Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-22
SUBMARINE MOVIES
At THE COLONIAL
Fairy-Like World of Oceans Bot
tom Delights Lovers of
the Films

The Williamson submarine motion
pictures, which without doubt have re-
ceived more comment in the public
prints than any other film ever manu-
factured, were presented at the Col
onial Theater, in conjunction with its
vaudeville show yesterday. They will
be repeated at all performances to-
day and tomorrow.
Yesterday was a rather warm day
and l had been wishing that l might
take the family into the country, but
the editor decreed that Max must be
on hand to review the Colonial show
at night, so that settled it. When we
got to the Colonial we were all glad
we hadn't gone to the country, for the
Colonial went us one better and took
US to the very bottom of the ocean,
where fairy like world of gorgeous
beauty exists and where fishes large
and fishes small dart about in their
graceful play.
At the Bottom of the Ocean.
Have you ever spent an hour at the
bottom of the ocean? Probably not.
But you can spend a very profitable
hour at the oceans bottom, and with
out getting wet If you will drop into
the Colonial to-day or tomorrow. If
you think that the woodland on your
favorite mountain offers beautiful
scenery, just take a look at the marine
growth that carpets the floor of the
ocean and you will yield the palm to
the beauty that lies beneath the briny
deep.
The Williamson submarine pictures
were of such educational value that
the school children of New York were
sent to see them, and their teachers
said that no greater lesson had ever
been taught in single day. The chill
dren had read for years about the
coral beds in the ocean, here they. as
well as their teachers, had their first
look at coral bed. The sweepinK
underwater beaches of sugar white
sand, the waving green's that rise into
the water from the oceans bed, the
massive spunges that cling to the
rocks in defiance of the hunters hook,
the hshes that inhabit the deep, all
these are shown in their natural state,
Just as they exist down deep under the
surface of the water.
How Pictures Are Taken.
The Williamson brothers, who in
vented the device by which they are
lowered into the water to take motion
pictures, are Norfolk boys whose
father was employed in the NAVY
Yard. There was often work to be
done far under water, and the bows
proved their ingenuity by making a
water tight chamber that could be
lowered into the sea and give the
workman free use of his arms. This
invention led to the later invention of
a waterproof chamber from which
moving pictures could be taken far
under the water.
was glad the Williamsons pos
sessed such genius, and so was every
body else in the Colonial last night.
We all learned much that we didn't
know before. And 1t was a pleasant
lesson. for everything that was un-
folded before our eyes was interest
inS and most of it beautiful. There
were soothing moments as the peace
ful beaches a thousand feet below
water presented themselves on the
screen, there were tense moments as
deep sea divers were shown in the hulk
OF sunken ship seeking lost treasure,
and there was a reel thrill when one
of the Williamson boys met a shark
far under the surface of the water
and fought a duel to the death right
in front of the cameras eye.
Every school child in Harrisburg
and their uncles and their aunts and
mammas and their papas. should see
these pictures, for they are worth see
ing and remembering.
MAX ROBERTSON.