Review of Reviews, 1/10/13. 



7 8l 



Talking Pictures : The Theatres : Films. 



The " legitimate " stage has been 

 badly hit, without a doubt, by the cine- 

 matograph, but the latest invention, the 

 kinetophone, bids fair to drive the tour- 

 ing company, at any rate, out of the 

 field. Many English towns, where for- 

 merly "one night" stands were profit- 

 able, are now never visited by theatrical 

 companies at all. The moving picture 

 with its small cost, supplying wh.it 

 dramatic want there was. W. T. Stead 

 started a movement to have the cinema, 

 halls run on Sundays by the Churches, 

 and used as a means of attracting those 

 who would otherwise never enter a place 

 of worship. Sunday shows he saw had 

 to come ; he wanted to make sure that 

 the entertainment given was educative 

 and uplifting instead of merely amusing. 

 He took much interest in the early at- 

 tempts to " make pictures talk," and 

 held that directly the gramophone and 

 lantern could be made to work harmoni- 

 ously together, it would be possible to 

 bring about a Shakespeare revival in 

 England, the like of which had never 

 been known. 



Edison, that wizard of the North, has 

 successfully harnessed the two inven- 

 tions so that the speaking voice and the 

 moving picture work absolutely to- 

 gether. Spencer's Pictures Ltd. have 

 arranged to take the whole of Edison's 

 output, so that Australians will have 

 ample opportunity of witnessing this 

 wonderful invention. The immense 

 hold that the moving picture has taken 

 on the public is shown by the following 

 facts, mentioned by Mr. Valentine Steer 

 in his book, " The Romance of the 

 Cinema" (Pearson). 



WAGES: ;£l2,000,000 PER ANNUM 

 Six years ago the tot;il number of em- 

 ployees in cinematograph theatres in 

 )! Britain was aboul 500. They now 

 exceed 125,000. Their weekly wage hill 

 probably runs into £250,000 or in 

 or £12,000,000 per annum. 



The number of people visiting the 

 cinemas, per week must be well 1 

 eight million- — 416 million people 



year! There are about 160,000 picture 

 theatres in America, patronised by more 

 than six million people a day — about 

 2,000,000,000 a year. Xearly 30 million 

 pounds a year are spent in admission 

 money. 



MAKING FORTUNES IN CHINA. 



Mr. Steer points out that, whereas 

 fifteen years ago the only cinemato- 

 graph pictures were 40 or 50 feet films 

 shown at one or two music halls, the 

 number of picture theatres now through- 

 out the world is about 60,000. The cine- 

 matograph has caught the Chinese taste 

 to such an extent that German and 

 Japanese firms are making enormous 

 sums in China with moving picture 

 shows. 



COSTLY REALISM. 



The money spent on producing many 

 modern-day films is extraordinary. 



In order to film "The Siege of St 

 Petersburg " the Kalem Company built 

 a bridge longer than London Bridge 

 across an arm of the Mississippi and set 

 fire to it. 



The structure cost several thousand 

 pounds, and took many weeks to con- 

 struct ; yet it was destroyed for the pur- 

 pose of the play in a few minutes. 



The fort that is mined and blown up 

 in the same piece was built by contract 

 in just under one week, but then the 

 contractor had over 800 workmen em- 

 ployed at the job, day and night. 

 Nearly a quarter of a ton of dynamite 

 was used in the explosion which de- 

 stroyed it. 



In " War's Havoc," two locomotive 

 engines meet in a spectacular collision 

 n a high bridge, both being reduced to 

 scrap iron. That one episode cost the 

 company over £401 o, yet it occupies less 

 than four minutes in the showing. 



PRINCELY SALARIES. 



Messrs. Pathe Freres employ more 

 than half ,1 do/en famous producers, 

 none of whom draws less than a thou- 

 sand a year. 



