Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 255, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1911 — Moving Picture Shows Grip Chicago [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Moving Picture Shows Grip Chicago

CHICAGO. —The moving picture show is putting baseball far in the shade in its bid for popularity. In Chicago there are four persons who attend moving picture shows for every one that attends a baseball game. Moving picture "fans’* are becoming more and more numerous, and their patronage is becoming so popular that the proprietors are giving more than 30 per cent, more pictures for a nickel than they did a year ago. The records of the moving picture bureau of the police department In charge of Sergt. Jeremiah O’Connor show that there are 556 shows In Chicago. Besides these, all of the large vaudeville houses are running moving pictures, and the erase has reached such proportions that the centrally located theaters even are presenting pictures between the acts. The first moving-picture shows were established in 1908. The first neighborhood theaters were located In remodeled store buildings. The public took to them quickly and they grew In number rapidly. All were not successful, prlnclpaly because every Tom, Dick and Harry who had a few dollars to invest bought a moving-picture machine, rented a place and made a bld for patronage.

Those handled by experienced showmen prospered. A moving-picture inspection bureau was established, and after the usual red tape and delay It got down to working order. The Chicago bureau has been so well handled at all times that It is acknowledged to be the best in the United States. Seventy thousand feet of films ar* inspected every week by the bureau. The seven police officers in charge are responsible for * the supervision and censorship of all the theaters in the city, their inspections extending to both sides of the footlights. Souvenir postal cards offered for sale Id Chicago also are under their inspection. From two to ten sets of picture* are rejected each week. “Cutouts” are ordered in perhaps an average of a dozen sets of films each week. The police censors order cut every scene which if enacted within their sight would be prohibited by law if presented in reality.