Well, stage plays take a long time to write and produce, justlike movies, so for one thing, they provided variety. Anotherreason they were popular initially was the sheer newness factor.People were fascinated to see the technology where you couldactually see moving pictures. Also, stage plays are limited to acertain region, or perhaps a tour, whereas movies can be copied anddistributed widely. A smaller area that doesn't have a live theatreprogram would love to see movies rather than having to travel to alarger city where they were putting on a play.All of the above(APEX)