Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-10

the entire situation is simply having
x growing pains" that will make for
better poised and established condi-
tions when this state is past. Peggy
Wood of the all-star cast here so
recently with 'Trelawney of the
Wells" told at a luncheon during
that week how firmly convinced she
and most of that group of famous
actors and actresses felt that the in
creasingly successful Little Theater
movement" all over the country was
revolutionizing the dramatic situa-
ton and establishing it on a clean
cut artistic basis.
Similarly, artists of the music
world, such as Richard Bonelli. who
was here with the Chicago Grand
Opera Co, and Charles Marshall of
the same company, feel that music
problems are being adjusted by the
establishment of schools for young
opera singers in conjunction with
small opera companies scattered
throughout the country and by the
broadening opportunities for Ameri-
can talent.
In music especially the mechanical
improvements for reproduction of
sound have gone forward with amaz-
ing stride. The radio is no longer a
novelty; instead it has become
necessity in many homes. The new
est development is the completely
mechanical linking of motion pic
lures with music. In the Vitaphone
there is an element that makes the
fairy stories of our childhood days
look drab and matter-of-f fact.
THE earliest motion pictures that
the writer dimIv recollects
showed many scenes of cowboys in.
plaid shirts riding bucking cayuses
while the tinny, out-of-tune upright
piano banged out music in march
tempo very Justify. There were lulls
when the bronco went on busting
and the music stopped. either while
the faded player stuck his or her
chewing gum under the keyboard or
while there flashed the sign: End
of part 2: part 8 will be shown in
just one minute" The audience inn
mediately got restless and talkative
until the music was resumed
There was another time when an
ambitious attempt was made locally
in vaudeville house to show colored
motion pictures with music. The
colors didn't behave we'll at all and
every time a character moved he
broke out into rainbows all over.
There was lady with lots of blond
hair who was supposed to be shot,
let out a shrek and fall dead. In the
picture the lady did all of these
things, but on the photograph that
was trying to keep up with her be-
hind the scenes the pistol shot
sounded Just as she Topped, long
after pantomimed gestures and
shrieks, and her supposed voice
yelled Il am shot," after she Law
quite still on the floor.
A few weeks ago at the Metro
politan Theater Giovanni Martinelli
stood IN all his clown regalia before
the door of the tent in the proper
setting of Il Pagiiacci" and sang the
famous SOB Song" right into the
hearts of a packed Washington audi
ence, just as | have heard him do it
in actual life on the stage of the
Metropolitan Opera House in New
York. Every emotion on his face
was perfectly co-ordinated with the
sound that seemed to come directly
from his pictured mouth, and the
house rang with applause after the
screen had flashed his semblance into
darkness. More recently. Nine.
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, dowager
Contralto of the concert and opera
stage, crooned the eloquent "Stille
Nacht" just as realistically through
the silver sheet TO an audience that
hung on every syllable as CLOSELY
a.. they do in the concert hall where,
when she sings, they hang out the
"standing-room- only" sign.
And, at the same time that Nine.
Schumann Heink's likeness was
seemingly singing that song on the
far-otf screen. I'D in the tiny. excel
lently appointed projection room at
the very tip-top of the large theater,
was watching the two BOYS handle
the completely of machinery that
makes the Vitaphone. There are two
of everything in this machine. which
cost $4,000 to install, and has MANY
possibilities for educational and en-
tertainment purposes. The projec-
ton machines used are identical with
those used in projecting the usual
motion picture on the screen. At
the back, however, and slightly to
the lett side OF the projection ma
chime IS placed, connected with il
regular phonograph soundbox stand
ing on metal stool. The diameter
OF the record that gives the vocal
part OF the Vitaphone is 20 instead
OF II inches. The arm of sravish
metal mixture that guides the needle
on the record is very long and rather
heavy. 1t has definite connection
with the machinery that regulates
the speed of the picture projection.
AS the tiny strip of celluloid that
portrays each inhnitesimal change in
the pictured singer or instrumental
ist IS licked off in the projection
machine and thrown on the screen.
80 IN perfectly regulated co-ordina-
ton the music record is run at =
speed that is regulated by the same
tader" as controls the volume Of
the projection machines revolutions.
There IS 1,ZO0-revolutions a minute
motor to care for the fluctuation of
eurrent, and the. machine is so con-
trolled that It does not gain one
tenth of revolution minute. On
the adjacent panel board" are am
plihers and batteries. A house tele-
phone attached brings message
immediately from the managers Of
nee # he finds that the volume com
ing from the screen seems too great
Tor the type of song being sung or
me particular phrase being given
TINS shows the amount of intelligent
eontroI necessary TO help this instru-