SUPER-KINEMA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20070, 9 April 1927, Page 23

SUPER-KINEMA.

AMERICA’S LATEST. , A CRITICAL INSPECTION. Before I left the U.S.A. it was imperative that I should visit the Cosmetropolis super-kinema. It had been erected at the cost of 75,000,000 or 7,500,000 dollars, and the seating capacity was 50,000 or 5000. One cannot very well jot down figures under the nose of the informant, but I can guarantee the opening digits, 'and people experienced in estimates and costing will be able to manipulate the ciphers at the tail-end. In any case, the affair was colossal: so much so that rumours of its doubtful safety nearly ruined the enterprise. The management offered a reward of 100,000 or 10,000 dollars for information leading to the discovery of the originator of the rumour, and a professor of architecture was called in to reassure the public, much in the same way as we use a battalion of Guards to test a now grand stand. I forget his fee, but it would have paid for several regiments (says G.L.B. in the Manchester Guardian) . 1 accepted my friend’s invitation, and we entered a hAll on about the same scale as the nave of a cathedral. AT the farther end my friend paid, and we were passed on into an arena which I should imagine was of the same dimensions as the Colosseum. I was disappointed at first at the absence of seats and dismayed at the prospect of standing up amidst the huge crowd during the performance. But it was explained to me that this was merely the setting for organ recitals to divert patrons waiting to enter the main theatre, ►which lay farther back in the American continent. The waiting period gave me the opportunity of a conducted tour around the refrigerating plant. This has been brought to such efficiency that the audience wear fur coats during a heat wave. I have no mechanical bent, and in this case it might have been the power station at Niagara ' Falls for all I knew, but, as with most things in the States, from viaducts to memorials, the prices and other details were' marked in plain figures. Again I must leave it to the reader to decide between 3,000,000 and 300,000 dollars—or should it bo horse-power? All this was impressive, but it was not pictures so we emerged from underground, spent a tew minutes in the elevator, and secured two seats in the top back row. After I had fully recovered from vertigo or mountain sickness, I adjusted my glasses and looked for the screen. There it was, tike a rare postage stiimp in a gorgeous album, and about the same size to me. 1 pleaded myopia, and we arranged to descend as vacancies occurred. This we did perforce by easy stages, as men emerge from compressed air chambers. It took us about half an hour to reach the 600™n°T o a r h ? e * a " d l> y t,lis time the screen had enlarged to post-card size. We Inade a really valuable advance h J if„ C fi Pens . o ,' 1 r . e S rct > of old ladies; but by then the pictures had stopped and a vaudeville entertainment was in proelCm' l telescopic .sights I think I could have picked off the leading per- * . was still not near enough to collect sufficient evidence to support a ° f n tifiable »«>«"icide. liTever, we were fully occupied in seeking opportunities to gain ground, and we were not badly placed when the orchestra ascended on a moving platform from the re" ion or the refrigerating plant. ° 1 found this really entertaining. Tho braes players appeared to be blowing up bald C ,° nt f aptlon ' , nnd the scattered from h /vf * S Owly ™ se Ilke h “rvest moons from the ocean. There was a suggestionbox at the end of the row, and T had already conceived the idea of funicular railways running up and down the gang--7ifyf ’ 1 BU , bln ‘ tt fd the further proposal that the orcheetral platform should ho rTr*? ” r nn n like a <? ram °phone ie- <} 6boi ! d llk « hear the “Ride of the Valkyries’* rendered in this way. After the next move we could not have been much above sea-level, and the pictures recommenced. There was only time for one, and that threatened to bo rather stereotyped. It was the old. old story of the wife who neglected her husband in order to pursue her political career. Tho death of the only child through an accident, 1° , , ]th , th o mother’s inattention contributodt drove the husband to South America, to build steel bridges across ravines m the Andes. This is a point to , ™ T be(r to draw the attention cf the Federation of British Industries. In this country heart and domestic disappointrnonts are followed by big-gamo shooting in Central Africa. Apart from insignificant exports of ammunition and imports of raw material for billiard halls, the effect on tho industry and trade of this country is negligible. On the contrary, such affairs in the States are reflected a month or two later by an increase in tho unfilled orders of the United States Steel Corporation. I am afraid, however, that my advice conics too late and that very few canons now remain unbridged. You can probably tell the rest of the story as well os I can. You know that cantilevers are neglected for drink, and that where the drink is there is Pasquita. You know that Pasquita loans provocalingly against pillars, sways her hips Carmenically, and fiercely repels the advances of Pedro the proprietor. You are quite aware that after she has nursed our hero through a fever and restored his manhood the wife appears on the scene, just as the middle span is swung into position. You could furnish a verbatim account of the conversation between man and wife overheard by Pasquita and containing a fatal phrase, which really moans that he has learned what true affection is, that his life is pledged to another, and more sacred trust, that he has finished with tho past for ever, but which conveys absolutely tho reverse moaning to {ho despairing eavesdropper. I know you know that life for Pasquita is finished, and that she is next seen on the outside girder preparing t« cast herself into tho torrent 300 (or 3000) feet below. You are quit© certain that at tho last moment . . but this is where you are wrong. You have the fixed idea that Hollywood flinches from realities. , But you err in company with tho sophisticated Bostonians. I shall never forget the 49,9£0, or 4999, agonised gasps and prolonged wads when it was realised that there are t o projecting nails on steel frameworks and that the modern skirt does not act as a parachute. The starkness of the tragedy was only relieved by the gentle assurance of, tho white-haired priest ns he laid a kindly hand on tho hero’s shoulder: “My son, she was a good woman.” “Well?” said my friend as we loft. I took refuge in the formula, which had served mo all through my visit. This consists in shaking the head thoughtfully, introducing a shade of awe in the tone, and sayin-- very deliberately. “Nothing like it on our side,’old man, nothing like it.