Motography (Jul-Dec 1913)

224 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. X, No. 6 avenue and Summit street, Columbus after plans by Architect C. F. Wright. The owner is E. L. Stanton. OKLAHOMA. M. M. Hayter has purchased Frank Green's interest in the motion picture show at Pawnee. An electric piano has been ordered as well as other features. The show will be moved to the Ainslee building, where better accommodation can be had. PENNSYLVANIA. A permit was issued to the Joseph Levin Company for the erection of a moving picture theater at 1108 North 40th street, Philadelphia for Jennie Biden. Cost $8,500. In addition to the five up-to-date moving picture houses already in Allentown, Messrs. Max and Schneider, two progressive residents of the sixth ward, have plans under way for the erection of the sixth place of amusement. The new moving picture house will be erected at No. 637 North Second street, and will be one of the most modern of its kind in this locality. Borzner & Wood are preparing plans for moving picture theater for Herman Liberman at corner of 27th street and Girard avenue, Philadelphia. Revised plans for a one-story moving picture theater to be built at Front street and Susquehanna avenue, Philadelphia, for Margolin Bloch have been completed by Peucker & Winder, architects. THE DOPESTER SAYS. The demand for western subjects of the original "American" type has become so pronounced in many quarters that the company has had a number of scenarios especially written, calling for exceptionally thrilling incidents. The best talent was selected and a number of ve»y promising subjects are already completed. At the offices of the company the following titles were mentioned as being the first to be released : "The Flirt and the Bandit," September 29; "Badge of Honor," October 2; "'Taming a Cowboy," October 10. Other subjects are in hand and will be released from time to time. A company of Vitagraph players has just returned from Niagara Falls, where some remarkable scenes of thrilling rescues in the Niagara river, a dash over the falls and through the rapids were made. Little Florence Foley, the Vitagraph child actress, was saved from a watery grave by Mile. Ideal, showing her wonderful skill as a swimmer and how to save a drowning person. Earle Williams, Rose Tapley, Gladys Dupell and other Vitagraph players, under the direction of Captain Lambert, will be seen in the forthcoming Vitagraph release, entitled "The Diver." Fame still pursues our old favorite, John Bunny. A new theater is to be opened at One Hundred and Forty-seventh street and Broadway, New York City, on the 15th of October, bearing the name of "Bunny." By a strange coincidence, Mr. Schultz, of "Foxy Grandpa and Bunny" fame, is to be the manager. John Bunny has been invited to open this theater, which seats 1,400 people, 800 on the main floor and 600 in the galleries. It promises to be one of the most magnificent and largest moving picture palaces in New York City. The new studios and laboratories of the American Film Manufacturing Company at Santa Barbara being completed, the work of paving the streets is under way. Quartz secured from the mountains is used for the foundation over which will be laid a thick coating of paving cement. The quartz assays several dollars to the ton, according to the tests made by a local assayer. Thus American's "City Beautiful" will be paved with streets of gold. James Neill, the veteran stock actor and impressario, has joined the Universal forces as director. This announcement comes as a finale to a persistent campaign upon the part of General Manager Bernstein of the West Coast Organization at Universal City, who offered a series of inducements that eventually persuaded him. William West does one of the finest bits of character work of his career in "Caste," Edison's two-reel production of Robertson's famous comedy. The part of old Eccles, the confirmed drunkard, is one of those characters which every actor hopes to play. West played it on the stage before he became a motion picture actor, and his knowledge of the part, combined with his experience before the camera, made a success of his portrayal in<\ it able. Joseph Callahan, the old-time actor, who recently came to Los Angeles over the Orpheum time with his sketch "Great Men Past and Present." has joined the Universal and is working with Otis Turner, who has jjone to San Francisco for some weeks. Director Otis Turner of the "101 Bison" brand, has taken a specially selected company to San Francisco to commence a trio of stories dealing with the picturesque life of the corsairs and buccaneers. The features will be put on with especial attention to historic detail. They are still talking about Edison players down in Georgia, and it is very evident