The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-09


 American Magazine.
 NN NE firm of moving picture film V manufacturers in Chicago main- tains a zoo as part of it's stock company of performers (most firms have at least half dozen players, kind of stock company, who do little else but pose) Not only are moving pictures taken of the animals animal pictures be- ing perennially popular with the children. but scenes are shown in which the ami mals figure with human beings. This has it's dangers Even if you know that the tigress is only snatching a piece of raw meat from beneath her keeper, who has only pretended to stumble and fall in an attempt to escape from the cage. the pie ture is sufficiently thrilling when shown on the screen. and sufficiently dangerous for the human performer. With the high CT standards of pictures and the increased competition to meet more exacting pub lie demand, the manufacturers some- times send cameras, even companies of players, to Florida or Newfoundland or the Rockies for realistic detail; and large scenes, such as battles, are depicted, also. with the aid, perhaps, of the state militia, trained horses and Gatling guns.
 A notable foreign film year ago showed an actual bear hunt in Russia. There is an American Hiawatha picture taken on an Indian reservation with real Indian actors. The American Mutoscope and Biograph company is showing a film which is the actual record of deer
 
 dredging machines at work on the Pan- anna canal will probably be taken soon and will surely prove of great interest. Such pictures as these have, of course, very real educational value. AS mem- Der of the New York moving picture cen sorship board, who is also a superintend- ent of public schools, said the other days: "A child can perhaps learn more geog- raphy from such films in five minutes than from half dozen text books When you reflect that in New York city alone, on a Sunday, 50O,00O people go to moving picture shows, a majority of them per haps children, and that in the poorer quarters of town every teacher testif1es that the children now save their pennies for picture shows instead of candy, you cannot dismiss canned drama with a. shrug of contempt It is big factor in the lives of the masses, to be reckoned with, if possible to be made better, if used for good ends. Eighty per cent of present day theatrical audiences in this country are canned drama audiences. Ten millions people attended professional baseball games in America in 190S Four million people attended moving picture theatres, 1t Is safd every day; $50.0OO,0C0 are in- vested in the industry. Chicago has over 300 theatres, New York 300, St. Louis 205, Philadelphia 1S6, even conservative Boston boasts more than 30. Almost 190 miles of films are unrolled on the screens of Amer ica's 70OO canned drama theatres every day in the year. Here is an industry to be controlled, an influence to be reckoned with.
 Much maligned New York has been the first to realize the need for reform. Late in 1908 the abuse of moving pictures, not only in the sensational nature of the films but in the wretchedly insanitary condition of the theatres, caused the mayor to threaten to close up all the temples of the canned drama. In self-defense, the pro- prietors of these theatres banded together and asked the Peoples institute to appoint a board of censors, who should pass on all pictures exhibited in the city, and also to cooperate with the bureau of licenses in cleaning out and making safer the the atres themselves. This has been the means of abolishing from New York gross and sensational films. that might incite, by suggestion, to crime. But more than that, it has been, or will be. the nseana ! of improving the standard of pictures foy