The Washington times., 1926-04-24

an amazed, almost unDeleVlng
Roster & BiaPs Music Hall, at I
on the night of April q, 1896
some jumpy, Pickering images
thrown on a canvas sheet at the
end of a program of variety"
acts. The potter word, vaude-
Sville, had not yet reached the
American vocabulary.
A lot of things with which we
are all familiar today were at
that time either entirely unknown
or, like the movies themselves,
In the most elementary stage.
There were few automobiles,
almost all of them foreign made.
Henry Ford was an obscure me-
chanfc in Detroit. The safety
bicycle was still rather new
thing, and pedaling on this
single or tandem-was the chief
diversion of America We were
singing Daisy BelI.''' and there
was no such word as jazz.
There was no such thing as
practical wireless telegraph, much
4CSS tic n bO" SSA@@N
called golf was played by d
handful and laughed at by every
one else. Women's hair and
skirts were long. Cigars and
cigarets cost a. nickel and q
snappy suit OF clothes might be
had for SIS. The safety razor
was unlTeard of and whiskers
were familiar. Grover Cleveland
was President and the Spanish
American war was two years In
the future. Such was the
American scene" as the intellI
gentsia would put it, when the
''vitascope" appeared.
The spectators first gasped in
establishment, and then burst into
applause and cheers, as pencil
OF light pierced the pitch black
theater, struck the screen, and
there was revealed the familiar
and popular figure of Annabelle
Moore, serpentine dancer. For
the benefit of the younger gen.
Grafton it may be explained that
Q serpentine dancer was one
who pirouetted about, waving
endless yards of silk-oh, so
properly!
why, it's AnnabeIle herself"
they exclaimed.
There was a flash of the last
act of Charley -Hoyt's farce, "A
MIX White Flag, then popular
on Broadway, another dance by
Mae Lucas from THE Gaiety
Girls, and some bits of scenery.
The last picture shown, however,
was the knockout of the evening.
1t depicted some waves rolling in
against the rocks at Manhattan
Beach. The seat-holders in the
first couple Of rows actually
ducked their heads and prepared
to flee from the deluge that
seemed to threaten them. This
Is on the pledged word of Terry
Ramsaye. the acknowledged his
tOrian of the. movies-and Terry
surely ought to know.
+
Thus, then, the movies came
into being as a public am1se-
ment. The next step was the
vacated store properties, aban-
BIOO14AS GAAAA NAEC
like. All the early films, such as
those shown at Roster & Bial's.
were about 40 feet in length, which
meant that they ran for a little
over half a minute each. Ten or
a dozen OF them made up a
program" as shown in tine
stories and shooting-galleries. A
nickel was the admission cost.
Some houses had no seats.
Others rented chairs from the
nearby undertaken, and when ne
had a funeral on hand the vita
scope patrons were out Of luck
and could jolly well stand UP.
There were no picture plays or
photo dramas as they later came
to be called. 1t was several years
after the vitascope's debut before
a daring producer made THE Great
Train Robbery" which was 500
feet long, had real story to it and
ran abour 10 minutes.
Today there are in the United
States 20.233 theaters in which mo.
ton pictures are shown. They
have a seating capacity of 1864
$50 One hundred and thirty mill
lon persons patronize them each
week. Three hundred thousand
men and women are regularly EN-.
ployed In the production. distribu-
ton and exhibition of the movies:
81 500, 900 600 is invested in the
industry: it ranks fourth among
the Nations great business enter
prises.
There are luxurious theaters seat
ing as many as 5000 and bigger
ones building. Feature pictures
run as long as IL. 900 feet and pro-
vide a whole evenings entertain
ment. There will be some 700-odd
photodrap1as and twice as many
short subjects" made this year. It
is estimated that l ESQ, 900 900 fee: