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Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
In those days of rich theatrical glory there was born in New Jersey the
modern struggle between stage and screen. The Fort Lee bluffs anticipated
Hollywood by raiding Broadway for its stars and thus became the first
motion picture production center in the world. Between 1907 and 1916,
21 companies and 7 studios here laid the foundation for the present-day
cinema industry. Primitive in method and naive in conception, the Fort
Lee producers nevertheless developed Mary Pickford, John Bunny, and
Broncho Billy Anderson, as well as the comedies of "Fatty" Arbuckle and
Mabel Normand, the adventures of Pearl White and the romances of
Theda Bara and Clara Kimball Young.
Oblivious to the motion picture threat, the stage soon yielded to the
pressure of a more immediate foe. Once again the roll of war shaped the
course of the theater in New Jersey; the road began to crumble, stock
companies disintegrated, and the upstart "flickers" invaded the old opera
houses. The muster of men, however, contained the seeds of birth as well
as those of death for the theater. Although amateur or little theaters had
been in sporadic operation in the State since before 1900, they first became
important when they furnished the cluster of New Jersey training camps
with entertainment and diversion. After the war, little theaters became
as necessary to the well-bred community as plans for a soldiers' and sailors'
monument. At the same time, under the leadership of Jesse Lynch Williams' Theatre Intime at Princeton, the State's colleges elevated the theater from a career to a profession by instituting extensive dramatic training
courses and workshops. Even before this development in the college, the
Thalians of Barringer High School in Newark had offered musical and
dramatic productions of such unusual finish that between 1912 and 1918
they were recognized as one of the Nation's outstanding little theater
groups.
By the time the old opera houses had been wired for sound pictures,
the growth of little theaters in New Jersey was recognized as the virtual
savior of "live entertainment." Moreover, the movement converted the
emphasis on theater from the passive playgoing of thousands to the active
contact of hundreds with dramatic production and its problems. In the
last decade the groups have continued to increase so that their aggregate
audiences challenge the size of those of the professional theater.
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