Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1914)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 83 ILLINOIS. /^OOL weather has come to many sections ^ of Illinois earlier than usual. As a result airdome business has slumped while the regular photoplay houses have noticed a gratifying increase in patronage. The houses in the smaller cities which have been idle throughout the summer were ready for business and have resumed their regular programs. Col. Nat H. Cohen's new moving picture house in Urbana is to be known as the Majestic. The theater will be in the building which is now occupied by the postoffice and as soon as the government vacates it remodeling of the structure will begin. Plans have been placed in the hands of a Chicago architect. The Clayton Opera House at Clayton has been leased by Frank Coup and C. C. Castle. Primarily it will be a moving picture house. However, some theatrical attractions will be booked but as it is announced that all such exhibitions will have to be gilt-edged the patrons are assured a large percentage of photoplay bookings. Coup has been seven years in the show business and promises a high standard of shows. The Princess theater at Rushville has been taken over by R. P. Eurnham, who will put into the business several years of theatrical experience. New projection apparatus, a new operating room, redecoration and extensive alterations have been added. After October 1 the house is to be operated as a five-cent moving picture show, reserving a few dates for traveling attractions. Lewistown is to have a new moving picture show, it is reported. J. F. Knock has been negotiating for the old canning factory building in the east part of the city and will convert it into a photoplay house. Inasmuch as it is not situated in the business part of town, it is probable that lengthy programs at bargain prices will be offered as an inducement for patrons. J. N. Petrie is back in the moving picture business at Watseka. Since he disposed of the Star theater In that city he failed to find a location that suited him and has purchased the Princess theater of F. H. Gard. Frank E. Jones of Mount Vernon, who recently bought a half interest in the Gem theater at Sullivan and has since been managing the house, has purchased the other half interest from his partner, Walter Warren of Mount Vernon, and has assumed full control. Warren has gone into the clothing business at Mount Vernon. As a town boosting movement Henry McMillen showed six reels of moving pictures at DeLand. A crowd of from 400 to 500 farmers was attracted to the public square and it is probable that a plan will be evolved whereby the photoplay will be used frequently to exploit the trading advantages of De Land. The management of the Yale theater at Carbondale makes the following interesting announcement to its patrons : "The Yale Amusement Company has never yet taken a cent out of the city for its own use; the profits so far have all been spent in improvements, to make the local theater better and more comfortable. And it will be years before the investment can pay for itself and then we will take the money and build you a new one." Labor troubles will no longer bother the Vaudette Amusement Company. The differences between the company and the stage hands' union which grew out of alleged grievances of the moving picture operators have been adjusted. The local federation has given the Gaiety, the vaudeville and picture house, and the Vaudette the exclusive picture house, clean bills and the union men may again patronize them. The Airdome at McHenry recently gave the annual benefit for Riverview Camp Royal Neighbors of America. Macomb had a real "Million Dollar Mystery" which afforded the papers in the Military Tract, as that section of the state is known, a great deal of amusement. A set of the Mystery films for one of the Macomb houses went astray. "The mayor hasn't declared a holiday to be celebrated upon their recovery," said one Galesburg paper, "but most of the town is expecting it to be one anyway." James Fenton of Monmouth has closed his airdome at Astoria. leaving the moving picture field there to the Duncan theater. The Duncan has introduced the people of Astoria to the Photoplay matinee, the town having acquired dav electrical service. The Wilmette theater at Wilmette has been taken over by the management of the Village theater and the two houses will he operated in conjunction, the booking for both being done by Manager Sparr of the village. A new screen has been installed in the Wilmette. The American theater at Carthage has installed a new $1,000 orchestral Violaphone. "I positively guarantee every statement made in regard to this picture to be true," declared Manager L. M. Rubens of the Princess theater at .Toliet in apprising his patrons of the coming of "The Spoilers." Fortunately there