Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-17

A HOMELY apnorlSm, which
~ has sprung from an humble
A origin, might be worthy of
N remembrance, when next
the movie magnateS foregather to
/ determine what the public wants.
Z Despite the highly popular and
equally plaintive Irving Berlin
i admonition to remember, only
the movie in all the world seems
to have forgotten it. True it is
I creature of slang, running,
] Don't bite of more than you can
I chew" but really it ought to find
home in the movie studios before
!, something terrible happens. Since
the first successful picture was
unrolled Oh the silent screen, the
movie seems to have been engaged
IN a rampant, ever moving ambi-
ton to replace everything else in
the world of entertainment. It
even dared to joStle high finance
with its talk in the millions, and
1t has gone on and on, overwhelm-
I ing first one thing and then an
other in the world of amusement,
until now it seems to be engaged
/. in the vain endeavor to replace
humanity itself. This last under
taking seems rather to be getting
the better of it. Perhaps it wasn't
SO bad after all to wipe vaudeville
on the map. after vaudeville be-
Ean to cheaper itself, nor yet was
1t a cenSorable act to drop the
curtain in the theater when the
stage seemed to be approaching
sdecadency. But the attempt to
supplant humanity seems an al
dac1ouS act that SavorS very much
of an attempt to NEEDLE with the
design OF Providence. The Art of
the Stage has had a very long and
exceedingly interesting, If not USE
.tul career, and some of the UNI
cody have even gone so far as to
say OF 1t that good plays have
often been better and had a more
benef1cent effect on the world
than good sermons. At any rate
the familiar and affectionate init
macy between folks in the flesh
who witness creatures of their
kind on the stage holding the mir
ror up to nature as it were has
contributed much to the advance
ment OF the human race. Why.
then, wipe out humanity In the
further effort to boost the movie?
81 \ X
II the aim of the picture indus
try had been first carefully con-
ceived and its methods as care
fully worked out, it is believed that
much of its effort that has been
wasted might easily have been
saved. That, however, is not the
way Of the movie industry. Some
body gives it a novel notion. It
Jumps, apparently, at every new
thing that comes along, and, with
that ever-present impulse toward
"faSt-moving action" proceeds
forthwith to put it over at all
costs. Has it not its millions with
which to do the deed? Then, why
delay? 1t really fashioned for its
own purposes a modern Franken-
stein and then set to work to COM
pletely annihilate what remained
OF the theater and of vaudeville.
Sound was the great incentive.
Sound was. all that was lacking to
make the movie supreme and so
everything intellectual, everything
possessing mechanical genius, has
been invoked to inject sound into
what heretofore has been silence
And sound Is with us in all of its
horrible variation. But what else
has happened? Lo and behold the
movie has been appalled, at the
believing and Snortii1g of its own
creation. More, this modern
F'rankenstein, running true to
form, is devouring the movie itself.
and we find Mr.. Movie Magnate
back-pedaling to his starting
point. Today he is witnessing the
passing Of those pet materials that
built up his millions; those indie
scribable, pretty things star dust
II you will-waich he found be-
hind dry goods counters, in lunch
rooms and elsewhere in the open
spaces and transformed over
night into radiant stars have be-
come the food of the Frankenstein.
Sound has exposed the fact that