The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-07-23

you shove your dime through the box
office window Of your favorite movie
theater, it joins a current of coin that
registers a total daily admission fee
in the United States alone-of $1,000
900. The thheater you enter is a link
in a chain of picture houses" that,
placed side by side, would stretch from
New York to Hartford. The Aim that
| flashes its thrill and romance on the
| screen before you is part OF a far
flung belt Of animated celluloid that in
the course of q year woul girdle the
| globe nearly three times over.
Five millions of people, more than
all the residents Of Paris and Chicago
combined, see the movies every day in
the week; over $500, 100000, or we'll
nigh twice the amount of "greenbacks'
in circulation, are invested in the busl-
ness; a force Of men and women equal
to the population of Kansas City Is en-
gagged in creating and exploiting 1t.
Such is the extent n scope OF the
motion picture which in a decade has
risen from toy to amusement heceS-
sity.
So quickly and naturally has the
| photopIay entered into the pursuit OF
diversion that we have scarcely paused
to measure it's amazing financial side.
Probe it's many millioned depths and
you get q narrative Of men and money
no less romantic or stirring in some or
Its details than the story of steel and
copper. It Is the record Of the OBJ
scure and even the lowly, recruited
from shop and store, and projected into
wealth, and power. on the high tide OF
an amazing expansion. What, then, is
the finance of the film? What Is the
real commercial status Of the activity
that is emerging from the giided dis
order such as attends a hugh mining
strike" into the legitimate proper
tons of a. standardized industry?
The Line-Up of the Business.
In 1908 the Motion Picture Patents
company r(the ~so-calIed trust,) built
around the original Edison camera
patents and on whose standard foated
such pioneer brands as Lubin, Vita
graph, Biograph.s Edison, Selig, Kalem'
and Essanay) ruled the reel world
With the General Film, company il
created the. original monopoly of ex
changes, thus controlling for the mo-
ment both the output and the dis
tribution.
This led to the revolt which gave the
whole industry a new alignment. Men
such as H. E., Attkin, Carl Laemmle
Charles Baumann and P. A, Powers
future lords of the film domain-chaf-
ing under the restraint of monopoly
began to built up an independent
movement. Aitkin ran up the nag OF
the Mutual Film. company with the
nucleus of his present organization OF
nine producing companies and nifty
exchanges; Laemmle and Baumanr
struck out with the Universal with q
kindred force.
Here were three great competing
film making organizations, each equip
ped with complete machinery tt
make and distribute the photopiay;
d that had now gripped the imagination
and fastened on the purse of a large
part Of the American people. AS, tn
business grew these people becam'
more fastidious. The original 1,00l
foot reel was inadequate for a story
!. They wanted g. more sustained thrill
, q longer tug at the heartstrlngs
/ Hence came the fourth big PRODUCING
:, agency dedicated to the so-called Tea
> ture,' with it's three to fiv~e-reel1 nara
: tive based on famous play hlmlze'
novel or memorable event. This fea
/ ture movement has not only W1dene'
the field of the industry, providing !
whole evenings entertainment with
single screen picture, but gave to tn
whole enterprise it's first artistic an
"a dramatic distinction because it lure
to he ranks of producing director
\ such men as Daniel Frohman and Au
gustus Thomas.
Movie Money in Action.
With it, too, came the first era Of SIX
prices. for material and service. Yo
M And Sarah Bernhard getting $4,000
to appear in Queen Elizabeth" Re
Beach. selling the film right for 9TH
Spoilers for / 10000; John Bunny be
Ing graduated from $40 a week Chi
first wage as a movie actor) to a sal
4 ary of $4,000 a year; Mary Pickfor
b taking a flying squirt on the way to he
yearly compensation of $4,000. Pro
drcing developed into a fine art, an
men like David w. Griffith and Edwi
s Porter-the Belascos of the Gamer
-leaped to annual incomes that, wit
ROYALTIES and interest, are today nes
the six-fgure mark. In a word, movi
R money-other than production n e2
IS change profits-leaped to the realm {
HI big figures and it has remained ther
N ever since.
NJ Equally significant as showing tf
expansion of the business was the fac
that a p~hotoplay could be booked IL
a "big'' time, that is for a week or MOI
Us at a regular theatre and on a percent
age basis. Thus the motion pictui
M came into direct competition with tt
R# legitimate, and the boards of sue
81 standard theatres as the Broadway, TT
q Herald Square, and the Savoy in Ne
~ York and McVicker's In Chicago YIELD
= ed to the silent actors OF the dim. *