were nothing but favorable advance statements made in Joliet. The Gem theater at Grafton which has been closed all summer has been reopened. A pie-eating contest between sixty boys was one of the stunts at the Rock Falls Corn Carnival, which was filmed and will be shown in Northern Illinois picture houses. Manager Clauer of Dreamland theater at Galena is a member of the Masonic band of that city. On the night he opened his remodeled house, the musicians surprised him by appearing on the scene at 7 o'clock and giving a concert. A new stucco front, interior decorations with handsome paintings, and a new indirect lighting system are among the improvements. S. H. Gihlman of New Orleans, La., is said to have secured a location in Normal for a moving picture theater. The building will be remodeled and redecorated. Oak Park has enough graduates of the University of Wisconsin at Madison to form a large local alumni association. The moving pictures of the decennial reunion at the school therefore did a big business at the Oak Park theater on Sept. 12. The Lyric theater at Robinson gave a free show for old soldiers the night of Sept. 16. "Molly, the Drummer Boy," was shown. Moving picture shows are increasing the revenues of the city of Peoria. The amusement places now add $1,576 a year to the municipal treasury. A great many Illinois theaters are showing the moving pictures which demonstrate the manufacture of various makes of automobiles. There is a great deal of interest in this class of pictures, especially in the smaller towns. The farmers are enthusiastic motorists and eager to go behind the scenes at the factory. E. P. Milburn has purchased the Spencer building in South Main street in Marseilles and will remodel it for use as a modern moving picture house. He will give up his lease on the present location about the first of the year. It is probable the new house will book some vaudeville. W. W. Wolfe, a grocery clerk, and A. A. Rose of Champaign, have had the Ludwig building at the corner of Main and Water streets in that city remodeled into a moving picture theater seating 375 persons which they plan to open about Oct. 1. Rose formerly was employed by the Wurlitzer Company at Cincinnati, Ohio. Fred L. Vermillion, a well-known commercial photographer of Springfield, has entered the moving picture making field. His first films were about 500 feet of the Labor Day. the Shriners' and the Knights Templar Parades held in Springfield. They were shown at the Princess theater. Vermilion is equipped with an automobile and plans to film all events in Central Illinois and turn out the work in twenty-four hours. Arrangements were made to film the principal features of the Illinois State Fair at Springfield. There is a good field in and around Springfield for an alert cameraman as events of national importance occur there continuously. Old soldiers of Bureau County were admitted free to the Apollo theater when the annual reunion was held at Princeton. Frank Osborn has been appointed manager of the new Royal theater at 322 Seventh street in Rockford. Elmer Eriels will be in charge of the projection. Two Illinois moving picture houses are operating lecture courses, laying off the photoplavs on the nights the literary or musical numbers are given. Hamilton & Warren of the Photoplay theater at Camp Point are the latest. Burr Swan of the Knights of Pythias Opera House at Pittsfield tells why he is giving a lecture course: "You see, I've never lost any money in the moving picture business 'ihe place is paying a fair return for what I put into it. Taken the whole year round, it is Pittsfield's center of entertainment and recreation and amusement. Business is not dropping off and I am not going to wait until it starts to drop. I am going to keep on showing the very best stuff I can get in that opera house. I am going to keep on until everybody in town and the country round about is proud of 'our opera house.' 'our lecture course, our picture show.' And I am going to show it at a minimum profit because in the end the minimum profit is the biggest profit. A lot of my friends labor under the hallucination that words and more words come easy for me : in other words, that I like to hear myself talk. Which may be more or less true, but nevertheless there is not a successful business man in Pittsfield or anywhere else but who will tell you my theorv of running the opera house is good sound business sense, the giving or value received. It is good sound business sense to make your place of business stand for service. That's why I am offering a $400 lecture course for 00c. This lecture course will be a part of the good things you will see and hear at the K. of P. Opera House in Pittsfield. a part of your recreation, a part of your entertainment, a part of your education. The new Picture show at the opera house in Dixon has an