Milford chronicle., 1939-08-25

/ n Oduy Auuu6tiy mas EfOWn up
as this year marks the Fiftieth An.
niTersary of the birth of motion pic,
lures From its slow and halting
footsteps, the motion picture grad
ually developed to the point that II
now ranks among the first five indus
tries OF the country, and as a lifting
recognition of this Golden Jubilee
elaborate plans have been made to
celebrate the occasion with unusu-
ally fine screen attractions
The two greatest bargains avail
able to the American public today
are the motion picture and the news
paper For a few cents, any news
paper buyer commands the service
Of a worldwide organization of re-
porters of pen and camera telling the
affairs of the world. For an average
of 22c seat, the motion picture pa
irons may see the best that dramatic
and fictional arts of the world can
produce. The daily newspaper press
throughout the United States delivers
about $4,000 900 copies a day and the
motion picture theatres in the same
territory offer daily 81 900 900 OppOr-
tunities to sit down and see a show
The first American newspaper ap-
peared about 200 years ago. The
first motion picture studio was the
BLACK Maria" made of tar paper and
sticks at West Orange. N. j.. in 1898
at a cost of $634.0O. II was the an
cestor of tOdsy's billion dollar pro-
duction plant.
ShOwmanship DaWns
The real beginning of the indus
try of the screen was that nov clas-
sic occasion of the week of April 20,
1896, when the Vitascope, the pro-
lection machine embOdying the prin-
ciples dominant in the mechanisms
of today, presented brief program
of short pictures as number on the
bill of Roster and Bials Music Hall
in New York's Herald Square. The
annals have been confused by many
because the machine was the inven-
ton of Washington, d. c.. but was
manufactured and presented by
Thomas A. Edison.
The newborn screen was a means
of expression, but it had nothing
much to say. 1t was still in the
hands of inventors and machinists.
At the end of the first year of pro-
ductiOn at the Black Maria a total
of about $1,100 had been spent on
negatives. Mr.. Edison opposed fur
ther investment because "the people
haven't all seen the pictures we have
now" In the light of today's abund-
ance, his entirely too logical view
point seems the more amusing.
So it was inevitable that until the
screen acquired more important
things to present. its initial pictures
were but bits of vaudeville acts and
snatches of scenery, waves, water
falls, and-hit of hits-pictures of
speeding trains
Personality And Thrills
One of the first of these early spec
tacularly successful pictures was
now famous THE Kiss" with May Ir-
win and John Rice. Another was
brief record of Annabelle-the-D Dancer
in her silken serpentine number. AL
most as important among the hits
was a fifty-foot producing showing
Sandow. the famous strong man. lift
ing weights and knotting his muscles
All the first artists of the screen were
paid with lunch and carfara to West
Orange. In sheer thrill the best of
the pictures was THE Empire State
Express" crack New York Central
train, which tore into the scene and
shot out over the head of the camera.
frequently ducked en-
masse when the Empire came silent
ly laundering at them.
A Producer Is Born
The motion picture was for nearly
a decade still confined to a spot on
the vaudeville bill and the occasional
show in a black tent at fairs and car
nivals. By 1903 the business was at
low ebb. Edwin s. Porter. employed
as camerman by the Edison estab-
lishment, was beginning to worry
about his job. Under the pressure of
necessity. he went deliberately at
inventing new thrills. He had obser-
we'd the popularity of fire engine pic
lures. so be built little story about
he fire chiefs dream, a sudden alarm.
a run to the rescue. and 10. the fire
man saved his own wife, baby, and
home!
"The Great Train Robbery"
"The Life of an American Fire
man" did so well that Mr. Porter bor- |
rowed a train from the Lackawanna |
Railroad and made "The Great Train |
1t was the first western"
THE Great Train Robbery" was a |
hit. 1t was made in 1904 |
and by mid-season of 1905 it was all |
over the world. Thanksgiving week |
If that year the late John r. Harris |
If Pittsburgh. having an empty room |
IN his hands. and an idle piano. op-
,ned theatre to be devoted entirely :
o the art of motion pictures 1t was
l daring step indeed. Its first pro- !