The Photoplay | Page 5

little pictures
on the film are still today exactly the same size as those which Edison
used for his kinetoscope and the long strips of film are still gauged by
four round perforations at the side of each to catch the sprockets which
guide the film.
As soon as the moving picture show had become a feature of the
vaudeville theater, the longing of the crowd for ever new
entertainments and sensations had to be satisfied if the success was to
last. The mere enjoyment of the technical wonder as such necessarily
faded away and the interest could be kept up only if the scenes
presented on the screen became themselves more and more enthralling.
The trivial acts played in less than a minute without any artistic setting
and without any rehearsal or preparation soon became unsatisfactory.
The grandmother who washes the baby and even the street boy who
plays a prank had to be replaced by quick little comedies. Stages were
set up; more and more elaborate scenes were created; the film grew and

grew in length. Competing companies in France and later in the United
States, England, Germany and notably in Italy developed more and
more ambitious productions. As early as 1898 the Eden Musée in New
York produced an elaborate setting of the Passion Play in nearly fifty
thousand pictures, which needed almost an hour for production. The
personnel on the stage increased rapidly, huge establishments in which
any scenery could be built up sprang into being. But the inclosed scene
was often not a sufficient background; the kinematographic camera was
brought to mountains and seashore, and soon to the jungles of Africa or
to Central Asia if the photoplay demanded exciting scenes on
picturesque backgrounds. Thousands of people entered into the battle
scenes which the historical drama demanded. We stand today in the
midst of this external growth of which no one dreamed in the days of
the kinetoscope. Yet this technical progress and this tremendous
increase of the mechanical devices for production have their true
meaning in the inner growth which led from trite episodes to the height
of tremendous action, from trivial routine to a new and most promising
art.
CHAPTER II
THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVING PICTURES
It was indeed not an external technical advance only which led from
Edison's half a minute show of the little boy who turns on the hose to
the "Daughter of Neptune," or "Quo Vadis," or "Cabiria," and many
another performance which fills an evening. The advance was first of
all internal; it was an esthetic idea. Yet even this does not tell the whole
story of the inner growth of the moving pictures, as it points only to the
progress of the photoplay. It leaves out of account the fact that the
moving pictures appeal not merely to the imagination, but that they
bring their message also to the intellect. They aim toward instruction
and information. Just as between the two covers of a magazine artistic
stories stand side by side with instructive essays, scientific articles, or
discussions of the events of the day, the photoplay is accompanied by a
kinematoscopic rendering of reality in all its aspects. Whatever in
nature or in social life interests the human understanding or human

curiosity comes to the mind of the spectator with an incomparable
intensity when not a lifeless photograph but a moving picture brings it
to the screen.
The happenings of the day afford the most convenient material, as they
offer the chance for constantly changing programmes and hence the
ideal conditions for a novelty seeking public. No actors are needed; the
dramatic interest is furnished by the political and social importance of
the events. In the early days when the great stages for the production of
photoplays had not been built, the moving picture industry relied in a
much higher degree than today on this supply from the surrounding
public life. But while the material was abundant, it soon became rather
insipid to see parades and processions and orators, and even where the
immediate interest seemed to give value to the pictures it was for the
most part only a local interest and faded away after a time. The
coronation of the king or the inauguration of the president, the
earthquake in Sicily, the great Derby, come, after all, too seldom.
Moreover through the strong competition only the first comer gained
the profits and only the most sensational dashes of kinematographers
with the reporter's instinct could lead to success in the eyes of the
spoiled moving picture audiences.
Certainly the history of these enterprises is full of adventures worthy to
rank with the most daring feats in the newspaper world. We hear that
when the investiture of the Prince of Wales was performed at
Carnarvon at four