Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

S. ROYAL TUPPER General Manager NEW YORK OFFICE: 1022 LONGACRE BUILDING. Forty-second Street and Broadway Telephone Bryant 7030 CHARLES W. BREHNAN, Advertising Manager LOS ANGELES OFFICE: 6411 HOLLYWOOD BLVD. MABEL CONDON, Western Representative NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Changes of advertising copy should reach the office of publication not less than fifteen days in advance of date of issue. Begular date of issue every Saturday. New advertisements will be accepted up to within ten days of date of issue, but proof of such advertisements can not be shown in advance of publication. ST77, THE MOTION PICTURE TRADE JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY ELECTRICITY MAGAZINE CORPORATION E. R. MOCK, President and Treasurer PAUL H. WOODRUFF, Editor in Chief, E. M. C. Publications MONADNOCK BUILDING CHICAGO, ILL. Branch Telephone Exchange: Harrison 3014 Entered at Chicago Post Office as Second Class Mail Matter. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Per Year $3.00 Canada Foreign Single copy Per year $4.00 Per year 5.00 ■ .15 NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Remittances— Remittances should be made by check. New York draft or money order in favor ofMoTOGRAPHY. Foreign subscriptions may be remitted direct by International Postal Money Order. Change of address— The old address should be given as well as the new, and notice should be received two weeks in advance of the desired change. This publication is free and independent of all business or house connections or control. No manufacturer or supply dealer, or their stockholders or representatives, have any financial interest in Motography or any voice in its management or policy. Volume XIX CHICAGO, FEBRUARY 16, 1918 Number 7 When the "Legit" House Puts Up a Screen SINCE the moving of theatrical scenery and props demands car space — to say nothing of the moving of player companies — the government has registered temporary disapproval of that traffic, favoring more the transportation of food and fuel. It is an ill wind that does not blow good to some part of the motion picture industry, and in this emergency the film men were quick to sign up the "legit" houses for short term service. As a result some houses are running pictures for the first time, and quite a few are renewing old and almost forgotten acquaintance with them. One of the theatrical weeklies quotes a film manufacturer to the effect that "If the legitimate houses undertake to present the best class of films during this crisis there is no reason why they cannot show a handsome profit at the end of the season. The public would prefer to see films exhibited in a comfortable well-ventilated, roomy place than in a hastily improvised building in which the ventilation is bad and the space cramped." While the inference that picture theaters are ordinarily cramped for room, badly ventilated and hastily improvised will not be relished by the film fraternity, the prediction that "legitimate" houses will make a "handsome | profit" from showing pictures is interesting. If they do, it will be more than they have made out of their own business for some time. It will also be more than the average experienced picture exhibitor makes. Handsome profits at the end of the season are, indeed, so desirable in the theatrical business nowadays that it will fail to surprise us if some of the "legit" houses keep their screens and booths after the railroads begin again to solicit theatrical traffic. The prospect that even a small percentage of the dramatic houses might decide to swing over permanently to pictures, as a result of their enforced experiment, will not be regarded with joy by the established exhibitors. The influx of new and competent competition, while it swells the receipts and volume and general prosperity of the film industry, carries a threat that the routine of local patronage may be expensively disturbed and diverted. We have approached so near to the theater saturation point, in other words, that every new picture show threatens to draw its patrons from the older shows of the vicinity. The swinging over of any "legitimate" or vaudeville house to pictures, however, throws another group of patrons on the market. Those who do not stick to their accustomed house after the change will shift to some other neighboring house. The number of patrons per house remains the same. The number of picture fans is actually increased, because some who thought they preferred the speaking stage are forced to accept the screen — and, of course, find they like it just as well or better. Some of them will stick to the pictures even after the stage house goes back to its business. In the end the regular exhibitors who compete with it actually benefit when a stage house puts up a temporary screen.