Motography (Jul 1918)

82 M O T O G R A P H Y Vol. XX, No. 2. Notes of the Industry In General BRIEF NEWS OF NEW YORK IN PARTICULAR p EARL WHITE is away on a vacation, and she * needs it. A few days ago she completed the twentieth and concluding episode of "The House of Hate," and when one figures the number of thrills contained in the forty reels that comprise Jhis Pathe serial, there is no need to wonder why Pearl White is taking it easy. "No gay board walk at Atlantic City for me this year," she said before she left the city. "Believe me, I am going to take the rest cure this summer. I am going up to a farm in New York State and do nothing but just rest." "But what about plans for the future?" she was asked. "Oh, I expect to be back to work in a month," Ihe star replied. "You know we have another big *erial coming and I figure that a month out with the buttercups, the cows and the chickens will make me fit and keen again for the thrill stuff." 4 4 4. The home office of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation is in receipt of a letter from Feature Films, Ltd., its branch in far-off Sydney, Australia, to the effect that Sergeant W. J. Moore of New York was not the first man connected with the big organization to win the Croix de Guerre. W. St. Clair Anderson, publicity manager of the Sydney branch, who was formerly a flight commander in the Royal Flying Corps, not only beat Sergeant Moore by a number of months, but was made a member of the Legion of Honor and at the hands of the British Government was awarded the D. S. O. and the Military Cross. 4. 4, 4, Promotions and appointments in the Pathe sales organization are announced as follows: F. B. Pickerel, one of the star salesmen at Kansas City, has been made manager at Oklahoma City. B. M. Moran, who has been with Mutual, Vitagraph, Triangle and Kleine, has been made manager at Albany. F. B. Rogers is manager at Chicago, James W. Hill, Jr., manager at Dallas, and E. D. Tate, manager at Los Angeles. Mr. Tate was manager of the Liberty Theatre, Seattle, before joining Pathe. F. C. Quimby, general sales manager, is now making a tour of the exchanges. A cablegram received from Burton Holmes, the famous lecturer, photographer and creator of the Paramount-Burton Holmes Travelogues, announces that he and his staff have arrived safely in London after a fourteen days' voyage across under American convoy. Mr. Holmes will remain at the Hotel Savoy, London, for a few days prior to going to France, where he will gather material for a series of travelogues behind the lines, which promise to be of the highest value as a contribution to contemporaneous history. 4, 4, 4. Irene Castle has just completed "The Girl From Bohemia," which will probably be her last screen appearance for some time. She has decided to give her services as an entertamer in the Y. M. C. A. huts in France for the remainder of the year or longer, and expects to go "over there" in the near future. Since the tragic death of her husband, Vernon Castle, in an accident while he was training aviators, Mrs. Castle has been more determined than ever to contribute her services as a part of her "bit." 4 4, 4, Realizing the sales creating possibilities of a well-written letter, the Triangle Distributing Corporation established a letter writing competition among its exchange men recently. As a result, E. R. Carr, sales manager at Washington, is the possessor of a beautiful gold watch, which was awarded to him as the first prize. The second prize, a gold watch fob with a triangular pendant, was awarded to W. J. Pratt, manager of the Boston exchange. 4. 4, 4. "Smiling Bill" Parsons, star of Capitol Comedies, and Billie Rhodes, who has completed her contract with another producer and become the millionaire comedian's leading woman, arrived in New York last Friday. Before returning to Hollywood, the comedian will produce two or three comedies in the East, possibly at the Goldwyn studios in Fort Lee. 4, 4, 4, Doris Kenyon, who has been appointed honorary sergeant of the 122nd Company, 70th Regiment, U. S. Coast Defenses, was given a banquet recently at the general headquarters of the Coast Defenses at Fort Hamilton. Miss Kenyon expects soon to give a private showing of her new picture, "The Street of Seven S'tars," for the members of her company. Anita Stewart, Vitagraph star, is making a picture in Brooklyn near a naval training station. That she has acquired many friends among the sailors would be the only conclusion that could be drawn from this picture. MRS. GEORGE K. SPOOR, wife of the president of the Essanay Film Company, presented Unit 380, Illinois Volunteer Training Corps, with a large silk flag at a military ceremony at the Essanay studios on June 21. The flag was accepted for the company by Captain Richard W. Woodman. This unit is generally known as the Essanay unit, for George K. Spoor supplied the company with guns as well as a drill hall. There are now 118 members of the company and 43 stars in its service flag. The object of the organization is to train younger men for service and to form a nucleus of older men for state duty in case of need. 4. 4. 4. Phil Solomon of the George Kleine sales force, received a letter recently from his cousin, Aubrey Simmons, who has been managing a string of motion picture theatres behind the battle lines in France with the Australian troops. The theatres and equipment were destroyed by the Germans in their recent offensive and Mr. Simmons narrowly escaped with his life. His assistant was killed during a bombing raid. 4» 4* 4? D. W. Griffith, while in Chicago last week, visited Orchestra Hall to view the novelty screen which W. L. Hill installed there when Famous Players-Lasky took over the theatre this summer. The screen is curved so that the angle from the eye to the screen is a right angle, no matter where one may be sitting. This does away with distortion. Mr. Griffith remarked that the projection was the best he had ever seen. 4, 4, 4, Arthur Bates, for years one of Essanay's leading character players, was called last week to join the colors. He left for Camp Wheeler at Macon, Georgia. His best characterizations were old man parts in "The Man Trail,;' and "The Kill-Joy." He played comedy parts with Chaplin in his_ early Essanay comedies and later played leads in the Essanay comedies directed by Arthur Hotaling. 4. 4. 4. The Lane Court Theatre, of which Bruce Godshaw is manager, has started an interesting Thrift Stamp Club among its children patrons. When the club reached a membership of 200, each with a full Thrift Card, the youngsters were photographed in motion pictures, which will be shown later at the theatre. A picnic at Lincoln Park, followed by a bus ride, was an added feature of the day. 4. 4. 4. David Wark Griffith was in Chicago last week to help get "Hearts of the World" settled into its summer quarters — the Colonial Theatre. This theatre and Griffith pictures are well acquainted. It was in the Colonial Theatre that "The Birth of a Nation" had its record-breaking run. "Intolerance" had its Chicago premiere and a long run in the Colonial and now comes "Hearts of the World." 4, 4. 4, Madge Kennedy. Dorothy Gish and May Allison were visitors in Chicago sometime or other last week. Miss Kennedy was on a vacation. Miss Gish was on her way to the West Coast to begin her new series of pictures under the Paramount banner, and Miss Allison was en route to Los Angeles and the western Metro studios. 4> 4* 4* . 'The Birth of a Race' continues to have its troubles. A young woman lawver, representing an Alaskan miner who had put $8,000 into the company, attached 32,000 feet of the negative and also served a similar writ of attachment on the offices of Giles P. Cory and Companv, fiscal agents. The negative is being held at the Rothacker plant. 4. 4, 4, "The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin," which ran seven weeks in the various Loop theatres and then was shown in nearly all the neighborhood houses, is back in a downtown house this week, a most unusual re-bonking under the circumstances. The Pastime, on Madison street, near Clark, is playinsr it. 4* 4* 4* William Tenner's successor as manager of the Chicaeo William Fox exchange is H. W. Willard. Mr. Willard has been assistant manager of the ("Tiicago exchange for the pa«t ten months. Before that he was with the Fox offices in New York. 4. 4, 4, J. R. Grainger, special representative of the New York William Fox offices, is again in Chicago after a trip east.