Edison in America. The usual method was to make the phonographic record first, the actors merely speaking their lines into the gramo- phone without attempting to pose before the camera. Rehearsals were then necessary to enable the actors to fit their actions to the dialogue as repeated by the record already obtained ; and the only remaining problem was to ensure a synchronization in the theatre of the phonograph and the picture. This was accomplished by means of electrical devices to control the speed of the phonograph. For various reasons, most of which will be obvious to any one familiar with the phonograph, this sort of talking picture never became popular; instead of enhancing the representation, the phonograph seemed merely to emphasize its artificiality. Later in the decade other methods, seemingly more adequate to give the necessary illusion, were devised and exhibited. The later experimenters abandoned the gramophone altogether; in the scheme elaborated by Eugene Lauste of New York the sound waves are transferred, by means of microphones, to a circuit containing a sensitive string galvanometer, and the fluctuations of the string or wire of the galvanometer are recorded photographically on the side of the film. When developed one side of the film shows a series of peaks resem- bling the profile map of a mountain range. Reproduction is accom- plished by the use of a selenium cell placed in front of the moving film; the sound waves are then conveyed electrically to the rear of the screen and disseminated through loud-speaking telephones. The cinema industry showed comparatively little interest in vocal pic- tures and their future was uncertain. Another problem which engaged the attention of inventors concerned the discovery of some method of obtaining stereoscopic effects on the screen. One solution of the problem failed of success because, in order to com- plete the illusion, every spectator was required to wear a pair of specially devised spectacles; most audiences, it was found, were not only reluctant about putting them on but took little pleasure in the result, even though the effect was superior to that of a flat picture.
Recreational Aspects. Improvements in apparatus, while im- portant, were overshadowed during the decade 1910-20 by the truly remarkable achievements in developing the artistic, educational and recreational possibilities of the cinema. It is true that in 1910 the cinema had begun to outgrow that early period when its repertory consisted largely of express trains, automobile races, military parades and like subjects. The first step had been taken, and the pictures began to be con- nected by a story; the express train, for example, suggested the pictorial possibilities of a train robbery, and a story was in- vented to give the scenes continuity and culmination. Then the story became the chief thing. But the development in the cinema of the story-telling art was hindered by the cir- cumstances of its early exploitation. The pictures of that period were exhibited either as part of vaudeville entertain- ments, where they took the place of the usual feats of legerde- main, or in cheap halls that had been converted from other purposes; the latter were usually dark, ill-ventilated and far from clean. Every circumstance of their presentation tended to discourage attendance by the better classes of the com- munity. Yet their cheapness the admission price was usually five cents in the United States and fourpence, or less, in Eng- land attracted thousands of people for whom no amuse- ment of so absorbing a character had ever been provided at so small a cost. Wherever the moving picture was introduced similar conditions prevailed; the initial appeal was almost uni- formly to the illiterate, the half educated, and even, as it seemed, to the mentally incompetent. Probably no art ever developed under so great a handicap; the result, still obvious in the crudity and vulgarity of later films, was too often attributed to some inherent coarseness of the medium rather than to the unhappy conditions of its origin. But it was not only the character of those early audiences which left its impress on the cinema art; it was also the character of the men who engaged in this new industry. They were for the most part showmen of the itinerant, hand-to-mouth type, promoters and managers of the cheapest forms of vaudeville entertainment. Some of them remained exhibitors only; others began to assemble companies and produce motion-pictures. While many persons of intelligence and ability had been attracted to the industry by the end of the decade, not a few of the most influential men in the business were those who had been carried to success by the sheer momentum of the new art; they were survivals of that early group of showmen whose hope of profit lay in exploiting the crudest instincts in the most obvious fashion.
Yet in estimating the social influence of the moving-picture, even in that early period, it would be a mistake to overlook the fact that in many localities the cinema afforded the only effec- tive competition with the allurements of the saloon and public- house. However bad the pictures were, and they were usually aesthetically rather than morally reprehensible, nevertheless they were a positive benefit in comparison with many types of amusement that were open to the poorer classes. When the workingman's- family began to insist that he take them to the moving-picture palace of an evening he found it more difficult to offer an excuse for going to the bar. With the advent of Prohibition in the United States the motion-picture interests profited greatly; the cinema then became one of the most effec- tive substitutes for the liquor saloon.
It is not surprising that for an appreciable interval many actors who had achieved fame on the stage refused to act for the " movies." Cultivated opinion was inclined to scorn if not to denounce the photoplay. For a time it seemed improbable that the moving-picture could ever be lifted above the vulgarity of its origins. The cinema seemed to be held in a vicious circle; exhibitors were afraid to raise the admission price, yet the fee was. too small to pay for a better theatre or to justify spending more money for better pictures. Between 1910 and 1912 attendance actually began to fall off; even the public whose attention the " nickelodeon," as it was called in the United States, sought to challenge, appeared to grow tired of what, after all, was- only an attempt to compete with the old-fashioned " dime novel " and " penny dreadful." A few far-sighted producers perceived that radical measures must be taken if the com- mercial possibilities of the motion-picture were to be advanced beyond those of a third-rate vaudeville attraction. The first step was to break down the prejudice of recognized artists, for as long as the cinema was held to be an object of ridicule, beneath the dignity of persons of artistic or cultural pretensions, it was hopeless to try to interest the public at large in the new art. An American producer accordingly set about to persuade Mme. Sarah Bernhardt to appear in moving-pictures, his theory being that if the best-known living actress should in this way give her sanction to the cinema the rest would be easy. Mme. Bernhardt, it is said, was won over on the plea that she ought to leave future generations some permanent record of her great art. The result marked something like an epoch in the history of the motion-picture; the old-time prejudice began gradually to give way, and the cinema, now certain of its ability to pay high rewards to popular actors, was soon attracting some of the best theatrical talent. Money was lavishly spent on huge productions that required six months or a year to complete; and a finished picture was likely to cost from $100,000 to $200,000 instead of from $10,000 to $20,000 as formerly. The Bernhardt films Camille and Queen Elizabeth were followed by such productions as Quo Vatfis, Les Miserable!, Tess of the D'Ubervilles (with Mrs. Fiske), the Italian film Cabiria, written especially for the cinema by Gabriele D'Annunzio, and The Birth of a Nation, produced by D. W. Griffith. Cabiria and The Birth of a Nation deserve especial notice aside from their excellence as dramatic spectacles, because it was with these films particularly that the first effort was made to compete directly with the legitimate theatre; not only were they pre- sented with full orchestra accompaniment in theatres hitherto given over to the spoken drama, but admission prices were raised to the highest scale for Broadway or West End pro- ductions. The success of these ventures had the effect of raising the standards of the cinema theatre in every direction; better theatres adapted solely for motion-pictures were built, per- manent orchestras installed, prices increased, undesirable patrons barred; and exhibitors who had formerly looked for support from the riff-raff of the town discovered it was more profitable to appeal to the less impecunious and more self- respecting classes of the community.
There followed a period of keen competition with the legit- imate drama. In many communities the motion-picture en- tirely usurped the place once held by the older art. Many
