REX ON RECORD
THE FIRST MOVING PICTURES OF THE NEW ORLEANS CARNIVAL.
Interesting Views Secured of the Arrival of the King, the Presentation of the City's Keys and the Gorgeous Daylight Parade on Tuesday--Next Year the Night Parades Will Be Taken - The Films Designed for the General Market.
This year, for the first time, some of the more striking scenes of the great Carnival have been perpetuated in moving picture records. The photographs were not taken for any particular theatre or amusement enterprise, but for the general market, just as similar records are nowadays made of almost every important event in the world. A number of sets will be sent to Europe.
The operator who took the pictures was William N. Selig, president of the Selig Polyscope Company of Chicago. Yesterday Mr. Selig exhibited his apparatus to a Times-Democrat reporter and gave some interesting particulars of the work.
"I have been wanting to secure records of the New Orleans Carnival for the last two years," he said. "It is an absolutely unique event and I felt certain that the films would not only sell well at once, both here and in Europe, but that they would possess great historical value in future--in other words, that they would increase in interest with age. However, something has always intervened and this is the first chance I have had to get down. Possibly it is a good thing, for meanwhile the recording instrument has been greatly improved and the pictures I have secured this week are certainly much finer than any that could have been, made in the past.
"I did all my Carnival work Monday and Tuesday," continued Mr. Selig, "and the first record I took was of Rex's royal yacht as it approached the landing. The picture will show the attendant marine parade, with all the bustle and movement of the great throng at the water front, and will be one of the most attractive of the lot. I had two recording machines at work, and as soon as the first had secured the river view, the second was brought into play to take the landing of Rex and his court. I think I got a very effective and picturesque record. I then hurried to the City Hall, where two stands had been erected for my machine directly opposite the stairs, and I was all ready for the monarch when he appeared. I took one set of pictures showing the presentation of the keys of the city, and another showing the entourage in general. The lighting was excellent and both negatives were undoubtedly successful. The last film includes a fine view of the Continental Guards.
*On Tuesday I took the daylight parade. The record will show the magnificent floats as they pass by one by one, with the extraordinary crowd upon Canal street as an appropriate background. It was the most enormous throng of people I have ever seen in a given space."
"You made no effort, then, to take any of the night parades?" said the reporter.
"No; I had no time to make the necessary arrangements for lighting, but next year I intend to take them all."
"What is necessary in the way of lights?"
"Well, my plan will be to erect a sort of canopy over the street at some point on the route and group under it a battery of twenty are lamps, each of 8000-candle power. Their concentrated light will be thrown downward by reflectors and will illuminate a section about twenty feet wide and forty feet long. My machines will be stationed at one side and as the floats come into the field of light they will be recorded upon the films. It is quite simple, but requires several days' preliminary work, and I came too late to undertake it this time."
"What do you propose to do with the records you have secured?" inquired the reporter.
*Oh! they will be placed on the market.' replied Mr. Selig. "My company makes records commercially as a regular business and they are sold like any other commodity. The purchasers are exhibitors and amusement managers of various kinds, together with a growing number of wealthy private individuals who own reproducing machines for their personal diversion. The record business is rapidly on the increase and several firms are engaged in it. both here and abroad. We have three European branches ourselves and try not to miss anything big. The last important record we took was the funeral of Queen Victoria."
The recording machine used by Mr. Selig in taking the Carnival pictures is a marvel of compactness and ingenuity. It weighs only fifteen pounds and is contained in a case only a trifle larger than the ordinary five by eight band camera. The motor power is supplied by turning a small crank which projects from one side.
"The crank has proven to be the most practical scheme for operating the machine," said Mr. Selig. "When the first ones were made they included a battery and electric moto and weighed as much as a piano. They had to be hauled around on trucks and it was utterly impossible to get one on the ground in an emergency -to take a fire, for instance. Since then they have been continually simplified. My earliest recorder weighed seventy pounds and I have cut down fifteen. By using the crank I am independent of outside power, and a few days' practice enables one to sustain a perfect regularity of motion. Owing to the lightness and convenience of the modern recording machine, is it possible to do very rapid work at a pinch. Last fall I took G. A. R. parade in Chicago at 2:30 and the views were exhibited at two theatres that same evening. The New Orleans Carnival pictures, by the way, were taken at a rate of twenty-five to the second, which is much faster than usual, and will give a great deal better definition than the slower records. The ordinary rate ranges from twelve to eighteen to the second, but I was anxious that these films should be as good as possible so as to give them a favorable introduction to the public."
Mr. Selig yesterday secured some interesting general records about the city, including a scene at the French Market, another at the steamship landing and a unique view of the old St. Louis Cemetery, through which he passed in an automobile. Mr. C. U. Kennedy of this city directed the vehicle and Mr. Selig held the recording machine his knees. The effect of the reproduction will be identical with a walk through the cemetery aisles. Mr. Selig, who is accompanied by his wife, will return to Chicago Monday. The New Orleans films will be out in a week or so at furthest.
The Times-Democrat, vendredi 22 février 1901, p. 3.