The story beautiful: Fr. MacCorry

              THE STORY BEAUTIFUL


Rev. Fr. MacCorry.

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Rev. Fr. MacCorry
Announcement



THE REV. FR. MacCORRY
, the eminent missionary and lecturer, of New York, needs no words of introduction to the American public.  His work has been before our Catholic and non-Catholic population for many years and speaks trumpet-tongued for itself.  His reputation is easily national, his surpassing eloquence having crowded to overflowing the largest church edifices and auditoriums across the country.  The 
Story Beautiful
 is unquestionably the highest reach of both his artistic and oratorical ability, and has been produced at times on consecutive nights throughout an entire week in the same auditoriums to ever-increasing audiences—a fact, we think, somewhat unique on the lecture platform today—and which speaks more eloquently than any words of ours of the intrinsic merits of both the man and his work.




T

HE STORY BEAUTIFUL
 should not be confounded with 
stereopticon
 or 
illustrated
 or 
moving picture
 exhibitions as generally understood.  It is quite unlike anything attempted on the American platform.  An immense screen of white canvas, surrounded by a massive gold Florentine frame is used for the projection.  The paintings and 
effects
 dissolve on and off the canvas with singular impressiveness.  The lecturer occupies a position in front of a curtain of crushed black velvet and is illuminated by a halo,—soft moonlight in its effect—his every gesture and facial expression being distinctly visible.  The music blends at times with the speaker's language—a sub-tone to his descriptions—or bursts in as the apex of a climax, carrying the conception which the lecturer is trying at the moment to convey to altitudes quite beyond the possibility of human speech.





OTHER LECTURES



The Might of Manhood

A Plea for Light, for Liberty and IndependenceHis soul was like a star and dwelt apart.—
Browning.

Intemperance—Our National Calamity

Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in * * * * drunkenness.
—
St. Paul.


A Ramble in the Realms of Childhood
 (Illuminated)
A plea for the better care, training and education of the children of the Republic




The Story Beautiful

Rev Fr. MacCorry

An Art-Musical-Lecture Recital on the Life and Labors of the meek and lowly Nazarene

A

BIG STORY
 told in a big, broad way, illuminated by reproduction in fac-simile colors of the world's greatest modern paintings.  The paintings illuminating this lecture—more than one hundred in number—are nearly all copyrighted and for the most part unknown in this country, and were colored expressly for 
The Story Beautiful
 by Mr. Joseph Hawkes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.  The pictures are copied in replica directly from the original canvas as they hang to-day in the great art galleries of America and Europe.  They are unquestionably among the finest and most artistic specimens of coloring ever attempted on this side of the water.  Accompanied by an elaborate classical setting of vocal and instrumental music.  The ensemble—an earnest effort to assemble in a single evening the best things that art, music and literature have produced on the Life and Labors of our Saviour.




A Sample Musical Setting





HALLELUJAH CHORUS—(Messiah)


Handel




FEAR NOT, O ISRAEL—(Jeremiah VI)
Quartet
Max Spicker op. 50


PRAISE YE—(Attila)
Vocal Trio
G. Verdi



NOEL—O HOLY NIGHT—Solo-Quartet
(Sung at Scene of the Nativity)
Adolphe Adam



LES RAMEAUX—Solo-Quartet
(Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem)
Faure



MARCHE FUNEBRE—Instrumental
(The Carrying to the Tomb)
Chopin



REGINA COELI—Chorus
(Scene of the Resurrection)
Stearns



RECESSIONAL—(Praise Ye the Father) Chorus
(March Pontificale)
Gounod




The musical setting of The Story Beautiful is supplied by local talent.  The program may be simplified or omitted entirely as occasion demands.  Naturally, however, its rendition lends largely to the general effect.





Rev. Fr. MacCorry
Press Comments

NEW YORK SUN


Altho the house is in utter darkness the speaker stands in a halo of soft light, his every gesture and facial expression being visible to the audience.  It is quite unlike anything we have seen before upon the subject and brings the life and times of the Messiah up thro the dim azure of the ages until one thinks it must all have happened a few yesterdays ago.




SACRAMENTO (Cal.) BEE


There is the Oberammergau Passion Play of the Tyrol peasants and 'The Story Beautiful' of this Paulist priest.  We have seen them both, and there has been nothing done on this sde of the water to approach the latter.  It brings the eternal verities down to earth second only to the Passion Play itself.




SAN FRANCISCO (Cal.) CALL


The lecturer touched the fountain-heads of Art, Music and Literature with his magic wand, and they yielded up the grandest and most precious and the best.  His word-painting vied in brilliancy and in some instances won the mastery over the exquisite coloring of the paintings projected on the massive screen.




ANACONDA (Mont.) STANDARD


His scathing denunciation of the injustice of the world at the scene of the woman taken in sin—the injustice which stones an erring woman but condones a more sinful man—was like a livid stream of lava, consuming and irresistable in its fiery force.




SCRANTON (Pa.) REPUBLICAN


The receipts of 
The Story Beautiful
 last night for the benefit of the Good Sisters were two thousand three hundred dollars.  What greater words of commendation could be said for the intrinsic merits of the recital or Scranton's appreciation of Fr. Mac Corry's surpassing work?




CHICAGO RECORD-HERALD


The speaker's complete mastery of that tremendous audience was marvelous.  From the sobs of men and women that shook the entire auditorium at the description of Hoffman's 
Virgin in the Tomb
 to the thrill and ecstasy of the Resurrection, was but five minutes at most but the transformation was absolute, and smiles of triumph played across the audience thro tear-wet faces.




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