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19197
1
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Cinéma & Cie. Film and Media Studies Journal
A Marriage of Ephemeral Discourses: Newspapers and Moving Pictures
Text.Serial.Journal
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie
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Thematic issue / Section thématique
2001-10-01
2022-12-01
2001-10-01
2024-02-14
Cinéma & Cie
Richard Abel
2001/10/01
Drake University
2036-461X
1
en
A Marriage of Ephemeral Discourses: Newspapers and Moving Pictures
https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/download/19197/17009
1
A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND
MOVING PICTURES
Richard Abel, Drake University




  Where next? As the essays in this initial issue of CINEMA & Cie attest, historians and
theoreticians of early cinema are far from unanimous in responding to that simple
question. Instead of taking stock of my own research over the past twenty years, an
exercise in self-reflection that engaged my attention several years ago,1 I have decided
to survey one of several recent trajectories that research has taken. One is premised on
defining early cinema as a son-et-lumière event and hence focuses on recovering the
multitude of sound practices that played a significant role in its development, especial-
ly in exhibition.2 Another is premised on defining early cinema, on an international
level, as initially so dominated by the French, especially Pathé-Frères, that the initial
development of many “national cinemas” – from the United States to Russia – could
only emerge in relation to that dominance, either through imitation or the construc-
tion of difference.3 The trajectory I want to pursue in this essay, however, is premised
on defining early cinema as a unique point of intersection between a new mass market
cultural product and pre-existing as well as innovative local or regional cultural prac-
tices, specifically in an industrialized country such as the USA. Traces of that intersec-
tion survive in newspaper discourse on “the movies” – that is, in an equally ephemeral
medium – and can be quite revealing about the circulation, promotion, and reception
of moving pictures, particularly when rental companies, exhibitors, and newspaper-
men (and women) went through an extended “courtship” and “trial marriage” in the
early 1910s.4

  For the past few years, my research on silent cinema in the USA (specifically in the
early 1910s) has lured me into looking just as closely at old newspapers on library
microfilm readers as at old movies on archive steenbecks. One of the more surprising
finds in this line of research came in reading the Des Moines News, an Iowa newspaper
that had eluded me during the time I was writing The Red Rooster Scare.5 Although the
News carried advertisements for several local moving picture theaters quite regularly
from the fall of 1911 on, I was unprepared for a front page story on November 11, 1912.
Under a filmstrip banner labeled The Movies was a story about the famous wager in
Palo Alto, California, in 1872, that led Eadweard Muybridge to “invent” moving pic-
tures. Filling out this story were a variety of “big facts” about the current industry that
had grown up from this invention, along with a thumbnail sketch of its “three branch-
es: manufacturer, renter, and exhibitor.”6 The writer was “Gertrude M. Price, the Daily
News’ Moving Picture Expert,” and on the following page was a bold announcement
that she would be entertaining readers almost daily with stories about the “Moving
Picture Folks” – especially “favorites” such as “that Smiley, Golden-Haired Girl” (most

CINEMA & Cie, no. 1, Fall 2001                                                           ­59
RICHARD ABEL

likely, Mary Pickford) – because the News “recogniz[ed] ‘the movies’ as the biggest, most
popular amusement in the world.” The next day, as promised, not only did a photo story
on Dolores Cassinelli (from Essanay’s Chicago studio) appear but so did another banner
story about the movie business in Des Moines (the state capital, with a population of
85,000), claiming that the city’s fourteen moving picture houses had a daily attendance
of ten thousand – and that was a “conservative estimate.”7
  However unusual these stories in the Des Moines News seem (and I will return to
them later), they did not lack for precedents of one kind or another. As early as October
1910, for instance, the Youngstown Vindicator printed a story about why so many peo-
ple in this northeastern Ohio city of 80,000 “visit[ed] the local picture shows,” why “no
other institution in the city quite fill[ed] the place” of its nine moving picture theaters.8
Within another year, the paper’s Sunday edition was carrying an unsigned column
called “Week in Moving Picture Theaters” that described and remarked on the films fea-
tured in at least four of those theaters, whose ads competed with the even larger, bold-
er ones of the city’s three vaudeville houses.9 Similarly, in May 1911, in Cleveland (a city
of more than 500,000 people, fifty miles northwest of Youngstown), the drama critic of
the Cleveland Leader’s Sunday edition not only acknowledged that “the public [was]
talking about the picture-plays it sees just as it talks of the flesh-and-blood ones” – and
a much “bigger section” of the public – but admitted that he himself found them “vast-
ly entertaining.”10 By December, the Sunday Leader was printing a full page devoted to
“Photo-Plays and Players,” edited by Ralph Stoddard and supported by ads for up to
twenty-five theaters as well as several film rental firms and slide manufacturers or
renters.11 This page offered not only “news of Cleveland’s leading picture theatres” but
a “review of the feature films of the week.” Yet the first paper to take “the movies” seri-
ously, as Robert Grau long ago noted, was the New York Morning Telegraph.12 For that
paper’s Sunday edition, perhaps as early as January 1909, Ellis Cohen, a former editor of
Views and Films Index, was writing a page entitled “In the Moving Picture Field,” sup-
ported by ads for several film manufacturers and renters.13 Within two years, the
Telegraph had come to accept “the stability of [this] new form of entertainment” and, as
a consequence, in February 1911, added a new department to its Sunday staff, probably
headed by George Terwilliger, in order to produce what soon became two full pages
devoted to “Motion Pictures and Photo-Plays.”14 The most prominent features of these
pages were the columns of short, unsigned “Critical Reviews” of both licensed and inde-
pendent films released that week.
  Daily newspapers, of course, long have been a valuable resource for anyone research-
ing American cinema after the middle or late 1910s; before then, however, they rarely
have been consulted by cinema historians.15 The reason is obvious enough for the nick-
elodeon period: moving picture exhibitors initially had little need of newspapers for
advertising purposes – and the papers reciprocated by giving the picture shows little
attention. With the exception of some smaller cities and towns, and for brief periods of
time, this relative absence of discursive traces (other than in city directories and scat-
tered magazine articles) rendered “nickelodeon culture” more or less “invisible.”16 The
same cannot be said for the “little noticed period of the early 1910s that bridge[d] the
nickelodeon and the palace,” to quote an architectural historian, when the emergence
of “Modern Moving Picture Theaters” came to represent the most important changes in
architectural design, programming, publicity, and movie-going habits.17 For, as the
managers of these new theaters bought advertising space on a regular basis, local

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

papers, in turn, devoted stories, columns, and even pages to the ever more popular
“movies” and picture shows. Indeed, examining these columns and pages and the kinds
of ads, articles, and reviews they featured can be quite revealing. Not only do they help
us map changes in the exhibition venues for moving pictures in particular cities over
time, but they allow us to trace the distribution and exhibition of moving pictures in
specific venues as well as the program formats and promotional frameworks within
which they circulated and were made available to audiences – and what audiences that
programming and publicity assumed. Moreover, this discourse on moving pictures can
be read in relation to that of other newspaper matter – editorials, news events, stories of
crime, reports on legal and political conflicts, stories of building projects, special
columns for women and children, comic strips – as well as the more familiar discourse
of the trade press.18 The results of such a closer look at newspapers, I would argue, can
lead to a much better understanding of what shaped the reception and meaning of mov-
ing pictures in the USA during the early 1910s – and such research may serve as a use-
ful model for other countries.


Sunday Pages and Programs, and Other Novelties

  The four newspapers just cited contain a wealth of material that at first may seem
overwhelming. Moreover, they covered moving pictures from different perspectives
and were published in different kinds of cities in three different regions of the country
– all of which were crucial to the emergence of nickelodeons and moving picture the-
aters –19 so it is worth situating each paper, along with several others introduced briefly
for purposes of comparison, more clearly at the outset.
  The Sunday Telegraph, for instance, was unusual for more than being the first news-
paper to devote a weekly page or section to moving pictures. Among New York news-
papers, its principal subjects – sports, finance, and the arts – and style linked it more
closely to the “information” of the Times and Tribune than to the “sensationalism” of
the Journal or World, making the circulation claim for its Sunday edition (“650,000-
750,000 men and women”) remarkable.20 Initially, moving pictures and vaudeville
were treated together in a separate section of the Sunday paper; yet, by early 1912,
under the editorship of Terwilliger and then Tracy H. Lewis (along with “a staff of four
assistants”), an entire section was devoted to moving pictures, which eventually was
sold as a separate paper, with a “half-tone colored supplement.”21 Given the ads it
accepted, the stories it sometimes reprinted from other papers, and the extensive
reviews of individual films it published weekly, the Telegraph’s motion picture sec-
tion seemed to assume a core readership made up largely of exhibitors. In scope and
reach, this section rivaled that of the trade press – e.g., Film Index, Moving Picture
World, New York Dramatic Mirror, Moving Picture News.22 In late March 1911, an ad
boasted that in the previous month the Sunday Telegraph had gained 1,600 new sub-
scribers from exhibitors, many of them located outside New York City; several weeks
later, another bragged that more exhibitors read the Sunday Telegraph than all other
trade publications combined.23 Hot air? Perhaps not. How else could the motion pic-
ture section have expanded to six full pages of photos, ads, stories, and reviews by
March 1912? Within another year or so, Grau even claimed that, “among moving pic-
ture actors, theatre owners, manufacturers and all those interested in the trade, circu-

                                                                                        ­61
RICHARD ABEL

lation had reached nearly 16,000,” a significant number of those engaged in the indus-
try.24
  In northeastern Ohio, a crucial section of the country’s industrial “heartland,” the
Leader played a somewhat similar role to that of the Telegraph.25 It had been the most
successful and influential paper in Cleveland until 1900, when it was displaced (and
later acquired) by the Plain Dealer. 26 Its Sunday edition, however, remained one of the
best anywhere well into the 1910s, especially in its coverage of politics, on which it took
an explicitly Progressive position,27 and cultural events and issues, which extended
from the magazine section and several pages on theater, music, and art to special
“Cosmopolitan” and “Metropolitan” sections.28 Subscribers ranged far beyond
Cleveland: in September 1911, for instance, the special admission coupons it began
printing each Sunday (a full page of them) could be redeemed in theaters throughout
northern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania.29 This suggested a readership that
included far more than exhibitors, which the Photo-Plays and Players page confirmed
when it first appeared in December. Certain ads clearly were directed at exhibitors –
especially those for independent firms such as Lake Shore Film & Supply – as was a
series of stories on major figures involved in renting or exhibiting in the city – such as
E. Mandelbaum, who founded Lake Shore, later partly owned Mutual, and then headed
World Special Film.30 But, unlike the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Leader aimed most
of its page at those who attended moving pictures as a legitimate new cultural form.
The small but numerous theater ads attested to that, of course, but so did the weekly
Gallery of Popular Photo Players, beginning with Marion Leonard, Maurice Costello,
and Kathlyn Williams, in January 1912, as did the lengthy columns that, in listing and
commenting on the Sunday or even weekly programs shown in those theaters, were
intended as “a guide to fans.”31
  The Youngstown Vindicator generally shared the Progressive views of the Leader and,
as the dominant newspaper in a “bold, vulgar” steel-producing center, saw itself as a
standard-bearer of political and moral reform.32 In the first decade of the century, it had
fought to control and limit saloons, supported a police crackdown on the illegal activi-
ties of the Italian “Black Hand,” and expressed repeated concern for the assimilation of
immigrants through education. Beginning in the fall of 1911, its Sunday edition (which
simply expanded the paper’s usual length) began to devote two or three pages to the-
atrical entertainments – just as did the Canton News, a more “sensational” paper in
another, slightly smaller center of steel production fifty miles to the southwest, and
south of Cleveland.33 In one city, moving picture information often seemed aimed at
the shoppers, young couples, families, and children the Vindicator imagined were their
fans; in the other, it assumed an audience dominated by “the working man and his fam-
ily.”34 The Vindicator’s “Week in Moving Pictures” columns selected one or more films
to promote each day at the Dome, Palace, and Orpheum, supplemented by brief stories
such as a very early appreciation, in October 1911, of G. M. “Bullets” Anderson, the hero
of so many Essanay westerns.35 Within a year, the Vindicator had doubled the number
of regular moving picture theaters that advertised regularly, and the “Week in Moving
Pictures” columns occasionally reprinted bits of news from the trade press – for
instance, Universal was releasing its own Animated Weekly newsreel, and the MPPC
had licensed Famous Players’ four-reel Queen Elizabeth, with Sarah Bernhardt.36 By the
spring of 1913, C. W. Deibel claimed, 50,000 people were attending the city’s theaters
weekly.37

