Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1911-11-30
With Great Crowd Of Delighted
Patrons at First
Show.
MODEL in ITS EQUIPMENTS.
Simple Ceremonies With Form
al Acceptance For The
City.

The opening of the elegant new
Princess theatre, on Ninth street,
Monday night, was very successful
in every way. The first perform
ance began shortly after z o'clock
and the room was soon entirely
filed. At the conclusion of the first
show Mr.. Geo. A. Bleich, the pro-
prietor, briefly thanked the people
for their presence and asked the
Mayor to say something in the way
of accepting the theatre for the
public.
Mayor Meacham in a brief speech
welcomed the people to the new
house, speaking in part as follows:
when Thomas A. Edison invented
the kinet6scope a few years ago, his
invention marked one of the great
est triumphs of science, and revolu-
tionized the amusement devices of
the civilized world. More, perhaps,
than any other invention, has the
moving picture added to the fame
of the greatest man of his time, II
true greatness is to be gagged by
achievements and by startling.
the world in new fields of wisdom
The kinetoscope made possible the
production of animated pictures, in
which film carrying successive in
Simultaneous views of a moving scene
travels uniformly through the field
of a magnifying glass. The observ-
er sees each picture momentarily
through slit in a revolving disk and
these glimpses blended by persist
ence of vision give the impression
of continuous motion.
Although the process itself is lit
tie understood by the public gener-
ally, moving pictures at once leaped
into worldwide favor. Starting in
moving pictures quickly
became the main American amuse-
ment. The drama, the race course,
the card table, even the baseball
diamond one by one were swept
aside in the race for popular approx
al and today the motion picture the
atre, as it is called, stands without
rival in popularity.
Recent statistics are not at hand,
but two years ago there were no
fewer than 10000 moving picture
shows in America, and in 1909 they |
gathered in 100000, 900 of nickels
and dimes, playing to $500, 900 peo-
pie a day, or three times the audi
ences Of all the regular theatres put |
together. New York had $50, Chi
.ago $40, Philadelphia 100, st. Louis
AZ and so on down the line. New
York has only 76 regular theatres
md some of those include pictures.
The chief combination of manufact-
lrers produces 10000 feet a week of
lew films, of which eighty copies
Ipiece are made. These are sent to
he shows so that each has a daily
hange of program with from two
O four films. The manufacturers
-et 100000 a year for making
hese films and the middle men, or
xchanges, in turn get $4,000, 900
rom the showmen. These figures
re stupendous, but they do not in
Jude the developments of the last
wo years. You know what has
cen done in Hopkinsville in one
ear. Then think what has been
one in the whole country.
The first nickelodeons, as they
yere called, caught the public with
he one-hlm, I've cent show. Then
ame the 10 cent show with vaude-
lille features, to the disgust Of the
ubhc. The people were clamoring n
or something new, not the stale
Dkes and clog dances of broken
own vaudeville actors. The wise