The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-02-13

MesSrs. Charles and Emile Pathe We
must concede true Genius. With two
other brothers they put all their saw.
ings into a 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 slOO,.
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 wooden cabinet where
one was privileged by depositirg
coin to see a succession of tiny photos
tumbling over one another, and giving
the semblanCe OF life action The
original idea had been Edison's. and
in it Charles Pathe had recognized
the germ of great things. He rented
a small store and placed within it
two of those machines. The venture
proved profitable, hut was handi-
capped by the fact that there was
but one picture to a machine. To
make patrons return again and again.
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 a 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 time, but the idea Of pro.
iaCting them upon a screen instead
Of imprisoning them in a box helped
his pockets and carried them Gravel
ing third class, il you please) to
London. Berlin and Rome and sold
them there BY degrees his films
heightened and his market strength
ened, but for weary months he was
his own camera-man, shipping clerk,
manufacturer, demonstrator and sales
man Man of many activities as he
was, his brain could not be idle The
idea came to him that a story could
be worked out upon the screen-and
that that story would possess a far
wider appeal than the simple little
facts of everyday life which he had
been filming. To think, with him, was
TO act. He employed Max Linder, a
threadbare young actor, for 81 a day
to act out a crude scenario, and Louis
J. Cashier, a stage manager and play
producer of Paris, TO direct the taking
OF the picture That short picture
was the first acted story ever to be
put upon the screen, and from 1t the
modern photoplay has developed.
Max Linder jumped to fame and for
tune and is still considered the best
pantomme comedian in the world. At
the outbreak of war his 81 per day
had grown to $4,000 per year. L.
]. Cashier. the first director is today
one of Americas prominent film men
and still identified with the Pathe
organization.
Still another great idea came to Mr..
Pathe when he considered the possi.
bility Of putting news into motion
pictures. The idea, like all of his
ideas. proved practicable and success.
full, and the News Weekly came into
being. Most persons, in spite OF the
competition which sprang up, still as.
sociate the news film in their minds
with the old Pathe Weekly, the father
Of them all. Today there is the Pathe
News in the United States, the Pathe
Gazette in Great Britain, the Pathe
Journal in France the Pathe Glornale
in Italy, and still another with a jaw.
breaking name in Russia.
Thus are great businesses born;
beginning with an idea some strong
man like Charles Pathe takes It, molds
1t. changes it. improves it. and makes
it his own. Behind 1t he puts his
own strong will and dynamic per-
sonality. He breathes upon 1t the
breath of his genius and like Galatea
it becomes alive. throbbIng with beau.
ty and energy, an entity and no longer
an Idea!