The Washington times., 1915-07-06
THE BEST
PhotoplaN Department in
WASHINGTON
One Motion Picture
Company Has Made
Three Thousand
Productions =

A rather significant commentary
on the general acceptance of the
motion picture as permanent in
stitution Is contained In a state
ment recently made by to ]. stuart
Blackton, of the Vitagraph Com
pany. The interest lies rather In
two. statements made by Mr.. Black
ION. In the first he declares he has
Sound that in the 1900 plays his COM
Sany has produced there Is about
everything that can be made into
Aim play. Later he states that his
company's output will go Oh at n,
much greater rate than heretofore!
A person unfamiliar with motion
picture facts would gather the idea
from Mr.. Blacktons two statements
that the business of the producing
companies now is to repeat what
they had done before-that they had
exhausted the field OF the film. That
10 the thing that most Of the
enemies Of the motion picture have
been preaching for some time
especially the unintormed or unin-
telligent enc mics to be found In the
other branches of the amusement
business They have declared that
the motion picture would surely ex-
hhust itself and that the public in
terest would soon wane. In fac!,
they have gone so far this year as
to state public interest was al
ready waning!
pany would have been able to put
out 5000 productions in the first
place II such productions were not
demanded by a very substantial and
healthy public interest. And GER
tainly 20 company could go on
profitably repeating the various
themes utilized, totally aside from
preparing to repeat them in much
larger numbers than heretofore,
II It had not received evidence of
constant demand for them.
The motion picture appears to be
about as permanent as any human
institution can be. More people
70 to the motion picture theaters.
In the United States than do any
other one thing except eat and
sleep. That sounds like a rather
big abatement, but the facts are
there are 2o,00o,O0o people attend
ing motion picture exhibitions in
this country every day in the year.
There Is not a theatrical produc-
er or company of producers that
has put out 5000 productions in
the time the Vitagraph company
reached this figure. In fact the
total Of all the theatrical produc-
tions made in this country during
the time covered in Mr.. Blackton's
report probably would not equal
the figure. And 1t must be remem-
bered that Mr.. Blacktons Is just
one company. There are thirty or
forty others with weekly produc-
tions quite as numerous.
Though Blackton's statement re-
lates entirely to his own company
1t is interesting because the facts
may be applied to most producing
organizations.
II find" he said. "in going over
some Of our earliest efforts that
We have included about, everything
that possibly could be picturized. For
instance I find that one of the films
was entitled The History of Sar-
dine Sandwich while next to 1t Is
The Life Of Moses and Les Miser-
ables'
while there is no disputing the
fact that Animated photography, as an
art, has improved wonderfully since
its inception. a comparatively few
years ago. every subject that we
have completed could be placed on
the screen tomorrow and would be IN
perfect shape for reproduction.
During the coming years for the
same length Of time. according to
our present plans we will turn out