And an unsigned article is headlined:
Will Moving Pictures Save Madison Square Garden?
And the late Louis Reeves Harrison in his “Studio Saunterings” in The Moving Picture World:
I did not meet the mighty Griffith until after I had had an opportunity to study some examples of his marvelous work—he is the greatest of them all when he tries—but I found him to be keenly alive to the future possibilities of the new art to which he has so materially contributed.... His productions show lofty inspirations mixed with a desire to help the world along, a trend of thought that is poetic, idealistic with a purifying and revivifying influence upon the audience that can best be excited through tragedy.
The inquiry department of magazines published replies of this sort almost every week:
Since the lady is in the Biograph, we premise her name is Jane Doe. ’Tis the best we can do.
Or this:
No, John Bunny is not dead, report to the contrary notwithstanding. Miss Turner, Miss Lawrence, Miss Pickford, Miss Gauntier, and Miss Joyce are all alive, and there have been no funerals for Messrs. Costello, Delaney, Johnson, Moore, or others.
Or this:
Questions about tall, thin girls two years old are barred. Keep up to date.