Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/521
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE
��sn
���Back Views in Twelve Positions.
��graph is far from being perfected, it may be that before long such copies of plays and operas by leading actors and singers with the best possible stage set- tings may be more effective than the average performance, as the photo- graphic reproduction of a great paint- ing may have more artistic value than an inferior original. As much as $150,000 has been spent on the pro- duction of a single set of films, and leading actors, such as Madame Bern-
��hardt and Sir H. Beerbohn Tree have acted before the film camera. At pres- ent most of the shows exhibit crude farces and melodramas, and it may not be altogether satisfactory that a third as much money is spent on them as on our entire public school system. We may hope, however, that the moving- picture show will make possible a dem- ocratic development of art and become an educational institution of the great- est possible consequence.
�� �
