THE ELECTRIC THEATRE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3173, 26 April 1909, Page 7

THE ELECTRIC THEATRE.

The unbounded popularity of living picture entertainments is not peculiarly characteristic of New Zealand at the present time. All over the civilised world a multiplication of "picture palaces" is in progress, and one marvels that there should be a sufficiently wide public demand for entertainments of the sort to justify the outlay of aucb huge amounts of capital as have necessarily been involved. .New York to-day has over 650 electric theatres, devoted exclusively to the exhibition of living pictures, while the total of such houses of amusement in the United States as a whole is estimated at not fewer than 15,000. On the Continent of Europe the same remarkable tale is told; in Central Russia, according to a recent report, there are 10,000 pictures shows open, and in the English provinces it is impossible even to hazard a guess at the number. The rapid growth in popularity of the moving picture has led to specialisation in the work ot its pruduction. Ten years ago the films were taken haphazard, but nowadays properly set cinematograph dramas are recorded and every week each manufacturer of films places several new plays (farces predominating) before the nublic. All these pieces are staged with great care and acted by experienced pantomimiste. Some of the best (according to the editor of the "Bioscope") are done in France, but English manufacturers are rapidly improving in this line, and in time we may even have prominent West End actors and actresses playing before the film camera. At Home the electric theatres pronounce the last word in Juxury and convenience of appointment. The secret of their success appears to be the moderate charge far admission, the price of best seati never exceeding one shilling. The use of non-inflammable* films has done much to anlist public support on behalf of picture shows, while the effort to sate the thirst of the stay-at-home Britisher or knowledge regarding foreign lands and customs by means of educative illustrations, has proved as, fruitful as anything else in attracting legions of theatre-goers.