CINEMA CITY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 29, Issue 39, 22 May 1917, Page 2

CINEMA CITY.

Bight miles north-west of Los Angeles, which has become colloquially known as “Flickeropolis,” from its intimate association with the cinema industry, is the verdant San Fernando Valley, wherein has sprung up an amazing community. It has achieved a world-wide renown. Officially it is i styled Universal City, hut it is more i familiarly known as the “Craziest City in the World.” “Universal City,” says Mr. P. A. Talbot in the “World’s Work,” “is a centre the whole population of which labours solely for the cinematograph. It was called into being merely to satisfy the huge crowds which daily flock the picture palaces scattered between the two Poles, and which, like Oliver Twist, are ever asking for more ! "There is no one within its limits who does not take some part or another to meet the cravings Of the j lovers of the “movies. 1 ” The mayor— : it is a fully fledged municipality—the i policemen, firemen, street cleaners, j carpenters, even visitors —all are players. “Its streets and the buildings lining them are as unlike any other | city as are its citizens.' Here one may ' catch a passing glimpse of every corj ner of the globe. No building has ; two faces alike. The eastern elevation recalls the Orient, while the western facade brings you back to the Occident. The southern wall belongs to South America, while the fourth is distinctively of the Northland. “You wander down the main street. The spacious well-paved boulevard, with its broad sweep, reminds you of Paris or the tree-lined quarters of Chicago. A turn to the right and you plunge Into the heart of Cairo, with its balconies and minarets, with camels lazily resting and chewing their cud, surrounded by swarthy loungers, “Bearing to the left you swing into the Bowery of New York, with its cosmopolitan submerged tenth and drab saloons. Hurriedly you go to the right, only to tread a narrow street lifted from Dickens’ London, with its varied architecture, latticed windows, lath and plaster facades, and quaint gables. ’ “It is all a bewildering maze, and if one sojourns long within its limits ouc cannot refrain from feeling like j a chameleon. It Is for ever chang- ' ing its appearance a-c/vrding to th* j setting and tbs atmosphere of la* 1 story 1 emg mimed for the camera. | “The c*ty owes its origin t-. s,!l o > -6t,ure tailor v-'-o from a to a penny gaff was qui’-L to realise tnat there was a great future for moving pictu r "w and a vast fortune jin supplying the films. In a short i while he found backing for his cntcri prise, and the picvurcaque San Ucri nando Valley became the hub of the | cinema universe. The first stage ever ' built for the cinematograph was less than forty square feet. The largest of the stages at Universal City covera an area* of 90,000 square feet, and it is n» Unusual to see fifteen plays being enacted at the same time on one stage.

“At ‘Tbe Craziest City iu the World’ 50,000 feet of new film—tragedy, farce, drama, and comedy—are reeled off every week. Universal City brings' home vividly to the visitor the enormous hold which the ‘movies’ have upon the people ,of the world. Twenty editors toil incessantly scanning the scenarios which rain upon them.

“During the year a round 5000 plots are perused, of which, however, barely a handful are accepted. And yet here 1500 plays are produced before the camera during the twelve months, the majority of which are prepared by masters of craft, specially retained to feed the moving picture crowds upon the five continents.’