THE BIOGRAPHE COMPANY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 29, Issue 1522, 30 December 1898, Page 3

THE BIOGRAPHE COMPANY.

The St. Hill and Moodie Biosraphe Company, which Appeared in the. Town ffallion Tuesday evening with the salon bsosranhe and fictrini microphone. wa« accorded flatt»«ri»vp patronage. The entertainment won opened with a corn»t solo by Mr St. Hill, who with the left band played his own accompaniment on the piano. " Mr St. Hill tent farther variety to the entertainment- by hisconjuring triflesand by hiß ventriloqnial efforts, both of which caused much amusement and were wannly applauded. The interest of the audience wa«, however, chiefly centred in the biograpbe. This latest Edisonian invention is an improvement on the | well-known cincmatographe. showing the j pictures more clearly and distinctly, while at the tame time they appear with more lifelike action. Owing to the insufficiency- of depth to the stage the company were unable to get the requisite distance—2s feet—and unfortunately had to make the pictures much smaller than they are usually produced; but even under these conditions in such scenes as a charge of a squadron of French cuirassiers, TJgo Biondi (the lightning change artist). Gladstone's funeral, Church-street. Liverpool (showing electric cars and over-head railwy). La Loie Fuller (serpentine dancer), the tarantelle dance, the Milwaaki flier (fastest train in the world), children at play on lawn at Windsor, &c, the figures as shown on the scene are all moat life-like. A novelty in connection with the biographe is that it can be reversed, and very startling results are produced' in such scenes as traffic on Westminster bridge, bathing on the coast of France, Ice, and especially is this the case in the picture high diving at the baths in Paris. . In this scene the divers are shown jumping from a spring board 40ft high, taking headers, turning somersaults. &c. The machine is then reversed and as this is done most startling and ridiculous are the actions of the divers. First the water is seen to splash, then the diver to shoo? up feet fisstTon to the spring board and ran back to his starting point. All the pictures shown were n«w and interesting and the audience frequently testified its warm approval. The Bettini microphone, which professes to be an improvement on the phonograph, reproduced very clearly a number of musical items, including vocal solos, chiefly comic, one of which was " I went with him " by Mr Keddell, taken at St Bathans on Boxing night; band selections, including one by the Naseby Brass Band; waltz, Santiago; whistling solo; laughing solo and others. These were all loudly applauded, especially the two items which, had a local interest In connection with'the biographe a number of lantern pictures with stereoscopic effects were shown: —Cuban war scenes ; an illustration of the mode in which the position of shot in the hand is revealed by the X-rays; high art sta»uary, from the British Museum; wellknown New Zealand cyclists—Barker, Walt, : Ritchie, and Clarkson; and views of a short! trip through London. The company- held their second entertainment on Wednesday night, when there was a fair attendance. All the-different items were well received. Much laughter and applause were called forth by. the reproduction of the label of that well-known cough remedy, Tussi-curs. We understand it is the intention of the company to make a tour of the goldfields at an early date with a variety company of firstclass artists. 1