Motion Picture News (May-Jul 1916)

MAY 10 1916 ©C!,B;iG0247 ^ "When You See it in 'TTie News' It's NEWS" LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 427 SO. FIGUEROA STREET [HAS THE gUALITY CIRCULATION OF THE TIMDEj NEW YOFIK CITY SEVEN HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE SEVENTH AVENUE "The Exhibitors' Medium of Communication" CHICAGO. ILLINOIS 110 SO. DEARBORN STREET Volume XIII MAY 20, 1916 No. 20 The Two Shows and Chicago IT is too early to draw deductions at all conclusive from the two expositions, the second of which is now fully under headway. But some important facts have already come to the surface. One is that the recent muddle is clarified.. Tuesday evening a remarkable turn-out of exhibitors from Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and New Jersey planned to march from the New York headquarters with bands playing to and mto the Board of Trade show and Madison Square Garden. A very fine spirit and a very fine deed, — one that was highly appreciated, and one that reflects much credit upon every man who marched. Best of all is the spirit in which the proposition was met. There was not an exhibitor but who said spontaneously : "Fine ! Count me in. It's a good idea. I'm for harmony." ^ * * 'T'HE. Palace show was a financial success. A large business was done the last four nights and as a result of good and economical management a substantial profit was cleared, which will go into the treasurers of the national, state and local leagues. The Madison Square Garden show looks big. It will undoubtedly draw heavily from the public. It is greatly to be hoped that the exhibitors' patronage will be larger than that of the Palace show and indeed of all previous New York expositions. But at any rate, the Garden show ought also to put a goodlv sum into the organization fund of the M. P. E. L.^of America. * * * VY/HICH brings us to a consideration of the League and ^ its outlook for 1916. The situation is most hopeful. For the first time in its existence, the League will face its National Convention at Chicago with a treasury solidly foundationed, if not opulent. It will be in a position not to have to invite new members in for the sake of their dues, but to ask most any exhibitor if he can afford to stay outside of and unaided bv the constructive work the League proposes to inaugurate at Chicago. Constructive policies are in the air. You do not have to interview many leaders here in the East to know that some very practical plans are stewing that have to do with such important problems as exhibitors' competition, advance pavments, censorship and the like. A GAIN, in point of membership, the League is better off now than it ever was. This is a fact. We may disagree in some ways with President Fred J. Herrington but of this we are sure, that he has done for organization this year what few others would or could have done. He faced an organization, after his election in San Francisco last year, which was worse than nothing. He could more easily, in all probability, have built up a brand new league. But with only apathy to work upon he has extended the national organization to a point which ohl> the convention at Chicago will clearly disclose, and we have every faith that this convention will prove by all odds the strongest exhibitor convention thus far held in this country. ^ ^ ^ 'T'HIRDLY, and of more importance than finances, and membership, is the exhibitor spirit which is manifesting itself this year. It has found its expression here in New York in the open hand extended to the Board of Trade show — a spirit of bigness and broadness which are, as they have always been, the surest evidence of successful organization, progress and future strength. , It has found its expression in Cincinnati, and many other cities, where the exhibitors have joined the local Chambers of Commerce and are working hand in hand with other leading business men for the betterment of their city— and right here in our Palace show, where a portion of each day's receipts, in the shape of a good sized check, were donated to a city hospital for crippled children, to the Red Cross Society and other worthy charities, * * * |F the picture theatre was once regarded as a sort of sideshow, a transient and unrelated part of civic life, certainly that situation does not prevail today. Exhibitors are looking upon their houses for what they reallv are, not only in a physical way an institution of admirable appearance, but more importantly, an established civic centre of education and entertainment, a very vital, central factor in local life, culture and progress. Exhibitors, through their leaders, committees and organizations, are conferring today with high city officials, not only over their own problems but about city problems. This is real progress. * * * (ORGANIZATION, and on a higher order than ever ^ before planned, is in the air. We look to Chicago to see its realization. We look for a convention that will do things, that will {Continued on page 3036.)