Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1914)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 81 Exhibitors News Interesting Information Concerning Moving Picture Men Gathered By Moving Picture World Correspondents Everywhere. KENTUCKY. /"» OOL, dry weather has had a most stimu^ lating effect on the motion picture business in Louisville and the exhibitors report that conditions are considerably more favorable than they were at the corresponding season last year. The amusement parks, airdomes, river excursions and most of the other outdoor places to go and things to do have been suspended for t^e season and. though most of the legitimate theaters are re-opened, they appear not to have cut in on the motion picture patronage to any extent. Several good features have been shown in Louisville houses during the past week, and well filled auditoriums have been the rule. The Bluegrass Motion Picture Manufacturing Company, with an authorized capital stock of $35,000 and rather an ambitious program, has been incorporated in Louisville by George P. Kendrick, A. D. Kendrick and I. D. Martin. The first is president and treasurer of the company, George H. Kendrick manager and cameraman, and Mr. Martin is organizer and business manager. The promoters and officers are now engaged in selling stock, and after the capital is paid in they will begin making pictures. For that purpose they will have the use of the 115 acres in the country estate of George P. Kendrick, a wealthy jeweler of Louisville, at Glenarm, in Oldham county, twenty miles east of Louisville. The estate is said to furnish numerous ideal backgrounds for motion picture work, and will be used at the outset in connection with the high-class drama films the company expects to make at the outset. Later it is expected that the company will branch out into other lines. Mr. Martin and George H. Kendrick have had considerable experience in taking motion pictures, and recently returned from Mexico, where they took war pictures which they disposed of to a New York concern. Julius G. Reader, formerly with the Ohio Motion Picture Company, of Cincinnati, who was considering opening a house in this section, has taken a position with the S. & P. Film Supply Company of Louisville, and will travel Kentucky for that concern. He has been in the Kentucky field for some time and is well known there. The Broadway Amusement Company, which leases the Walnut theater and operates the East and West Eroadway theaters, and others in Louisville, is conducting a popularity contest which will run through unlil December 31. when the numerous prizes will be given to the winners. The first prize is a trip to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, which with the rest on the list will bring the total up to about $2,000. Each cent paid in admission at any one of the six theaters entitles the patron to one vote, while "trade cards" which will admit the purchasers to any of the six theaters call for an increased number of votes, the $5 card giving 2,500 votes and the $10 card 7,500. The contest is attracting a great deal of attention, and is resulting in increased patronage at the several theaters in the chain. Besides the grand prizes to be awarded at the end of the contest, special prizes are put on every few weeks to go to the girl who gets the most votes in all the theaters combined during that week. At this time there are four prizes up on such an intermediary contest, the first prize being $10 in cash, the second a barrel of flour, the third $5 in cash and the fourth a box of chocolates. There are a number of contestants entered in the race and later a plan will be announced of reporting the standing of the several who have been entered for the honors at regular intervals in order to encourage balloting. Besides the three theaters named, the companv operates the Ideal, the Crown and the Baxter theaters, at widely separated sections of the city, thus insuring a wide interest in the contest arid a wide patronage. At the Walnut street theater the Broadway Amusement Company maintains a ten-cent fee on three days of each week. Tuesdays. Wednesdays and Thursdays, at which time the World Film C irporation features are shown. During the remainder of the week the admission price is five cents, and the company advertises that the show is the "best value for the money in the city." There was some question at the start as to whether the two admission rates would not result in confusion and make trouble, but according to J. L. Steurele it has not worked out that way. and the theatergoers who patronize the Walnut have become accustomed to the difference in the prices. The Kentucky theater, of Paducah, recently let a contract to C. D. Warren for re-painting and decorating the lobby and entrance of the theater. The house, which was operated as a motion picture house during the summer, will be opened in a few days for Its regular winter engagements, which will be announced later by Manager W. A. Finney. Hurley Brothers, who operate a string of theaters in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, have sold their picture shows at Morganfield and Princeton, Ky., but are still operating at Providence, Ky. ; Mt. Vernon, Ind., and Mt. Carmel, 111. Roy Hurley, who was in charge of the picture show at Morganfield, has gone to Providence to take charge of the Dreamland theater. H. M. Harris is in charge of the Princess at Morganfield. Reports concerning the forming of a stock company of negroes to start a motion picture house at Floyd and Jefferson streets in Louisville have been going the rounds for some time. However, the talk appears to be dying out and it is said that the "dusky brethren" were unable to get together on the proposition. E. H. Taylor, Jr., & Sons, distillers of Frankfort, who recently had a picture made of their plant at that city, are more than pleased with the advertising value which has been observed in the pictures shown at the National Association of U. S. Internal Revenue officers' banquet on the roof garden of the Waldorf Astoria and in a number of other convention halls and motion picture houses in New York and Boston. The magnificence of the plant has caused a great deal of very favorable comment, according to Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. C. W. Joehrendt, who for some time has been operating the Arena theater of Campbellsville, has moved with his family to Monticello, 111., where he controls two motion picture houses. The manager of one of these latter houses recently resigned his position to go to Denver and Mr. Joehrendt decided to take charge in person. Frank Romine has been placed in charge of the house at Campbellsville. u. D. CRAIN, JR. TENNESSEE. THE European war is affecting business with the Tennessee moving picture houses and those of the South a great deal more than those of any other section of the