THE GOLDEN BIOGRAPH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 199, 11 January 1913, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GOLDEN BIOGRAPH

IIIIEAT tOIITUXES. MADE. Tiie phenomenal popularity which the kinematograph entertainment has gained since F.dison placed the first practicable kinetoseope upon, the market in IS.S!) has poured a veritable stream of gold into the .pockets' 1 of those men who by good luck or foresight were amongst the pioneers of flic moving picture show business. In the United States, where to-day the people pay over three million dollars a week to witness- biograph entertainments, tile business had a \{'Vy humble beginning. The lirst kinetoseope was a sort of penny-in-the-slot peep show. .Marcus Locw, who began life as a newsboy, aad who in 181)0 was a working furrier, saw the possibilities of the new business. lie and another young furrier named Adolph /iuktor started in Cincinnati a number of "penny arcades, - ' in which slot kinctoscopes were installed. They made money rapidly; ('me day l.oew heard that there was a new kind of 'moving picture show in town. He went to see it-, and-witness-ed an entertainment provided by one of the lirst ancestors of the projecting kinematiigrapli al. present in use. lie at once got rid of his slot machines and started a number of shows on modern lines, mostly engaging shops which were temporarily unoccupied. To-day he owns or controls nearly a hundred moving picture theatres scattered through the great, cities of America. His partner. Xukor. became the head of a great firm of lilin manufacturers, whose speciality is the reproduction of famous plays acted by the leading actors of the world. Mr. "P. A. Powers, who was a working blacksmith when he entered the kinematograph film business, soon found that his operations as a trader were hampered by the trust which had a monopoly of the film industry. He started a lilm factory of his own, and is to-day managing director of the I'nivrrsal Film Company, witli a, fortune running into seven figures. Other Americans who found the kinematograph business a road Lo fortune as Siegmund f.uliin. who left the optician's bench to enter the new business and is now the head of a well-known firm of film manufacturers: William Fox, who was a cloth sponger and is now a millionaire; li. X. Marrin, who gave up making drill*, to make millions out of moving pictures; and William X. Selig. who when he entered the lilm industry was an actor in a small and obsetire theatrical company.