Omaha daily bee., 1915-11-13
Fake War Movies


VXJAR-PIcrURBs are even more popular in Great
w Britain than here in America, and the English
people reported 90 be reveling in vivid
dramas which are faxed on the hillside and the
rolling downs OF the south coast contributor 10
Popular Science Monthly tells that clever mechani-
cal devices, the unstned Of electricity, spring
bayonets, gunpowder-bladders and underground ex-
plOsives used in the production of these war
pictures. which realistic that they seem TO
bear the earmarks Of the French and Belgian trench
and the Polish battlefield We read there follows;
Agricultural laborers farmers sons, and village
youtha dressed in the uniforms OF the British and
German armies. drilled In their duties and
initiated into the mysteries OF disappearing bayones
exploding fake shells. trench warfare. and makebe
lievs 'gassing.' Stroll along q quiet country foot
path bordering rolling grassland sloping TO tho
sea and you may come upon horde of yelling men
whose spiked helmets and wicked looking bayonets
CLINT In the sunshine they c',arge toward you. II
you take cover nmbly and watch. you will see they
rushing trench filled with khakkclad British
soldiers You shudder Involuntary you those
glinting hayonets sinking into human flesh three
four inches but you find later that the points are
protected with little felt buttons and that they
attached TO the barrel end OF the rifle by spring
that allows them TO rstract several inches strl
ing solid substance.
"As tho soldiers ford stream in their mad charge.
columns of water splash high into the air. After
awhile you realize that these columns caused by
dropping shells from concealed artillery wonder
how II IL that ell these country 'superS not
MANNED killed until you find out that the
water columns caused By electrically exploded
bladders filled with gunpowder and hidden beneath
the surface of tho stream. As the charging Ger
mans reach the opposite bank and make straight
the British machine guns. terrible explosions
They the shells still dropping from the British
artillery The explosions electrically controlled
by stage director producer and caused by
burying small of Eunpowder here there
the ground to be rushed. At the proper moment the
fake mines are exploded by throwing a Switch
n NJ aar4h
cloud Of smoke. and dummy figure two into the
air. ALI the vivid effects Of big she'll bursting
the ground thus obtained
ITO give to the moving-p picture patron an IDEA OF
the vast number Of in France the produce
used ingenious leather band machine. which.
In conjunction with a broad window built into tina
wall. is all that is The spectators
In the theater sec women at the window waving out
to the departing troops The tops OF rifos with
bayonets fixed move past the window bob up and
down IN never-endng stream Beneath the window,
concealed from the spectators an operator turns a
leather band passing two y-whees about twelve
feet apart Attached to the top of the band are rows
Of bayonets. AZ the handle is turned the bayonets
move along with the realism OF a marching regiment,
rifles shoulders, fastened. they are, to the
leather band. which can be moved at any speed.
Tn close-uD pictures Of big explosives, such as
bridges forts and the like. II Is polite for the
movie TO get too close; chance projectile may
come their way. To this difficulty the
camera is set up In adjacent spot and focused
upon the scene OF the explosion. From a safe dis
lance the operator controls his by electrical
wires. the result being satisfactory as II he had
been the brink OF the himself, So excellent
the pictures OF modern warfare thus obtained by
producers In rural Britain that the nnotion-picture-
theater patrons cannot realise that motion picture
not allowed the firing line IN the thea
producers prevent them from obtaining the real
thing In France"