Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-05

The Old Timer
hndMovieD
lThatO We're
Vhen the Camera Travel
! ed Around the Country
Seeking Audiences

There was an old-time movie" manager
IN the office the other day. Gle now is
touring the States in a big blue Packard
car with a chauffeur, foottnan and three
pretty little grandchildren. that were all
the direct or the indirect results of his
pioneer experiences in the silent drama"
business) After talking on the huge deals
that aggregate millions OF dollars every
week in combines, trusts, amalsamations
and options on producing companies, he
drawled out. We'll. boys, in the old days
we never knew such sums were even in
the dictionary. why, do you know that
when l started in the business, 1 had
projection machine that looked more like
an old-fashioned lawn mower than 1t did
one of these fine -electric-driven, self-adust-
ing carbon affairs that nearly every the
atre is equipped with now? The operator
sold tickets after advertising the towns we
made. and then as soon as we thought we
had all the cash that was to come in he'd
walk 10 feet to the rear of the orchestra
seats and throw on the light. That is, II
the machine worked right and the light
worked
that the power plant in the town was out
~ order. Then was the job to tap the
heavily charged trolley road wire outside
the building and let the juice run through
A hogshead Of salt water that we always
nlaced during the afternoon in a secluded
location back of the stage entrance. You
see we were schooled to anticipate juice
trouble.
'Then the carbons would light UP and II
the film happened to be inserted upside
down, 1t didn't matter much to the au-
dlence. Some of the youngsters would try
TO stand on their heads to see the picture.
Then followed short announcement that
owing to the long railroad jump our film
got slightly mixed up A piano solo by
Professor So-and-So would he added to the
program without extra charge while the
flm was being adjusted.
"Then came the show. A railroad en-
Rine steaming down the track. The pianist
would blow tin whistle and the audience
would oh and 'Ah' and after two or three
minutes of this there would be another
five-mlnute intermisslon to thread the ma
chine with the much-heralded feature called
"A bootblack shining shoes Four minutes
Of this and the show was over. And the
worst thing about 1t was, we never had
kick.
Money rolled into us in those days.
Quick returns were always the rule. But
now what change. Limousines roll up
to a theatre costing upward OF a half
million dollars, and an orchestra of picked
soloists replaces the old-time pianist. with
4 whistle for effects. The worlds greatest
legitimate stars nre presented and weekly
expense runs into the thousands to operate
your house. It's all due to the , boys
(We'd blush to admit just what educational
medium had made the movies). for they've
made the pictures into classics, They've
forced the industry into staple thing and
educated the public. hundreds of millions
OF EN- into attending the picture theatre
as faithfully as they do their bathtub or
their dinner table"
With these words, the oId-timer passed
around Carolina Carolinas to the interested
listeners and soon after rolled down the
busy street toward the ferryhcuse, en-
route for the Jersey shore.