312 



THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



experiments are constantly in progress in 

 an effort for a fuller realization of the 

 Lubin ideal moving pictures "as clear 

 as a bell." 



In a machine shop on the top floor of 

 the administration building in Phila- 

 delphia the complicated Lubin cameras 

 are made in small quantities, although 

 repair work is the chief function. Film- 

 developing and printing rooms and a 

 projecting room occupy a large concrete 

 building on one side of the courtyard, 



is to make moving pictures of the spec- 

 tacular sort, a number of special reels 

 have been prepared which consist of 

 strips or sections from the "punches" or 

 climaxes of costly Lubin productions. 

 There was, for example, a railroad wreck 

 with the camera placed thrillingly close, 

 showing two fast trains hurtling head- 

 on into each other, telescoping and 

 spreading in all directions. Another 

 piece showed an old colonial mansion, 

 especially built for the purpose, belching 

 flames and smoke and finally burning to 

 the ground. In others, a building was 

 blown up by dynamite, a ship was tor- 

 pedoed, a magnesium shell was exploded 

 from the fourteen-inch gun of a dread- 

 naught. There were about two -dozen in- 

 cidents in all. 



"We tried to estimate the amount of 



In the Circle: An Incinera- 

 tor in Which Discarded 

 Film is Destroyed. Below: 

 The Drying Room Where 

 the Strips of Film Are 

 Wound on Wooden Racks 

 and Hung Up to Dry. 



Above: A Corner of the 

 Cutting and Assembling 

 Room Where the Various 

 Strips of Film Comprising 

 Different Scenes of a Pho- 

 toplay Are Assembled in a 

 Continuous Piece by Girl 

 Workers. 



the scenario offices and studio flanking 

 it on the opposite quarter. 



The "Knocfylodeum" 



Every picture that is made in the vari- 

 ous Lubin studios is sent by express to 

 the headquarters at Philadelphia, where 

 it is freely criticized by the company offi- 

 cials, amended perhaps, and then re- 

 leased to the National Board of Cen- 

 sorship for a final reckoning. The pro- 

 jection room is as large as the average 

 moving picture theatre, and is filled with 

 theatre seats to accommodate the direc- 

 tors and the company critics as well as 

 any players who desire to view their 

 dramatic efforts as seen by the eye of 

 the camera. Criticism is frank and gen- 

 erous; not without reason, therefore, is 

 the projection room called the "Knock- 

 lodeum." 



Just to show how expensive a matter it 



money which these punches represent," 

 said one of the men. "But it ran so far 

 into the hundreds of thousands that we 

 lost count !" 



The Lubin Climate of Congeniality 



Harking back again to the climate of 

 good fellowship, of sincere congeniality, 

 which pervades the uttermost division of 

 the Lubin system. This atmosphere is 

 generated first of all from the dynamic 

 personality of "Pop" Lubin himself and 

 is taken up and re-echoed by the hun- 

 dreds of workers under him. The sphere 



