The Moving Picture World (1907)

646 THE" MOVING PICTURE WORLD. the Mark Brothers soon after, and they embarked in the penny business, for a time breaking away from the ten-cent proposi- tion. In the cent show idea they remained interested for seven years, selling out a year ago, the business of a thirty-house cir- cuit to a New York syndicate. * * ♦ Vice-Chancellor Learning, in Camden, November 27, refused Harvey T. Ringler an injunction, to restrain Bloomfield H. Minch, of Bridgeton, from ejecting the complainant, from a building in Bridgeton used as a moving picture show. * * * Nebraska City, Neb.—The city fathers have decided that some of the pictures as shown at the moving picture shows, repre- senting murders and suicides, are objectionable, and under the direction of Councilman J. D. Houston, the chief of police has been instructed to censor all of the pictures before they are exhibited to the public Councilman Houston says pictures of crime are demoralizing to the children. Manager Rolfe has taken the matter up with his attorney and if molested or an attempt is made to stop any of the Wild West plays which are booked, he will test the law. on the mat- ter. The picture show men are getting ready to test the matter Jn the courts if they are arrested. Several weeks ago there came to this city from Shenandoah, Iowa, Robert Flagg and Edward Evans, and they opened a mov- ing picture show adjoining the building occupied by another show of this kind. * * * Director George W. Lederer, of the Auditorium Theater, Chicago, has concluded to do away with moving pictures save where the subject treated deals with big, momentous and cur- rent happenings. "This move is made," said Mr. Lederer, '|be- cause in advanced vaudeville it becomes a misnomer and a time killer to depict staged and rehearsed happenings and label them any old thing from Cinderella and the Golden Slipper to the Great Train Robbery. What the public wants, and what I agree they are entitled to, is action, plenty of it, and this we are going to give them." * * * Managers of the moving picture shows in operation in Man- chester, Va., will combine and employ counsel to forward a movement looking to a reduction of the State and city license taxes .now assessed against them.' They will endeavor to have a bill passed by the next Legislature relieving them of a part of the taxes and placing their business in a class by itself. '- At present the moving picture show is in the same license tax class as the theater playing first-class dramatic attractions. The five-cent moving picture places pay the same license taxes to State and city as the Academy of Music and the Bijou. Theater. The picture men declare that this is obviously unfair, as an. at- traction in a first-class theater will have greater .receipts at one performance than the.moving picture show takes in all week. An argument in favor, of lower license tax for. the moving picture theater, which'.will be .presented to the Legislature and City Council, is that the picture show is the poor man's show. The man who cannot afford to pay admission to the theaters for his family will have the benefit of a wide choice of moving picture shows if the license is reduced. Few moving picture shows can do business at the present rate of taxation.. The managers of these places argue that they are of advam tage to the masses because the pictures presented are largely educational, giving persons who will never have the opportunity to travel views of foreign lands, scenes of historical interest; panoramic tours of the United States and pictures that give an intelligent idea of the operations of the.principal industries of the world. :■■ t '*;«w .-v >■-*** ■.:..•• F. Mundee, of St. John, N. B., has leased a large store in the Wood Block, and will occupy it with the Half-Hour Moving Picture Company. Seats will be arranged for 450. Mr. Mundee expects to be open for business some time next week. * * * '' Burlington, N. J.—Citizens who opened their eyes in amaze-, pent when, one after another, four moving picture shows opened in this city, are still more surprised to. find that the craze has" not yet reached its limit. A milkman has offered to sell his. route cheap in order that.he may enter the business, while a prominent painter wants to put up his business as security for the installation of a similar show, and a suburban farmer has 6£ken similar tactics with his property. ' One candy merchant,, ready to capitulate because children spend their nickels with the! moving picture man, is seeking to .sell out and invest the prcK ceeds for a machine and films. James B. Brown, for some time connected with the CatsldD ,(N. Y.) Mail, is now press agent for the W. A. Folser Kinetc- graph Company, which gives moving picture 'shows throughout the country. • . r * * * There has been a general curiosity on the part of the public to know how. a modern newspaper is made and to satisfy it $« whole story was recently told at Keith's Philadelphia Theattr, in a remarkable series of life motion pictures called "The Mak- ing, of a Modern Newspaper." The Philadelphia Record was selected as the model by S'. Lubin, who made a number of real istic pictures. The series opens with a scene representing a newspaper office over a hundred years ago. This is to give artistic and historical contrast to the great mechanical advance in journalism since .'that time. It shows the outside of an old Philadelphia printing shop, and the next glimpse is of the inside of the same estab- lishment A journeyman is laboriously pulling impressions with a Wash ington hand press, while his apprentice is busy among the type, both being dressed in the custom of the period. ; The next picture leaps across a century, and gives a fine pano- ramic view of the Philadelphia Record. In a flash is seen the Record's electric baseball score board with the great crowd watching the progress of an exciting game. Other pictures show the Record's business, cut, editorial, ad- vertising and mechanical departments. * * * ONLY ONE PICTURE SHOW ALLOWED IN GREEN FIELD, MASS. Only the action of the selectmen prevented the town from hav- ing two continuous moving-picture and illustrated song enter- tainments this Winter. Herbert S. Streeter.a local man, secured a license from the selectmen, leased the fine Davenport store and proposes,to spend about.$2,000 for getting ready. Mr. Streeter proposes." to call his place bf amusement Bijou Theater. G. E Moulton, of Newburyport, rented the old carriage repository on Federal street and proposed to fit the building for another mov- ing picture show. The selectmen thought one daily afternoon and evening Show of this kind was enough and declined to give Mr. Moulton a licensed - • - * .* * Carl" Wehmeyer, of St. Louis, Mo... proprietor of a nickelodeon at 1511 Market street, believes he is in hard luck. . His.place has been robbed three times, and partially destroyed by fire, but. the climax came Tuesday evening when a man ap- peared at the place and offered to sell him "cheap" some of the films and other stuff which; was . taken from him in the fir it robbery! ' . . . The man who offered the stolen films for sale said he had been given them by a negro; whose name he gave the police. . • • .., **'.*. • ' .'.. . ' * ' In Chicago a protest against the exhibition of certain pictures in five-cent theaters was made to Mayor Busse.by.a.delegation from the congregation of St- Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Eugenie street and Cleveland avenue. The delegation declared that many of the pictures Shown were suggestive; and produced a list of the theaters in the: district in which they were shown. Mayor Busse turned the list over to Chief Shippy, with instruc- tions to make an investigation and submit a report. ... *' * * That another theater will be reopened in Fall River, Mass.; soon is now possible. The Rich's Theater property on Second street has been purchased by Messrs. Hill and Hooper, busineil men of Brockton, who intend to renovate the property from top to bottom, and to open the theater inside of ten days, as a mov- ing picture house; to add to the list already in operation in this city. Rich's Theater has not been open since last Spring. The hew management intends to have a clean show from start to finish. •**'*"■ a NO CLINTON PICTURE SHOW. Clinton, N. Y., Nov. 21.—The Board of Aldermen has refused to allow moving picture shows to exhibit in this town. Edward F. Galligan, of Taunton, appeared before the select- men last night in connection with his petition for a license for» moving picture hall in Attleboro, Mass.. He said that he in- tended to have vaudeville as well as moving pictures, and that if he made a success, he might build a hall here. He explained that he was in New York and so could not- attend the hearinjj given on the petition. He-thought that-there was. room enough in the town for two such amusement places and that,: with bi* long experience in the theatrical'business, he can make it pay