The Moving Picture Weekly (1917-1918)

—THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY 23 XL,] Broadway Theatre, New York City, one of the largest theatres devoted exclusively to motion pictures, is running exclusively Jewel, Bluebird, Universal and Butterfly pictures, and under the management of Walter Rosenberg is entering upon a policy of prosperity not hitherto enjoyed. In selecting a Christmas picture due account was taken of the fact that the Bluebird had a Christmas picture, and that Stuart Baton had produced a picture on a Christmas theme which is to be put out under his name. After viewing the two pictures the management of the Broadway Theatre could not decide between them, and so the matter was put up to Carl Laemmle. Mr. Laemmle said: "Run them both on successive weeks." Therefore the program at the Broadway Theatre on December 2nd will be "My Little Boy," Bluebird photoplay, with a wonderful cast consisting of Little Zoe Rae, Ella Hall, Gretchen Lederer, Emory Johnson, Harry Holden and Winter Hall, and the Harry Carey feature, "Bucking Broadway," a wonderful Western picture directed by Jack Ford. Molly Malone is Carey's leading woman. And on December 9th the bill will be "Beloved Jim," Stuart Baton's wonderful Christmas production with the serial stars Priscilla Dean, Harry Carter and Joe Girard, and the superBluebird photoplay, "My Unmarried Wife," featuring Carmel Myers and Kenneth Harlan. "My Unmarried Wife" is the screen version of Frank R. Adams' justly celebrated novel, "Molly and I." It was directed by George Siegmann, who received most of his film training under David Griffith. These two weeks of Christmas pictures will be followed on December 16th by a bill consisting of Violet Mersereau in "The Girl by the Roadside," a Bluebird picture, and Louise Lovely in "Painted Lips" from the Two Christmas Pictures For Next Week The Broadway Theatre could not decide which Christmas picture to run, "My Little Boy," the Bluebird, or "Beloved Jim," the Stuart Paton Production. So they decided to run both. "My Little Boy" on Dec. 2. THE NEWS PERMITS US TO REPRINT IN THE BOX BELOW ONE WAT TO RAISE PRICES. CSE THIS COPY FOR A CARD OR A POSTER. IT'S GOOD STUFF. pen of Charles Kenyon, author of the famous stage success "Kindling," in which Margaret Illington made a twoyear success. The five-reel features at the Broadway Theatre are supplemented by the Universal two-a-week news service, the Animated Weekly which is out every Wednesday, and Universal Current Events which supercedes it on Saturday. There is also shown each week either a Century Comedy, an L-Ko Komedy or a Nestor Comedy, and the Universal Screen Magazine, making a most complete and enjoyable program. DOING OUR BIT! Uncle Sam said to us: "I need money to win this war. I know that the patrons of the better class of pictures theatres — those charging more than five cents — would be glad to give me a few cents each time they attend. Will you collect it for me?" So we went to work for Uncle Sam : We took on additional bookkeeping and ticket expense — taxcollecting is no cinch. We advertised to explain Uncle Sam's desires to you. We sweated over the tangle in our admission prices, we groaned at the ticket window confusion. Then we got a terrible shock. People began to call us "lucky dogs" because we escaped war taxes they had to pay. (See footnote here.) They didn't know that Uncle Sam : Was getting "his" from us in many other ways. That the job of collecting a tax from you was only given us after he had finished devising taxes that find their way into our bank book. That the task of giving top-quality entertainment at a moderate price is becoming so difficult that HALF THE THEATRES IN THE COUNTRY ARE LOSING MONEY. It was all our fault : We haven't told you enough about our business. You only hear the press-agent rot. So we sat down and wi-ote a series of talks like this one. We call them "Secrets of the Movies." Each week you will get a new one. Don't miss any of them — we are going to uncover a lot of snappy stuff. We're mad — no, we're not. We're just going to show you with a smile that WE ARE DOING OUR BIT! (Footnote) — Add to this paragraph your particular problem. For instance, if you have raised your prices: "They seemed to think that our new price scale gave us some soft, easy graft." Or, "They grumbled at irksome features of the tax with a look that said, 'You're to blame somehow — you're putting something over on us!'"