Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

February 16, 1918. MOTOGRAPHY 295 Losses of Theaterless Day Made Good EASTERN HOUSES DO BIG BUSINESS SUNDAY, MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY "I T'S AN ILL-WIND that blows nobody good," is an old saying, but truly applicable to Theaterless Day, according to a canvass of eastern houses by Goldwyn. On the Saturday before the first Tuesday shut-down Goldwyn sent out several hundred telegrams to representatives, agents and employes in as many towns and cities, asking them to report accurately as to the business done in the theaters on Monday, January 21. Get Great Crowds Replies, coming in by mail and wire, reveal the encouraging news that the majority of the theaters in cities, both large and small, did a record-breaking business on the first of the fuelless days. Furthermore, the outlook, according to the reports, is that prosperous Mondays will continue for exhibitors throughout the period when their houses are dark on Tuesdays. And the Goldwyn reports reveal still another cause for jubilation. Business on This story takes on added significance in view of the decision of the government not to abandon Heatless Mondays. If exhibitors in the East can make good part if not ail of their losses from Tuesday closing, then there is no logical reason why exhibitors in the West and South cannot do likewise. But regardless of where yon stand, here is a real message. Read and profit. Sunday, January 20, and on Wednesday, January 23, before and after the first Tuesday shut-down, was greatly stimulated. Many exhibitors, now having definite information born of actual experience, do not hesitate to predict that they will do a business in six days equal to or greater than they formerly did in seven, or a business in five days equal to or greater than they formerly did in six. That such a condition prevails is due in part to the fact that shrewd exhibitors in many cities sensed the possibility of focusing the public mind upon making up for a Tuesday deprivation by crowding three days' amusement into two— Monday and Wednesday. The exhibitors combined in paying for a newspaper announcement to this effect in the leading papers. There was an immediate response, as the Monday box-office figures revealed — receipts being larger than they were on last Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day and on Columbus Day in the states where this date is a public holiday. Goldwyn makes public the results of this investigation for the benefit of exhibitors everywhere, with the added suggestion that in some communities, if there are any, where Monday attendance has not shown immediate improvement, exhibitors use their advertising media — newspapers, programs and mailing lists — as completely as possible to convert their patrons to the new order. Chicago Censorship War Waxes Hot Picture Interests Land Heavy Blow on Funkhouser, but Club Women Grow Vociferous and Drive Speakers Away A VIGOROUS attack upon the present system of motion picture censorship in Chicago, under Major M. L. C. Funkhouser, and an equally vigorous defense by a group of club women reformers and friends of the Major resulted in a draw at the latest hearing before the subcommittee of the judiciary committee of the city council, which is investigating the censorship tangle here. Attorney Michael L. Igoe, state representative, and Alderman Maypole attacked the present censorship method in no uncertain terms and drew upon themselves the wrath of a number of the club women. The verbal battle became so hot and so confused that many prominent men and women of the city, including Opie Read, president of the Press Club of Chicago, went home without getting an opportunity to be heard. Among those who declared themselves opposed to the present system were Edward F. Dunne, former governor; George C. Sikes, publicist; Ralph C. Otis, former member of the board of education, and James G. Skinner, attorney for the Greater Chicago federation. Clarence S. Darrow, who had been called out of the city, sent a communication to the committee in which he designated the present censorship as "intolerably stupid." The case of the Mary Pickford picture, "The Little American," was brought up and ■ * jSmI h ♦^ ^^k^ ■* W through this the hardest blow of the day was struck at the Funkhouser regime when Edward Balmer, author, showed that the original objection to the picture was not to the scene showing a disheveled woman, but to the fact that the whole production was anti-German. Paralta-Pathe Arrangement in Operation Bryant Washburn is the first Pathe star to start work in the Paralta studio under the contract recently arranged by J. A. Berst, vice-president and general manager of the Pathe company. His first feature in the Pacific Coast studio will be "Twenty-One," a five-reel visualization of George Randolph Chester's great novel. In it Mr. Washburn will assume a dual role, giving interpretations of diametrically opposed characters. He plays the parts of a weakling and of an athlete of great courage. According to present plans "TwentyOne" will be released some time in the latter part of March or the early part of April. A new picture of June Caprice, William Fox Star. Fox "Les Miserables" Takes "Les Miserables," the William Farnum de luxe production, was shown at the historic Academy of Music in New York City recently, and although the seating capacity of the theater is one of the largest in the country, hundreds were turned away.