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

  As the capital city of a largely agricultural state in the upper Midwest, Des Moines
was an insurance and banking center, with a growing population of “white collar” serv-
ice workers, many of them women.38 Of the two major newspapers in the city (the
other, the Register and Leader, would acquire it in the early 1920s), the News was not
only more “sensational” but strongly supportive of labor unions.39 Yet, much like the
Leader and Vindicator, it had Progressive leanings, including a strong advocacy of the
suffragette movement.40 Both Des Moines papers were giving more and more attention
to moving pictures by the end of 1912, but the Register confined its interest to accept-
ing ads from a couple of theaters – as did the Cedar Rapids Republican, the major paper
in a more industrialized city of 30,000 in northeast Iowa.41 In hiring Gertrude Price as a
“movie expert” in November that year, the News alone recognized that moving pictures
had become an important subject for its readers. Not only did Price write short illus-
trated stories almost daily about movie stars (most of them women) from Kathlyn
Williams (Selig) to King Baggott (Imp), but she put together weekly Sunday columns,
under the banner of “The Movies,” with capsule reviews of selected films featured in up
to ten of the city’s theaters.42 Throughout December, she also arranged for the News to
print a daily series of publicity photos from Kalem’s soon-to-be-released From the
Manger to the Cross, which the paper suggested would “prove of permanent interest,
especially to children.”43 So successful was Price’s work for the News that, within three
months, the Register was forced to introduce its own special column on the theater
page of its Sunday edition, “At the Moving Picture Playhouses,” which also at first
focused on the faces of “famous players” or “celebrities” sketchily depicted in rough line
drawings.44


Mapping the Local Terrains of Exhibition

  For anyone seeking information on the vicissitudes of exhibition in New York City,
the Sunday Telegraph simply is not the place to look. In the spring of 1911, for instance,
several ads on the Telegraph’s Saturday “Vaudeville Review” page included the major
theaters in the circuits of William Gane, William Fox, Frank Kenney, and Automatic
Vaudeville. The following year, one small ad for Adolph Zukor’s Comedy Theatre (on
Union Square) consistently listed its daily schedule of featured Independent films.45
Otherwise, there was almost nothing.46 The other newspapers, however, turn out to be
valuable sources for addressing issues of local exhibition, especially when supplement-
ed by city directories, other papers, and occasional notes in the trade press.
  The Sunday Leader, for instance, offers a rather thorough listing of the major moving
picture theaters in at least five of Cleveland’s commercial districts. Most of the more
important theaters were downtown: The Mall, Princess, Bijou Dream, Avenue,
Dreamland, Cameraphone, and Orpheum. Another half dozen – including the Superior
(600 seats), Doan, and Home (600 seats) – were located in two districts along Superior
and Lake streets on the northeast edge of the city.47 Others were clustered in contiguous
districts just south of that area, among them the Penn Square, U. S. Theater (1,600 seats),
National, and Delmar (400 seats).48 At least two, the Tabor and Broadway, helped anchor
a fourth district along Broadway on the city’s southeast edge. Finally, another half
dozen – among them the Park National, Fairyland, Cozy, and Clark (400 seats) – occu-
pied two nearby areas in the southwest.49 These theaters comprised no more than 25

                                                                                        ­63
RICHARD ABEL

percent of the total number in Cleveland, which, in 1911, came to approximately 120,
but their ads in the Leader signaled a desire for status, or a status already achieved.50
Further signs of that came from all those stories on local exhibitors, from an occasion-
al report such as that on Penn Square (950 seats) – in the paper’s real estate and building
construction page,51 and featured articles in the trade monthly, Nickelodeon – such as
those for the National (700 seats) and Mission-style Dreamland (262 seats).52 Although
the many residential theaters in Cleveland can only be located using city directories, at
least several of those in the downtown commercial district – for instance, the Princess
and Orpheum – clearly appealed to working-class audiences, for they also advertised in
the labor weekly, the Cleveland Citizen.53 Not unexpectedly, the Leader ignored the
only theater with an all-black clientele, the Alpha, located on the city’s near east side –
for those, one has to read the African-American weekly, the Cleveland Gazette.54
  Elsewhere in northeastern Ohio, the Youngstown Vindicator is perhaps an even bet-
ter source of information on that city’s exhibition venues. Supplemented by city direc-
tories, the ads and columns in the Vindicator clearly indicate that all the sites of enter-
tainment were located downtown, within a few blocks of the Central Square.55 This
obviously assumed a well-laid-out, efficient streetcar system that stretched into the
city’s major residential areas and suburbs. Three vaudeville houses – the Grand Opera
House, Park, and Princess – were clustered just south of the square. By the fall of 1911, a
dozen moving picture theaters stretched out along six to eight blocks of Federal Street,
half to the west of the square, the other half to the east. The most respected of these
were on the west side, and advertised in the Vindicator: the Dome (owner-manager C.
W. “Christy” Deibel), the Bijou (owner-manager Dan Robbins), the Orpheum (owner-
manager Pierre Atselas), and the newly constructed Rex (owned by Harry Warner and
David Robbins).56 Those on the east side, some of which seemed to cater to the city’s
Italian-born population, tended not to advertise.57 A two-tier system of city permit fees
restricted all moving picture theaters, however prestigious, to less than 200 seats, and
only in the summer of 1912 would someone like Diebel be financially secure enough to
risk constructing a new Dome Theater, with a seating capacity of nearly 1,000.58
Although one or two nickelodeons may have existed beyond the downtown, it was not
until then too that new theaters (like the Hazelton Dome) began to appear in residen-
tial areas.59 Conditions were even more centralized in Canton, where all the theaters
were located downtown. Despite an early News report that the city was “movie mad,”
those theaters that advertised in the paper only programmed moving pictures exclu-
sively on Sundays (when “blue laws” prohibited live performances) – that is, until the
fall of 1912, when the Odeon finally shifted to pictures throughout the week.60 It would
be another half dozen years, however, before a moving picture theater opened in
Canton’s residential areas.
  In Iowa, conditions paralleled those in northeastern Ohio, but in surprising ways. As
the smallest of all the cities under consideration, Cedar Rapids not unexpectedly had its
one vaudeville house and several moving picture theaters all located in the downtown
commercial district. According to the Des Moines News and city directories, however,
Des Moines was more similar to Cleveland than Youngstown or Canton. Prior to 1911,
moving picture theaters could be found in two commercial areas. The most important
was the downtown shopping district (just north of the court house and passenger train
station), the hub for a network of streetcar lines stretching into the city’s residential
areas.61 There, the Colonial (owned by Charles Namur, who also was proprietor of a

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

leading downtown drugstore) and the Family (owner-manager Jacob Milowslowsky)
were especially prominent, at least given their ads in the News as well as the Register.62
A second, smaller shopping district lay just below the State Capitol Building on the
city’s east side, where the Elite Theater, which also often advertised in the News, catered
to (perhaps largely Scandinavian) white-collar and working-class audiences.63 In late
1911, Namur began to open a series of residential theaters – the Idle Hour or University
Place, near Drake University on the city’s prosperous northwest side; the Highland
Park, in a middle-class suburb north of the city; and Namur’s South Side – all of which
received notice in the News.64 Several other small theaters also opened in residential
areas on the east side. At the same time, downtown, theaters such as the 700-seat
Unique (owned by Ben Elbert and John Getchel, who headed one of the city’s amuse-
ment companies) shifted exclusively to moving pictures; others such as the Star
(owner-manager A.H. Blank) were renovated; and still others were newly constructed –
the 550-seat Casino (also owned by Blank), Golden, Royal, Palace, and Black Cat65– con-
firming a News editorial, in August 1912, that “the moving picture show is here to
stay.”66 By late 1913, there were close to twenty moving picture theaters operating in
Des Moines, even more than in Youngstown, and they were much more widely dis-
persed.67


Tracking the Diffusion of Moving Pictures I

  The early 1910s were marked by several important changes in the American cinema
industry, none of which occurred all that evenly or smoothly. The newspapers under
consideration offer different perspectives on these changes, beginning with the intense
competition between the MPPC and the Independents. The Sunday Telegraph, for one,
took an active role in supporting the Independents as they struggled to create a nation-
wide system to distribute their films – which at first coalesced around the Motion
Picture Distributing and Sales Company (or simply Sales) controlled by the
Independent Motion Picture Company (Imp) and New York Motion Picture Company
(Bison) – so as to compete with the more established MPPC companies and their new
distribution outlet, General Film.68 Ads for Edison, Lubin, Pathé, and Vitagraph initial-
ly outnumbered those of their rivals (Pathé probably even paid for stories named “Pathé
Pointers”), and MPPC films often received more favorable reviews; yet, by 1911, the bal-
ance the paper was seeking to strike was evident in the weekly series of star player pho-
tographs, which alternated between those of MPPC and Independent companies. As the
Telegraph’s advocacy position became ever more apparent, the Independent manufac-
turers, whether associated with Sales or not, began to take out weekly ads – and more
than a dozen were doing so by early 1912.69 Yet the Telegraph carried little specific
information on film distribution or exhibition. In 1911, it did inform exhibitors in or
near New York City that new MPPC releases followed a regular circuit each day through
the six Keith & Proctor theaters and that new Independent releases were shown daily at
the Fourteenth Street Theater.70 At the same time, that repeated ad for Zukor’s Comedy
Theatre may have served as a model program for the Independent films available each
week from Sales.
  The case was different with the Sunday Leader. Although also supportive of the
Independents, what it did was to give advertising space to the major rental exchanges

