The Moving Picture Weekly (1917-1918)

THE MOVING PICTURE WEEKLY ■29 |RS. O. C. LEITER, proprietor of the Arcade and Star Theatres in La Grande, and one of the most progressive women exhibitors in Oregon, has adopted the policy of making the Arcade, her larger theatre, practically an "allfeature" house. Both theatres have been remodelled and an expensive new pipe organ installed, with Charles Stevens, who was formerly playing in the larger theatres in Portland, as her organist. Her first few weeks' bookings on features are principally Jewel Productions, and she will probably handle all the Jewel releases in their order. Her first bookings were "Come Through," "Pav Me" and "Sirens of the Sea." She" also booked the Bluebird extraordinary, "Mother o' Mine" as one of the introductory attractions under her new policy. "Bluebird service saved my show when the other exchange fell down on its delivery of the feature that I had booked," was the assertion of W. H. Durham, proprietor of the Grand Theatre, of Camas, Wash., acknowledging the dispatch of a film from Portland to fill in when he failed to get what he had announced to his patrons with a big advertising splash. Mr. Durham's telephone message reached Portland late in the afternoon, and the booker in the Bluebird exchange, sent up "The Gift Girl," with Louise Lovely featured. "We didn't have time to advertise in advance," said Mr. Durham, "but just rushed the reels over from the OREGON OBSERVATIONS By DEAN COLLINS station and opened the show, with a sheet outside the theatre announcmg that 'A Bluebird feature was being offered instead of the one delayed.' " 'If it's a Bluebird it's good anyhow,' was what the people said, and I had a good house for the first show. After that the play advertised itself, and I had good houses right along. I don't think any other brand of pictures would have pulled me out the way the Bluebird did." Jewel Features and "The Red Ace" serial particularly to buck the depression in business that attends the big strike in the Crown-Willamette Paper Mills in that city. For a few days after the strike began the motion picture houses were heavily patronized, and then the attendance began to fall off until it became necessary to throw in something with an extra pull. Schram had booked all the Jewel productions he could secure and, picking them out of Portland right on the heels of the big advertising campaigns of the metropolitan theatres, he is using them in Oregon City, with a local newspaper advertising campaign and is getting things across very effectively. The Vogue, a genuine Butterfly theatre, is a new venture launched by C. G. Vaughn in Kelso, Wash. Mr. Vaughn was formerly a travelling exhibitor on the road with feature productions. In the beginnings of his enterprise in Kelso, he is booking the most successful of the Red Feather films, to lead into his Butterfly service, particularly the popular Jack Mulhall features. "All I have to do to get the wholetown into my theatre is to hang out a card saying 'narry Carey tonight,' " is the testimony of J. H.. Lux, of the Rex Theatre, of Thompson Falls, Mont., to the drawing:; power of the great cowboy star ia his role of "Cheyenne Harry." Charles Schram, manager of the Grand Theatre, Oregon City, is using The former American Theatre, at 858 Union Avenue, Portland, which has been closed for some months, has been reopened by M. Nudelman, as Ye Liberty, and will be run with Bluebirds and Butterflies featured. Mr. Nudelman is a man with a knack at community advertising and has "cleaned up" on houses that had been closed in half a dozen cities, before he came to Portland, through his advertising methods and the programs he has offered.