MOVING PICTURES FROM SIDE SHOW TO OPERA HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 77, 1 April 1914, Page 11

MOVING PICTURES FROM SIDE SHOW TO OPERA HOUSE

ONE OF THE WONDER STORIES [ OF THE AGE THE- ADVANCE IN NEW ZEALAND Some little- time ago. when a popular scientific journal took a plebiscite of its readers as to /the most wonderful inventions of the age, the kinematogrdph was, awarded a high position in the list. But if memory vecqrds rightly^ it was not the highest position oF all — the position that it really deserves. There is nothing more marvellous in its world- j development and world-influence in the first year's of the twentieth century than the kinematograph. There may have been greater inventions as inventions. Wireless telegraphy, the flying machine, the automobile, and the discovery and use of radium =may be of greater scientific importance,- but there is nothing to approach the moving picture in the grip of the world at large. What the number of picture shows giving performances before the publio all over the inhabited world actually is there are no figures at present to show, but the number must be well on towards half a million. In New Zealand alone there are over three hundred different picture shows, and more are sprining up every year. The average daily attendance must be well over 50,000, and it is increasing all the time. In the larger cities of Australia, America, and the Old Country there are innumerable shows, and it has been estimated that during the week nearly a quarter of the population goes to see pictures somewheve or other. • It is easy, therefore, to imagine the enormous influence the moving picture must have over the minds of the people. DEVELOPMENT IN NEW ZEALAND. It has all come so -swiftly and so overwhelmingly that the early history of "pictures" in New Zealand has almost been buried under the vast accumulations of a later day. Enquiries made by the writer about the beginning of the kinematograph here produced evidence so conflicting that one feels chary of definite statements in print. There a,re several claimants for the honour of being the first to bring pictures into this country, but it appeal's from the preponderance 1 of testimony that Messrs. MacMalion are entitled to the credit of pioneers with the introduction of Carl Herz and his kinematograph some fifteen or sixteen years ago. Mr. Charles MapMa.hon writes : "We were the first to introduce the moving picture to New Zealand over fifteen years ago, just prior to our introduction of the phonograph to the Dominion. The present kinematograph is really a deveolpment of the kinetoscope, which we were the first to introduce into , Australia, although our Kinetoscope never reached New Zealand. This I secured from Edison eighteen years ago in Boston There is no question of our' havirig been the first to introduce the moving picture to New Zealand. 1 ' The first pictures in Wellington were, the writer thinks, shown in the Exchange Hall. "Ouv Navy"* was the principal film The films at that time were very short, be-/ ing only thirty- or forty feet compared with tne 8000 foot films of to-day The machines were Crude and the lighting -ut tuju 91J,!, >! )« 3 P3J3ut uot"}o9J!oad pu« ' stead of being spooled up' fell in a confused mass on the. floor beneath the machine and was always a source of danger. . NOT AT FIRST A SUCCESS. Moving picturps were not at fiTst a great success. They were crudfe to a degree and the constant- flicker was exceedingly trying to the eyes. ' For the next few yearn they wore shown on and off through different parts of New Zealand by travelling companies usually as j a side line to their main business. Several prominent theatrical entrepreneurs looked tit the ' picture business and took it up for a little while perhaps and then, dropped it. -It was West's Pictures about eight or nine years ago that Teally staxted the picture hoora in New Zealand. Tho films shown by-West'B and the manner "f their'.showirig was a vast improvement on what had gone before. The electric arc lamp supplied the pro jectmg light and ,+Jie picture on +.hfi screen was something near in size to what pintures.are to-day as. opposed to the tiny squjrres of light, of the early, pictures. Then the films were much longer, running up to 1000 feet. The pictures that will* perhaps best btt remembered were "The Lost Child" and "The Trip to the Sun." Then there wave "Living London" and a few topical pictures. It had been siid before tbe touT of West's Pirturpe thait there was nothing in the p'cture business, but! the success of the tour sooii disposed, of that idea. '< IMMENSE GROWTH. Even after this the bpom did not come all at once.' It was not till January, 1908, that the first permanent pic ture show was opened in New Zealand. This was in the old His Majesty's Theatre, Courtenay-place/ where Messrs. Linley and Donovan launched their kinematograph enterprise. At! that time the long film was still an exceeding rarity, and it usually took from fifteen to twenty little films to complete a programme occupying the same time aa the five or six'item programme of to-day. The pictures were an improvement on what had gone before, the Pathe firm at this time being supreme in their technical excellence. But the possibilities were still not adequately realised. Still steady progress was made. The number of film-manufacturing firms increased freatly, and the potentialities of the inemotograph for the drama were more adequately realised. So, also, was the wide world of interesting everyday life, of industry, and of scenery brought within the scope of the kinema camera, and the patron of the picture show was indeed an armchair traveller— more so, alas, than he is to-day. | THE CONTINUOUS SHOW. The next development was tho oppning of the continuous picture entertainment. Hero again Wellington led tho way with the establishment of The New Theatre in Manners-street. Would h pay? was the doubting question as of all new things. It did pay. The first step taken and tho rest waa comparatively straight going. All over the country development took place pioneered by 3iich firms as Fullers' and Hayward's. Every little town began to have its one or two permanent picture .shows, and today even the smallest bush hamlet is | not overlooked. Once a week or once a fortnight the travelling , kineirfatograph man comes rnund with his complete outfit, sometimes on a motor-car, sometimes on a lorry, and the people of the backi blocks thrpng to the show, wet or fine, I flnd talk pictures till the next time the enterprising traveller comes round with a new programme. As the scope of ths picture has extended to the remotest districts, so has the quality improved ftfoving pictures were originally only a side-line or a side-shoiv business — one le members them in the penny gaffs at tho country fairs m the England of the 'nineties. To-day we have the spectacle of pictures taking 1 possession of the very best houses of entertainment. The Wellington Opera House, scene of the dramatic progress of a generation, is now

to become a. picture theatre, and r.e-.v picture halls are going up every whpte with increasing splendour. The pictme^ aro becoming better all the time. Imnense sums are spent on producing what .'•re really- now approaching the artistic masterpiece The best artists, the best uctors and actresses, and the best authors are all coming, into the business. H. G. Wells, the popular novelist, is to feceive £5000 a year from a film firm as scenario writer and adapter of his own novels and etories. Sir Johnston Forbes .'Jobertson plays Hamlet for the pictures, and America's biggest producers, Daniel Frohman and David Belasco, are taking up pictures on the grand scale. And at the s"ame,time inventors are busy trying io devise means whereby the pictures shall be true natural colours, with objects standing out, as in real life. And ..hey are trying also to produce sound to harmonise with the picture, so thai/ the ear will be gratified as well as the eye. So far, there has been mo great success, but when one thinks of what pictures were ten years ago, and what they 'are to-day, surely that success will come.