The Moving Picture World (July 1907)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. 297 went to Cooperstown for a few days a couple of weeks ^0 and has not returned; a good five cent show in a good hall with good seat sand good management would paybig money in Ilion, N. Y." M; J. Farnbaker, of Cairo, has closed a contract with Messrs. George Goodman and Matt Carney for a lease on The Kentucky Theater, Paducah, 111., from July 1 to September 1, and started in a "sure enough moving pic- ture show" on the former date. He said: "I give all the effects. If you see an auto race in my show you not only hear the 'honk, honk,' but you can hear the buzzing en- gine and smell the scorching rubber tires when the ma- chine is buckling down to 80 miles per. If you see a lunatic asylum scene, you can hear the maddened cries of the 'nutty ones/ you can hear the horses run in fire alarms; can in fact get the benefit of every effect possible to make the scene more realistic." Mr. Farnbaker has just finished a season at the Marlowe Theater in Jack- son, Tenn., where he gave a moving picture show. For an operator he has Mr. Herman W. Niestadt. The "Airdome," Vincennes, Ind., is run by Frank Green, manager of the American Amusement Company, with moving pictures. The theater is located close to the corner of Main and Second streets and is the only open air theater in the city. It has an elevated floor and will seat 550 people. The theater has four large exits, the doors being six feet wide. * ♦ * Although a strong sentiment exists throughout the State for an open Sunday, Bristol, Conn., demonstrated that it still retains the Puritanical ideas. The Home Amusement Theater, which recently opened its doors there, advertised a free motion picture show and long jefore the starting time the place was crowded to the doors. The conduct of all concerned was orderly throughout, but continual complaints were made to the local police, who requested the manager of the show to stop the performance. This request was complied with rod the big crowd was turned out, to their great dis- appointment. One progressive young American com- mented upon the fact that New Britain and Hartford allow moving picture shows on Sunday and thought it peculiar that a free exhibition in heavenly Bristol would not be tolerated. * * * Moving pictures will be the attraction at Long Beach, Mass., this Summer at the theater, and beginning July 3 the management will give a programme of the latest and up-to-date productions". The best that can be procured will be seen and each week there will be a change of tfogramme. * * * Dreamland, the new motion picture theater for Port- and, Me., situate on the corner of Oak and Congress streets, opened to the public Wednesday, July 3. * * *. . Hartford, Conn., July 4.—Theodore I. Drummond, of St Louis, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, will probably insult a lawyer as to the validity of the security before ie invests any more of the money he made in the manu- acture of tobaccos in first mortgage bonds of Luna Park » other enterprises in this city. Mr. Drummond is the pan now behind the Luna Park enterprise in West Hart- °nli which was promoted by the Chatford Company. ie has bonds of the company for which he paid about 'loo.ooo, and other money he invested in the property aafcs a total of about $150,000. Mr. Drummond has learned that the bonds are not valid, and that the Chatford Company was never legally organized. The Legislature has refused to assist Mr. Drummond, rejecting resolutions to validate the organ- ization of the company and to validate the bonds. Mr. Drummond holds substantially all of the bonds issued, although there are two other holders for small amounts in this city. The Chatford Company was organized by out-of-town promoters. Not over two men in this city bought bonds, but Theodore Drummond came out of the West and took up the bulk. Harrison B. Freeman, Jr., who reperesents the Chatford Company, said that it was organized under the laws of this State to run Luna Park, the articles of organization being drawn up by a New York lawyer. * * * Miamisburg, Ohio.—A meeting of council was held re- cently, when the ordinance for the tax levy appropriation was passed. On motion the license for moving picture shows will hereafter be $15 per month. * * * In this day and age of moving picture popularity the manager of picture shows is kept busy thinking up some new and novel additions to his entertainment in order that his may prove a winner with the show-going public. One of these additions, and, in fact, the most pleasing one, is mechanical effects or sound effects as they ar» more commonly called. Quite a large percentage of those who attend moving picture entertainments where sound effects are successfully used, are kept guessing as to how they are produced. For instance, the sound of horses' hoofs upon a paved street is made very realistic by the use of a pair of cocoanut shells which are applied to a marble slab in a corresponding manner to the gaint of the horse, changing from a walk to a trot or gallop as may be the speed of the horse in the picture. Sand paper blocks are another useful article and have a number of uses, the escape of steam from a locomotive, exhaust of an automobile, splash of water and a number of other effects are produced by this common article. A dozen whistles, bells, pieces of steel and broken glass are also brought into use. To illustrate shots a pistol with blank cartridges is most commonly used; but as the nervous systems of most people, especially the ladies, are very much wrought upon by the loud report of a pistol, the use of a hollow block at the end of a stick when brought in contact with the marble slab, produces a good effect and does away with the harsh report of a gun. To enumerate all the different methods employed in the work of illustrating and to de- scribe all the uses to which articles are put would require days and incidentally some columns of news space; suffice it to say that the successful man on mechanical effects has much to learn and is at least a busy man while the pic- tures are being shown. * * * Mr. Crawford, of Ludington, Mich., has leased the opera house for the Summer and will give moving picture exhibits every evening and matinees on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. * * * Mason Brandy, thirty-seven years of age, a hotel keeper doing business on the iron pier, at Rockaway Beach, N. Y., was Sunday arrested by Officer Conlon for conducting a moving picture show at that place without a license. Brandy claimed ignorance of the law regar- ing a moving picture exhibition, but the officer claimed that this was no excuse for him and held him for arraign- ment