The moving-picture has developed an important branch in the field
of literature. Several periodicals are devoted entirely to the
subject, and in many of the standard magazines can be found regular
advertisements for short “photo-plays.” The scenario-writers engaged in
the work do not seem to be able to keep up with the increasing demand.
Standard plays are pressed into service, and the leading managers and
actors of the world are found among those producing the 5000 plays
which moving-picture audiences require every year.
The drama on the white sheet dates back to the autumn of 1894, when
Alexander Black of New York brought out the first “picture-play” before
a distinguished literary audience. This first picture-play, called
“Miss Jerry,” like later white-sheet plays by the same author and
artist, was accompanied by a spoken monologue giving all the speeches
and covering all the transitions of the action. The pictures, the
making of which was begun before the appearance of the motion-picture
device, were produced in series, indoors and out, from a living cast,
as in the present plays, and were put on the screen with registered
backgrounds by the aid of a double stereopticon at the rate of from
three to five per minute, thus presenting stages of action--a prophecy
of the continuous action perfected in the plays of to-day.
When Mr. Black gave “Miss Jerry” for the first time in Boston, Edward
Everett Hale, greeting the author after the performance, exclaimed,
“Black, it’s so _inevitable_ that I’m chagrined to think that I didn’t
invent it myself.” It seemed inevitable, also, that the motion-picture
machine would take up the play idea; yet for a considerable time
motion exploitation was confined to short, episodic films. Indeed,
the early motion films were far less smooth in effect than the
modern product, and at the beginning a prolonged run appeared like a
hazardous undertaking for the eyes. Within the present season certain
films have been run in almost unbroken continuity (as in Bernhardt’s
“Queen Elizabeth”) for an hour and a half, which is to say that the
motion-pictures are now giving the full dramatic progression suggested
by the original lantern-play as seen by Dr. Hale.
Doubtless the value of the moving-picture drama will be greatly
enhanced if speaking and singing parts in moving-picture performances,
with the aid of the phonograph, have been made thoroughly practical
by means of an instrument known as the “magnaphone,” as is claimed by
promoters of the device. The promoters are so well satisfied with the
outcome of their experiments that they claim it will soon be used in
all parts of the country. The instruments are not sound-magnifiers,
but consist of a number of instruments resembling the megaphone which
are placed in various parts of the audience, and the voice from the
phonograph, which comes over a wire, is thus brought close enough to
all parts of the house to make it plainly audible to every one.[7]
The following progress of “Picture Plays” has been kindly furnished by
Mr. Alexander Black:
1--First “plays,” in three acts, written, photographed, and presented
by Alexander Black--1894.
2--Episodic motion-pictures placed in series.
3--Short five-minute comedies in motion pictures.
4--Scenes of travel in motion-pictures.
5--Scenes from novels in motion-pictures (“Vanity Fair,” for example,
presented in consecutive series--1911).
6--Scenes from “Odyssey” in consecutive series--1911-12.
7--Sarah Bernhardt in “Queen Elizabeth”--1912.