                                                                                        ­65
RICHARD ABEL

that had offices in Cleveland – Feature & Educational Film, Lake Shore Film & Supply
(eventually part of Mutual), Victor Film Service (eventually part of Universal), and
Warner’s Feature Films – as well as General Film, in order for them to reach exhibitors
throughout the region.71 Yet that support was less clear within the city itself, where
most theaters’ ads did not signal their licensed or Independent status and where the
lengthy columns describing individual theater programs initially included more with
licensed than Independent titles. For instance, in the second week of January 1912,
whereas specific licensed film titles were given for the Avenue, Park National, Superior,
Home, Cedar, Cozy, and Cameraphone (in the latter, Pathé’s Weekly appeared each
week, alternately, on Monday or Friday), Independent film titles were given only for the
Princess, Mall, Tabor, and Doan (at least two of these explicitly appealed to working
class audiences).72 By the end of 1912, however, now that Universal and Mutual were
firmly established in the city, the ratio of licensed listings to Independent listings was
nearly even. Whereas the Leader’s licensed theaters now included the Penn Square,
Delmar, Dreamland, Broadway, Gordon Park, and Clark (most of those well estab-
lished), its number of Independent theaters had swelled with the downtown Bijou
Dream, National, Norwood, Gordon, and Isis – and at least one theater, the Cozy, had
switched to the Independents.73
   The ads and columns in the Youngstown Vindicator suggest that the Independents at
first were at an even greater disadvantage in that city. In the fall of 1911, General Film
supplied the three major moving picture theaters – the Dome, Palace, and Orpheum –
that advertised regularly in the paper, as well as two of the three vaudeville houses, the
Grand and the Princess, for their “Sunday concerts.” At least in terms of newspaper
advertising, Sales supplied only the Park. Moreover, for nearly six months, the most
consistently promoted films were at the Princess: namely, “Essanay’s Great Western
Thriller[s],” such as The Stagedriver’s Daughter or Broncho Billy’s Christmas Dinner,
“with G. M. ‘Bullets’ Anderson in the cast,” sometimes with the added attraction of his
photo.74 This situation changed more slowly than in Cleveland. It seems to have begun
with the Rex, newly constructed by Warner and Robbins and supplied with
Independent films from Pittsburgh; and the Lyric and Bijou soon joined the new theater
in advertising. Yet, after another new theater supplied by General Film, the Colonial,
opened that winter, the Rex was taken over by Deibel to show “Dome pictures,” while
the new Dome Theater was being constructed.75 By the fall of 1912, the number of
Independent theaters had doubled with the construction of the Star and the switch in
service at the Colonial. But the licensed theaters also grew in number, with the renova-
tion (and switch in service) of the Park and the appearance of the Hazelton Dome. Once
the Rex abandoned licensed films in early 1913, the competition finally began to turn
in favor of the Independents.76 In Canton, conditions were more balanced. Whereas
General Film supplied the Odeon and Orpheum, Sales supplied the Majestic, which
advertised irregularly in the News, as well as the Grand Opera House. Both MPPC and
Independent films seem to have circulated like clockwork through these venues, with
Pathé’s Weekly, for instance, appearing on (and sometimes headlining) the Orpheum’s
Sunday programs and then continuing during the week as one of several film reels
shown during its regular vaudeville programs.77
   The Independents also seemed to be at a disadvantage in Des Moines, at least prior to
Gertrude Price’s hiring at the News in late 1912. General Film supplied the Colonial, for
years the most consistent theater advertiser in the paper, as well as others in Namur’s

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

chain of theaters – and the Colonial often made Pathé’s Weekly the headlined feature
of its Friday and Saturday programs.78 It also supplied two other theaters that adver-
tised infrequently, the Lyric and Star, as well as the Casino (after its construction in late
1912). As testimony to its initially weak position, Sales (and then Film Supply) serviced
only the Family and Elite, at least of those theaters advertising in the News. Still, in the
fall of 1911, the Elite made a special point of repeatedly promoting the “Famous ‘Imp’
Pictures [that were] rapidly making friends and steady patrons.”79 At the same time, it
bolstered those pictures and their fans by claiming that even “doctors, lawyers, bankers
and their wives, [now] have the [moving picture] habit.”80 Other theaters associated
with the Independents the following year – the new Golden and the former vaudeville
house, the Unique – advertised frequently in the News, but it was not until 1913, as in
Youngstown, that they finally began to secure an advantageous position, when both
Universal and Mutual had branches in the city.81 The situation in Cedar Rapids, by con-
trast, was just the opposite. By the fall of 1912, two major downtown theaters, the Palace
and the Columbia advertised Independent films – the one supplied by Universal; the
other, by Film Supply – indeed, the latter became an exclusive venue for Gaumont
films, including The Land of Lions, repeated in November “by request.”82 The third the-
ater, the Princess, only gradually revealed, in rather generic ads, that its films came from
General Film.83 Of all these cities, at least according to newspaper ads, only in the small-
est did the Independents have a decided advantage as early as 1912.


Tracking the Diffusion of Moving Pictures II

   A second important change in the industry came with the gradual introduction of
multiple-reel films, especially as those reshaped and, in turn, were shaped by rental and
exhibition practices. At first it may seem surprising that, even in early 1912, the major-
ity of moving picture theaters that advertised in all of these newspapers offered pro-
grams in which the films changed daily. Yet, one has to remember that, by then, the
MPPC and the Independents were releasing more than thirty film titles each per
week.84 In the Sunday Telegraph, for instance, Zukor’s Comedy Theatre featured a dif-
ferent release from the Sales Company each day. In the Sunday Leader, the downtown
Cameraphone and Avenue listed their schedule of daily licensed films, while the Mall
and Tabor did likewise for their Independent films.85 In the Youngstown Vindicator,
the Dome, Palace, Orpheum, and Colonial all advertised a change of licensed films
daily.86 In the Des Moines News, both the Elite and Unique promised “fresh”
Independent film titles each day; and, when the Casino opened later that same year, it
too offered a new program of licensed films daily.87 Des Moines ads, however, also
reveal that almost as many moving picture theaters made less frequent changes in their
films. The Family and Golden, both Independent theaters, changed their films three
times a week, as did the Star, a licensed theater.88 The Colonial alone offered bi-weekly
programs of licensed films; yet all three of the other Namur theaters, in residential
areas, advertised new films daily.89 In short, the constantly changing variety package,
once a mainstay of the nickelodeon period, still dominated exhibition, supported by
the manufacturers’ release schedules and by the “continuous shows” that many
exhibitors continued to champion. The regularity of that variety package also allowed
exhibitors to promote their more popular films, as some did with Pathé Weekly, for

                                                                                          ­67
RICHARD ABEL

instance, or as others did, in Cleveland, where the Orpheum had its “good Essanay”
every Sunday, and the Cozy, its “Vitagraph night” every Thursday.90
  As two- and three-reel films moved beyond what the New York Dramatic Mirror
called their “experimental” phase, in late 1911, exhibitors came up with different ways
of working them into their highly structured programs.91 In Youngstown, both vaude-
ville houses and moving picture theaters used them as headliners on their Sunday pro-
grams. Special licensed films such as Kalem’s Arrah-na-Pogue or Selig’s Cinderella had
top billing at the Dome – and Cinderella returned months later at the Princess – while
“state rights” features such as Camille (starring Bernhardt) and Mme Sans-Gêne (star-
ring Réjane) topped bills at the Orpheum.92 Yet, from November through March, it was
the Park that promoted multiple-reel films most consistently, probably distributed by
Feature & Educational Film in Cleveland – from Cines’ The Crusaders and Éclair’s
Zigomar (also featured at the Rex) to Gaumont’s Love and Aviation and The Rubber
Trust.93 In Cleveland, some theaters also featured these longer films on Sundays, but
just as many scheduled them regularly at other times during the week. In early January,
for instance, Cinderella played at the downtown Avenue on Monday and Tuesday and
then at the downtown Cameraphone on Sunday; two weeks later it was at the Home for
a special Thursday showing; in February, it played first at the Cozy and then at the
Superior, also on Monday and Tuesday.94 That “masterpiece of sensationalism,”
Zigomar, followed a similar trajectory through Independent theaters, playing on con-
secutive Sundays at the downtown Bijou Dream, Bronx, and Princess in December and
early January, and later that month at the northeast-side Doan on Thursday and at the
far-west-side Lakewood on Monday and Tuesday. 95 When 101-Bison’s spectacular
“Indian pictures” became available in March, the downtown Mall showed War on the
Plains on “Monday only,” while the Park National later opted for an unusual screening
of Battle of the Red Men on Saturday.96 In Des Moines, the special licensed features had
even longer runs, partly because they so neatly fit the Colonial’s bi-weekly programs. In
January, for instance, Cinderella played the first four days of one week, followed by
Vitagraph’s Vanity Fair for three days the next week.97 At the Family, special
Independent features were shown for two days, on Mondays and Tuesdays, as were
Blazing the Trail and The Post Telegrapher, when 101-Bison westerns finally became
available in April.98
  By late 1912 and early 1913, whereas some exhibitors continued to bank on the prof-
itability of the variety program, others were handling multiple-reel films even more
regularly. In Youngstown, the new Dome now advertised its daily program of new films
for the week.99 Following the Park’s strategy of the year before, the Princess each
Sunday ran a series of sensational features, most of them French crime thrillers – such
as Gaumont’s In the Grip of the Vampire and The White Glove Band.100 In Cleveland,
more and more theaters were booking multiple-reel films, for one- to three-day runs.
Some like the Broadway still restricted their extra headliners to Sunday, as in the case
of Selig’s The Coming of Columbus, which reprised there in September after a unique
four-day weekend run at the Cameraphone the previous May.101 They were joined by
new theaters like the Norwood, on the city’s northeast side, which on Sundays often ran
crime thrillers such as Eclair’s Auto Bandits of Paris.102 Yet many now booked features
on week days, with licensed films circulating in a relatively regular pattern over the
course of a month. Selig’s “animal picture,” Kings of the Forest, for instance, played first
at the Delmar on Tuesday, then at the Penn Square two weeks later on Friday, and at the

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

Home and Clark another week later, on Sunday and Tuesday, respectively.103 In Des
Moines, a slightly different pattern emerged. The Casino opted for a daily variety for-
mat of new licensed films; by March 1913, it was advertising a weekly schedule every
Sunday.104 The Colonial continued its practice of bi-weekly program changes, but
switched, in April, to special Independent features.105 In January, the Unique began
advertising a weekly schedule of Mutual films (changed daily), with Broncho features
such as The Burning Brand on Wednesdays and the “celebrated Kay-Bee westerns” on
Fridays.106 In February, the new Theater Royal promised a two- or three-reel Universal
feature each Tuesday through Thursday.107 For its part, the Family booked Universal
features such as Sheridan’s Ride on Tuesdays, which the Elite ran for eastside audiences
a week later.108
   It was in 1912-1913, that even longer features began to have some impact, yet their cir-
culation was anything but regular and their influence uneven. Here, the case of Queen
Elizabeth (four reels) is especially telling. Its first appearance, surprisingly, came in Des
Moines, not long after the initial release, where it played for one week at a legitimate
theater, the Berchel, in mid-September.109 Not until more than a month later did the
film open in Cleveland, as the week’s sole feature attraction at another legitimate the-
ater, the Colonial.110 Two weeks later, however, it turned up at the Superior on Sunday
and Dreamland on Monday and Tuesday; a month later, it was the weekend headliner
at a new eastside suburban theater, the Quincy.111 In Youngstown, by contrast, Queen
Elizabeth played at the Rex for just a single Sunday, in late November.112 Similarly, in
Canton, it played a special engagement at the Grand, but not until mid-February and
only for two days.113 Perhaps not unexpectedly, the impact of Queen Elizabeth was
most immediate in Cleveland. Another legitimate theater, the Duchess, roadshow
Helen Gardner’s Cleopatra (five reels) for an exclusive two-week engagement in late
December 1912.114 Within a month, other long films began to appear, but now as regu-
lar features, such as Blanche Walsh’s Resurrection (four reels) for two days at the U. S.
Theater, or as week-long specials, such as Ambrosio’s Satan (four reels), the “sensation
of two continents,” at the downtown Mall.115 In Youngstown, shortly thereafter, the
Rex risked a screening (one of the first in the country) of Pathé’s The Mysteries of Paris
(five reels), but again for just a single Sunday.116 In Des Moines, despite the return
engagement of Queen Elizabeth at University Place for one weekday in February, no
theater showed long features until May, when the Colonial finally began booking them
regularly, starting with a week-long engagement of Satan.117 It was then too in Cedar
Rapids, that a new theater, the Crystal, began extending its weekly Universal features
with longer films such as Kalem’s From the Manger to the Cross (six reels).118


Promotion and Reception: Foreign Cracksmen, Western Heroes, and New Women

  Whether exhibitors changed their programs of films daily or just two or three times
a week, whether they kept to the reliable variety format of short films or risked book-
ing longer “special features,” they still promoted their films in ways that did not always
correspond to such differences. For those were determined not only by directives from
the trade press, or even manufacturers, but by the interests and attitudes of the local
newspaper in which they advertised as well as the kinds of stories that circulated
through their pages – all of which made certain assumptions about their readers.

