The Washington times., 1914-08-21
THE BEST
Photopiay Department in
WASHINGTON
First Run Theory Is
Being Exploded by .
Success Of the
Weekly Change.

1t is not unlikely that the coming
season will see the establishment
Of a neighborhood picture theater
where the daily change of program
will have no part and where good
pictures can be seen repeated three
or four days or a week. At the pres
ent time there are very theaters In
this city that show a film more than
once. And these are downtown the
aters where big features only are
shown. If anything was needed to
prove the statement so often made in
this column that il is not necessary
for a picture to be a first run to
make II pay, the reissue of the Mary
PiCkford films by the Biograph and
the Imp companies furnish the proof.
Every theater where these pictures
are shown-and there are few of the
more important tneaters tnat has not
one or Two OF them per week-crowds
are 10 be found. Inc crowds go 10
see Mary PicKford. Ihe same is
true with many other films showing
the screen 1ayorites. When il is an
nounced d picture that has been seen
before ana has pleased is TO be
shown again, the people flock to
see that pIcture-many OF them be-
ing people who have seen the film
before.
Only one man in each town can
have the first showing of any one
film and if the first run theorists
were right, there would be no busi-
ESss for any film after it had been
.-uown once. AS a matter of fact
the drawing power OF a film only
commences when il has been shown
once. The people who see 1t that
first showing pass judgment On IL
for their friends and it is on the
advice thus given that the film Is
patronized or not.
1t has seemed to US that there was
g fortune waiting the man who would
disregard the first rum idea and
secure for his house a picture pro-
gram based entirely on the drawing
power of its individual units at pre-
vious exhibitions. 1t is most crafty
ing TO find the ideas that have been
expressed in this connection set
forth in better form by W. Stephen
Bush, the we!l-known expert in pho
eoplay matters:
%At a time when the supply of film
Sel far short of the demand and
when men went into the exhibiting
profession with no thought for to-
morrow, anxious only to get in on
the boom Of q novelty the idola-
trous worship Of the first run was
scarcely to be wondered at. Even
now the first run madness is still
radical change in the personnel Of
Che exhibitors, the knowledge
Of improved methods of pre-
sentation, the change in the
place of exhibition and many other
causes have helped to localize the
II you, good reader, care to give a
little attention to the subject you
must have noticed that the real ex-
hibitors Of the new era and. indeed,
mostly all showmen who give motion
picture exhibitions only, have real
lied the folly of exalting the first
run above the picture of quality
The men who constitute the blind
army of first run men today are
recruited from theatrical men. These
men, inexperienced and inexpert,
with sublime but wholly unwar-
ranted faith in their powers of judg-
ment are seeking to revive the first
run age of motion pictures. But
recently We saw, not without a live
" sense of amusement, a theater on
broadway announcing in electric
pyramids and in other megaphonic
The Nitagraph Theater and The
Strand were giving selected pro-
grams and running them for not less
han a full week, filling their houses
At solid and substantial prices of
admission. this theater trumpeted
forth the first run and its deadly
Twin brother the daily change 1t
did not last long. We do not want
10 say that the first run and the
daily change may not be successful,
out We seem safe in asserting that
they cannot survive in competition
with houses conducted along pro-
-ressive lines and in the light of
seven wears nrarriral
similar attempt to revive the first
IN tactics in destroying competi-
ION was made in big neighboring
summer resort and here, too, failure
ramped on the trail Of the ancient
superstition.
The best judgment of film ex-
-erts is that the general public
ever did care half as much for the
hrst run as the exhibitors seemed
10 believe In the very early days,
~ course. in the age of the store
DOM and tine short length film. the
a aioience wanted new things, but
We no constituted the audience? The
.a4i-GroWn boys in the neighbor-
mood and people who had little taste
md discrimination. In those days
NE poor exhibitor would often
olanch and tremble when one or
TWO or the unwashed youths on the
'front.' benches in withering scorn
Ittered the fearful words: I seen
aat before l surely do not blame
me unWashed youths. Boys between
eight and sixteen are naturally eager
[or something new. The dime novel
Of Yesterday is never as welcome as
the dime novel of today and tomor-
row. Nobody, however. would dream
II making boys the supreme ar
Diters OF literature aHl place Henty
above Shakespeare, Milton, Dante.
Homer and other old fogies' This
- exactly what some of our early
PRODUCERS and exhibitors DID. or at
east attempted to do. / shall never
forget the scorn with which a we'll
known director in the infant days OF
ne Industry received my mild and
1lnident suggestion that il might be
Possible TO film Shakespearean
avs. He never even deigned TO
enter into the question. He did not
aim II was impossible TO film such
= avs, but he derided the idea that
eople would ever go to see such