Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/401

MOVING PICTURES 339 MOWE lar "movie stars" are few who have first made their reputations on what is known as the "legitimate" stage. The actor trained on the stage seldom becomes a favorite on the screen. The truth seems to be that the stage limits dramatic ex- pression; that a certain degree of ex- aggeration in portraying emotions is necessary to carry the effect over the footlights which is immediately detected through the lens of the camera. Actors accustomed to the stimulation of an audi- ence also find it difficult to work up the necessary enthusiasm for a scene with no audience but the camera man and their fellow employees in the studio. On the other hand, the key to moving- picture acting seems to be "natural" action. The slightest exaggeration is immediately registered by the camera, with undesirable effect. On the regular stage the quality of the voice is one of the most important elements making toward success. In moving pictures this quality plays no part, and individuals with exceptional histrionic talents, though not possessed of "carrying" voices, find their opportunity. Among the actors and actresses who have gained their reputations entirely within the moving-picture studio are such personalities as Mary Pickford, Pearl White, Theda Bara, Charlie Chap- lin, Irving Cummings, King Baggot, and William S. Hart. As has been the case among the actors, so it has been in the writing of the plays enacted through the medium of the cam- era. The moving picture has brought about the development of a class of play- wrights distinct by themselves, and far more numerous. Here clever lines, the art of expression by the written word, plays no part at all; only action is de- manded. Hundreds of individuals who never before had felt the call of litera- ture, or, having felt it, have failed in it, have made big successes in preparing the plots for the moving-picture plays. Most of the large studios, in fact, retain staffs of scenario writers permanently, on fixed salaries, who devote their whole time to the preparation of the "scripts," some of which are adapted from popular novels or regular plays which have been suc- cessful, but many of which are original. The popularity and cheapness of mov- ing pictures has caused the moving-pic- ture industry to develop into one of the more important ones of this country. It is estimated that 35,000 persons are em- ployed in the production of the films before they pass into the hands of the distributing agencies, which on tlieir part, including the employees of the show houses, give employment to another 160,000 persons. About 250 firms or cor- porations are engaged in the production of moving-picture films. The production of the films involves not only the direc- tors and the actors, but the stage hands and carpenters and scenic artists in the studios and the thousands of workers in the factories where the films are repro- duced into thousands of copies for dis- tribution among the 17,000 exhibition houses throughout the country. These films are first sent out by the distributive agencies, of which there are about 1,400 in the country, and they in their turn circulate them among the exhibition houses. It is estimated that about $600,000,000 is invested in the moving- picture industry, and that the yearly salaries paid out to those employed amount to $250,000,000. Audiences in the exhibition houses are estimated at 50,000,000 a week. Moving pictures, however, are not en- tirely confined to the amusement field. They are now beginning to be extensive- ly employed in education. By means of moving-picture photography the growth of plants, the development of animal life on the most infinitesimal scale, may be portrayed through a magnifying process. By the same means industrial processes, such as the various stages of the manu- facture of any commodity, may be shown to a class of students with a vividness not attainable through any other means. At the present time hardly any historic event or ceremony takes place without being recorded on the films, to be pre- sented to the eyes of generations not yet born. There is hardly a scene or battle of the Great War which is not thus re- corded, all the belligerent governments having had staffs of moving-picture pho- tographers on the field to record the movements of their armies. In this par- ticular phase of its usefulness, the rnov- ing-picture invention has tremendous possibilities before it. MOWBRAY, HENRY SIDDONS, a painter. Born of English parentage m Alexandria, Egypt, in 1858, he was brought to the United States when a year old, and when 19 went to Pans to study painting. He at first engaged m portrait painting, but later devoted him- self to mural decorating. He became di- rector of the American Academy in Rome in 1903. His principal decorations are at the residences of F. W. Vanderbilt, C. P. Huntington, J. Pierpont Morgan, Appel- late Court House, and University Club, New York. MOWE, THE, a German sea raider, left Bremerhaven on Dec. 20, 1915, passed the blockade of the British fleet