— ASK US—? I How were films shown behind the French lines in France and what types of pictures were exhibited? L. J. Meers, Dubuque, la. Answer: Back of the French army lines are four hundred so-called "projection posts." They're not fixed cinema theaters, but, as the name indicates, they are four hundred individual sets of projection machine, lighting motor and picture screen, that can be easily packed up in short order and moved from place to place, as regimental and divisional headquarters change. The "theater" is the nearest large room or convenient village hall, and the army operator is always on the job. The bill of fare consists of one and two reel comics and topicals. Pathe and Gaumont and Eclair and all the Paris makers donated the use of the old and current comedies on their shelves, and when that supply was exhausted recourse was made to British and American sources. The French cinema delegate in the United States is very busy just now digging up the John Bunnys and Mabel Normands and ChapHns and Keystones and shipping them to Northern France to make the sternfeatured poilus laugh. * m * What is the release date on Educational Film Corporation's production, "The Romance of Coal?" B. G. J. Answer: "The Romance of Coal" and the recent coal crisis is making satisfactory progress under the direction of William Parke. The release of the picture may be expected with the advent of the really cold weather, when the interest in this subject will be more than academic. While the patriotic purpose of maximum fuel production and conservation is being kept prominently to the fore, the chief end of the fiction story will be to entertain. I understand that some lumber company in the South has produced an industrial reel which has educational value. Can you tell us something about this film? West End High. Answer: Probably you refer to the Lamb Fish Lumber Co. of Charleston, Miss., whose film showing the interesting phase of hardwood lumbering is said to be very good. What is the National Juvenile Motion Picture League? B. J. M. Answer: The National Juvenile Motion Picture League is composed of men and women who have no business relation whatever with the motion picture industry. The league is thus not responsible financially to any part of the motion picture business, and it can carry on its campaign in an impartial manner. Membership in the league costs $1.00; active membership, $2.00. Wailing in Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, scenes in the Valley of Ajalon and along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The present is linked with the past, and interest is so keen that the hour devoted to the Bible Isson is lookd upon as being the pleasantest hour of the week. The stereopticon in a Sunday school is recognized by every superintendent and teacher who has tried them as one of the biggest factors in keeping up attendance and preserving attention. Not only do they prove very effective in presenting the lesson, but they are also used to advantage in giving the weekly reports or other statistics. One enthusiastic pastor writes that he even uses his in teaching carols to his Sunday school. Any subject matter which is to be presented to a school or congregation at large will attract much closer attention if shown on a screen than if merely read or orally stated. In churches and Sunday schools where collegiate methods obtain it is not unusual for several machines to be in use. Informal talks are given from time to time on subjects of the day — always illustrated — and interest never lags. Lectures— if such small talks can be called lectures — are given on such subjects as costumes, botany, birds and animal life, travelogues, anything which is clean and wholesome — and it has long been apparent that the church or Sunday school which furnishes clean and wholesome entertainment has the largest attendance and does the most for the good of the community. In some Sunday schools children are encouraged to bring in the snapshots they have made at picnics and outings. "Brownie" pictures taken at the annual Sunday school picnic, views of the lake or country place where the guild or league or chapter of the Sunday school has spent pleasant hours are made into lantern slides, and in the winter months the young people are assembled and familiar i scenes and places are flashed upon a screen while amateur lecturers tell their companions about the days when they caught the "biggest fish" or rode in the hay wagon. The value of a stereopticon in church work is especially apparent in the treatment of missions — • a movement which every pastor wishes to bring nearer home to his people. Sets of effective views can be obtained on almost any mission field or subject. By projecting these views missionary meetings are made much more attractive — missionary lessons and lectures are greatly enlivened. The most stirring appeal is strengthened by the brilliant illustration on a screen of local conditions which no flow of rhetoric can adequately picture. The lives of the people, their civilization and environment and the work and needs of the mission field can all be graphically depicted. One of these instruments serves also to attract people to the Sunday evening and mid-week services. Screen pictures — almost life size — command attention. Any address which can be so illustrated never fails to prove a magnet in drawing people to church. And that is one of the big purposes of the modern church, with all the counter attractions which our present day life affords. The ease with which money can be made for a church or Sunday school is another factor in the popularity of the stereopticon. Travelogues or lectures on a hundred interesting subjects can be given and a small admission fee charged, which will help swell the funds of the class or Sunday school fortunate enough to number a machine among its possessions. Illustrative material for the machine is now very easily obtained. Sets of lantern slides on a wide variety of subjects can be bought or rented of responsible houses at a reasonable price — and carefully written lectures accompany most of them. Pastors can exchange slides with one another. If they travel and use a camera, they can easily make slides themselves by the simple con , tact method from their own negatives. The cost is slight. Some of the machines present the decided advantage of projecting post cards, photographic prints, printed pages, etc., as well as lantern slides. These views are projected direct by the reflecting method and are shown on the screen in all their natural colors and in correct position from left to right, so that printed matter can be easily read. The means of interchange from such views to lantern slides is practically instantaneous, and a vast amount of illustrative material is thus rendered immediately available. Sets of colored post cards on almost any subject can be bought at a nominal figure and furnish very attractive [ subject matter. _A stereopticon lecture on India was given recently in the ai:ditorium of St. Luke's Church, Dubuque, Iowa, by Miss Ruth Peterson. F. L. Ackerman delivered a lecture before the National Municipal League at Jamestown, N. Y., in November, on how England is housing her working population in war times, illustrated with lantern slides.