Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

48 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 12. No. 4. FOREIGN RIGHTS FOR FEASTER MACHINE SOLD Byron Chandler, Inc., 1482 Broadway, New York City, distributors of the Feaster non-rewind machines, report that negotiations are progressing satisfactorily for the handling of their product in Russia, England and France. When asked if he did not consider this an inopportune time to sell foreign rights, Byron Chandler, president of the company, replied that he did not believe that any of the warring nations had yet evolved a gun which could shoot a hole through the Feaster machine. Mr. Chandler will in all probability go to Europe about September 1 to complete the sale. A. Charles Hillman, who for the past two seasons has been master mechanic with the Cyril Maude company, is now in charge of the equipment department of Byron Chandler, Inc. Selig "News-Pictorial" Gets Award at World's Fair 20,000 People See the Representative of the Exposition Board Present the Company Through McManus Memorial in Recognition of Animated Weekly's Standing Special to Motion Picture News San Francisco, July 20. TW ENTY thousand people were pres ent in the Court of the Universi Be at the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, on July 15, when the "Hearst-Selig News Pictorial" was presented with a bronze memorial by Director Frank L. Brown, representing the Exposition's official board. This is the highest award to be presented an animated newspaper. The memorial was presented because of its educational influence and its stimulus to investigation, research, and the general diffusion of knowledge. According to the directors of the Panama-Pacific Exposition, it has established itself as a new and vital factor in the educative forces of the modern 18 Chicago Exhibitors Discuss Trade Conditions Informal Gathering, Called to Thresh Out Increasing Rental Prices and Other Problems, Results in Decision to Convene 200 in Formal Meeting on August 15 Special to Motion Picture News Chicago, July 21. VERY significant to the future of the film business was a quiet informal meeting of eighteen of America's leading exhibitors, held at the Hotel Sherman, Thursday afternoon, July 15. These men were called together in Chicago to find a solution for the growing number of problems that are confronting many of the exhibitors. Among those discussed were the increasing rentals prices and the necessity for the theatres booking all the features put out by any one company whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Among those present at the meeting were Aaron Jones of Chicago ; F. J. Rembusch of Indianapolis and Shelbyville, Indiana; E. Mandelbaum of New York and Cleve land; William Sievers of St. Louis; William Blank of Des Moines and Davenport, Iowa ; Messrs. Harris and Gordon of Boston ; Louis Dittmer of Louisville. Ky. ; Thomas Furness of Duluth; E. H. Hulsey •of Dallas, Texas, and Thomas Sax of Milwaukee. The gathering represented owners of about two hundred of the largest motion picture theatres in the country. They decided to call a second and formal meeting at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago for August 15. Each one of those present conttibnted fifty dollars for expenses and agreed to bring the leading exhibitors in his section of the country to the second meeting. When such men as these get together, to seriously discuss trade conditions, something is bound to develop. Accidents Put More Thrills in "Diamond from Sky" Russell Does Not Reckon on Rapids Carrying Him Beyond Reach, and Is Barely Rescued by Knight — A Bit of Unpremeditated Realism Shown in Picture MORE and more thrilling events are scheduled for appearance in forthcoming chapters of "The Diamond from the Sky." A terrific hand to hand fight between Roy Stewart, as Blake, and William Russell, as Blair, results in a thirty-foot down stairs fall for Russell. The big actor thought the first take was not realistic enough so acted it all over again. In another scene George Periolat almost drowned when a searchlight was turned on him, blinding him, as he struggled with another actor in a flooded canal. Again, "Sombrero Joe" Knight, a famous western character, holds the reins when an old fashioned stage coach goes over a cliff. Knight saved himself and his horses — how narrow was his escape shows clearly in the picture. In a fourth scene William Russell tries to ford a river, when the .rapids sweep him away. Knight rescued him by lassoing him. No thrill was intended here, but it occurred naturally. Lottie Pickford, the charming heroine of this picturized novel, does a stunt herself, when she escapes from her pursuers by loosening an ore basket and riding in it along a wire stretching above a chasm a thousand feet deep. The biggest scene of all is when Arthur Stanley's yacht, on a pleasure cruise, collides with a fishing smack. A realistic and wonderful wreck scene, said to surpass anything ever shown in motion picture has been pictured here for the camera under the direction of W. D. Taylor. CHANDOS ST. JOHN BRENON VISITS CAMPBELL Chandos St. John Brenon, a brother of Herbert Brenon, the Fox director, who was recently shot in the leg while directing a film, went to Boston last week for a short stay with Manager Harry F. Campbell of the New England Fox exchange. civilized community, and has been officially recognized as being "first in war. first in peace, and first in popularity." Scenes of the honor paid the news pictorial will appear in a forthcoming edition of the pictorial. The presentation is just one incident of the great reception accorded the Selig Exposition flyer all along the Pacific coast and at the two great expositions. The honor is unprecedented in the annals of the motion picture art. Selig Day was observed at the Panama Exposition at San Francisco on July 15, and the guests aboard the special train were accorded every honor. The work of Colonel William N. Selig. president of the Selig Polyscope Company for the educational uplift of the motion picture, was universally recognized in the series of cordial receptions accorded guests of the flyer bearing the Selig name. Edward A. McManus, general manager of the "Hearst-Selig News Pictorial," in accepting the bronze memorial on behalf of the Selig Company, said in part: "The one striking new feature of modern life is the wider and wider diffusion of knowledge. The press has been heretofore the great instrument of this beneficent work. With the supreme inventive genius of modern men the press has been supplemented by the motion picture film, which not only gives the same wide presentation to the subject, but which visualizes it in presenting it pictorially, and which has established itself as a new and modern educative force in the community. "The organization of the 'Hearst-Selig News Pictorial' is founded upon a vision of its endless stimulating possibilities for the future and an analysis of the great social forces involved in this presentation every Monday and Thursday of the world's news to the multitudes. "For the hour, this great exposition is the focus and the center of the world's aspiration. One of the great agencies in bringing the world to the exposition, and in taking the exposition to the world, is the motion picture film winging its swift messages of light to the most remote communities and to the alien peoples across the seas. " 'The Hearst-Selig News Pictorial' incorporates those business requirements of system, alertness, energy and enterprise, which have gone into the building of modern newspapers. The daily results of this activity parallels in a way the daily gathering of the news of the printed page from the four corners of the earth. "It is with this in view that we feel that an agency of such wide scope, of such educational value, and of such potent possibilities in the spread of knowledge fully merits the honor which you have conferred upon it."