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RICHARD ABEL

  Here, again, the newspapers in northeastern Ohio and Iowa prove more valuable than
does the Morning Telegraph in New York. Of all these papers, the Leader was most
actively engaged in promoting moving pictures as a reputable form of entertainment,
with audiences indistinguishable from those for the legitimate theater. Signs of this
were persistent. In October 1911, for instance, a construction story boasted that
“Cleveland Leads All Cities in Number of High Grade Photo-Play Places.”119 A year later,
the top story on the Photo Play News page reported the continuing protest against
using the slang term, “movies,” because “it harms the business.”120 It was then too that
the Sunday Leader flirted with offering a “Theatergoers” section that gave as much
space to moving pictures as to the theater and the other arts.121 Soon after the paper
introduced a special “Copperplate Pictorial Section” to its Sunday edition, in 1911, it
twice reprinted star photos of a dozen “silent drama favorites” (all women); in early
1913, the section had a full page of publicity stills of Gardner, that “Sorceress of the
Nile,” in Cleopatra.122 The Vindicator, much like the Canton News, simply accepted
moving pictures as equal in status to vaudeville and stage drama (most of which was
put on by local stock players or second-rate touring companies), but made little effort
to give them extra promotion. One exception may be the brief allusion, in the late sum-
mer of 1912, to the theatrical “season of 1912-1913” as one that would be marked by
moving picture “special releases.”123 The Des Moines News, by contrast, was commit-
ted to promoting the new entertainment as “the biggest, most popular amusement” in
a city that prided itself on a tradition of high-class music and theater.124 Unlike the
Leader, it happily seized on “The Movies” as the banner for its frequent photo-stories of
stars, theater listings, and film reviews. By early 1913, the News’ “moving picture
expert,” Gertrude Price, was already working as an industry reporter, sending back sto-
ries from New York and then Los Angeles on stars like Pickford, filmmakers like Alice
Guy Blaché, and producers of “Wild West Pictures.”125 Her “fans” in Des Moines clearly
were not the same as Stoddard’s “fans” in Cleveland.
  The pages devoted to photo plays or movies in these newspapers, however, also were
framed by other stories, especially in the Sunday editions. In order to suggest how they
contextualized the circulation and reception of moving pictures, let me selectively sift
through those related to three different kinds of films – the first being the sensational
crime thrillers from France. In April and May 1912, both the Cleveland Leader and the
Des Moines News, along with other papers like the San Francisco Chronicle, carried
major stories on the capture of the infamous Bonnot gang that had terrorized Paris and
other nearby cities. Although the News was the first with its story, the Leader filled the
first two pages of its “Cosmopolitan Section” with an extended account of the “Tiger
Bandit” and his gang by Maurice Le Blanc, author of Arsene Lupin.126 Previously, such
sensational criminals were as often American as “foreign” – as in the full-page “Auto
Cracksman” story published in the New York Tribune, in September 1911.127
Thereafter, however, they tended to become fixed as French. This may explain, in part,
the shifting and uneven reception of French crime thrillers during this period. Zigomar,
for instance, was a smash hit in Cleveland, Youngstown, and Canton in the winter of
1911-1912, but it seems not to have been in Des Moines – perhaps because the film
turned up only at the Elite, and after rather than before the Bonnot gang story.128
Although French crime thrillers continued to circulate throughout 1912-1913, their
success seemed limited, at least based on ads and stories. In Canton, the Auditorium cel-
ebrated its reopening, in November 1912, with Eclair’s The Phantom Bandit or Zigomar

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                       A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

II; in Youngstown, the Princess played one Eclair or Gaumont crime thriller after anoth-
er from January through March 1913.129 Yet in Cleveland, The Phantom Bandit played
at only one downtown theater, the Princess (which advertised in the labor weekly,
Cleveland Citizen), and at the Alpha, in the city’s black ghetto.130 Similarly, Eclair’s The
Auto Bandits of Paris played only at the Alpha and Norwood (another northeast side
theater).131 In Des Moines, either these films never appeared or they simply were not
advertised; yet in Cedar Rapids, they were major attractions during the summer of 1912
and again the following year.132 What this suggests is that, after the spring of 1912, the
French crime thrillers may have played at theaters where (or on days when) the audi-
ences were primarily working-class (Cleveland, Youngstown, Canton), and predomi-
nantly male, or African-American.
   Other kinds of stories contextualized the sensational melodrama of the popular west-
erns in 1911-1912, but in rather different ways. In Cleveland, for instance, the Wild
West now appeared often in a degraded form – in cartoons, comics, and certain graphic
ads – and usually associated with young boys and play-acting.133 In Des Moines, the
Wild West still had some appeal, as was evident in the stories and ads promoting tour-
ing performances of the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Wild West.134 This material, togeth-
er with the general position of the papers, coincided with different westerns being fea-
tured in each of these cities. In Youngstown, for instance, “Bullets” Anderson apparent-
ly was so popular that, from the fall of 1911 through the spring of 1912, the Princess and
then the Grand could make his Essanay westerns the headliners of their Sunday pro-
grams – and the same thing happened, though later, at the Orpheum in Canton.135 In
Cleveland, however, Anderson’s westerns did not receive all that much attention until
the fall of 1912; then the downtown Orpheum advertised its Broncho Billy series of
films each Sunday, when the theater could draw its audiences from the working-class
population of the city’s east side – ads for the Orpheum also appeared regularly in the
labor weekly, the Cleveland Citizen.136 The westerns that were much more heavily pro-
moted were the 101-Bison Indian pictures, culminating, in October 1912, with the
much-delayed release of Custer’s Last Fight (three reels) at the newly opened downtown
Oxford Theater (opposite the May Company department store), “the only double-screen
theater of its kind in the United States or Canada.”137 In Des Moines (and Cedar Rapids),
neither “Bullets” Anderson nor Broncho Billy enjoyed much publicity. The 101-Bison
westerns received some attention, yet those that did were not Indian pictures like Battle
of the Red Men, lauded in Cleveland, but others like Blazing the Trail, with white set-
tler heroes. Uniquely, Flying A westerns must have circulated widely enough, although
never advertised by the Family, Elite, or Golden, because the company chose the News,
along with fifty other newspapers across the country, to print a series of short stories,
illustrated with stills, based on its soon-to-be-released films.138
   Finally, the many stories about the American “new woman” offered an even more
revealing context for moving pictures and their fans in these cities. Not surprisingly,
they did not appear frequently in either the Youngstown or Canton papers, and their
relative absence threw into relief the masculine heroes and outlaws that took up the
cities’ screens and Sunday pages. A Grand ad, in Canton, for Mary Pickford in Biograph’s
The New York Hat, in early 1913, was a real anomaly.139 The Cleveland Leader, by con-
trast, often heralded the “new woman” in articles on athletic figures, as in “A Modern
Race of Amazons,” in full-page ads for the Ohio Woman Suffrage Party, and in stories
such as “The Stick-Up Girl: A True Story of an Uncaught Outlaw.”140 All framed the

                                                                                         ­71
RICHARD ABEL

paper’s frequent photo stories of active women stars and their films – from Gene
Gauntier or Mabel Normand to Pickford, when she joined Famous Players – and culmi-
nated, in late 1913, with the moving picture page becoming a regular feature of the
Sunday Society Section, aimed at women readers.141 The Des Moines News was perhaps
an even more insistent proponent of the “new woman.” Not only did it give front-page
coverage to the suffragette march on Washington, in early 1913, but Gertrude Price
joined the march to interview its leader, “General” Rosalie Gordon Jones.142 The sum-
mer before, the paper had printed stories about special screenings of suffragette films
such as Votes of Women at the Unique; at the same time, its stories promoting per-
formances of the 101 Ranch Wild West prominently featured the show’s champion
cowgirl riders and sharpshooters, Bessie Herberg and Lucile Parr, as much as its cow-
boys and Indians.143 These created a supportive context for all the horsewomen and
other clever, fearless “daredevils” in both licensed and Independent films, and especial-
ly westerns, that Price included among her many stories on stars – from Pauline
Garfield Bush at Flying A or Mona Darkfeather at Universal to Beverly Bane at Essanay,
Ruth Roland at Kalem, or Red Wing at Pathé. And Bush, she remarked with admiration
was, much like herself, “an ardent suffraget.”144


Conclusion

   This essay has sought to take a multi-track approach to describing and analyzing the
reciprocally profitable relationship that developed between newspapers and moving
pictures in selected cities in the early 1910s. For the discursive traces of photoplays,
players, and movies prove equally valuable whatever one’s particular interest – from
film distribution, exhibition venues, and programming formats to moving picture pro-
motion and reception, especially as the latter were shaped by the cultural and political
contexts of any one newspaper.
   Distribution. The Sunday Telegraph, Cleveland Leader, and Youngstown Vindicator
all suggest that the Independent companies had certain advantages from quite early on
in their competition with the MPPC and General Film. As a trade weekly, the Sunday
Telegraph nearly tipped the balance of power exerted by the trade press in favor of the
Independents. The other two papers suggest how important several rental exchanges
were to the increasing circulation of Independent films, including “features,” in the
populous region of northeastern Ohio. In Iowa, by contrast, the Des Moines News and
Cedar Rapids Republican suggest that only in a small city like Cedar Rapids did the least
powerful of Independent distributors, Film Supply, enjoy a brief moment of dominance
and that, even in a city like Des Moines, Universal and Mutual may not have achieved
parity with General Film until late 1912 or early 1913.
   Exhibition. Both the Leader and the News suggest how quickly the new moving pic-
ture theaters, noticed by Ellis Cohen in early 1910, spread into secondary shopping and
entertainment districts as well as residential areas – and in very different cities. The
Vindicator suggests how Sunday blue laws, coupled with entertainment licensing per-
mits, offer evidence of key moments of prosperity for moving picture theaters in a city
like Youngstown: by the summer of 1911, the Warner brother could return to their
home town to erect the Rex; within another year, Deibel could build a New Dome
Theater, the size and elegance of a legitimate theater. The News offers a parallel pattern

