The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-05

is wrapped up in the drama as depicted
on a sheet.
To the Saturday matinee the children
flock by the hundreds and between the
hours of and in the evening of that
day it is often necessary to fall in line
in order to gain entrance to the more
popular motion picture houses. On the
closing day of the week the attendance
scars to the 5000 mark. An estimate
of the total attendance at the six five
cent theaters Of the city-the Aurora,
Elite, oxford, and COzy in the main
Bijou and Lyric on the North side-is
% $50. This would make a total OF a
million and a half in round numbers
for an entire year.
Comedy Pictures Take.
At the Oxford comedy and drama
is popular, and the industrial pictures
especially appeal to the patrons. Cozy
goers like drantic scenes and laugh
able situations and go wild over
glimpses of western life where there
are hairbreadth escapes AND plenty OF
shooting. Comic and dramatic SUD-
iects are enjoyed by the large Aurora
audiences.
s'The people want comedy and west
ern DRAMA said w. L. Hoyt, manager
of the Cozy thaater. "They don't care
much for the scenic pictures. They
like shooting and killing in the western
dramas The crowd stands up some
times and applauds just as though the
actors were actually before them.
"Once the people get the moving
picture habit it is hard to keep them
away. There is such thing nova
days as the moving picture fiend. There
are people who attend the shows IN
Topeka every dav and they often come
up and ask what the program Will be
the next day. A person gets this
habit just as he does any other.
''The class of moving pictures being
orlxp of iS
day. The picture firms pay actors
regular salaries, and they have to re-
hearse for acts as they would were
they expecting to play before the pub
lie.
interior pictures are taken with the
aid of large arc lights All moonlight
scenes are produced by coloring
process, the films being treated with
big salaries.
Miles of Films Shown.
children are especially fascinated
by the pictures, often in the afternoon
dragging their mothers into the thea
tiers. Many of the parents will leave
the children at the shows while they
go shopping, returning for them at a
later hour.
The reels of films which are rented
for use each day among the five cent
shows and the Novelty theater if fas-
tened together and unwound along the
road by an automobile would stretch
to Burnett's Mound. and if the fact that
several shows are given at each house
daily were taken into consideration it
could be figured out that the mileage of
films run through the machines is about
as great as the distance between To-
peka and Lecompton. Calculating on
this basis the mileage for year would
be as great as the distance from here
to Los Angeles and return, or several
thousand miles.
At five cents a time about $4,000 is
taken in during the year by the picture
shows. This does not mean clear profit
by any means as the expense of oper
ating motion picture theater is heavy.
The rental of the best films comes at
about SIS each. but those that have seen
considerable service can be procured at
from three to ten dollars. If through
accident a film is destroyed it costs the
theater manager about 5000, for there is
no way of insuring films as the risk
is 50 great that no company viii assume
1t.
The matinee audiences are chiefly
made up of women and children, the
men being represented in the ratio of
l to or 4 of the former. In the ev-
ening the attendance is almost equally
divided although a usual thing the
men form the greatest part of the au-