The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1916-02-08
CHARLES PATHE

during recent trip 70 France made
q visit to several Of the huge factories
and studios Of that great international
organization.
Located on the Boulevard des
Italiens. "the glory of Paris and won
derful centre where the five parts of
the world meet together" are the
head offices Of Pathe Freres, sumptu-
ously housed III building which by
Its beauty and permanent character
might well be great art museum or
government Offices. Here alone I'm
times OF peace are housed some four
hundred employees. a small portion Of
the army of nearly 10000 scattered
all over the world who draw their
salaries in Pathe envelopes. In VIM
rennes, the birthplace of the motion
picture industry, the city which saw
the early struggles Of the Brothers
Pathe, are several of their huge fac
tories and studios covering an area
of $4,000 square meters and employ
ing over seventeen hundred employees
of both sexes. Here are colored by
the Pathe process those beautiful
pictures OF which the beloved Vaga-
bond" Is such an excellent and recent
example In these factories is also
produced raw Aim stock amounting to
over 100000 meters day, quantity
which makes Pathe one Of the prin-
cipal sources of raw film material in
the world. Other great studios are
located In Montreuil-sur-Bois and
Nice. and In them daily, before the
war, met the greatest actors and &C
tresses OF France. At Joinvflle-le-Pont
is another huge factory with pay
roll of LOO persons, where films are
developed, edited, printed, and then
forwarded to all parts OF the world.
In Paris IL still another, where are
manufactured cameras and acces-
series, employing nearly a thousand
persons. Remembering that other
large factories are located in Eng
land, Russia, Italy. the United States
and other countries. as are studios
and selling organizations, one finds
II difficult to believe that this great
organization Is only about twenty
years old, and represents the growth
of an idea in the minds of two men,
poor Of pocket but large OF vision.
Harking back those twenty years,
Drama. Comedy and Opera sat all
powerful and apparently inviolate on
the throne Of the Speaking Stage,
and he would have been rash man,
indeed, who would have prophesied
that they must eventually yield SUI
premacy to the long rolls Of celluloid
film and the flashing Of myriads OF
tiny pictures upon snowy screen.
But Genius gives Vision and to
Messrs. Charles and Emile Pathe we
must concede true Genius. With two
other brothers they put all their saw
ings into q business which then was
but a mere Idea. The combined cap
ital amounted to but $4,000 and after
only three weeks the other two
brothers, Mortified by their rashness,
withdrew, taking their money with
them. Messrs Emile and Charles
Pathe, who held true to their faith and
stuck to their guns, today draw $780,
600 per year apiece in salaries alone!
Opportunity had called to them and
they had heard her voice.
The original motion picture was
imprisoned in a wooden cabinet where
one was privileged by depositing
coin to see succession of tiny photos
tumbling over one another. and giving
the semblance of life action. The
original idea had been Edison's, and
in 1t Charles Pathe had recognized
the germ of great things. He rented
a small store and placed within 1t
two of those machines. The venture
proved profitable, but was handi
capped by the fact that there was
but one picture to a machine. To
make patrons return again and again,
q change Of program was a vital
necessity To secure his program Mr.
Pathe purchased eighteen more ma
chimes and placed them in eighteen
different cities. From week to week
he switched his pictures in rotation,
and then and there was born the
modern film exchange idea.
With his profits he purchased mo-
ton picture camera,-one Of the very
first to be made,-and started making
his own pictures. His subjects were
primitive,-a man running, chickens
feeding, cattle grazing, and the like
but he was developing his Idea and
for that reason his work was import
ant. These embryonic dramas were
in short lengths, ten. twelve, fifteen
feet at a time, but the idea Of pro-
fectfng them upon screen instead
OF imprisoning them in box helped
tremendously. He took his films In
his pockets and carried them Gravel
4nr third class, II you please to
Fnrdar Roraiu and Rome and SOLD