Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

46 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 12. No. 4. with Frank Sheridan, Paul McAllister, Fania Marinoff and Anne Meredith. Mr. Kleine has another important announcement in that he will release American-made two reel subjects through the General Film company every Thursday, beginning September 2. Ethel Crandin for Regular Appearance For this latest addition to his output Mr. Kleine will present Ethel Grandin. Miss Grandin will be seen regularly in these releases. "I have been slow in announcing any increase in our output because of the general tendency nowadays to cheapen subjects under four or five reels in length," said Mr. Kleine. "It is my plan to make a brand new kind of regular program release, giving each subject my personal attention and insisting at all times upon good, strong stories and the kind of settings that you would expect in a five or six reel subject. We will spare no expense to keep this subject up to (bur present feature standard." Miss Grandin, while only a trifle over twenty years of age, has had a long and unusually varied experience in pictures. Fjor a year, prior to her first motion pictjure experience, she was featured in a Vaudeville sketch which played the Orpheum and' United time. li was after" the close of this engagement that Miss'. Grandin entered the picture field with the Imp company. For four years she was starred by the New York Motion Picture company and the Universal. She left the latter organization to put out her own brand of film under the title of the Grandin Film through the United program. Lubin Signs Goodman for 12 Features at $60,000 Special Cast Will Be Engaged for Photo Dramas, Modeled After Griffith's "Battle of the Sexes," from the Pen of a Young Doctor Who Left Medicine for Success in Literature THE Lubin Manufacturing company announces the engagement of Dr. Daniel Carson Goodman to write twelve feature photoplays a year at the largest salary ever paid for such services — $60,000. These twelve feature photoplays will be of the domestic drama order patterned after the famous Griffith film, "The Battle of the Sexes," of which Dr. Goodman was the author. Lubin will engage a special cast of stars for these features and will spare no expense to make them a sensation of the film world during the next twelve months. Although only 33 years old, Dr. Goodman has won an enviable name for himself in the world of literature, his novel, "Hagar Revelly," having been the best seller of the year it was published. He was born in Chicago, and after the usual preliminary schooling, studied medicine at Washington University, from which he was graduated. Then he went to the universities of Heidelberg and Vienna, where he continued his studies for another four years. But medicine held no attraction for Dr. Goodman and he turned his endeavors to literature, his first novel being "Unclothed," the second "Travail," and the third "Hagar Revelly." Now Dr. Goodman has decided to give his bestefforts to the production of what he hopes will prove to be masterpieces. "I have an infinite faith in the mission of the photoplay," said Dr. Goodman in discussing his relations with the Lubin Manufacturing company. "Incidentally, I know that Mr. Lubin will spare no expense in the production of my twelve features. I. have in mind the stars I want, and as the question of money is not involved, I believe, that we will be able to gather an unequalled cast. "Of course, I cannot go into details as to the themes on which I will write, but. they will deal with domestic problems, pregnant with human emotions and telling the story of things most vital to the race. Whether I will succeed in this new field I cannot say— like the famous archer in Tvanhoe' — 'no man can do more than his best.' " Syracuse Solves Absurd Competition by Organizing Exhibitors, Tired of Losing Money by Offering Too Many Subjects, Form Association to Combat Evil Through Agreement to Limit Programs to Six Reels F ORTY-TWO motion picture managers in the Eckel theatre building July 17, and organized the Syracuse Motion Picture Exhibitors' Association. The following of Harry Raver's "Cabiria" Sequel Is Completed Players Leave Long Island, Where with Exception of Few Scenes Begun in Italy the Picture Was Produced, and Will Locate in Permanent California Studio A SECOND "Cabiria," with the players of the original production, including Ernest Pagano, who played Maciste, a picture produced in America, may soon be expected. It has just been learned that for several weeks the Itala players have been at work on Staten Island making the coming production. Harry R. Raver, the American head of the Itala forces, who exploited "Cabiria," says that the picture was completed on Saturday, July 17, and that the players left on Monday, July 19, for California, where a permanent studio will be located. All the new production was not made on Staten Island. It was started in Italy, but work was abandoned there and the players brought to this country. By far the majority of the scenes were made in America. In this picture Pagano will not be seen as the gigantic negro, but as himself. For Pagano is very much of a white man, the pride of Genoa, where his home is, and regarded as physically the finest specimen of manhood in Italy. The story of the new production has. not been disclosed by Mr. Raver. He suggested, however, that while the plot has to do with modern events, it is a natural sequel to "Cabiria," the scenario being written by Agnes L. Bain after specific suggestions of D'Annunzio, who created the character of Maciste. Many surprises are promised in the new production. The Itala company has in the past produced many wonderful productions, "Cabiria" being its masterpiece. The indications are that the latest effort of this famous organization will unfold even more new effects and inventions than ever before. Approximately eight thousand feet is the length of the new film. It will be shown first to trade paper reviewers, in private. Its title will be selected from the best suggestions offered by these critics, for which a cash prize in gold will be paid by Mr. Raver, who says that the work of assembling and editing the film will be completed in time for the first showing about August 1. Whether the new production would play a Broadway house for the summer and the "Cabiria" policy of exploitation be duplicated could not be learned, as Mr. Raver has been besieged by requests from offices now handling "Cabiria" that the new film be given them for distribution and did not care to commit himself just at this time. ficers were elected: President, A. J. Sardino, manager of the Savoy theatre ; B. E. Cornell, manager of the Eckel theatre; vicepresident; Edgar Weil, manager of theStrand theatre, treasurer ; Arthur Merriman, manager of the Arcadia theatre, secretary; B. A. Gibbons, manager of theRegent theatre, corresponding secretary, and James Rowe, manager of Turn Hall, sergeant-at-arms. The purpose of the organization is to standardize the maximum number of reels to be shown at a performance which means that an effort will be made immediately to limit programs to not more than five or six reels. In some houses as many as fourteen reels are being shown at one entertainment with the result that the public is forced to sit through a junk program. By mutual agreement the program of all such theatres will be reduced and it is quite possible that every house in the city will charge a minimum price of ten cents admission, the down town theatres having agreed in that event to raise their minimum price of gallery seats to ten cents. An attorney has already been engaged tolook after the interest of the exhibitors with reference to unjust state laws and ordinances as well as bills that may come before the legislature for consideration. ROWLAND ADDS SIX SUCCESSES TO METRO PROGRAM General Manager Rowland of the Metro company announces the acquisition of numerous new plays for Metro. Among them are "Pigs in Clover," "Richard Carvel," "Rosemary, for Remembrance," "The Purple Lad)'," "Baccarat" and "The Silent Voice."