The Delhi Durbar
Press Notices Relating to the Series “With Our King and Queen Through India”
Thanks to the remarkable invention of KINEMACOLOR, the millions of Americans who could not attend the Durbar have had it brought to them in all its spirited action and glowing color effects. New Yorkers are crowing the New York theatre to see the Durbar in KINEMACOLOR. It is a wonderful thing to be able to step from the rush and whirl of American life and be transported as if by the touch of Aladdin’s lamp, to the marvellously different environment of India during the Durbar. In a perfect riot of color, as could be seen nowhere else but ‘on India’s coral strand,’ the KINEMACOLOR invention presents a succession of gorgeous pageants.” Buffalo News
"After KINEMACOLOR there scarcely seems to be much more left for development in moving pictures. We have had, of course, color photography before this, but the films were abominably crude - an offence instead of a delight to the eye. It was not merely as in the pictures, sketches and impressions that one has seen a suggestion of the glories of the Durbar, but the real thing itself, a mass of glowing shifting color that left one gasping for breath. As film after film unrolls one knows why the special correspondents' vocabulary gave out early in the tour, and most of them were forced to take refuge to conventional rhetoric." Northern Whig
“No words could do justice to the glorious harmonies of color that distinguish the KINEMACOLOR series. Those who have not yet seen the pictures now on view at the Opera House can have no conception of their truth and splendour. Even amongst those who actually witnessed the great Indian Durbar there could have been few who saw it so completely or at such an advantage as is portrayed by means of this superb series of KINEMACOLOR pictures. None of the details are lacking, and no one can fail to be impressed by the pomp and magnificence of the ceremony and the incidents associated with it." Belfast Newsletter
"If anyone bad suggested two years ago that New York would pay to see motion pictures on Broadway the prediction would have raised a laugh. Yet this prediction has come true and now all New York is flocking to a leading playhouse to see the Durbar pictures, and is cheerfully paying the Broadway scale of prices to do so." Buffalo Express
"The KINEMACOLOR pictures of the Durbar are the last word in beauty and realism. For two hours they spread before the eyes a gorgeous panorama covering all the principal events of the Durbar. Not only do the scenes move but they are reproduced in all the glowing beauties of natural colors." New York American
"There is no need to seek the fabled East in the distant Orient. It may be found in Broadway at the New York Theatre where KINEMACOLOR is showing all the glorious color and movement of life in India in a series of pictures of the Durbar. They were not merely moving pictures - they pulsated with life, color and emotion." New York Telegraph
“These films without the least doubt whatever touch the high water-mark of KINEMACOLOR. Their coloring, their variety and their intense artistic as well as historical interest will surely never be surpassed. They are certainly the most extraordinary moving pictures ever seen”. The Tatler, London
“Mere pen-description can give nothing like an adequate idea of the wondrous colored representations of the Coronation Durbar.” Referee, London
“To those whom India is but a name, the KINEMACOLOR pictures of the visit of the King and Quwwn offer a wonderful vision of the splendour of our Empire of the East.” Observer, London
"When the first kinematograph films of the Durbar reached this country, it was obvious that the absence of color detracted greatly from the impressiveness of the spectacle, The KINEMACOLOR pictures, which depict every incident in its natural colors, remove that drawback, We could not all go to the Durbar, but we can do the next best thing and obtain a remarkable idea of its brilliance by visiting the Scala Theatre.” Times, London
"The Durbar KINEMACOLOR pictures have already ‘caught om' at the Scala to such an extent that several recent houses could have been sold out twice over, This is hardly a matter for wonderment, seeing that the pictures are the most amazing development of the art and science of kinematography that has yet been witnessed. Mr. Urban has every reason to be proud of his astonishing achievement," Standard, London
"The KINEMACOLOR pictures of the Coronation were amazing, but those of the Royal Indian tour are stupendous. Nothing so soul-stirring, so varied or so beautiful has ever been seen anywhere outside the actual places they depict, A picture that touched the audience with pride and patriotic fervour was that of the Indian Mutiny Veterans, but when the great Durbar itself was over there came the picture of the evening - one which shows the might of the Empire more than the majesty of all the ceremonies - the Review of 50,000 troops of all arms.” Evening News, London
“The KINEMACOLOR pictures of the Durbar surpass in completeness, in splendour, and in beauty, anything that has before been seen." Star, London
"Nothing like it has been seen before, and London will flock in its thousands to see a magnificent historic spectacle as if enacted before its very eyes." Sunday Times, London
"Mr. Charles Urban has been showing us in color at the Scala what the Durbar was really like, the Indian Government having wisely given him full facilities for doing so. It is safe to say that India has never been seen in London before as Mr. Urban shows it; even those who were at Delhi could not have seen so much of it as Mr. Urban unfolds before our eyes." Graphic, London
"Mr. Charles Urban promised something that would be a surprise in the way of pictures, and he has kept his promise. The KINEMACOLOR representations of the Royal visit to India, and the Coronation Durbar, are wonderful beyond belief. It is not surprising to find that the Scala Theatre is being filled at each performance." British Australasian, London
