The Moving Picture World (June 1907)

2l6 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD. fifty persons,.mostly women and children, were in the hall at the time. While many were badly frightened, sc far as known no one sustained any serious injury. The damage to the theater will amount to about $400. The firemen managed to prevent the flames from spreading to other parts of the building. * *. * . The store in the W. W. Clark building, on West Main street, Middletown, N. Y., has been leased, for a term of three years, by a moving picture concern, which will •shortly take possession of the same and- conduct a popular priced theater. This will make three places of amusement of this kind in Middletown for the Summer, and, with the Midway Park performances, Middletown will have sufficient op- portunities to while away the. time. * * * Councilman Hi Gill, of Seattle, Wash., objects to the recently enacted ordinance covering licenses for amuse- ments, and wants a new one passed. His objection is to the section of the ordinance requiring licenses for picture machines, weighing machines and other instruments that take nickels and pennies out of the pockets of Seattle citizens. In the ordinance as passed was a provision that these machines .should pay a license of $5 a year where they were operated by a nickel and $1 a year when a penny would start them going. Hi Gill wants to have this section eliminated. He maintains that the provision taxing these devices was smuggled through the council, and that he did not know anything about it until recently. "I think the section is unjust," said Mr. Gill. "If you are going to tax evtrything with which a man makes a living, you might as well tax my law books as those machines. That section was smuggled through the coun- cil. I understood that Gleason was only codifying the existing ordinances, but I find that a lot of new things have been included in the ordinance." There will be opposition to the attempt to repeal the ordinance just passed on the part of the license and rev- enue committee, which prepared it, with the aid of Code Commissioner Gleason. * * * John P. Corrigan, Chief of the Bureau of Licenses, in a letter to the Mayor of New York City, has recom- mended that the licenses of all the cent-in-the-slot places, chiefly the arcade shows, be revoked pending an inves- tigation of charges by the Police Department to the effect that the proprietors of such shows are permitting chil- dren to frequent their places while unaccompanied by parents or guardians. * * * At the First Congregational Church, Brockton, Mass., Rev. Dr. George Bicknell, of Cambridge, told interest- ingly of "Down in Dixie; or Fighting for God and the Union." The lecture was appropriate for Memorial Day and many rare views of the bloody scenes of the South during the war were shown by stereopticon. Dr. Bick- nell was in the war with a New York regiment and told for the most part the story of that'regiment's share in the war. The views showed soldiers in action, in retreat and in camp and many were taken from old prints of the times. Later-day pictures were photographs of bat- tlefields and places made prominent by history. * * ■* B. F. Keith has decided to spend $20,000 on an amuse- ment house in Bridge street, Lowell, Mass., which will be devoted to moving pictures and illustrated s mgs. ft will be ready September. 1.: The new amusement house will have about 50 feet of frontage on Bridge street. It will be but one story in height, but that story will run up 25 feet from the ground. On this will be a tower 40 feet high, supplied with elec- trical devices. Owing to a contract between Mr. Keith and Andrew Hathaway, manager of Hathaway's Theater, n- vaude- ville acts will be given in the new Keith house. Through an arrangement between the two managers, a;i agree- ment was reached some time ago, in which it w as posi- tively stated that Mr. Keith should not place any of his vaudeville acts in any other theater in Lowell other than the Hathaway. At the end of two years Mr. Hathaway will be given the opportunity of booking the Keith acts for three years more-if he wishesl * ■ * * We hear that in Indianapolis, Ind., complaint has been made of the class of moving pictures shown at the Man- hattan, a five-cent' theater on West Washington street Formal complaint, however, was not lodged with the police. Of the three pictures shown, two were said to be of a decided suggestive nature. One of these was entitled, "A Terrible Experience," while the perpetrator of the second was apparently unable to find a suitable name for it. There were a number of young girls, women and bo>s in the. audiences that saw the pictures. /* * * The Westerly (R. L) Sun says: "The penny vaudeville show, with its motion pictures, is now a familiar feature of most communities. There are a number of these shows in this city, and the police department has been kept con- stantly on the watch to see that objectionable pictures were not shown. In spite of this watchfulness, com- plaints against the places have been numerous. Be- sides, the places have proved rivals to the public schools. The juvenile court has revealed instances where children have stayed away from school to earn money to patronize such places, and have even stolen money for that pur- pose. Quite recently it was discovered that in connection with one of these places vulgar post cards were being sold to children. It was not clear that the owner or the manager was responsible for the sale, but the police com- missioners felt that there had been so much scandal con- nected with these places that it would be good public policy to close them. So, after June 1, there will be no more penny motion pictures shown in this city if the po- lice know of it. This edict is only against the motion pictures; the phonograph and other cheap novelties can still cater to the youthful tastes." * * * N "Strange thing that moving pictures do not appeal^) the masses of negroes," said an amusement man the other day. "Of course, a moving picture show exclusively for negroes has not yet been tried, but I speak from the ex- perience of good show men. "In large towns, where such shows for white people pay handsomely, negro attractions of this character have been started and gone under. "I have analyzed the cause and found it to be due to the fact that the average negro wants to see a show wita an abundance of noise, something like a plantation min- strel, with lots of singing and dancing and horse-play. "He doesn't seem to grasp the idea of moving pictures. And one of these reasons, too, is the fact that the persons in the pictures are white. When a negro goes to a shot?