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                        A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

of key moments in Des Moines: Namur could open four residential theaters in 1911;
Elbert and Getchel could switch the Unique to moving pictures exclusively in 1912; and
Blank could begin moving into the new business by constructing the Casino by the end
of that year – he would later become a regional executive for the Public Theaters con-
trolled by Paramount.
   Programming. The Leader, Vindicator, and News also all suggest how resilient was
the variety format of daily-changed, one-reel films (whether or not supplemented by
illustrated songs or vaudeville acts) first established in the nickelodeon period. The
Odeon (Canton), New Dome (Youngstown), and new Casino (Des Moines) all main-
tained that format, even with the addition of two- and three-reel films, and apparently
profitably, throughout 1913. At the same time, multiple-reel films and features –
whether released by General Film or by a state rights Independent, and whether
American or foreign – gradually gained a foothold in programs, especially in 1912, yet
in different ways. In cities such as Youngstown, they initially tended to be state rights
Independents restricted to single-day screenings on Sunday. In Cleveland and Des
Moines, however, they were as likely to be General Film releases and run on regularly
scheduled weekdays and often for two to four consecutive days. By the time longer fea-
tures began to be roadshowed with some regularity in 1913, they were now as apt to
appear in moving picture theaters as in legitimate theaters.
   Promotion and reception. The Leader, Vindicator, and News finally are fascinatingly
suggestive about how moving pictures were promoted and contextualized locally and
for whom. They reveal that French crime thriller features quickly were seen as a staple
for the presumably masculinized working-class (and immigrant?) audiences of
Cleveland and Youngstown, and for those segregated racially. They reveal the enormous
popularity, again for masculinized working-class audiences apparently, of Essanay
westerns starring G. M. Anderson, who was first known as “Bullets” rather than
Broncho Billy. They reveal the impact produced by the 101-Bison westerns, especially in
Cleveland and Des Moines, not as sensational melodramas but as epic spectacles of
equal value to more familiar literary adaptations. Perhaps most important, again espe-
cially in Cleveland and Des Moines, they reveal the highly visible presence of women in
the new industry – from stars and actresses to writers, directors, and producers – as
explicit, influential figures of the American “New Woman.” Moreover, through
Gertrude Price, the News takes on special significance for the way it interconnects
movies, professional women, and the suffragette movement for, once more presum-
ably, female fans.
   One kind of screen magic may have drawn newspapers and moving pictures together
in the early 1910s; now another kind (even if less alluring) can help recover the
palimpsest of shapes and patterns assumed by their mutual attraction.



The research for this essay was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from Drake University. It
could not have been completed without the helpful assistance of the staffs of the following: the
Periodical Room, Library of Congress; the Periodical, Literature, History, and Photography
Departments, Cleveland Public Library (especially Evelyn Ward, Head of Literature); the
Periodical Department, Stark County District Library; the Periodical Department, Ohio State
Historical Library; the Periodical Department, Iowa Historical Society Library; the Interlibrary


                                                                                             ­73
RICHARD ABEL

Loan Services, Drake University Cowles Library; and my parents (Owen and Ruth Abel), brother
(Ted), and sister-in-law (Deb) who graciously put up with me on a research trip to Cleveland,
Youngstown, and Canton.

1 R. Abel, “‘Don’t Know Much About History,’ or The (In)Vested Interests of Doing Cinema
   History,” Film History, vol. VI, no. 1 (Spring 1994), pp. 110-115.
2 See, for instance, R. Abel, R. Altman (eds.), The Sounds of Early Cinema (Bloomington:
   Indiana University Press, 2001 forthcoming).
3 See, for instance, R. Abel, “Frame Stories for Writing the History of French Silent Cinema,”
   Symposium: Writing the History of French Cinema, UCLA, 12 May 2001.
4 Since writing this essay, I have discovered more information about the Des Moines News in
   relation to other newspapers; see R. Abel, “The Movies in a ‘Not So Visible Place’: Des Moines,
   Iowa, 1911-1914,” in K. Fuller, G. Potamianos (eds.), Beyond the Bowery (forthcoming from
   University of California Press).
5 The only extant copy of the Des Moines News is at the Iowa Historical Society Library (Iowa
   City).
6 The quoted phrase is from D. Hulfish, “Motography: The Salesman,” in Motion-Picture Work
   (New York: Arno Press, 1970 [1911/1915]), p 112.
7 “The Movies”, Des Moines News (12 November 1912), p.1; “Many ‘Dolor’s Clubs’ Named After
   This Beauty of the Movies,” Des Moines News (12 November 1912), p. 8. “Supplement for Iowa,”
   Thirteenth Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1910 (Washington, D. C.:
   Government Printing Office, 1913), p. 624. The 1910 census may not have been interested in
   distinguishing people according to class or income, but it did differentiate “native whites” and
   “foreign-born whites.” Of Des Moines’s 85,000 people, the census listed slightly more than
   10,000 as “foreign-born white,” with the greatest number coming from Scandinavia, Germany,
   and Russia (usually a code word at the time for Jewish). Like many Iowa cities, Des Moines was
   dominated by German-born immigrants, many second and third generation by 1910.
8 R. Stafford, “At the Moving Picture Show,” Youngstown Vindicator (30 October 1910), p. 25.
   “Population-Ohio,” Thirteenth Census of the United States, III: Population Reports by States
   (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1913), p. 418. Of the 80,000 people in
   Youngstown, the 1910 census listed 25,000 as “foreign-born white,” with the greatest number
   coming from Hungary (many of these Slovaks), Austria (many of these Czechs), and Italy.
9 The first of these columns appeared in the Youngstown Vindicator (3 September 1911), p. 17.
10 W. E. Sage, “The Triumphal Processioning of the Silent Players,” Cleveland Leader (21 May
   1911), Section M, p. 8. See also William E. Sage, “What Moving Pictures Mean to Regular
   Playhouses,” Cleveland Leader (8 August 1911), Section M, p. 8. “Population-Ohio,” op. cit., p.
   363, 398, 427-428. Of Cleveland’s 500,000 people, the 1910 census listed nearly 200,000 as “for-
   eign-born white,” with the greatest number coming from Austria (many of these Czechs),
   Germany, Hungary (many of these Slovaks), Ireland, and Russia. These immigrant groups still
   had their own newspapers in 1912; see “American Spirit Predominates the Foreign Language
   Papers in Cleveland,” Cleveland Leader (21 December 1912), Section M, p. 2.
11 See, for instance, “Photo-Plays and Players,” Cleveland Leader (10 December 1911), Section S,
   p. 5. Stoddard, a former theater manager in Sandusky, Ohio, and now a Leader reporter, also
   edited one of the first daily newspaper pages devoted to real estate and building construction-
   see “Real Estate and Building News,” Cleveland Leader (16 February 1913), Section M, p. 13;
   “Meet Your Plain Dealer Men About Town: Ralph Stoddard,” Cleveland Plain Dealer (21
   February 1948), Clipping File, Cleveland Public Library.
12 R. Grau, The Theatre of Science (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1969 [1914]), pp. 249-251.
13 The earliest example I have seen is E. Cohen, “In the Moving Picture Field,” Morning
   Telegraph (2 January 1910), Section 4.1, p. 4. Grau claims that this page first appeared in
   January 1909, see Grau, op. cit., p. 249.

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                          A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

14 “The Morning Telegraph and Motion Picture Enterprises,” in “Motion Pictures and Photo-
   Plays,” Morning Telegraph (5 March 1911), Section 4.1, p. 4. No one was named in this new
   department, but George Terwilliger is usually credited with initially heading the staff; see
   Grau, op. cit., 250.
15 Important exceptions are the recent essays by Judith Thissen, Giorgio Bertellini, and Alison
   Griffiths and James Latham, respectively, on early Jewish immigrant, Italian immigrant, and
   African-American audiences in New York City; see M. Stokes, R. Maltby (eds.), American
   Movie Audiences: From the Turn of the Century to the Early Sound Era (London: British Film
   Institute, 1999), pp. 15-63.
16 Hulfish says much the same thing as late as 1911, in “Motion Picture Theater,” Motion-Picture
   Work, p. 200. In a 8 May 1911 letter to the Selig Polyscope Company, however, J. D. Williams,
   a theater owner in Sydney, Australia, noted the lack of newspaper advertising by exhibitors in
   the USA as a serious problem for the industry as a whole-see Scrapbook #2 (p. 37) in the
   Charles G. Clarke Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Beverley Hills, California. For certain
   exceptions, especially in the upper Midwest, see R. Abel, The Red Rooster Scare: Making
   Cinema American (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999) and R. Abel, “That Most
   American of Attractions, the Illustrated Song,” in Abel, Altman (eds.), op. cit., pp. 143-155.
17 M. Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie
   Theatre (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 31. For an early acknowledgement of the
   importance of the new “Moving Picture Theater,” see E. Cohen, “In the Moving Picture Field,”
   Morning Telegraph (23 January 1910), Section 4.1, p. 4. The best one-volume history of exhi-
   bition certainly skips this period between the nickelodeon and the palace or “national theater
   chains,” see D. Gomery, Shared Pleasures: A History of Movie Presentation in the United
   States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992). Although her chapter on exhibition
   supposedly focuses on “the newer ‘palatial’ theaters,” Eileen Bowser does devote several
   informative pages to both nickelodeons and moving picture theaters after 1910; see E. Bowser,
   The Transformation of Cinema, 1907-1915 (New York: Scribner’s, 1990), pp. 121-136.
18 One of the best methodological models for this kind of historical analysis is W. Uricchio, R. Pearson,
   Reframing Culture: The Case of the Vitagraph Quality Films (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
   1993). I myself draw on this model in the last two chapters of The Red Rooster Scare, cit.
19 My research into newspaper coverage of moving pictures in the USA in the early 1910s is far
   from complete; so far I have begun to look at selected papers in three regions of the country
   that have gone relatively unexplored. Those include northeastern Ohio (where the Warner
   brothers originated), the upper Midwest from St. Louis through Iowa to Minneapolis (where
   I already had done some research for The Red Rooster Scare), and eastern Massachusetts (my
   work on the latter remains very preliminary). The New York Telegraph is considered here
   because it offered an early model for other newspapers in its coverage of moving pictures. For
   an earlier stage of this research, see my paper, “The Passing (Picture) Show in the Industrial
   Heartland: The Early 1910s,” presented at the Moving Images: Technologies, Transitions,
   Historiographies Conference, Stockholm University, 3 December 2000.
20 “The Morning Telegraph and Moving Picture Enterprises,” Morning Telegraph (5 March
   1911), Section 4.1, p. 4. For a good summary of the “two journalisms” (“sensational” enter-
   tainment versus “objective” information) that developed in New York in the 1890s, see M.
   Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic
   Books, 1978), pp. 88-120.
21 Grau, op. cit., p. 251. Comoedia, a new specialized daily newspaper in Paris linked to the sport-
   ing magazine, L’Auto, may have provided a model for the Morning Telegraph: in January
   1908, it added a weekly column of information on moving pictures to its coverage of current
   events and aesthetic issues in the arts (especially theater and music).
22 Eustace Hale Ball, an important scenario editor, suggested that, in order to determine “the
   needs and plans of companies,” aspiring writers should consult professional trade magazines

