Exhibitors Herald (Mar-Apr 1924)

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60 EXHIBITORS HERALD March 29, 1924 ceived a bad print since getting direct service from the exchange. I believe we would get better service if we would take the time to look in our projectors and see that they are repaired before they get in such shape that they will damage the prints. Also the manager of the exchange should see that the prints are taken out of service when they are in a bad condition. I wrote our exchange some time ago about the condition of a print I had run. The answer was he knew this print was in bad condition and had been taken out of service, but he laid the blame on some one in the shipping department in sending me this print. I got it all right and after having eight breaks on one reel, I stopped counting. Yes, we all have our faults. — Charles E. Barber, Electric Theatre, Tilden, 111. The Print Question YATES CENTER, KANS.— To the Editor : After reading the two letters on bad prints in the Herald under the date "t March 15th I would like to say something on the bad print condition. Everyone gives the exhibitor hell, especially the small town exhibitor. He gets less consideration from the exchange and New York than anyone else in the business. Mr. Key Town Exhibitor can walk in to exchange and Mr. Manager will fall all over the desk trying to get to him and pat him on the back, but yo.i let Mr. Small Town Exhibitor come to town and drop in the exchange and Mr. Manager will say what the devil does that guy want ? Well, he wants to buy some service. All right, they sell him after giving him the impression that they are conferring a great honor on him by letting him buy their pictures with their trade mark on it and the stuff they sell him is old and the prints are in bad shape and they won't buy new prints but keep booking the prints as long as they can get by with it. I say that the reason that there are bad prints is because the exchanges do not keep their prints inspected and in good shape. Any time you buy a picture that is 5,000 feet you are supposed to get 5,000 feet and not 4,000 feet with the sprocket holes torn and a dozen or more misframes. The exchange manager does not give a darn about the kind of a print that goes out to the small town but you can bet that he won't send out a bad print to Mr. Key Town. The sooner that the exchanges wake up to the fact that it is the towns of 10,000 population and under that they get their velvet from the better it will be for the industry as a whole, and as for a fair exchange manager, they are scarce as hens' teeth and as far apart as leap year.; — Roy A. Fuhrer, Star theatre, Yuu-s Center, Kans. Faults of Film Cans WEST LIBERTY, IOWA.— To the Editor: Sometime ago I saw in the Herald that you want suggestions to better things in general, which I read once a week as fast as the Heralds are printed. What I first have in mind is for the exchanges. About three times in the past year I have received my show in a tall can where a string or two had either come loose or broken. Anyone knows the shape mv prints were in, as once the band is off and reel in can lying flat, the film will just keep unwinding and if this happens to one near the top, it will run clear to the bottom of the can. and then is when a fellow needs a friend to get your show out of the can. No doubt you have been there and my suggestion is for the exchanges to use cans where reels can stand up and this will never happen. I am manager of a small theatre, do my own operating and like to receive prints in good condition as anyone and this is one way I think the exchanges can better the day. Furthermore, to boost a good thing along, I am one operator who tries to return prints in as good shape as I receive them and think it every operator's duty to do same. We small town managers need all the help we can get, as well as the exchanges. — W. Glenn Miller, Strand theatre, W est Liberty, Iowa. No Stone-Cutter Needed ASHLAND, KANS.— To the Editor: It hasn t been very long since 1 thought I would learn to be a stone-cutter so I could cut the stone to go on Yitagraph Company's grave, but say — someone certainly has used a large supply of monkey glands on that company — notice the good reports on practically all their productions released during the last six months. I bought some of their newer productions a short time ago, bought them on recommendations I found in "What the Picture Did For Me," but I was a little bit afraid of them at that. Up to date I have used three of the pictures and they are all good especially "The Man from Brodney's." 1 believe I received more good comments on this one subject than I have on any picture since I played "Way Down East." The beauty of doing business with Yitagraph now is that you can get new stuff at a price where you don't have to mortgage your house and home to buy it. And from all I can find it is good stuff, too. How many pictures can you buy at a moderate price — new ones I mean — that you find hand-colored stuff in? (I guess that's what you call it, it's colored anyhow, take a look at some of the scenes in "The Man from Brodney's.") Another thing, usually, we small town boys have to use a lot of junk film, but since Vitagraph got the monkey glands last fall, I have received nothing bu* first class prints. Warner Brothers have good prints, too, but I haven't used many of their pictures, so don't know how they are all of the time. Fellows, look up some of Vitagraph's later releases and I believe you can buy them worth the money. I am not writing this to get a "stand-in with Vitagraph," but they really are trying to shoot square I believe, and I think that when a company tries to do the right thing by an exhibitor they should get some praise for it. — S. G. I tide, The Photoplay, Ashland, Kans. James Jordan recently bought the Royal theatre at Bode, la., from Paul Blake. Mr. Jordan is also the owner of the Electric theatre at Moravia. + + + Mr. and Mrs. August Harman of the Amusu theatre at Hooper, Neb., visited exchanges at Omaha recently. PURELY Personal Interesting news about exhibitors and people with whom they come into direct contact. Readers art invited to contribute items for publication in this column. Address them to "Purely PersonaL" Mr. Robert Lynch, prominent Philadelphia exhibitor, has purchased a Marr & Colton organ for his Pastime theatre. + + + F. L. Logsdon is the new owner of the Majestic tlieatre at Beech Grove, Indiana. + + + Uly S. Hill, manager of the Mark Strand theatre, Albany, N. Y., will address the assembled delegates of the Federated Musical clubs of the state, during their convention in Albany the last of April, on "What Music Has Done for the Motion Picture." + + + Mrs. J. Victor Wilson of Watertown, N. Y., wife of the manager of the Robbins house in that city, is spending two months in Florida. + + + The Grand theatre at Eldora, la., has reopened under the managment of L. F. Wolcott, formerly in the motion 4>icture business in Indianola, la. + + + Joe Desberger, well known to St. Louis territory exhibitors, is now managing Fred Corawell's Delmonte theatre, while Barney Fagan, former independent film exchange man, is the new manager of the Congress theatre on Olive St. + + + W. C. Finks, of the Opera House, California, Mo., is confined to his home by illness. + + + Harry Tanner has taken over the Frisina Amusement Co. houses at Pana, 111., and the Palace at Nokomis, 111. + + + The new theatre in Lawrenceville, 111., owned by Hurley B. Gould Theatres, Inc., will be thrown open on St. Patrick's Day. Word comes, also, that Raymond McKibben of Albion, 111., has plans under way for the erection of a new theatre there. + + + Alexander Frank celebrated his fourth anniversary in the motion picture business at Waterloo, la., where he operates the Plaza, Rialto, Waterloo and Rialto Gardens. Alex has recently introduced the policy of two shows a day which has proved very popular with his patrons. Film Men Everywhere are waiting for I EMORY JOHNSON'S MIGHTY NEW PICTURE Title to be announced soon) FILM BOOKING OFFICES WILL DISTRIBUTE IT