Reel and Slide (Jan-Sep 1919)

16 REEL and SLIDE "Maybe Stone Has It," Oddest Shop in World of Films By H. M. Brice THERE is one movie studio, located in New York, that is the most unusual in the world. This studio has a peculiar name. It is called simply, "Maybe Stone Has It." "Stone" is called the savior and good angel of all picture producers. He has saved more than one $20,000 production from ruin. He has put joy into the life of more than one director. Stone collects short films on odd subjects. Also, he collects short films on all the most commonplace subjects. The two extremes meet in his shop. He buys these films in all parts of the world. He pays huge prices for some of them. He buys from anybody who has what he wants or may want for somebody else some daj-. This peculiar business is merely one of the many that have developed in the development of the motion picture industry. The Stone idea is that certain "stock" subjects are needed regularly from time to time by all picture producers. Many of these scenes cannot be secured immediately by the camera man. Say Fox Film Co. want a certain kind of tropical sunset to finish up the last reel. To send a camera man where he might be able to photograph it would consume time and money. So, Fox asks Stone for it. Stone has any number of sunsets in his vaults, taken under all conditions. Take your pick, Mr. Fox! It doesn't matter to Fox when or where the sunset was made so it fits in the photoplay. Naturally, a business like this, of always having the varied demands of the studio in stock, requires that Stone keep on hand the most unusual collection of short, miscellaneous films in the world. Stone can supply such varied subjects as the following: Fire engines racing down a crowded street. Auto going over the cliff. Two locomotives in a head-on collision. Wild animals at large in city streets. Peculiar chemical phenomena. A marriage ceremony among the Hottentots. Auto races, including thrilling "spills." Moon rises, sunsets, rain storms, tornadoes. Huge chimneys falling. War scenes. Prize fights. Fires. Street crowds from all lands. Weird ceremonies among uncivilized races. Scenes from the frigid zones. Scorpions, adders, boa constrictors, deadly ants, household pets, farmyard scenes. These are merely a few. He has hundreds more cataloged. Where does he get them? From all over the world they come. Hundreds of news weekly camera operators, in their daily rounds, photograph any unusual or commonplace scene and send it to Stone. It may be a dog fight, a street car accident, a fire, a war scene; some day Stone knows it will fit in a film "story." Besides this, he has a large collection of semi-educational films. He aims to have what the other fellow is certain to want, but won't have a chance or time to get it When he wants it. Y. M. C. A. Department of Pictures Gets New Subjects THE Bureau of Motion Pictures, Industrial Department, of the Y. M. C. A. reports that through the courtesy of Mr. A. B. Jewett of Ford Motor Company it has obtained thirty-two new reels of industrial and scenic subjects, including visits to St. Paul, Minn.; Detroit, Mich.; Cleveland, Ohio; Richmond. Ya. ; Baltimore, Md. ; Portland, Ore.; New York City and Philadelphia, Pa. Other films include "Ford Tractor," "Luther Burbank," "Making an Auto," "Yosemite Valley," "Apple Raising," "Making Auto Wheels" and "Lumber Industry." The use of the films circulated by the Y. M. C. A. Motion Picture Bureau is steadily increasing and gives satisfaction wherever used in industrial plants. Secretaries who have not already had the use of this film service are invited to write in and make known their needs. It is also important to note that the Official U. S. Films are available for use of the Y. M. C. A.'s. They include the following: "Official War Reviews" — One reel, news.weeklv. "America'Answer"— Five-reel feature. "Pershing's Crusaders"— Sevenreel feature. "The Bridge of Ships"— Two-reel feature. For showing in Y. M. C. A. buildings and in churches they can be secured without cost except transportation where the audience is exclusively men in uniform. Special arrangements can be made for showing to civilian audiences, a small rental charge being asked. Requests for films should be made in writing to Mrs. Jane S. Johnson, Division of Films, Committee on Public Information, 6 West 48th street, New York City. The Committee on Public Information is making a special concession to the Y. M. C. A. in order to secure the maximum circulation on these films. Y. M. C. A. secretaries are urged to make a special effort to exhibit these films to the workers in industry. The Bureau of Motion • Pictures and Exhibits of the Industrial Department announces that through the Picturelook Division of the Material Bureau, National Wrar Work Council, interesting sets of lantern slides are available for use among workers in war industries. There are about 2,500 slides divided into 80 sets, under the following titles : Civilian and Industrial War Activities and Patriotic Demonstrations; Humor; Exploration, Adventure and Natural History; Travel, Scenic, and Outdoor Sports ; American History ; Art and Architecture ; Colleges in War Times ; Miscellaneous War Subjects. Accompanying each set of slides, which are called "Picturelooks," is a manuscript written by well-known authors, among them : Rear Admiral R. E. Peary, Donald B. MacMillan, Ellis Parker Butler, Major Douglas W. Johnson, Josephine Daskam Bacon, Ernest Harold Baynes, Juliet Wilbor Tompkins, Roy Chapman Andrews. These Picturelooks have, of course, been assembled .for use among the soldiers of the allied armies, but through courtesy of the director of Picturelook Division they are made available for use of Y. M. C. A.'s in the United States if purchased outright. A description of these Picturelooks may be had by addressing J. A. Rawson, Jr., Director of Picturelook Division, Room 2010, 347 Madison avenue, New York City. Sees Need for ''Reissue" Plan to Aid School Picture Programs EDITOR, Reel and Slide Magazine : I am now prepared to state that after eighteen months of operating our picture show in our high school auditorium we have been able to add to the school, from the profits, $1,500 worth of improvements. We have lately contracted for various additional improvements that will amount to $800 in value. And the end is not yet. There is only one "fly in the butter" so far as I have been able to determine, and it is up to some M. P. publication, or concern, to pick it out. I believe that it will act, but it will not be amiss to stir up a couple of you to action to make sure of a hit. Here is the story. There are produced yearly thousands of films that will be of use for educational work for many years. Most of these productions are "junked" after a 3'ear's use or less. If the producers could be persuaded to hold in reserve copies of these productions at some centrally located point in the United States they would be doing themselves and the school users a good turn. You understand that although a film becomes useless from a popular theater standpoint, it may long continue in service in schools where the same subject or topic is touched on year after year as new classes come up. For instance, the story of Rip Van Wrinkle is read 3'early by classes in almost all schools. Now the World Film Company produced an especially good feature of this. Ask them what they did with it. Ask the same question of William Fox about "Romeo and Juliet," or Metro about a similar production. Ask Triangle about their production of "Macbeth." See what has become of Paramount's "Oliver Twist." W^here is Vitagraph's "Hamlet?" Most of their exchanges have "junked" these films. World Company did not even know it had made a feature of Rip Van Winkle — they did, however, and it is now to be found in a rather musty shape on the shelves of an educational exchange. I could point out numerous other cases. Now my proposition is just this: Create a department of interagency in your publication. Let the various concerns send to their Chicago exchanges, or New York offices, copies of their standards of exceptional educational value that will have permanent use in schools. Then we school people seeking one of these films can write to this department for a booking, which you will arrange with the company concerned, charging a percentage fee for the service. This service will not mean the outlay of one red penny on the part of you or the exchanges. It will mean that schools can get what they want from year to year (repeats, I mean) without being compelled to hunt for it (Continued on page 17)