                                                                                                      ­75
RICHARD ABEL

      such as “the Moving Picture World, the New York Sunday Telegraph, The Billboard,
      Motography, the New York Dramatic Mirror, [and] the Exhibitor’s Times-News”; see E. H. Ball,
      The Art of the Photoplay (2nd ed.: New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1913), pp. 49-50.
23    Morning Telegraph ads, Morning Telegraph (26 March 1911), Section 4.1, p. 5, and (23 April
      1911), Section 4.1, p. 6.
24    Grau, op. cit., p. 251.
25     For an excellent study of this industrial “heartland,” including Cleveland and other cities in
      Ohio, see J. C. Teaford, Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest
      (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993).
26     A brief history of the Cleveland Leader can be found at the beginning of the 1974 microfilm
      edition of the newspaper, prepared by the Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. Unlike
      the Leader, the Cleveland Plain Dealer covered moving pictures very sporadically until 1914.
27    See, for instance, the editorials supporting Theodore Roosevelt for President, Cleveland
      Leader (5 November 1912), p. 6; and a half-page ad, “To Ohio Progressives,” Cleveland Leader
      (6 November 1912), p. 6.
28    Like many cities in the Midwest, Cleveland had a long tradition of cultivating the arts, espe-
      cially music, because of its large German immigrant population; see Teaford, Cities of the
      Heartland, cit., pp. 88-89.
29    See, for instance, “Free Admission to Select Circuit of Moving Picture Theaters,” Cleveland
      Leader (3 September 1911), Section N, p. 6. The Leader also took out full-page ads in other
      northern Ohio newspapers such as the Canton News-Democrat (17 April 1911), p. 3.
30     See, for instance, “Mandelbaum Sells Theaters,” Cleveland Leader (3 November 1912), Section
      W, p. 7; Samuel Bullock, “The Modern Moving Picture Theater,” Cleveland Leader (10
      November 1912), Section B, p. 5; and “Some Big ‘Flickers’ in Picture Business,” Cleveland
      Leader (17 November 1912), Section B, p. 5. For more information on Mandelbaum, see “Film
      Supply Chain Links Six Cities,” Cleveland Leader (19 January 1913), Section M, p. 5; and
      “Uplifting the Feature Film,” New York Dramatic Mirror (19 November 1913), p. 30.
31    See, for instance, “Photo Plays and Players,” Cleveland Leader (3 December 1911), Section S, p.
      5; and “Leader’s Gallery of Popular Photo Players,” Cleveland Leader (14 January 1912), Section
      S, p. 5, (21 January 1912), Section S, p. 6, and (28 January 1912), Section W, p. 8. Mary Pickford
      had been singled out even earlier, in “Moving Picture Star Tells of the Thrills of Her Art,”
      Cleveland Leader (22 October 191), Section S, p. 5.
32     This description of Youngstown comes from a story in the Youngstown Vindicator (14 April
      1907)- Clipping Files, Youngstown Public Library. The following summary of the Vindicator’s
      local concerns comes from those files as well.
33    “Population-Ohio,” op. cit., p. 363, 418-419. Of Canton’s 50,000 people, the 1910 census listed
      slightly less than 10,000 as “foreign-born white,” with the greatest number coming from
      Germany, Hungary (many of these Slovaks), and Italy. The Canton News-Democrat changed
      its name to the Canton News in late November 1912. Canton’s other major newspaper, the
      Repository, much like the Cleveland Plain Dealer, also covered moving pictures only sporad-
      ically until 1914.
34     See the unsigned story about why so many people in Canton were “motion picture mad,” par-
      ticularly “the working man and his family” for whom “theaters of this kind appeal[ed] most
      strongly—“Picture Show Poor Man’s Vacation Trip and Sure Cure for ‘Blues’ For All,” Canton
      News-Democrat (23 April 1911), p. 14. Unsigned columns describing and remarking on
      Sunday film programs at the downtown Odeon, Orpheum, and Grand Opera House also first
      appeared in the Canton News-Democrat in late September 1911; within a year, they were
      appearing (still unsigned) under a new banner, “Drama, Vaudeville, Photo Plays.”
35    “Today’s Entertainments,” Youngstown Vindicator (15 October 1911), p. 14. A similar story
      on Anderson appeared as “This Man’s Photo Seen Every Day by 300,000,” Canton News-
      Democrat (5 November 1911), p. 15. More than a month later, Anderson finally was noticed

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     in Cleveland, in “Is Boys’ Favorite G.-M. Anderson,” Cleveland Leader (24 December 1911),
     Section B, p. 7.
36   “The Week in Moving Pictures,” Youngstown Vindicator (11 August 1912), p. 16. In early 1913,
     this column was stressing the “educational” value of moving pictures by giving disproportion-
     ate attention, on Thursdays and Fridays, to all kinds of nonfiction films, especially travelogues.
37   C. W. Deibel, “50,000 Attend Youngstown Picture Shows Every Week,” Youngstown
     Vindicator (27 April 1913), Magazine Section, p. 1.
38   See, for instance, “Des Moines: One of the World’s Great Insurance Centers,” Des Moines
     News (27 October 1910), p. 9.
39   What was “sensational” about the Des Moines News was its large, block headlines, extensive
     use of pictures, and attention to crime news, scandals, and disasters. The New York Journal,
     published by William Randolph Hearst, not only initiated such “sensationalism” but also cou-
     pled it with support for labor unions and the “common people;” see, for instance, D. Nasaw,
     The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), pp. 102-
     103, 169, 172. The News was especially interested in the Socialist Party’s political triumph in
     Milwaukee, Wisconsin; see, for instance, D. Dale, “The Rule of the Socialists in Milwaukee
     and What They Are Doing,” Des Moines News (21 July 1910), p. 4. Until 1902, the News was
     part of the Scripps-McRae chain of newspapers located in the Midwest; see F.L. Mott,
     American Journalism: A History, 1690-1960 (3rd ed.: New York: Macmillan, 1962), p. 553.
40   See, for instance, the paper’s boldly-bannered front-page coverage of the famous suffragette
     march on Washington for President Wilson’s inauguration “Seven Thousand Women March
     Thru Washington,” Des Moines News (3 March 1913), p. 1.
41   The only moving picture theaters to advertise in the Register were the Colonial and Family,
     and they did so irregularly throughout 1912. The two moving picture theaters – the Columbia
     and the Palace – that advertised in the Cedar Rapids Republican, beginning in the summer of
     1912, did so several times a week. “Supplement for Iowa,” 624. Of the more than 30,000 people
     in Cedar Rapids, the census listed slightly more than 5,000 as “foreign-born white,” with the
     great majority coming from Austria (many of these Czechs).
42    See “Nervy as Ever to Act the Most Daring Things Ever Seen on the Stage!-Heroine of Movies,”
     Des Moines News (17 November 1912), p. 7; and “King Baggot Detests Sentimental Stuff; Longs
     To Be Regular Dyed-in-the-Wool Rip Roarin’ Joke,” Des Moines News (7 December 1912), p. 2.
43   “Scenes from the Life of Christ: 1.-Mary as a Girl at Nazareth,” Des Moines News (2 December
     1912), p. 3. The series included nineteen publicity photos in all, concluding with “On the Way
     to Calvary,” Des Moines News (22 December 1912), p. 12.
44   See, for instance, “At the Moving Picture Playhouses,” Des Moines Register and Leader (9
     February 1913), p. 7; and “Motion Picture Celebrities in the Public Eye,” Des Moines Register
     and Leader (18 March 1913), p. 8.
45   See, for instance, the Comedy Theatre ad in the Sunday Telegraph (12 March 1911), Section
     4.1, p. 4.
46   The Telegraph occasionally did print stories on exhibition, as in its brief report on the condi-
     tion of the city’s moving picture theaters, but not always about New York, as in its summary
     of moving picture theaters in Milwaukee “Conditions of Motion Picture Theatres in New
     York,” Sunday Telegraph (26 March 1911), Section 4.1, p. 4; and “As It Is in Old Milwaukee,
     Wis.,” Sunday Telegraph (10 April 1912), Section 4.2, p. 5.
47   The seating capacity for the Home and Superior come from “Some ‘Flickers’ in Picture
     Business,” Cleveland Leader (17 November 1912), Section B, p. 5; and “‘Superior’ Rises From
     Small Start,” Cleveland Leader (8 December 1912), Section B, p. 7.
48   The seating capacity for the Delmar comes from “Here Is Attractive Delmar Theater,”
     Cleveland Leader (22 December 1912), Section S, p. 5; that for the U. S. Theater, from “New U.
     S. Theater Opens to Crowds,” Cleveland Leader (10 March 1912), Section S, p. 6. See also
     “Among the Picture Theaters,” Motography (April 1912), p. 189.

                                                                                                    ­77
RICHARD ABEL

49 The seating capacity for the Clark comes from “Some Big ‘Flickers’ In Picture Business,”
   Cleveland Leader (8 December 1912), Section B, p. 7.
50 See “Figure It Yourself,” Cleveland Leader (21 January 1912), Section S, p. 6.
51 “Woodland to Have Fine New Theater,” Cleveland Leader (3 September 1911), Section B, p. 4.
   The seating capacity of the Penn Square comes from “Penn Square Theater, Cleveland, Ohio,”
   Moving Picture World (23 December 1911), pp. 998.
52 The seating capacities for the Dreamland and National, respectively, come from C. F. Morris,
   “A Picture Theater in the Mission Style,” Nickelodeon (November 1909), pp. 137-138; and C. F.
   Morris, “The National Theater at Cleveland,” Nickelodeon (December 1909), pp. 169-170.
53 See, for instance, the Orpheum ad, Cleveland Citizen (28 December 1912), p. 2; and the
   Princess ad, Cleveland Citizen (18 January 1913), p. 2. A block ad for a special Labor Day issue,
   in 1912, suggests that theaters in the northeast (Doan), east (Dixie, Glenside), and southeast
   (Market Square) commercial districts, and another on the city’s far west edge (Lakewood,
   Madison), attracted working-class customers-see the Cleveland Citizen (31 August 1912), p.
   12. The downtown Bronx also was included in this ad.
54 The Alpha Theater, 3206 Central Avenue, advertised almost weekly in the Cleveland Gazette,
   from July through December 1912.
55 For an extensive summary of Youngstown moving picture theaters, see E. Wheeler,
   “Youngstown, O.,” Moving Picture World (25 November 1911), pp. 650-651.
56 According to city directories, several of Youngstown’s initial moving picture men were in the
   liquor business: C. W. Deibel had been vice-president of Gallagher Company, a wholesaler in
   liquor and drugs; Dan Robbins had run a saloon on East Federal. It was Dan Robbins who, with
   the Warner brothers, opened a small vaudeville house and several nickelodeons under the
   name of Cascade Amusements in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1907-see “South Mill
   Street Theater Will Soon Open the Season,” New Castle Herald (8 November 1907), n.p.;
   “Cascade Theater to be Formally Opened to Public Tonight,” New Castle Herald (19 November
   1907), p. 1; and the Cascade ads, New Castle Herald (16 September 1908), p. 4. When the
   Warners returned to Youngstown, after developing a profitable rental exchange, Duquesne
   Amusement & Supply (in Pittsburgh), Harry Warner built the downtown Rex Theater with
   David Robbins, who had run the Robbins family grocery business on the western edge of the
   city.
57 The moving picture theaters on East Federal were named Columbus, Luna, Luxor, Napoli, and
   Roma.
58 See Wheeler, op. cit., p. 650; the photo-story on the reconstruction of the Dome theater in the
   Youngstown Vindicator (7 July 1912), p. 7; and the full-page ad for the opening of the New
   Dome Theatre in the Youngstown Vindicator (22 December 1912), p. 24. The seating capacity
   for the New Dome comes from this ad.
59 See the Hazelton Dome Theater ad, Youngstown Vindicator (18 August 1912), p. 17. This the-
   ater also was owned in part by Deibel.
60 See, for instance, the daily listings in Odeon ads in the Canton-News-Democrat (20 October
   1912), p. 13, (8 November 1912), p. 6, and (17 November 1912), p. 13. The Grand also switched
   to moving pictures exclusively for a time in early 1913; see the Grand ad, Canton News (29
   December 1912), p. 11.
61 The city’s major street car company built a summer amusement park, Ingersoll Park, at one
   terminus on the western edge of the city; its vaudeville theater showed moving pictures as
   early as 1902, and one street car line allowed eastside working-class residents direct access to
   it, without changing cars downtown.
62 Namur’s drugstore was still “the most popular” in the city in 1914-see the large Namur’s ad,
   Des Moines News (30 June 1914), p. 3. Miloslowsky rarely called attention to his ownership of
   the Family, but see J. Miloslowsky, “Family Reopens,” Des Moines Register and Leader (24 July
   1913), p. 3.

