No. 7: THE FIRST PICTURES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27078, 12 May 1949, Page 11

No. 7: THE FIRST PICTURES

For the Daily Times

By “Katiti”

I doubt if at any time in the future there will be such an epoch-making event as the first motion pictures. 1 remember this fantastic event very well. There were a tew motion pictures came round at widely separated periods, but they made little impression on the “ small fry.” We worked out a few theories which we did not realiy believe about people acting behind the screen and the speculation died down till next time. But it really “ impinged on our lives when the first company was set up to show pictures on Saturday afternoon. Thereafter — no dpubt to the detriment of our health—most Saturday afternoons were spent indoors. The price was exorbitant —one penny. For this we not only received two hours of wild excitement but each child received a toy or a bag of sweets. Most of the young villains got both as the gifts were given out on different sides of the aisle and the youngsters have two hands. Where the profits came in is more than I can say. There were higher priced seats in front which cost threepence each. When the lights went out there was a murmurous rustle and next time the lights came on (which they did frequently when the machine oroke down) all the front seats were full and the back seats empty. Later ii was found that contrary to concerts, the back seats were best for seeing pictures and the back seats became threepence and the front ones a penny. When the lights went out there was, the same murmurous rustle and when the lights came on again the back seats were full and the front seats empty. This teaches a moral, of „ course, but I’m not sure what it is. Every Saturday afternoon a blonde, curly young iady was tied to the stake by Indians and the match applied. A big gang of cowboys—kept especially Tor the purpose I suppose as I never saw them in the same field as a cow—came riding round, round the bend—round many bends, m fact, and getting nearer and nearer without every actually getting there. The flames, in many flash-backs, were rising higher and ..higher, but like the cowboys never actually getting there, till at agonised last, just as the flames reached the girl, the cowboys miraculously reached the flames and the girl was saved for next Saturday. Never will I forget the horror I experienced on learning that the real job of a cowboy was just what the name suggested—looking after cows. The rescuing $f curly blonde was only a side-line '•for Saturday afternoons! Goodness knows what Greta Garbo would have thought of it or what we ■ would have thought of her, but I susflpect Mary Pickford would have understood and been understood. Did I --imagine it, or- was she in those old Biograph shorts? The plots n were always drama of the most intense kind complete in one act and the idea was to cram as many pictures as possible into one afternoon. News-reels were anathema to the youngsters. These were great days, but I am afraid they began the change from the “ good old days ” which were speeded up by two wars, radio and the many other things easier to realise than to explain. The coming, of the pictures was the end of one epoch and the beginning of another which still continues. It is progress, and no one likes the pictures more than I do; yet there is nostalgia in my heart when i think of those long gone days, when we yelled ourselves hoarse in the dusty, dusky, old picture theatre.