Opera House.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11754, 3 October 1902, Page 2

Opera House.

THE CORONATIOxV BIOGRAPH.

Tiiere wag a large attendance, upstairs and down, at the Upera House last evening, when Messrs. Cooper and Macdermott .presented to a Wanganiii audience the first "living picture" representation of the great Italpeftal pageant, the Crowning of King Edward. We may cay at once that this special feature fauns but a portion, and a comparatively small port/ion, of the excellent programme with which these enterprising caterers present their patrons. Tne explanation oi the numerical paucity of trie Coronation films i&\, liowever, simple arid' satisfactory. The firm have many more films than they show, tut to show them would be to weary the people with need].e?.is repetition, for, obviously, one portion of the great procession ckfcsely raemibles all the rest. Therefore, a judicious selection lias been made, and the interested spectators are, without being wearied, enabled to see all that was worth seeing from the King in hie State coach to the peers i» their robes! and coronets, and irom the gcli'geously uniformed officers of the Army to the varied types of the "soldiers of the King," who marched through the London streets on that memorable day. All the processional pictures arc bona. fide, and it saya much for the enterprise both of manufacturers and showmen that they shotfldl be shown here in New Zealand even before our own representatives to the great function have rstumed to the colony. The mcist impressive of the Coronation series is, of course, that purporting1 to show the scene in the Abbey. This is a wonderful picture, perfect in every detail, and affording a splendid idea of the magnificent cereantmy. Just here we may say—and we are telling no secret, for Mr. Macdermott frankly announced it from-the platform— this particular picture is a "fake." That ia to say, it is not, like the processional fixtures, really bona ,fid! e. But it is the best that can be shown, for the reason that no film coiuld be takepiin the Abbey during the ceremony, and the manufacturers had, perforce, to resort to the expedient —thfe very costly expedient —of arranging a "meek" or imitation ceremony. This, as the picture indicates, wa« dona with remarkable fidielity to detail, both as vegai-ds the representation of the leading notabilities and the actual details of the ceremony itself. l\b vraaiA be difficult to my which is the mott interest ng of the other portions of the programme^— the pictorial history of the British Navy, the Aiaray' series, the miscellaneous pictures, o!r tire wonderful trick and illusion films. In the Navy series there are, fm<t of all, ordinary limeligilit pictures showing the ships of the olden days, and their evolution up lo the time of the invention of the kinemarogrcuph, and therefore the remainder of the series are endowed with realistic .animation. Here we have the launch of a batti'iesliip, a race between torpedo boati, a toipedoi boat out on business (showing the actual firing and explosion of tho torpsdo), and many illustrations of "Jack" at work arid1 at play. There are, too, stirring animated pictures of fighting on land and sea, one or two capital Railway scenes, and a capital variety of miscellaneous films. The trick films, taken on the whoile, were decidedly the best yet s-hown here. These included "Tho Vcnishiirg Ludv," "Love at the Tub," "The Magio Sword," "Wonderful Wres+i'.ers," and a beautiful coloured parv tomime picture, "The Brahmin and Butterfly." Thisi is the first coloured animarcd picture yet exhibited in Wanganui, and it is certainly a masterpiece. During the. evening a number of phonograph selections were introduced, including voc-sl selectiors appropriate tt> y-ova.6 of the picture?. The entertainment is to be repeated this evening, and to-morrow afternoon "a. matir.ee perform-nee will be given for tbo esppcial convenience of country visitors and young people.