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63 The immigrant backgrounds of the city’s neighborhoods can be gathered from the churches
   listed in the Des Moines City Directory (Des Moines: R. I. Polk, 1908), pp. 53-57. The churches
   that still held services in Swedish or Norwegian as well as English were located on the east
   side of Des Moines.
64 See, for instance, the Idle Hour University Place Theatre ad, Des Moines News (12 September
   1911), p. 8; Namur’s (Highland Park) Theatre ad, Des Moines News (15 November 1911), p. 6;
   “Photo Plays,” Des Moines News (18 February 1912), p. 6; and Namur’s block ad, Des Moines
   News (18 November 1912), p. 6.
65 See “Elbert & Getchel to Make Changes at Unique-Majestic,” Des Moines News (30 April 1911),
   p. 6; “Photo Plays,” Des Moines News (27 January 1912), p. 3; the Casino ad, Des Moines
   Register and Leader (4 December 1912), p. 4; the Theatre Royal ad, Des Moines News (2
   February 1913), p. 6; the Large Casino ad, Des Moines News (16 March 1913), p. 6; “Star Theatre
   Sold,” Des Moines News (9 May 1913), p. 4; “New Palace is Beautiful Theater,” Des Moines
   News (26 October 1913), p. 6; and “Black Cat Movie House,” Des Moines News (2 November
   1913), p. 2. The seating capacities for the Unique and Casino come, respectively, from the
   Unique ad, Des Moines News (26 January 1913), p. 6; and the Casino ad, Des Moines News (16
   March 1913), p. 6.
66 “Moving Pictures,” Des Moines News (20 August 1912), p. 4. For some sense of the prosperity
   of moving picture theaters in Des Moines, especially those of A. H. Blank, see “Local Men Find
   Movie Shows Are Paying Ventures,” Des Moines News (23 October 1913), p. 2.
67 Unlike in Cleveland, Des Moines’s African-American population was not large enough to have
   a moving picture theater of its own; in fact, theaters were segregated, as was revealed in the case
   in which a “negro justice of the peace of Bussey, Iowa” unsuccessfully sued the manager of the
   Royal Theater “Movie Man Freed in Color Case,” Des Moines News (27 June 1913), p. 4.
68 See, for instance, the extensive analysis of the Independent companies in Ellis Cohen, “In the
   Moving Picture Field,” Morning Telegraph (2 January 1910), Section 4.1, p. 4. The founding of
   the Sales Company followed close on the heels of the incorporation of the General Film
   Company (the distributing arm of the MPPC) and the bankruptcy of the Film Import &
   Trading Company; see Cohen, “In the Moving Picture Field,” Morning Telegraph (20 February
   1910), Section 4.1, p. 4, (20 March 1910), Section 4.1, p. 4, and (3 April 1910), Section 4.1, p. 4.
69 By 1912, those independent manufacturers included Thanhauser, Nestor, American, Solax,
   Champion, Éclair, Imp, Majestic, Gaumont, Great Northern, Reliance, and Republic. The only
   MPPC manufacturers were Lubin, Essanay, and Pathé (but for Pathé’s Weekly). The Sales
   Company was prominently advertised, but not the General Film Company.
70 See, for instance, “Licensed Film Releases” and “Independent Film Releases,” Morning
   Telegraph (5 March 1911), Section 4.1, p. 5.
71 See, for instance, the F. & E. Film, Lake Shore Film & Supply, Victor Film Service, and General
   Film ads, Cleveland Leader (31 December 1911), Section B, p. 7. In the spring of 1912, the Sales
   Company broke up into three companies: Film Supply (which advertised briefly in the Leader
   that fall and turned out to be the least powerful), Universal, and eventually Mutual. The first
   Warner’s Feature Film ad appeared in the Cleveland Leader (2 March 1913), Section M, p. 11.
72 “Photo-Plays and Players,” Cleveland Leader (7 January 1912), Section S, p. 7. Ads for Pathé’s
   Weekly, listing from six to ten new subjects each week, began to appear in the Cleveland
   Leader (28 January 1912), Section W, p. 8. See also “Boosting a Pathé Film,” Cleveland Leader (28
   January 1912), Section W, p. 8.
73 “Big Holiday Bills at Local Theaters,” Cleveland Leader (22 December 1912), Section S, p. 5.
74 See the Princess ads, Youngstown Vindicator (15 October 1911), p. 15, (19 November 1911), p.
   18, and (24 December 1911), p. 16.
75 See the Rex ads, Youngstown Vindicator (21 April 1912), p. 21, and (23 June 1912), p. 18.
76 See “Rex Changes Hands: Manager Remains,” Youngstown Vindicator (19 January 1913), p. 21;
   and the Rex ad, Youngstown Vindicator (26 January 1913), p. 19.

                                                                                                    ­79
RICHARD ABEL

77 See, for instance, the Orpheum ad, Canton News-Democrat (19 November 1911), p. 16, p. 17.
78 See, for instance, the Colonial ads, Des Moines News (30 April 1912), p. 7, and (14 May 1912), p.
   2.
79 See the Elite ads, Des Moines News (6 August 1911), p. 6, (3 September 1911), p. 6, and (10
   September 1911), p. 6.
80 See the Elite ad, Des Moines News (24 September 1911), p. 6.
81 Laemmle Film Service, which would become part of Universal in late spring 1912, had a branch
   in Des Moines by 1911; see the Sales ad, Moving Picture World (5 August 1911), p. 260. Mutual
   opened its branch office a year later-see the Mutual ad, Moving Picture World (17 August 1912),
   p. 611.
82 See, for instance, the Palace ad for Universal’s The Massacre of the Sante Fe Trail, Cedar Rapids
   Republican (5 October 1912), p. 3; and the Columbia ads for Gaumont’s The Land of Lions,
   Cedar Rapids Republican (31 October 1912), p. 3, and (3 November 1912), p. 3.
83 Again, one of the features consistently advertised was Pathé’s Weekly-see the Princess ads,
   Cedar Rapids Republican (30 October 1912), p. 3, and (20 November 1912), p. 3.
84 See, for instance, “‘Spectator’s’ Comments,” New York Dramatic Mirror (31 January 1912), p. 51.
   For a thorough overview of the initial introduction of American two- and three-reel films, espe-
   cially in terms of production and distribution, and from the standpoint of the trade press, see
   Bowser, op. cit., pp. 191-204.
85 See, for instance, the Cameraphone, Avenue, and Tabor ads, Cleveland Leader (7 January 1912),
   Section B, p. 7; and the Mall ad (24 March 1912), Section S, p. 6.
86 Each Sunday “The Week in Moving Pictures” column in the Youngstown Vindicator described
   and remarked on from one to four new films each day shown at the Dome, Palace, and
   Orpheum; occasionally each theater would mention its change of films daily.
87 See, for instance, the Unique ad, Des Moines News (18 January 1912), p. 8; the Elite ad, Des
   Moines News (28 January 1912), p. 6; and the Casino ad, Des Moines Register and Leader (4
   December 1912), p. 4.
88 See “Photo Plays,” Des Moines News (31 January 1912), p. 8; the Family ads, Des Moines News
   (19 April 1912), p. 14, and (21 April 1912), p. 6; and the Star ad, Des Moines Register and Leader
   (21 April 1912), p. 5.
89 See “Photo Plays,” Des Moines News (18 February 1912), p. 6.
90 The Cozy listed its “Vitagraph night” in “At Leading Theaters,” Cleveland Leader (14 January
   1912), Section S, p. 5. The Orpheum began advertising its Essanay westerns every Sunday in the
   Cleveland Leader (10 November 1912), Section B, p. 5.
91 See “‘Spectator’s’ Comments,” New York Dramatic Mirror (8 November 1911), p. 26. The argu-
   ment that many theaters had only one projector (which mandated a break, an illustrated song,
   or a vaudeville act between reels) seems far from tenable. In Youngstown, for instance, in late
   1911, the Dome was using three projectors; the Orpheum, Palace, and Bijou all used two; see
   Wheeler, op. cit., p. 650. At the same time in Canton, the Odeon boasted of its two Edison pro-
   jectors-see the Odeon ad, Canton News-Democrat (29 October 1911), p. 10. Information on the
   number of projectors used in theaters in Cleveland is more difficult to come by, but if the small
   downtown Crescent (300 seats), with its two projectors, is any indication, a two-projector sys-
   tem must have been relatively standard in commercial district theaters by 1911; see C. F.
   Morris, “A Cleveland Fireproof Theater,” Nickelodeon (15 April 1910), pp. 197-198. In Des
   Moines, the Casino used at least two “Powers machines”-see the Casino ad, Des Moines
   Register and Leader (4 December 1912), p. 4. Although never mentioned, the Colonial proba-
   bly used two projectors because it consistently stressed its “continuous” programs and, in
   early 1911, could afford to install the only “Plate Glass Mirror Screen outside of New York and
   Chicago”; see the Colonial ad, Des Moines News (17 January 1911), p. 3. Notably, however, the
   Family Theater did not add a second projector until the summer of 1913; “Family Reopens,”
   Des Moines Register and Leader (24 July 1913), p. 3.

