Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1915)

September 25, 1915. MOTION PICTURE NEWS 67 PHILADELPHIA OFFICES CONTINUE TO REPORT LARGE BOOKINGS; SOCIETY MATRON NOW A BOOKING AGENT HARRY A. BUGIE, the new manager of the George Kleine offices, Philadelphia, was formerly located in the Kleine New York offices. Mr. Bugie reports the biggest kind of business in the Philadelphia section on "The House Next Door" with Irene Fenwick. Ethel Grandin, a former United star, but who is now being featured in Kleine two reelers, which can be had. from the General Film Company, is another great favorite with Philadelphia exhibitors. William U. Bethell, treasurer of the Metro Film Exchange, announces a considerable increase in the bookings of the Philadelphia Metro office during the past two weeks, with the outlook specially bright for a big winter season. Mr. Bethell attributes this spurt to the interest engendered by the announcement on the Metro program of such Philadelphia favorites as Ethel Barrymore, Beverly Bayne, William Faversham and Francis X. Bushman. Herbert Given, of the Famous Players Exchange, reports -a great time at the Paramount Convention in Chicago and thinks the meeting was of incalculable benefit to all who attended. The Famous Players Exchange is now busy with elaborate plans for a fitting premiere in Philadelphia of Farrar in Carmen, over which Mr. Given, usually undemonstrative, waxed exceedingly enthusiastic. The V. L. S. E. Exchange finds one of their most popular releases of recent date has been the Vitagraph's "Chalice of Courage." The Pathe Exchange through its manager, G. H. Atwood, has closed a contract with the Stanley Booking Company by which the first exclusive showing of all Gold Rooster pictures will be had in the best of the Stanley chain of houses. As this is about a fifty thousand dollar yearly contract the manager is much pleased. Flattering also are the many good words from the exhibitors both in and out of Philadelphia about "The Galloper" and "Via Wireless," the first Gold Rooster pictures to be released in a few days, private screenings of which have been given to the trade. The twenty-four sheet stands advertising these Gold Rooster specials are causing much favorable comment all over Philadelphia. Mrs. Stephen Morris, the young society matron, who as Edith Ritchie entered the picture field a year ago, has forsaken the camera end for the commercial side of the game, and is now booking agent for the Central Market Company, of which William Goldenberg is manager. This company controls several of the most prominent picture houses of Philadelphia, amongst which are the Globe, at Juniper and Market, the Victoria, the Princess, the Auditorium, at 219 N. Eighth street, and the Market Street. MALCOLM SUCCEEDS HICKS AS LOS ANGELES MANAGER FOR GENERAL T. C. Malcolm, formerly of the Los Angeles General Film Exchange, and for the past year manager of the office at Portland, has been named successor to H. H. Hicks, who was manager of the Los Angeles exchange, and who has been promoted to the office of district coast manager. Mr. Malcolm arrived in Los Angeles this week, and is taking up the work here and renewing old acquaintances among the exhibitors and exchange men. Mr. Hicks will have his headquarters, it is understood, at Seattle, and has left for a trip over the Northwest. Mr. Hicks has been affiliated with the General for several years, and his success here is best shown by his promotion. During his administration as manager, the exchange has been very successfully conducted and most satisfactory to the exhibitors. Many regrets were to be heard on the floor of the exchange from the exhibitors when they learned of the departure of Mr. Hicks. EXCHANGEMEN IN OMAHA TERRITORY ENTHUSIASTIC OVER PROSPECTS H. Heyman, of the World Film Corporation exchange in Omaha, just returned from three weeks on the road, said a man couldn't help smiling as he talked with the enthusiastic exhibitors over the territory. "It is positively catching," he said. J. J. Clark, of Bedford, la., an old exhibitor, said he never saw prospects better. He started the season anew with the World features. "Prosperity? We are booked solid," said Manager Goldstone, of the Omaha branch of the World Film Corporation. "We are booking fine for 'Trilby,' the first Equitable release, with Clara Kimball Young and Wilton Lackaye. By the way, there was an exhibitor in here talking with me today. He said he had booked 'Trilby' on the strength of the review in Motion Picture News, and he wanted to heartily second everything the News said." THEFT OF VALUABLE MUTUAL FILMS CHARGED TO CLERK The theft of several thousand dollars' worth of motion picture films from the Mutual Film Corporation exchange, at 294 Market street, Newark, N. J., is charged by . the police to Samuel Glauber, 26 years old, a clerk at the exchange. The police have recovered about 75,000 feet of film, which they say Glauber had hidden in two rooms he had rented at 280 Washington street and 124 South Thirteenth street. According to detectives, Glauber kept the films, which are highly inflammable, in flimsy wooden boxes. After an examination at headquarters, Glauber was held in bail of $3,000 to await the action of the Grand Jury. Arthur F. Beck, of 71 West Twentythird street, New York, who made the complaint against Glauber as a representative of the Mutual concern, declared films had been missing over a period of several months, and said the company believed the losses were due to systematic thefts on the part of some of its employes. Beck placed the valuation of the films at more than $3,000, and said he believed Glauber intended to derive an income from renting the films to motion picture houses in small towns. KANSAS CITY EXCHANGES REPORT UNPRECEDENTED BUSINESS Simon Libros, former manager for the Picture Playhouse Film Company, in Kansas City, has been transferred to St. Louis, and he has been succeeded there by R. W. J. Bettis, a former road man for the same house. There is not an exchange in Kansas City that is not enjoying an unprecedented business. It is attributed to the cool weather and the prosperous condition of the Southwest. Some of the Kansas City exchanges are doing more business than they ever did before. An example of this is the World Film Corporation, which, a week before last, was at the head of the list of that firm's exchanges in the matter of business for the first time. PATHE NEWS NOW IN ALL FIRSTCLASS BOSTON THEATRES Manager Bernfield, of the Pathe Boston offices, writes the home office that the Pathe News is now placed in every first class theatre in Boston. PURCHASES TERRITORIAL RIGHTS TO "JUST OUT OF COLLEGE" The Bert Levey Circuit of San Francisco has purchased the territorial rights to the Frohman Amusement Corporation's recent production "Just Out of College," for the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, the Hawaiian Islands, Canada, and seven Southern States. Mr. Sherrill, president of the company, has received a wire from the Bert Levey Circuit informing him that "Just Out of College" has been booked for the first one-week run, opening October 3, at the Tivoli theatre of San Francisco.