The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1914-08-20
ARMSTRONG WRITES
FROM CALIFORNIA

Editor The Glacier-lf the Columbia
River Boulevard is completed, let me
advise you to go down to Portland and
see this new picture play called The
Escape" They will hardly bring it to
Hood River for a time, because it is
rather a costly and heavy production,
and the play houses there, good though
they are, probably lack the necessary
facilities. And a man told me good
story about it the other day. He says
The Escape" was planned and origin
ally prepared as a straight film melo-
drama, with the murder scene and the
crushing of the NAL formed babe, and
all the rest of the revolving features,
and the board of censOrs would not
license it. A good many uplift socie-
ties combined to put the veto on the
play, so that author and producer added
the scientific features, and it was bid
den godspeed by the censors. Not
shocking feature was omitted, and not
note of protest was heard. | will
not tell you the scheme of the story
You probably know more about that
than | do The play will be in the big
houses of P0rtland-or it may have
been there before this time.
BY the way, there is a good deal of
interesting stuff in this motion picture
business. | know a man interested in
it. He used to work for me as a re-
porter in Salt Lake, and he got so good
at last that | advanced his pay to ff.
teen dollars week. He made a deal
yesterday which gives him 500, 600 in
cold cash-Or in warm cash, for the
matter of that; and what looks like
certainty of getting $3.50, 600 more. He
fed me roast beef and mashed potatoes
last evening, and rested himself telling
of the funny things. For example,
DO you know how they make these pic
lures of an automobile running over a
man?
Well, the man lies down in the road,
or wherever he is to be crushed, and
the auto moves up against his body,
and then, when they uncover the lens
the auto dashes backward away from
the body, and the man gets up and
runs backward away from the point of
contact. Then the film is reversed
and when you see it on the screen at
the picture theatre, the man seems to
be running forward, and the car run
of the film does it. Do | make il clear?
When the camera men learned that
trick, they had some funny expert
ences. One of them was assigned to
go to the Pacific beach and take sun
rise. He didn't like to get up so early,
50 he went down there in the evening
took a sunset and reversed his film. 1t
was as fine a sunup as ever you saw
excepting for the fact that the waves
got up at the shore and raced tumultu-
ously out into the ocean. Another
camera man had an engine running
away. 1t was all right when he re
veised his film, excepting for the fact
that the smoke ran down into the
smOkestack instead of up out of it,
We called it craze for the first few
years, but it was the sort of craze that
we all may as well get accustomed to.
1t is here to stay and it will get bet
ter from year to year for ten wears at
least, And it is likely to become an
established permanency in the realm Of
entertainment and instruction as any
thing else Clune's Auditorium here
is the big theatre-and it is big. 1t
was the only place for grand opera,
and that sort of thing. 1t was like the
old Auditorium in Chicago. Well, they
made mOtion-picture house of il.
Clune, the owner, has two other houses
here. One of them is for women and
children. No man unescorted can'get
into it. haven't been there, but they
tell me it is good'house. 1t certainly
shows the best films.
OF course, like to be loyal to-Hood
River, but-this is beautiful country.
II It could raise such fruit as you do in
the Valley, and didn't have so much
fog, It would be pretty close to the
ideal. They do get good cantaloupes,
and better tomatoes than | ever could
raise up there. but the peaches are far
from good, and the apples are a Joke.
There are plenty of flowers, but they
are rarely blest with perfume, and it
always seems to me the perfume is the
best part of the flower.
Los Angeles certainly is growing.
and the men who years ago made for
tunes in the advance of real estate val
ues are being crowded out of memory
by the men who are doing the very
same thing now. There are better
chances now than there ever have been
IN the past. 1t is like Hood River IN
one respect: The element of chance
has been eliminated. You people don't
have to guess that the Valley has val.
ues. You have proved it, And now
that you will have a boulevard down
the river you should get the bulk and
the best of the cross-c0ntineut auto
travel for you will have more to offer
tourists than any other town on their
route. Leroy Armstrong.