Reel Life (Sep 1913 - Mar 1914)

Reel Life 1 5ii Orpheum Theatre, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Niagara Falls, N. Y., 11-12-'13. M. D. Savage, Mutual Film Corporation, Buffalo, N. Y. Dear Mr. Savage: Enclosed find check for this week's film service. Well, Dan, the Mutual Service is fine. I like it far better than the General in every way. You have a much better variety and your programs are much better balanced. Your comedies are way ahead. Your Westerns are better in every way, while your straight dramatic pictures are fully as good. In conclusion, I must not omit to say that since I began to use the Mutual Service in my new house the business has increased 30 per cent., which goes to show that your service is a good business getter. Yours for success. E. J. HAUCK, Mgr. First National Bank Unsafe — Says Anna Laughlin What would be considered a case of genuine hard luck if it happened to anybody but a moving picture leading lady, befell Anna Laughlin, of the Reliance Company recently, while she was shopping on Fifth Avenue. But to be "touched" for the small sum of $531 is a mere coincidence where a moving picture actress is concerned. Miss Laughlin and her mother were in quest of a suit to be worn by the actress in a picture entitled "Her Father's Daughter." While in one of the largest department shops she suddenly discovered that her hand bag was open and her roll of $531 was as "lost and gone forever" as the beautiful maiden of the rah rah boys' favorite song. "How comes it that the festive roll was not in the famous 'Ladies' First National Bank'?" Miss Laughlin was asked. "In view of the banking reforms suggested by President Wilson and the slit skirt, one scarcely knows what to do," kind sir, she said. A Three-Reel American Coming Lorimer Johnston, one of the directors of the American Film Mfg. Co., at the Santa Barbara, California, studios, has just started a three-reel feature production. The story is laid in America, and embraces the periods of 1860, 1880, 1900 and 1^13. The parts are all played by the same people. The picture starts in 1900 and goes back to 18601. showing the cast in their younger days and then bringing all the characters up to the present day. It is a great psychological study, and gives opportunity for wonderful characterizations. Sydney Ayres, Harry Von Meter, Jack Richardson, Vivian Rich and Louise Lester all have parts that register with great strength. This marks an epoch with the American Co.. as it is the first big three-reel yet done by the company, and its being entrusted to Director Lorimer Johnston for the initial venture, is a proof of the confidence the company has in his careful consideration of "picture values.'' Great things are expected of the picture. The scenario is by Marc Edmund Jones, and the title and release date will be announced shortly. This is a fore-runner of the greater feature productions soon to follow. P. G. Lynch Joins American Forces At Santa Barbara P. G. Lynch, formerly of the Pacific Mutual Film Corporation, at Los Angeles, has been engaged by Pres. S. S. Hutchinson, of the American Film Mfg. Co., as his assistant at Santa Barbara, California. Mr. Lynch has been identified in various branches of the business on the coast and has been recognized as an efficient and capable man. In his new capacity he will be in charge of business matters at the Santa Barbara studios, part of which work has temporarily been in charge of Julius Frankenburg, who will in future be identified as a comedy character in "Flying A" productions. Lorimer Johnston Lorimer Johnston Lorimer Johnston, now directing the first company of the American "Flying A" players, presages great things from this talented group of actors. Mr. Johnston is a native of Kentucky, being a grand nephew of the celebrated Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was in command of the Confederate army at the time of his death, which occurred during the first day's battle of Shiloh. Mr. Johnston was for some years on the dramatic stage and has to his credit not only a series of successful productions of plays in New York, but has successful plays of his own writing. Two years ago he realized the great advance the moving pictures were making, and also that therein lay a field to which the knowledge he had gained of the stage and the world in general through extensive travel in America and in many parts of Europe, Asia and Africa could well be applied to the production of pictures. He therefore went to Europe and for a year studied in the studios at Rome, Paris and Copenhagen. On his return to America he became a Producer, in a Chicago plant and after some time there went to the Pacific Coast, where he is now Director with the American Film Mfg. Co. He has already scored with a number of two-reel productions, such as "Truth in the Wilderness," "The Scapegoat, "Adventures of Jacques" and "For the Crown." Mr. Johnston holds the distinguished honor of being the last holder of an office of which Benj. Franklin was the first. He was appointed Bearer of Dispatches for the President, and he'd this office for six years, running into the second year of Mr. Cleveland's administration, when the office was abolished by the Democratic party in their endeavor to retrench, and the office has never been restored. The holding of this office gave Mr. Johnston the opportunity of meeting the elect men of Europe, not only the reigning monarchs, which was an essential part of his duties, but the various Ministers who iield the portfolio of Foreign Affairs in their own countries. Among these were Benj. Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield), Gladstone, Adnrassy, Gortchikoff, Cassimer Perier and many others. Mr. Johnstone has a record of fourteen transAtlantic trips and his voyages elsewhere have taken him to WadiElforo (at the second cataract of the Nile), in the Soudan. He has made extensive research in the ruins of Nineveh, was a guest of Rajah Brooke at Sarawak in Borneo. Speaking a number of languages, his one great ambition is to take a company to the out-of-the-way places of the world and produce such pictures as will demonstrate the value of advanced study in motion picture production. Bluefield, West Virginia, House Does Record Business The enterprising manager of the Rex Theatre at Bluefield, W. Va., writes us in detail concerning his success and we quote from his letter as follows: "Our theatre in which we run the Mutual Program seats 350 people. We usually give eight shows daily, four reels to a show, with the exception of Saturdays and feature days. Then there is no limit to our number of shows; we just have to run until we have accommodated all of the people. Our admission price is ten cents daily. We never raise the price for features and that is the reason we get the people. They know we always have a good show and the price never changes. We are receiving all the American subjects released and would be perfectly satisfied if we had one every day. To-day, out of the four reels we are runningj, American "Her Big Story" is the favorite. We get some mighty good features here, but for some reason or other the American is the best business puller. The accompanying picture of our theatre was taken before we opened. It would have been a hard matter to see tlie front of the theatre later in the day." (Signed) RUSSELL S. WEHRLE, Mgr., Rex Theatre. Expert Proposers "Armed Intervention" shows some exceptionally expert proposing scenes. • Whether the expert applies to the acting or whether it is a natural characteristic of the participant is hard to tell. Better ask Greenwood, Coxen and Field of the "Flying A" studios. So that their pictures may be as complete and as realistic as possible, the New York Motion Picture Company has purchased the auxiliary barkentine "Fremont," with her twin-screw engines, at a cost of some thirty-five thousand dollars, and have put her in first-class condition so that she may be used under her own power. A company, consisting of some 20 or 30 people, has been sent to the Hawaiian Islands to produce a series of South Sea Island stories, while thrilling rescue scenes and general deck scenes were taken en-route. The company has taken up its quarters at the Hotel Halwawa, at the extreme southern end of the Island of Oahu. That part of the island affords the best and most beautiful settings of the whole group of islands, for they will have the rugged sea coast as well as the largest pineapple, rice and sugar cane fields in the territory. To say that their pictures will be some of the most wonderful ever made by any company, is putting it mildly, judging from past productions. Mr. Ince is a man who never lets an opportunity slip through his fingers, and when the idea of the Hawaiian stories presented itself to him, he immediately put the wheels of his machinery into motion and left not one stone unturned until he had his best company on. the way to the Islands. Permission has been obtained from the government to take a series of naval and army pictures in and around Fort McKinley and the Diamond Head fortifications, as well as Pearl Harbor. The company will also go to the big Island of Hawaii and will no doubt take up their quarters at the Irwin Plantation, the largest sugar plantation on the Islands, where educational features will be taken, not only of the growing and gathering of the sugar cane, but refining as well, to say nothing of the volcano Kilauea and its action. The Island of Nehou is the only one in the group where the natives still cling to their primitive methods of living, and the pictures taken here should prove of great interest to the world at large now that the Hawaiians, as a rule, have become more or less Americanized. There is not another company now making motion pictures that spends as much time and effort as the New York Motion Picture Company, but the results obtained should be recompense enough, for it is the general consensus of opinion that their pictures are the most wonderful, realistic and original on the market today.