“WITHIN A YEAR.”

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18024, 20 May 1930, Page 10

“WITHIN A YEAR.”

“TALKIE” SCRAPPING

MR HAYWARD LOOKS AHEAD.

Mr Henry Hayward, of moving picture (now “talkie”) fame, looks .ahead. He has his eyes on the horizon, on the middle distance, and on the near future. On the horizon he sees the television stage in picturisation. He also sees, either on the horizon on in the middle distance, nationalisation of pictursation figuring as a popular plank in Mr Holland’s programme. But most interesting perhaps is what Mr Hayward sees in the near future, for he states that ’’within a year’ there will be a scrapping of plant and “our largest New Zealand theatres will be equipped with newer and more wonderful cinemachinery.” (Will makers and sellers of present plant join in the cheering, and will mortgaged sound exhibitors do likewise?) Look-out Men’s Changed Views. Mr Hayward is president of Hayward's Pictures, Ltd., and vice-presi-dent of the Fuller-llpyward Theatres Corporation, and also its executive director. “The ‘talky’ to-day,” he says, “is the most wonderful show the world has ever known, and I fail to see how the legitimate theatre can ever return to its old prestige, or the corpse of vaudeville ever be dragged out of its grave. My partner, Sir Benjamin Fuller, one of the world’s greatest showmen, a year ago thought differently, and with his old Guard, Vaudeville Revue, made the stand for ‘flesh and blood’ against ‘canned entertainment.’ To-day, with trumpets blowing and banners flying, Sir Benjamin, as president of the re-organised Fuller-Hayward Theatres Corporation and controller of his other vast entertainment interests in both Australia and New Zealand, is one of the most enthusiastic believers in the future of talkies; and I, as the largest individual shareholder in the Fuller-Hay-ward company, am content to follow his lead. “With all their wondrous success, the talkies are only in their childhood —in their latest development only two budding years old. ' What will come from the talkie in later blossoming years The all-conquering talkie is destined to still greater triumphs in the future. “Within a year our largest New Zealand theatres will be equipped with’ newer and more wonderful cinemachinery, our present screens will be scrapped for more scientific material. Present “punch and Judy” Will Go. “The future fans will look back at our present screens as ‘Punch ancl Judy’ presentations, for they will be superseded by the grandeur film and screen—filling our stages to their utmost width, projecting with perfect realism, from the wide world itself, as the studio; glorified entertainment garnered from every source—from 'grand opera to circus—from the philosophies of Bernard Shaw ancl Oscar Wilde to the charmful chatterings of Noel Coward.

“Beyond the full stage film is promised some form of stereoscopic film—not really stereoscopic, for that in my opinion is not possible, unless we become one-eyed as Cyclops—but some illusion of the real thing that will serve its purpose. The standard film will eventually be colour cinephotography—not coloured, not in crude primary colours, but quieter and more delicate tints. “Beyond these nearer developments I foresee radical changes in presentation and distribution of cinema entertainment when television becomes practical. The day will come when the whole of New Zealand’s theatres will be simultaneously supplied with sight and sound from one central television station in Wellington—-every theatre from the North Cape to Bluff will have identical fare —with probably nightly changes, including Sundays, supplied like to-day’s radio—to every private house that cares to pay for them—but humanity, being gregarious, will continue to gather together in the theatres. A Minister of Television.

“With Dominion-wide economical distribution, the prices of admission will fall, or perhaps our Government having progressed to benevolent socialism, and taken over the television theatres, will declare them a necessity to happiness and provide them free. I offer 'this suggestion to Mr Holland as a popular plank in Labour’s platform at next General Election; it will come sooner than ‘the socialisation of the means of production, distribution, and exchange.’” Becoming reminiscent, Mr Hayward remarked that “although talkies have only recently blossomed into the world’s greatest entertainment, in some form they arc nearly as old as the silent picture itself. Nineteen years ago we presented the chronomegaphone, with Harry Lauder as the principal attraction —singing and talking, by synchronisation of disc and film, and it was not a bad show at all —anyway, Harry gathered quite a ‘pouchfu’ o’ bawbees’ from it. Then came the cinephone, another device, in which the poor operator hail to watch a changing sign in the corner oft he screen and adjust the Running of a gramophone to it. After this, old Wizard Edison, who is one of the forefathers of the moving picture, concocted a complicated talking machine, with threads running on wheels from the projection box to the back of the screen —which were supposed to synchronise a megaphone with the film running through the Biograph machine. Arrival Of De Forest. “Then about five years ago De Forest blazed the trail of sound on film, which was tried out at the larger Ful-ler-llaywa rdhouses. This was the genesis of the real talkie —but at that time difficult and erratic to reproduce —so it faded away, only to return, side by side, to-day with the American talkie.”