New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-25
Four Seasons
Are Dranatized
On the Screen
Scientist Enlists Animals
and Clouds as Actors
in Drama of Nature

more fascinating than the drama Of
nature--the birth Of a squirrel, the
mother instinct of the robin, the long
winter sleep of the hedgehog
ing more glorious than the battle of
the elements, the thunderbolt in the
forest and the blasts of winter biz
zards-nothing more poetic than the
soft spring rain or the feathery beauty
Of the snowflake. For twenty-five years
this scientist, with a camera, has been
trailing the baby fawns in the woods
and the flash Of lightning across the
heavens. Urban is a lover of nature,
a recorder of its many moods, and has
made millions OF motion picture pa
irons lovers Of nature also. He has
laughed with them at the comic antics
Of the little tadpole and sensed with
them the drama OF the preying mantis.
When Urban began his studies of ma
ture there were no motion pictures
except the crude projections of flick
sring and faring black and whites.
That was twenty-five years ago, but
with the beginning of the better Gin
ema photography ne began one of the
most elaborate libraries of nature pic
lures. 1t was the beginning of library
which was to be a record of many
forms of life, from the humblest to
the highest. Man, too, was to have
place in this library, and the customs,
arts and modes Of living of passing
tribes and modern peoples found their
place within the Urban picture vaults.
eve began our library as means
of instruction" said Mr.. Urban, land
1t has become source of greatest en-
tertainment as we'll. We knew that
the facts of life were as fascinating
as any plot which the mind of man
could weave and we soon found that
the layman-he who had never had an
opportunity to see the millions of won
ders Of the world about us-found the
facts just as fascinating as we did.
We have been collecting in the last
twenty years an encyclopedia of life
containing details of almost every one
of the worlds activities, and believe
we can show a picture of almost any
thing.
Series Was Meant
For the School Room
Zone interesting feature of our work
has been the way in which our plans
have gone astray. Frankly, we intend
ed, when we began our work, to pre-
sent the pictures in schoolrooms and
lecture halls. We believed we had
valuable scientific data and sought to
present them in the usual educational
channels. But we soon found that the
very places where we sought to show
our pictures had not yet obtained facili-
ties for them and we turned to the
motion picture theaters
"But the very fact that we had found
wider audience than we had original
ly planned for required also change
in our method of arranging our pic
lures. To neutrality-suspicious. or
amateur-the picture of a birds de-
velopment from birth is an interesting.
study, but it would be too long and
tiresome TO hold public interest, and
for that reason we have taken small
shots and woven them together along
different themes. In THE Four Sea-
sons which is shown at the Rialto
Theater beginning to-day, we have
brought together hundreds of pictures
Of Nature, much like a man travelling
through the woods at different times
OF the year, first seeing one thing and
then another
We have presented cycle Of the
year, beginning with spring, and show
ing, for instance, the skunk cabbage
break through the winter ground. It
is then that frogs come out and croak
and birds begin their nesting. Soon
the apple trees blossom, and shortly
after We find the robin sitting under
the caves upon her nest of eggs The
buck deer loses his antlcrs 30 that
the fawns may be safe in their baby
days. 1t is the beginning of the years
life again. Then comes summer, and
we meet the baby tadpoles, the hungry
baby robins, the young squirrels and
we laugh at the baby bears and the
grotesque efforts of the fawns to run
like their parents. The buck has grown
velvet-coyered knobs, and the bees
have begun their busy season in the
full richness of the flowers.
Through the Cycle
OF the Four Seasons
Autumn comes, and we see the
hedgehog preparing to slip back into
his underground home--the same cave
from which he appeared in spring. The
caterpillar begins to weave its cocoon.
nrst tying the leaf tight with silk to
prevent it falling in the winter: the
DUCK has grown full set of antlers.
out they are still covered with thick
1ele; the squirrels have grown and so
nave the birds, and in the sky we
begin to notice the great clouds which
promise an early winter. Then comes
the last OF the four seasons-the rat
tier has slipped back into her STONY