that Charles M. Seay won a host of loyal friends in Atlanta. Of course the fact that Seay told them that Atlanta was the best place in the United States for making pictures and that Mabel Trunnelle smiled her prettiest upon gallant Georgians undoubtedly had a good deal to do with it. However that may be, the Atlanta Journal cannot say enough in praise of the Edison players. A record sale attesting to the drawing power of the feature film is the action of Sam Benjamin of Chicago in purchasing the state rights of Iowa on a second copy of "Tigris." This is probably the first time in the history of state rights that two copies of such a long subject as "Tigris" has ever been sold for that state alone. "The Death Knell," the Itala three-reel subject, is being actively booked by the Golden Gate Film Exchange of San Francisco and the Emby Feature Film Company of New York City, W. E. Greene of Boston and the Attractive Feature Film Company of Philadelphia. The Weiland Feature Film Company of Pittsburgh have bought the Itala two-reeler "Branded for Life," as have also the M. & F. Feature Film Company of Chicago. Barry O'Moore contributes a clever piece of character work as Sam Gerridge in Edison's "Caste." His delineation of the fiery artisan whose life consists of his love for Polly Eccles and his trade, shows the remarkable talent of this young actor for character portrayal. It is hard to realize that he is the same man who plays the town "sport" in "Slander's Tongue." "In appreciation of the work done by the employers under my management." is the way Isidore Bernstein, the general manager of the Universal Western Studios, headed his statement that a holiday, with full pay, would be allotted to everyone connected with the studios on Labor Day. If you are in doubt as to whether or not peculiarly funny things happen around moving picture studios, just listen to what occurred to Miss Annie Edney before she joined the Essanay Comedy Company of Chicago. Miss Edney says : "I was a visitor at the Chicago studio one morning about two months ago when a producer grabbed me by the arm and yelled something about getting into a nightgown. I sought out one of the actresses and asked if I might borrow something that would do for a nightgown. This was Miss Hennessy." (Editor's Note: Miss Hennessy stands four feet four and a half inches. Miss Edney's height is five feet nine and a half inches.) It was a little "short" of what Miss Edney had expected, but as the producer had demanded that she get into a nightgown she carried out his order to the letter. When Miss Edney finally arrived in the studio there was a riot. So funny did she look that she was immediately cast for a part in the comedy attraction being produced on the studio floor. The producer who had called to Miss Edney to get into a nightgown had made a mistake and meant somebody else. He's awfully glad he made the mistake now, because Miss Edney is doing wonderful work in the comedy company. On Labor Day, James McGee and Edgar Thompson of the Selig Polyscope Company were hosts to a party of their associates on a private launch trip to Catalina Island. It is not often that an actress is called upon to play two absolutely opposite roles in one afternoon, but such was the case with Mabel Trunnelle not long ago. She has been playing an intensely emotional part — that of a mother whose child dies in her arms. For three hours she had been weeping in scenes and in rehearsals when it was announced that a retake was necessary for a scene in "Caste," in which she played frivolous, lighthearted Polly Eccles. So Miss Trunnelle made a quick change in costume and completely reversed her character at a moment's notice. The New York offices of the Golden State Motion Picture Company, exploiting "100 Years of Mormonism" ; the Occidental Motion Picture Company, presenting "From Dusk to Dawn"; and other enterprises presided over by H. M. Russell of Los Angeles, removes from the seventh floor of the Candler building to the ninth floor of the World's Tower building, 110 West Fortieth street. New York City. This change is necessitated by the growing business of these companies and their allied interests. Ernest Shipman will hold down the desk as general manager. The first Florence Lawrence feature that has just been completed by Director Harry Salter for the Universal, is a Strong love Storj thai shows Miss Lawrence at her best. The scenario was written, by Capt. Leslie T. Peacocke, and is an adaptation of his powerful short story "The Victorious Surrender." which appeared last fall in "The Smart Set" Magazine. W \viia> I Ive partner with Sl.non for lialf Interest In one of the lareest Stat* i c i : > 1 1 (features; must expect to work; quick action. Address :!03 care M aph! I toll l 0