“Living London.’'

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3688, 23 June 1906, Page 2

“Living London.’'

The ‘ ‘ moving picture ” has now an established place in public esteem, and an entertainment connsting wholly or largely of bio<raph views is no longer regarded vith suspicion. The small, dim, “flickery” picture of past days has given place to the large, brilliant view in which every detail is clear, and the figures seem almost, to live. Both the mechanical con* trivances and the art of picturcuaking have progressed in huge ftrides. The colossal subject of “Living London,” showing all ohases of its life, will be exhibited it Foxton by Mr Edmund Montgomery on Tuesday night next. Jf the exhibition an exchange .ays ; —“ The pictures shown were ill clear and vivid representations if scenes from life, and the audijnce was as keenly interested at 'he end of two hours as it had leen in the first five minutes. The chief picture on the programme was the one entitled ‘ Living London,’ a remarkable series of views showing life in the great metropolis. Nearly three hundred biograph pictures, long and short, had been strung together so as to present to colonial audiences typical scenes frofflffill parts of London. The auaSgtee saw a West End ‘ coach meet ’ in Hyde Park, and was offered a doubtful-looking fish by a grinning dshwife in Petticoat Lane. It saw street Arabs quarellihg at a fountain and pleasure-seekers boating in the Thames; the Tower Bridge ipening so as to allow of the passage of a vessel, and a Hebrew street-vendor offering handkerchiefs at eight for a shilling ; the Covent Garden fruit and vegetable markets in the full swing of business, and the wistful face of in old woman selling matches at a street corner. < The coster’s cart, with its long-eared ‘ moke, ’ moved across the screen in so life-like a manner that the audience almost hear its rattle, and newsboys hurried past with flaring announcements of the approaching fall of Port Arthur, London’s wealth and poverty, its palaces and its slums, its vast business houses, and its street-corner stalls, its ’buses and its motor-cars were all shown just as they appeared to the eye of the camera a few months ago, and those members of the audience who had never seen the Empire’s capital felt, after peering into its heart for an hour, that if ever they did go to London they would be quite at home. ’ ’ A number of miscellaneous pictures will also be shown and new comic and illustrated songs sung. Seats may be reserved at Mr Alf. Fraser’s.