augmented orchestra on Wednesday. ^"^-^frfelAL SERVICE. DETROIT. T T used to be considered quite a sight to 1 see dozens and dozens of automobiles lined up in front of the high-class theaters playing legitimate dramatic attractions, either before or after the performance, yet there is hardly a night that automobiles by the score do not line the streets in front of the Liberty, Washington, Garden, Addison and Gladwin picture theaters. All of these theaters have a large following of automobile owners, and it is not an uncommon occurrence for late arrivals to be compelled to "park" their machines two and three blocks away from the theater owing to all of the space nearer being taken. Fall business with the picture houses has started in earnest. Most everybody is back from their vacation, the evenings are cool and people are again patronizing the "movies" as thick as flies on a molasses barrel. In spite of the number of new theaters erected since last fall, there is not a manager or a proprietor who does not say that his patronage is larger than it was a year ago. It must be remembered that Detroit is growing ; the latest census gives us a population of over 650,000, which shows a gain of 44,000 in the last 12 months. The Grand Boulevard Theater Company closed a deal on Sept. 16 with William F. Klatt, whereby that company takes over 53 feet on the Grand Boulevard belonging to the latter, giving him stock in the company in exchange for the ground. The result is that instead of only 87 feet frontage on the boulevard, the Grand Boulevard Theater Company now has a frontage of 140 feet by 120 feet deep. This means that instead of building a theater to seat only 1.200 as originally planned, the total seating capacity will be increased to 2,000. The theater proper will run from side to side, or east and west instead of north and south. The original idea of making it a duplex theater, however, will still be carried out. Mr. Klatt. who is president and general manager of the Detroit Theaters, Inc., which operates about six picture houses in Detroit, had intended to build a small house on his 53 feet of ground so that by disposing of it he abandons his plan and leaves a clear field for the Grand Boulevard theater, thereby bringing this house considerably closed to Woodward avenue, which is Detroit's main thoroughfare. The location of the Grand Boulevard is directly opposite the eight-story retail building of the Ford Motor Company. Actual construction work will start by October 1, and it is expected that the theater will be completed about the middle of January or the first of February. The Gladwin Park theater on Jefferson avenue, adjoining Water Works Park, has arranged to show the big features of the World Film Corporation. The Gladwin Park is one of the largest and finest picture theaters in Detroit. Mr. Langloise, the manager, reports that business is picking up every day. The house never fails to have capacity at the first performance in the evening, and four nights out of the seven is also packed at the second night show. This theater has a very large automobile trade, many of the patrons coming in from Gross Pointe, which is further out Jefferson. . A local advertising firm is showing short reels and commercial films every night on a screen over the building at 210 Woodward avenue Between the various reels advertising slides are thrown. As Woodward avenue is Detroit's leading business thoroughfare, .there is always a good crowd on the opposite side of the street looking at the pictures. For the past two weeks deputies of the State Fire Marshal's Department have been making a rigid examination of Detroit's moving picture houses to see how many were complying with the state law, which is that all theaters showing motion pictures must be examined twice each year by the fire marshals and that each must pay a fee of $10 and receive a license from the state. There are 125 theaters I in Detroit showing pictures and all but 2r> small ones have complied with the law. according to the statement of one "deputy. Final warnings have been served on the theaters disobeying the law. and unless they comply within a week or ten days their places will be closed The Washington theater is being redecorated throughout. The management has given special attention to the stage setting, which is said to be one of the most beautiful in the United States Manager Howard O. Pierce has ar?a„S wi several local artists of note such as Harold Jarvis, to entertain the patrons with vocal solos, and in addition there wi 1 be special pipe organ recitals daily. Mr. Pierce feels very well satisfied with the business done since the house opened and is confident that the Paramount attractions will be packing the house three times daily before very long Marv Pickford in her latest success. Such a Little Queen " was the attraction for the week