United labor bulletin., 1914-07-25

80
the United States alone of Sl,00G,000.
The theater you enter is link in a
chain of picture houses that, placed side
by side would stretch from New York
to Hartford. The film that flashes its
thrill and romance on the screen before
you is a part of far-flung belt of an
imated celluloid that in the course of
a year would girdle the globe nearly
three times over.
Five millions of people. more than all
of the residents of Paris and Chicago
combined, see the movies every day in
the week; over S5O0OOO,0O0, or we'll
nigh twice the amount of "greenbacks"
in circulation. are invested in the busi-
ness; a force of men and women equal
to the population of Kansas City is en-
gagged in creating and exploiting it. Such
is the extent and scope of the motion
picture which in decade has risen from
toy to amusement necessity.
So quickly and naturally has the
photoplay entered into the pursuit of d.
version that we have scarcely paused to
measure its amazing financial side. We
have been told go,l deal about the
picturesqueness of its production; now
it has become the economic life saver
of the legitimate actor, t'e vivid his
torian of progress; the inst aid to ed
ucation; how time, literature and his
tory from the CrucifiNion down through
"Les Miserables' to N, fall of Torreon
have been ransacked to feed the mighty
reel of 10000 miles of film that COM
prises our annual output.
The Line-Up of the Business.
So epochal are the changes that have
crowded thick and fast upon this busi
ness that practically its whole map has
been transformed in so brief period
xLx lac p,x In,
for example, the Motion Picture Patents
Company 1.-THE so-called trust, built
around the original Edison camera pat
tents and on whose standards floated
such pioneer brands as Lubn. Vitagraph,
Biograph, Edison, Selig, Kalem and Ess-
anay) ruled the reel world. With the
General Film Company it created the
original monopoly of exchanges, thus
controlling for the moment both the out
put and the distribution.
This led to the revolt which gave the
whole industry new alignment. Men
such as Fl. +. Aitkin. Carl Laemmle,
Charles Baumann and p A. Powers-fu
ture lords of the film domain-chafing
under the restraint of monopoly, began
to build up an Independent movement.
Aitken ran up the flag of the Mutual
Film Company with the nucleus of his
present organization of nine producing
companies and 50 exchanges; Laemmle
and Baumann struck out with the Uni
versal with kindred force.
Here We're three great competing film
making organizations, each equipped
with complete machinery to make and
distribute the photoplays that had now
gripped the imagination and fastened on
the purse of a large part of the Ameri-
can people. As business grew these peo-
pie became more fastidious. The orig
inal l,000-foot reel was inadequate for
a story. They wanted more sustained
thrill-a longer tug at the heartstrings.
Hence came the fourth big producing
agency dedicated to the so-called flea
ture," with its three to five-reel narra-
tive based on famous play filmized
novel or memorable even. This feature
movement not only widened the field
of industry, providing a whole evenings
entertainment with single screen pic
ture, but gave to the whole enterprise
its first artistic and dramatic distinc-
tion because its lured to the ranks of
producing directors such men as Daniel
Frohman and Augustus Thomas.
Movie Money in Action.
With it, too, came the first era of sky
prices for material and service. You find
Sarah Bernhardt getting $4,000 to ap-
pear in Queen Elizabeth; Rex Beach
selling the film right for "The Spoilers"
for $4,000; John Bunny being gradual
ed from $50 a week this first wage as
movie actor) to a salary of $4,000 a
year; Mary Pickford taking a flying
squirt on the way to her yearly com,
pensation of S25,OOO Producing devel-
oped into fine art, and men like Da.
vid w. Griffith and Edwin S. Porter
the Belascos of the camera-leaped to
annual incomes that, with royalties and
interest, are today near the six figure
mark. In a word, movie money-Other
than production and exchange profits
leaped to the realm CT big figures and
it has remained there ever since.
Equally significant as showing the
expansion of the business was the fact
that photoplay could be booked for
"big" time, that is for week or more
at a regular theater and on percentage
basis. Thus the motion picture came
into direct competition with the legit-
innate, and the boards of such standard
theaters as the Broadway, the Herald
Square and the Savoy in New York and
Mcvicker's in Chicago yielded to the
silent actors of the film. Today, with
hundred native sources of supply (this
is the estimate of studios) to say moth
ing of the considerable Importation of |
foreign films, the business is bristline |
battle ground, alive with competition;
vibrant with many sided energy. So fast
is the pace that it is almost impossible
to prepare statistics. The records of
yesterday are wiped out today. The field
is wide open. A man with cash and |
an idea can take flyer in a film and
market his product. Increasing demand
strains at supply, the mark of the dol
lar is everywhere. In brief, the whole
industry is like vast cornucopia dis
gorging golden harvest.
Tho prof;t in product;on