Motion picture news booking guide (1929)

J. D. Williams Executive Vice President World Wide Pictures , Inc. HO West 46th Street New York, N. Y. JAMES DIXON WILLIAMS, familiarly known as "Jaydee,” was born In Credo, W. Va., February 27, 1877. At the age of sixteen he left high school to become treasurer of a local theatre. He edited and published a combination programhouse organ and sold advertising in it as his first boyhood business venture. He was one of the first showmen to exploit motion pictures in a "black top” tent on tour. He opened and operated four moving picture shows in Vancouver, B. C., sold out and moved to Spokane, Wash., where he had two theatres. In 1909 he went to Australia where he founded The Greater J. D. Williams Amusement Company whose chain of continuous motion picture theatres were at that time among the finest and most successful in the world. He later was the prime mover, with other leaders, in promoting a merger which combined The Greater J. D. Williams chain of theatres and Film Exchanges throughout Australasia with Wests, Ltd., and Spencers, Ltd., under the names of Union Theatres, Ltd., and Australasian Films, Ltd., which companies were so successful that to the present day they occupy the dominant position in the Australasian theatre and film distribution fields. The Williams theatres, the first continuous houses in the country, were the backbone and nucleus of the present powerful Union Theatres chain. In 1913 he sold out his Australian interests and made a tour of the wqrld as representative of several American film producers. Returning to America he interested W. W. Hodkinson, then a Pacific Coast Exchange operator, to come to New York for the organization of a national distributing company which later developed into the genesis of the present Paramount Company. In 1916 he organized the First National Exhibitors’ Circuit, Inc., now known as First National Pictures, Inc. He remained as general manager of this company for six years. In 1924 he organized the Ritz Carlton Pictures, Inc., of which the late Rudolph Valentino was the first star. In 1926 he went to England where he organized British International Pictures, Ltd., and built the large modern studios at Elstree, near London, now regarded as one of the world’s finest production plants. In 1928 with J. Douglas Watson, John Maxwell, E. W. Hammons, and Alexander Aronson as associates he organized World Wide Pictures, Inc., of New York, the first American nation-wide distributing company to specialize in imported films exclusively. He is at present (January, 1929) Executive Vice President of this Company whose offices are at 130 West 46th Street, New York City. During his career he has played an important part in the progress and development of the motion picture industry, both in America and Europe. His business dealings with Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, D. W. Griffith, Rudolph Valentino, and other leading stars and directors furthered their careers as independent producers. He was associated with the growth of such producers as Louis B Mayer, Joseph M. Schenck and Thomas H. Ince. He was named by President Harding as representative of the Motion Picture Industry to the National Unemployment Commission in 1922. He had the honor of being elected as one of the ten men who had done most for the Motion Picture Industry in the vote of readers of the Motion Picture News. He now resides in New York with Mrs. Williams, whom he married in Sydney, Australia, in 191 5. 70