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92 See the Dome ads, Youngstown Vindicator (10 December 1911), p. 21, and (7 January 1912), p.
   16; the Princess ad, Youngstown Vindicator (31 March 1912), p. 20; and the Orpheum ads,
   Youngstown Vindicator (12 May 1912), p. 18, and (19 May 1912), p. 21.
93 See the Park ads, Youngstown Vindicator, from 5 November 1911, p. 17, to 31 March 1912, p.
   20.
94 Just prior to the film’s release, the Leader also printed a special photo-story on Mabel
   Taliaferro who starred in Cinderella-see “Famous Actress in Film,” Cleveland Leader (17
   December 1911), Section S, p. 7.
95 Feature & Educational Film ads promoted Zigomar in the Cleveland Leader from January 14
   to February 4. The company also may have paid for the photo-story on this “great detective
   film” appearing in the Cleveland Leader (4 February 1912), Section S, p. 6.
96 The company or its distributor, Film Supply, may have paid for the photo-story on 101-Bison’s
   The Crisis which, in conjunction with Film d’Art’s Camille (with Sarah Bernhardt) and
   Biograph’s The Girl and Her Trust, appeared in the Cleveland Leader (7 April 1912), Section S,
   p. 8.
97 See the Colonial ads, Des Moines News (3 January 1912), p. 5, and (11 January 1912), p. 6.
98 See the Family ads, Des Moines News (21 April 1912), p. 6, and (5 May 1912), p. 6.
99 See, for instance, the Dome Theatre ad, Youngstown Vindicator (23 February 1913), p. 17.
100 See, for instance, the Princess ads, Youngstown Vindicator (16 February 1913), p. 18 (16 March
   1913), p. 21.
101 See the Cameraphone ad, Cleveland Leader (5 May 1912), Section W, p. 8; and the Broadway
   ad, Cleveland Leader (15 September 1912), Section W, p. 7. In June, The Coming of Columbus
   not only played at two theaters in Canton but was promoted with a full-page article on the
   film’s production and story-see the Odeon ad, Canton News-Democrat (2 June 1912), p. 16; the
   Orpheum ad, Canton News-Democrat (16 June 1912), p. 12; and “Wonderful Moving Pictures,”
   Canton News-Democrat (16 June 1912), n. p. The Orpheum even sponsored a contest inviting
   school children to write essays on The Coming of Columbus-see the Orpheum ad, Canton
   News-Democrat (26 May 1912), p. 14. This promotion may have been designed to counter the
   influence of the Italian “Black Hand” gang in Canton, a city which, by the 1920s, would gain
   some notoriety as a Mafia stronghold and later be branded the “Little Chicago” of Ohio.
   Always known for its “muckraking” tendencies, the News would win a 1927 Pulitzer Prize
   “for [editor] D. R. Mellet’s campaign against the city’s underworld that cost him his life;” A.
   McClung Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America: The Evolution of a Social Instrument (New
   York: Macmillan, 1937), p. 646.
102 See the Norwood ad, Cleveland Leader (17 November 1912), Section B, p. 5. Appearing with
   The Auto Bandits of Paris was another Éclair crime thriller, The Mystery of the Notre Dame
   Bridge (three reels).
103 See “Genuine African Jungle,” Cleveland Leader (10 November 1912), Section B, p. 5; the
   Delmar ad, Cleveland Leader (17 November 1912), Section B, p. 5; the Penn Square ad,
   Cleveland Leader (1 December 1912), Section B, p. 5; and “Coming Events at Local Theaters,”
   Cleveland Leader (8 December 1912), Section B, p. 7.
104 See “The Movies,” Des Moines News (16 March 1913), p. 6.
105 See the Colonial ad, Des Moines News (20 March 1913), p. 8.
106 See the Unique ads, Des Moines News (21 January 1913), p. 5 (26 January 1913), p. 6.
107 See the Theatre Royal ad, Des Moines News (2 February 1913), p. 6.
108 See the Family ad, Des Moines News (27 January 1913), p. 6.
109 Queen Elizabeth first played at Powers Theatre in Chicago, in the middle of August-see the
   Famous Players ad, Moving Picture World (17 August 1912), p. 679. See the Berchel ad, Des
   Moines News (14 September 1912), p. 5.
110 See “Preliminary Peeps at the Peep Shows” and the Colonial ad, Cleveland Leader (27 October
   1912), Section M, p. 3, 4.

                                                                                               ­81
RICHARD ABEL

111 See the Superior and Dreamland ads, Cleveland Leader (10 November 1912), B5; and the
   Quincy ad, Cleveland Leader (15 December 1912), Section S, p. 5.
112 See the Rex ad, Youngstown Vindicator (24 November 1912), p. 26.
113 See the Grand ad, Canton News ( February 1913),
114 See the Duchess ad, Cleveland Leader (22 December 1912), Section M, p. 5.
115 See the U. S. Theatre ad, Cleveland Leader (2 February 1913), Section B, p. 4; and the Mall ad,
   Cleveland Leader (23 February 1913), Section M, p. 11.
116 See the Rex ad, Youngstown Vindicator (23 February 1913), p. 20.
117 See “The Movies,” Des Moines News (4 February 1913), p. 6; and “Great Demand to See Satan,”
   Des Moines News (8 May 1913), p. 8.
118 See the Crystal ad, Cedar Rapids Republican (7 May 1913), p. 3.
119 See “East End To Have Two New Theaters,” Cleveland Leader (22 October 1911), Section M, p.
   5.
120 See “Protest Against Use of Name, ‘Movie’,” Cleveland Leader (20 October 1912), Section S, p.
   5.
121 See the special “Theatergoers Section,”, Cleveland Leader (29 December 1912) and (5 January
   1913).
122 See “Film Fairies: Stars of the Stilly Screen,” Cleveland Leader (21 May 1911), Copperplate
   Pictorial Section, p. 3; “Reproducing on Paper Faces Seen by Thousands on Screen,” Cleveland
   Leader (11 June 1911), Copplerplate Pictorical Section, p. 3; and “Santa Claus’ Stationary
   Portraits of Moving Picture Stars,” Cleveland Leader (24 December 1911), Copperplate
   Pictorial Section, p. 3. The Leader was among the first newspapers to apply the fotogravure
   process to printing special picture pages; see Lee, op. cit., pp. 128.
123 See “The Week in Moving Pictures,” Youngstown Vindicator (28 July 1912), p. 17.
124The Des Moines Mail and Times, a weekly aimed at women, and the Des Moines Register and
   Leader both gave special attention to the musical and theatrical events that defined the city’s
   high culture.
125 See, for instance, Price, “Stunning Mary Pickford – Only 19 Now – Quits $10,000 ‘Movies’
   Career to Shake Her Golden Locks as a Belasco Star,” Des Moines News (9 January 1913), p. 7;
   Price, “Daily News Reporter Writes From Great California Studios Where They Make Your
   Wild West Pictures,” Des Moines News (1 February 1913), p. 6; and Price, “Charming Little
   Woman Runs ‘Movie’ Business By Herself and Makes Big Success,” Des Moines News (9
   February 1913), p. 2.
126 See “Auto Bandits Terrorize Paris, Rivaling Exploits of Most Notorious Westerners,” Des
   Moines News (13 April 1912), p. 4; and Mauric Le Blanc, “Bonnot, Tiger Bandit,” Cleveland
   Leader (5 May 1912), Section C, pp. 1-2. See also “The Phantom Bandits: Paris, Ever the Home
   of the Unusual, Furnishes the World Its Very First Automobile Ghost Story,” San Francisco
   Chronicle (21 April 1912), Sunday Magazine, p. 2.
127 See “The Auto Cracksman Loots - Sometimes Slays - and Is Off Like a Flash,” New York
   Sunday Tribune (3 September 1911), Section 2, p. .1.
128 See “Zigomar a Great Success,” Cleveland Leader (17 December 1911), Section S, p. 7; the Rex
   and Park ads, Youngstown Vindicator (31 December 1911), p. 16 (7 January 1912), p. 17; the
   Auditorium ad, Canton Repository (25 February 1912), p. 15; and the Elite ad, Des Moines News
   (18 April 1912), p. 7.
129 See the Auditorium ad, Canton News-Democrat (10 November 1912), p. 17; and the Princess
   ads for largely French crime thrillers, Youngstown Vindicator, from 19 January 1913, p. 20, to
   23 March 1913, p. 24.
130 See the Princess ad, Cleveland Leader (18 August 1912), Section W, p. 5; and the Alpha ad,
   Cleveland Gazette (14 September 1912), p. 3.
131 See the Alpha ad, Cleveland Gazette (19 October 1912), p. 3; and the Norwood ad, Cleveland
   Leader (17 November 1912), Section B, p. 5.

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                         A MARRIAGE OF EPHEMERAL DISCOURSES: NEWSPAPERS AND MOVING PICTURES

132 See the Palace ad for Zigomar II, Cedar Rapids Republican (4 July 1912), p. 3; the Columbia ads
   for Gaumont and Éclair crime thrillers, Cedar Rapids Republican (24 July 1912), p. 3, (28 July
   1912), p. 3 (8 September 1912), p. 3 (15 September 1912), p. 3; and the Crystal ads for Zigomar III
   and Fantomas, Cedar Republican (30 August 1913), p. 3 (7 September 1913), p. 3.
133 See, for instance, the editorial cartoon, Cleveland Leader (25 June 1911), p. 1; the ads for home
   moving picture machines and play suits, Cleveland Leader (22 September 1911), Sunday
   Magazine back cover; and the “Tenderfoot Tim” comic strip, Cleveland Leader (27 November
   1912), Comic Weekly, p. 3.
134 See, for instance “Summer Amusements” and the 101 Ranch Wild West ad, Des Moines News
   (28 July 1912), p. 12. See also the Colonial ad for Selig’s three-reel Diamond ‘S’ Ranch, Des
   Moines News (21 March 1912), p. 8.
135 See, for instance, the Orpheum ad, Canton News-Democrat (28 April 1912), p. 14; and
   “Orpheum Theater,” Canton News-Democrat (9 June 1912), p. 12.
136 See, for instance, “Anderson at the Orpheum,” Cleveland Leader (10 November 1912), Section
   B, p. 5.
137 See “New Theater Has A Double Screen” and “Custer Film at Oxford,” Cleveland Leader (13
   October 1912), Section W, p. 8.
138 See, for instance, “The Grub Stake Mortgage - A Moving Picture Short Story of Western Life,”
   Des Moines News (17 January 1912), p. 10; “Where Broadway Meets the Mountains - A Moving
   Picture Short Story of the West,” Des Moines News (27 January 1912), p. 3; and the American
   Film ads in Moving Picture News (9 March 1912), p. 51, and Moving Picture World (16 March
   1912), pp. 980-981.
139 See the Grand Opera House ad, Canton News-Democrat (15 January 1913), p. 4.
140 See, for instance, “A Modern Race of Amazons,” Cleveland Leader (6 August 1911), Section C, p.
   1; Woman Suffrage Party, “Her Job,” Cleveland Leader (1 September 1912), Section M, p. 4; and
   T. B., “The Stick-Up Girl: The True Story of an Uncaught Outlaw,” Cleveland Leader (16 March
   1913), Feature Section, p. 1.
141 See, for instance, “Gene Gauntier as Girl Spy in New Warner Feature Film,” Cleveland Leader
   (9 March 1913), Section M, p. 5; “Mary Pickford Again To Play Before Camera,” Cleveland
   Leader (1 June 1913), Section C, p. 4; and “Amusements and Places of Entertainment,”
   Cleveland Leader (16 November 1913), Section S, p. 10.
142 See Gertrude Price, “A Day With General Jones and Her Army of ‘Hikers’ on Their Way to the
   Capitol,” Des Moines News (23 February 1913), p. 3.
143 See “Suffragettes See Parade Picture,” Des Moines News (25 June 1912), p. 5; “Votes For Women
   in Picture Play,” Des Moines News (27 June 1912), p. 5; “Daring Girl Rider Coming,” Des Moines
   News (27 July 1912), p. 3; and “Summer Amusements,” Des Moines News (28 July 1912), p. 12.
144 See Price, “The Great Spirit Took Mona, But in This Girl She Lives,” Des Moines News (6
   February 1913), p. 12; Price, “Western Girl You Love in the ‘Movies’ is a Sure Enough Suffrager,”
   Des Moines News (11 February 1913), p. 3; Price, “Movie Girl in Social Whirl Is Artist-
   Horsewoman-Wit,” Des Moines News (8 April 1913), p. 4; Price, “Runs, Rides, Rows,” Des
   Moines News (16 April 1913), p. 6; and Price, “Picturesque Indian Maid Is Fearless-Ambitious-
   Clever!” Des Moines News (27 April 1913), p. 4.




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