Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

36 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS THE EXCLUSIVE SERVICE OF THE GENERAL FILM CO. The announcement made last week by the General Film Company that Exclusive Service would become a fact on October 13th was received with enthusiasm. Over three hundred letters of request for rates and information were received at the offices of the Exclusive Department at 71 West Twenty-third street the sixth day following the publication of the Exclusive Service advertisement in the trade papers. The idea seems to be popular with the big and little exhibitor, the former seeing in it a means of enlarging and holding his patronage, and the latter rejoicing over the prospect of having the "regular" program all to himself. The Exclusive program will be made possible by the manufacturers turning out additional new material. An interesting development of the General Film's new scheme, as evidenced by the character of the letters received to date, is the interest which it has aroused in the ranks of the socalled "legitimate" theatres. Managers of every variety of theatre — from opera house to vaudeville — have responded to the call. It is said that one of the most prominent booking managers in New York has asked for prices on a circuit of 250 theatres which he is prepared to swing over to pictures if he can be assured of absolute protection against competition. This seemingly sudden determination on the part of the "regular" managers to go over to pictures may probably be attributed to the falling off in business in the majority of "circuit" houses last season, to a woeful lack of even passable road attractions with which to fill up booking for the current season; to the fact that, for the first time in the history of the game, it will be possible to secure a regular service of high-class picture programs that can only be seen in one house in each district for a period of ninety days. Under the new plan of the General Film Company a manager will be able to advertise his picture program as extensively as he pleases and to put over the same amount of publicity as he did for his "dramatic" attraction, with the positive assurance that the business thus created will not be divided with any other house which may be showing pictures. Junie McCree, who has made everybody in the world laugh at least once, is writing some new comedies that should receive a royal welcome. More about Junie's visit to the Reliance later. Rodman Law has had another lucky escape. But the pitcher that goes frequently to the well takes a chance once too often. Trade IN "Back to Life," J. Warren Kerrigan has a part after his own heart, a romantic Western role. He impersonates a man who is dogged by misfortune, and who finds comfort in a sick woman whom he is able to help. The woman in the hands of Pauline Bush was a beautiful creation. The story is by De La Parelle and Allen Dwan and the producer James Neill. "Being a heroine in a motion picture drama is no sinecure," says Miss Marion Tanner, "especially when the part calls for a twenty-foot dive into chilly water and a struggle with two perfectly horrid men." Miss Tanner was engaged by the Mittenthal Film Company to play the heroine's part in a drama entitled "The Auto Bandits of New York." In one scene she is chased to the edge of a pier on the Hudson River and dives off, followed by two bandits who struggle with her in the water. The men were instructed to put realism into their work — and they did — but with disastrous results to Miss Tanner, who swallowed water enough to render her unconscious for fifteen minutes. "The Auto Bandits of New York" in three parts, is the first of a series of melodramas which will be released by Warner's Features, Inc., to the theatres using their feature service. It will be followed shortly by "Sir Highwayman of Death Valley," a dramatic story well known to the older generation of playgoers. Notes Charles Clary, formerly leading man at the Selig Company, Chicago, who made his first appearances under the auspices of the Selig Company in photoplays in Chicago, in association with Miss Kathlyn Williams, in a vivid transcript of African life in "Back to the Primitive," "Captain Kate" and "Lost in the Jungle," has, after several years, gone back to this association in a medium that promises superior results. Mr. Clary was transferred to the Edendale Studio in Los Angeles, and has since been advanced to the leads in the big new studio in the Selig Zoo at Eastlake, and will appear in the the series of daring, diverting and spectacular plays from the romances of Harold MacGrath. A pipe organ costing $40,000 is one of the features of the new theatre to be erected at 227-229 West Forty-first street by George Kleine, Sol Bloom and others, for the purpose of showing only spectacular Kleine photoplays. An unusual contract let in the construction of this mammoth picture theatre was that covering the making of scenery. Appropriate scenery will be made for each photo drama. Will Hough, author of "A Stubborn Cinderella," has written a clever photoplay entitled "The Flirt," which will appear as a Reliance offering about the middle of October. "THE GAMBLER'S RUIN" (Gaumont 2-reel Featura)