country. The South depends almost entirely upon the cotton crop for its business. The crop this season is an excellent one, but as exports to England, Germany, Russia and other large cotton-using countries are entirely cut off this fall, bufeiness throughout the South is not booming to any marked extent, a good many people are out of work and naturally the picture business has been affected to some extent. Lumber operations have also been curtailed, and the copper and other mining industries around Knoxville are not operating to anything like capacity. Tennessee, however, has been making rapid strides in the motion picture business during the past year or eighteen months, and will certainly be a lively place as soon as conditions return to normal. The Business Men's Association of Lebanon was behind a movement whereby a corps of moving picture men took pictures of the principal points of interest in the city. These pictures will form a part of the film to be shown at the San Francisco Exposition in 1915. Two motion picture machines were in action at Nashville recently when under the direction of the counsel for the state in nuisance cases, several thousand dollars' worth of good and bad whisky, wine and other spirituous liquors were" emptied into Cumberland river early in the morning by the receivers in the cases. Six drays were required to transfer the liquor from the warehouse to the Sparkman street bridge, where the bottles were opened and emptied of their contents. The moving picture men had been waiting for several weeks for a chance to get these pictures. The Strand theater of Nashville has applied for a charter of incorporation, listing the capital stock of the company at $25,000. The incorporators are Hugh M. Waddle, Roy C Shelton, H. A. Waddle, J. B. Brent and Frank Pierce. The Tennessee Industrial Film Company, capitalized at $12,000, has filed application for a charter under the laws of Tennessee. The new concern will operate at Knoxville. The incorporators are R. C. Wright, E. A. Sehorn, Charles Barber, Herbert D. Dobson and Henry Hudson. The i ompany proposes to film educational and industrial subjects The Gay theater, of Kn ■xv.lle, alter having undergone extensive alterations, was reopened for business on Labor Day. The interior of the theater has been completely rebuilt, and the new balcony has a seating capacity of r00. New upholstered seats have been installed throughout, and the Total seating capacity of the house is now 1,500. The ventilation system has been improved, and six exits have been provided on each floor. A gold fiber screen has been installed, and the machines will now throw the pictures a distance of 10S feet. The completed theater is one of the best equipped theaters in Tennessee, it is said. Suit has been filed in chancery at Chattanooga to secure the collection of eight months' rent for use of the building located at 826-8 Broad street, originally leased for a five-year term as a theater. An airdome has been operated on the premises. Will S. Albert and F. M. Catron are named as defendants in the proceedings. Ike Poss, an agent for the estate of P. Poss, owner of the property, is the complainant. Attached to the bill are eight notes, each for $100, signed by Mr. Albert, and to be paid monthly as rental on the building. Eight other notes, each for $25, are also attached, upon which it is stipulated that they shall be paid in advance monthly as rent on a room adjoining the theater, which is used as a property room. The notes cover the rent claimed to be due for the last eight months of the five-year lease on the building. The Queen theater of Knoxville has made arrangements to snow the Famous Players pictures at the theater hereafter. The Jack London stories and Mary Pickford productions have become immensely popular all through the South and big audiences are being played to whenever pictures of this class are shown. The Majestic theater of Chattanooga is staging a number of vaudeville and musical turns in addition to its regular run of motion pictures. The Alhambra theater of Chattanooga recently showed "The Vendetta" and a number of other high-class productions. The work of making 20,000 feet of Tennessee films for the San Francisco Exposition of 1915 is coming along rapidly, under the direction of S. I. Connor, field representative of the Tennessee Exposition Commission, and operating for the Bon Ray Film Company. Nashville has been apportioned a total of 7,000 feet, Memphis 6,000 and Knoxville and Chattanooga divide up the remainder. Side trips to districts surrounding each city will be included in their division of the 20,000 feet of film. Fifteen hundred children recently took part in one of the pictures, made at Centennial Park, near Nashville, Tenn. The children ranged in age from two years to fourteen and were shown at their many sports in the big park. GEORGE. WISCONSIN. OMB of Milwaukee's super-prudes objected to the title of "For Those Unborn" appearing at the Butterfly theater and asked that the name be changed. Nothing objectionable was found in the film. The censor commission of the citizens' committee had viewed the picture and found nothing that demanded elimination. Later a reauest came to Manager Graham that the name be changed as complaints had reached the censors that the title constituted an offense. Perhaps the time is coming when exhibitors will have to maintain sub-title printing plants to meet the demands of local censorship. In Chicago the censors cut out a sub-title referring to the unborn, but it went through the rest of the picture. Wee's Opera House at Orfordville has installed a machine and will give picture shows. C. M. Mast has sold the Temple theater at Washburn to P. T. Trowbridge of Milwaukee. E. B. Korth of Orangeville Is planning to erect a reinforced concrete building at that place to be used as a moving picture theater, opera house, dance hall and garage. The Majestic theater, "the Acknowledged Home of the Best Pictures" has been In business at Madison for over a year. An "epochmaking program" was offered for anniversary week. A special performance of the "Made-in-Fondulac" pictures for the members of the cast and the advertisers was held at the Orpheum. W. L. Fursman and Ralph L. Thacher have achieved distinctiveness with their new Varsity theater in State street in Madison by giving the residents of the city "after-breakfast" shows. The Varsity is the first to open at in a, ni. The first performance was one to a select crowd. Invitations were mailed to members of the state and city government and the local press. Elwvn G Hamer will be advertising manager of the new People's theater (formerly the Rex' at Oshkosh. which is operated by the New People's Theater Company, a local concern with an unusually large number of sbareholders. It is running pictures and vaudeville. MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICE.