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Visual Education
The Motion Picture— Yesterday
And Today
Part IV — The Modern Moving Picture Studio
Mary McKenzie French Society for Visual Education, Chicago
NEAE Los Angeles therestands a small city with a population of over 1,500 people. The main boulevard in this miniature metropolis is over six miles long. It has its own gas and electric lighting plants, its own police and fire' departments, its own mayor. Within its limits are a hospital, a race-track and a grand stand. There
also may be found carpenter shops, machine shops, dressmaking establishments— many of the industrial activities that mark an enterprising community. And this place is Universal City, dedicated to the sole purpose of making pictures.
Figures regarding the motionpicture industry are astounding, in their revelation of its proportions
A SCENE-PAINTER AT WORK These men are real artists, and their skill is responsible for much of the successful illusion
Courtesy of Goldwyn Pictures
of the screen.
and significance. In 1920 there were 18,000 theaters in the United States, with a total seating capacity of nearly 8,000,000. There were 5,000 other theaters where pictures were shown daily as a part of the program and there were more theaters under construction, to the number of 1200. The daily attendance for that year averaged about 15,000,000.
It is evident that to show pictures to 15,000,000 people daily means an enormous production. And this is the reason for such communities as Universal City. The small, inconvenient studio of pioneer days has evolved into one of infinite capacity and variety, and the primitive, crude picture of one hundred feet has become the elaborate multiple-reel "feature" of today.
Mecca of Film Producers
Los Angeles has gained international fame as the center of the film industry, about seventy-five per cent of the world's output being filmed" in this city and its immediate environs. The topography of this southern California region offers the utmost variety in natural settings. The director in search of suitable location will find sea, desert, mountains, plains, and forests all equally accessible. The most vital reason, hoAVever, for this remarkable concentration of industry is the climate. The one great essential for good motionpicture production is sunlight, and in California clear, bright weather may be counted upon during more than three hundred days oftheyear-.
In 1921 there were forty-nine studios in and about Los Angeles, with 175 producing units at work. In 1920 studio payrolls amounted to $40,000,000 and the amount spent on studio equipment and supplies was $24,000,000.