"With the aid of KINEMACOLOR, the spectator is able, weeks after the event, to have the whole scene re-enacted in his presence, to obtain in a couple of hours as vivid an impression of the Royal visit to India as if he had made the long journey thither." Scotsman
"Mr. Charles Urban's work in India is indeed a panorama of extraordinary beauty, and should prove invaluable to the historian.” Evening Times, London
"The whole performance is an education as well as a gratification, and Mr. Urban is to be heartily congratulated on the success of his labours." Financial News, London
“Scene after scene of vivid coloring and varied splendour such as have never before been witnessed in London or elsewhere." The Queen, London
"It is quite safe to say nothing so stirring, so varied, so beautiful, so stupendous as these moving pictures, all in their natural colors, has ever been seen before." Morning Post, London
"The animated pictures so far shown have conveyed an entirely inadequate idea of the gorgeous pageantry in India, Now one can see all the actual scenes and incidents, reproduced in living colors by KINEMACOLOR." Globe, London
"KINEMACOLOR offers a wonderful vision of the splendours of our Empire in the East." Daily Mail, London
“Mr. Urban and his staff may be unreservedly congratulated on the triumph of their efforts." Telegraph, London
"To Mr. Charles Urban and the KINEMACOLOR process belong the honour of giving London a magnificent representation of the wonders of the Durbar." Daily News, London
“KINEMACOLOR achieved its greatest triumph at the Scala." Daily Express, London
"Lights, colors, movement … a marvellously fine spectacle." Lady's Pictorial, London
"Mr. Charles Urban has once and for all demonstrated the immense superiority of his wonderfnl natural color photography as against the artificial efforts of the more formal black-and-white representations." News of the World, London
“We can remember nothing finer. To all our readers we would say, stand not upon the order of your going, but go and see the Durbar pictures." Court Journal, London
“The brilliant Oriental coloring is reproduced with absolute fidelity. The whole display is an Imperial object lesson, which it would be impossible to present by ordinary pictorial methods, and far more vivid than could be realised from the usual uncolored bioscope pictures." Lloyd's, London
"Nothing could well exceed the surpassing beauty of these scenes, and for a long time to come the Scala Theatre will be crowded with delighted audiences." Weekly Times & Echo, London
"That the fame of KINEMACOLOR had preceded it was proved by the fact that its first exhibition in Dundee was welcomed last night by a crowded and enthusiastic house, and it is not often that a new form of entertainment comes up so fully to its advance reputation. KINEMACOLOR IS, as everyone knows, the latest development of moving pictures, and by its means we get thrown on the screen not only the action and movement of the subject. But the very colors of Nature herself. No hue is too strong, no tint too delicate for KINEMACOLOR faithfully to reproduce. The vivid scarlet of the British Army, the gorgeous blue of the Eastern sky, were as perfect in their tone as the most delicate of the tints in some of the costumes." Dundee Evening Telegraph
“Last night Her Majesty's Theatre underwent a welcome invasion from an eager and expectant crowd, which took up occupancy in almost equal proportion in every part of the house. It is not perhaps easy to decide how much of the interest aroused may be evidence of the prevailing taste for pictures; how much a tribute to the reputation of Mr. Charles Urban's truly marvellous KINEMACOLOR, Certainly it would be well-nigh impossible to speak in praise of this wonderful series of Durbar pictures in terms which would be extravagant or exaggerated. For anything quite analogous to some of the spectacles which marked Their Imperial Majesties' Coronation celebrations and regal progress through their Indian Empire one must revert to the opulent pages of the Arabian Nights' entertainments or to the Biblical description - so lavish in detail - of the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon. KINEMACOLOR is indeed the royal road to the teaching of history, if, indeed, teaching be not too harsh a word. Take a boy to the KINEMACOLOR and he will betake himself betimes to Clive and Warren Hastings." Dundee Advertiser
“No better vehicle for the display of the powers of KINEMACOLOR could be imagined than the series of scenes illustrative of the recent State visit of Their Majesties the King and Queen to India, for the massing of troops, European and Indian, the assembling at Eastern potentates with their retinues, and the crowds in all the grandeur of native costumes offered an unequalled opportunity for a 'riot of color.' The pictures shown were wonderful in their clearness and steadiness, but more wonderful still for the perfect harmonies of color, often bold, but never discordant, which they showed." Dundee Courier
“Great as has been the advance made in recent years of the photographic art, the KINEMACOLOR pictures now being displayed for a season at the Grand Opera House are the last word in animated and life-like representations, and they surpass in beauty and naturalness anything previously shown in Belfast. We witnessed all the pomp and glitter of the Delhi Durbar; magnificent, and almost awe-inspiring in its scope, and characterised by that animation and vividness which only the East can produce. What a real insight into the power and majesty of the British Empire it afforded! The film ought to be seen by every child brought up under the serene protection and safety of the Union Jack." Belfast Evening Telegraph