Evening star., 1924-12-21

From a mere peep show in an i'll
kept store to entertainment palaces
costing $4,000, 600 and accommodating
5000 people, This is the romance of
the motion picture industry in Amer
lea, and the span of time from the
peep show to the palace of today is
little more than two decades.
OF the millions who every day pa
tronize thousands of moving picture
theaters few stop to consider the
magnitude that the industry has
achieved, the insistent demands that
it subserves and the progress of the
only art-the art of the screen-that
comes the nearest to being univer-
sal.
Twenty-fi five years ago the motion
picture was not an industry. IT was
merely an experimental, hy-by might
affair 1t had no invested capital and
no public obligations. Today it ranks
eighth in the structure of American
industry, with a capital investment
of some $500, 100000 devoted to the
manufacture of entertainment for
the great democracy.
The foremost producers Of motion
pictures in the United States readily
concede the fact that the gigantic
growth of the industry was not due
to special ability or genius on the
part of pioneers, but rather to the
fact that it filled a fundamental hu-
man need, and filled 1t at a price
within the reach of all.
Figures recently compiled by Mo-
ton Pictures Producers and Distrlo-
utors of America, Inc, reveal the ex-
pansion of the industry and the I'M
plications involved in the saying that
this is a Nation of movie fans.
rrl. ltfPndAnCe
film houses in the United States Is
now around 50,00o,000. The needs OF
this mammoth army Of entertainment
seekers are met by $1,000 theaters
with 5000, 900 seats. The vast ma
jority OF motion picture theaters
charge less than so cents for the best
seats and the average charge Is mucn
nearer 25 cents. To get glimpse oil
the profit in the business for those
who have made a success or IT and
established a reputation as caterers
NJ entertainment and education II
need only be pointed out that one
leading corporation has at the pres
Ont an income of a million dollars a
week. .
The production OF pictures gives
omplovment to a permanent roll OF
some 100000 people. The average
number of feature pictures yearly
produced in the United states Is no"
around 200. In the aggregate the
salaries paid amount to $75,Oo0,ooo a
wear In the course of IL months the
producers of pictures pay out some
a.. 600, 900 to the newspapers and
magazines for advertising and 81
600 600 more for photos and cuts.
High Cost OF Feature Films.
The cost of the 700 feature films
nroduced in 1928 ran from $4,000 to
over s1,o00,000, while the average
cost was around $175,00O. In ad'
missions to the movies the American
people annually pay $500,0oo.000. The
| largest entertainment palace in the
world is the Capitol Theater In Ne"
York, which accommodates $500 people
while there is now under construc.
ton in Milwaukee house that VII
cost not less than s2,o00,000.
These figures give some idea of the
| present status Of this 20-year-old In
dustry. But they only tell part OF
the story. At the same time thai
| American producers and distributors
| were building up this fabric at home
they branched out into the foreign field
and simply by means Of better pic
| lures and greater initiative in the
art of the screen have succeeded fr
establishing the American product II
every country in the world.
of all the films shown in Great
Britain, so per cent are American ant
| the principal American distributor:
have branches in all the cities of the
Continent. THE Covered Wagon
had a six-months' run in London, q
1 three months run in Paris and sim
liar periods in other European cap
itals.
| Where trade and speech and ever
conquest and diplomacy do not go, tn,
j motion picture has gone. It has be