There is an ever-increasing demand for films, and many manufacturers
are kept busy. From an original film about two hundred positives are
usually reproduced and sent broadcast to the forty-five distributing
agencies of the general company, which do the work formerly done by
about one hundred and fifty independent exchanges in the various
cities of the country. The reels were formerly sold; but are now leased
to various theaters. Dates of exhibition are arranged with as much care
and business acumen as are the great plays of the stage.
[Illustration: From a photograph, copyright by the Famous Players Film
Co.
SARAH BERNHARDT AS QUEEN ELIZABETH SIGNING THE DEATH WARRANT OF THE
EARL OF LEICESTER]
The larger places attempt to have one “first-night” reel among the
several shown at every performance. The reels usually rent to the
exhibitor for from $20 to $25 for the first night, the price being
scaled down each succeeding night about twenty per cent., until finally
the rent is as low as a dollar a night. Hence a reel may travel every
day, much the same as a theatrical troop in visiting small cities. The
writer once had occasion to trace one of the Edison films, known as
“Target Practice of the Atlantic Fleet.” The exchange had a complete
schedule of just where this film would be shown for three weeks. It had
been shown in several places in Washington, where it was scheduled to
return, but was then in Richmond, Virginia, and was billed to appear
the next day in Frederick, Maryland.
The admissions are small, but the expenses are usually not great. Most
of the exhibition places are cared for by an operator, usually paid not
more than twenty-five dollars per week; a piano-player, a doorkeeper,
and a ticket-seller, varying from fifteen to eight dollars per week.
Many proprietors operate a chain of several places, and many fenced-in
city lots are pressed into service in summer.
The moral tone of the pictures now exhibited has been greatly benefited
by the movement started in New York by those public-spirited citizens,
headed by the late Mr. Charles Sprague-Smith, known as the National
Board of Censorship, which wisely serves without compensation.
The film-makers voluntarily submit their work, and are more than
glad to have it reviewed, and it is said on good authority that no
manufacturer has ever refused to destroy a film which did not receive
the indorsement of the board. In a recent letter to “The Outlook,” Mr.
Darrell Hibbard, director of boys’ work, Y. M. C. A., Indianapolis,
discusses this phase of the subject. He writes: “Why is it that
from juvenile, divorce, and criminal courts we hear constant blame
for wayward deeds laid on the ‘five-cent shows’? The one answer is
the word ‘Greed.’” He adds that when a film has passed the National
Board of Censors, copies of it go to distributing agencies, in whose
hands “it can be made over uncensored, strips can be inserted, or
any mutilation made that fancy or trade may dictate.... A so-called
class of ‘pirated’ films are the extreme of irresponsibility.... They
are either manufactured locally or smuggled in from Europe, and thus
miss the National Board of Censors.... The only way that the people,
and especially the children, can be safeguarded from the influence of
evil pictures is by careful regulation of the places of exhibition....
The nation-wide supervision of public exhibitions should be under the
Department of Education or Child Welfare at Washington.”
[Illustration: Produced by Thomas A. Edison, Inc.