The Moving Picture World (May 1908)

476 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD MANAGER CONVICTED FOR VIOLATING SUNDAY CLOSING ORDINANCE. Lansing, Mich., May 7.—John Conan, manager of the Vau- dette Moving Picture Theater, was this morning convicted of a charge of having violated the Sunday closing ordinance. The theater was opened to the public last Sunday. Conan was sentenced to pay a fine of $25 and $22.10 costs, or serve thirty days in the city jail. His attorneys will appeal the case to the Circuit Court. SIGNS OF PROSPERITY. Hannibal, Mo., May 20.—The management of the- Nickel- odeon, 205 North Main street, has found it necessary to increase the seating capacity.- A balcony is being con- structed which will greatly increase the seating capacity of the room. The entire building will be newly painted and papered. This place of amusement, under the management of Charles Reese, has become very popular with the people of Hannibal and during the past few months it has been impossible to handle the large number of people that patron- ize them. OTHER NEW YORK THEATERS TO TRY MOVING PICTURES. This week the Bijou Theater on Broadway will open with vaudeville and moving pictures at popular prices. This is the first of the recognized dramatic first-class houses into which the moving picture shows have forced a way, though the craze has invaded many of the vaudeville and minor theaters. Leander Sire, manager of the Bijou, said, however, that the new policy would be only for the Summer. The Grand Opera House has also adopted the motion pic- ture feature and the People's Theater is drawing large crowds on the East Side with the chronophone and motion pictures. TALKING PICTURES IN ROCHESTER. This is the way the press agent describes the animated pictures: "To hear the voice, to catch every sound and the intonation of every word and see the people in life' size moving before your eyes, and yet realize there is not a single person there—it seems like some phantom of the brain, an hallucination, and one is almost tempted to rush to the stage and grapple with the ghostly actors as one is moved to cry out in the vividness of a dream. Such is thewonderful spell that is cast over the spectator on his first view of _the mar- velous talking, singing, dancing moving -pictures which Man- ager Parry of the National will introduce for the first time in Rochester to-morrow afternoon." NEW JERSEY AFTER VIOLATORS OF LAW PRO- HIBITING MINORS. Former Assessor Thomas A. McAuley, of West Hoboken, sent to the Board of Council a vigorous protest against the moving picture shows in the town, claiming that despite the law recently passed children from five years of age up are freely admitted to these places, and their morals are con- taminated because of the class of pictures shown and the "vile language of $7-a-week, high-collared toughs." Mr. McAuley suggested that police supervision of these places is very much needed, and added that perhaps his bet- ter course would have been to present his protest to the Prosecutor of the Pleas, but wished to give the local au- thorities the opportunity of seeing that the law is enforced and a reasonable censorship of the pictures shown be exer- cised by the police. r ■: "We are about to have an ordinance introduced dealing with this kind of thing," remarked Councilman Morris. "There is a State law governing these places now and we need no ordinance," said Mayor Lynch. "I think this should be referred to the Chief of Police with a notice to see that the law is enforced." This was done. MAKING PICTURES OF CAR ROBBERY. Rochester, N. Y., May 22.—Late yesterday afternoon the movements of two large touring cars, one pursuing the other and both performing unusual stunts, attracted the attention of many in various parts of the city. The cars started in the eastern part of the city and covered a route through Maine street east to Clinton avenue south, then to Court street and Plymouth avenue, and it was between these points,that they caused much speculation. One carried a large iron strong box, while the other was rigged up with a boxlike affair otr the front of the body of the car. The automobiles carried a number of passengers each and at various points on the route stops were made and maneuvers were executed. "The Rochester Street Railway Robbery" is the explana- tion of the affair. With the assistance of some of the mem- bers of the Baker Theater Stock Company, the Consolidated Film Company, whose offices are in State street, was making the first section of a new set of moving pictures which when completed -wrill bear this title. The biograph company is fur- nishing the camera, and other sections of the same subject will be taken within the next few days. OTHER INSTALLATIONS OF THE "HALLBERG AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC ECONOMIZER.** The Star Theater, owned by M. J. WfewelJ, Newport, R. I., has been equipped with the "Hallberg Economizer." Mr. Wiswell says the light is brighter, steadier and better than ever before, and the "Economizer" has saved 65 per cent, on the moving picture lamp current bill, and the heat from the rheostat is* done away with. F. J. Howard, the prominent film and supply dealer in Boston, has installed three "Hallberg Economizers" in the New Bijou Theater, at Newport, R. I. This is one of the finest moving picture theaters in the country. It is owned and managed by Messrs. McMullen & Holmes. The three "Economizers" are used for one double dissolving stereopti- con and for two moving picture machines. The show is continuous, without intermission, and the installation is the most modern of its kind. Everybody using. the . "Hallberg Economizer" speaks of the fine light, cool operation and high economy. MOTION PICTURE PROMOTERS WILL SUE A MONARCHY. Because a letter was held undelivered for two years in Greece, and as a result a promising scheme of moving pic- tures of the Hague Peace Congress came to naught, A. D. Zaraphonithes, of Second avenue, and C. M. Corafa, an at- tache of the United States Consulate in Athens, intend to make it hot for King George's country, says the New York Morning Telegraph. The letter was addressed on April 5, 1903, by Zaraphonithes, to C. M. Corafa, an attache of the United States Consulate at Athens. For months Mr. Zaraphonithes received no reply, and an inquiry discovered that the letter, a registered one, had never been delivered. Through his lawyer, Moses A. Sachs, of Park Row, Mr. Zaraphonithes notified Postmaster- General George Von L. Meyer, who communicated with the Government at Athens. While these notifications were pending, the letter came back to Mr. Zaraphonithes on February 4, 1907, nearly two years after it had been sent. Owing to the delay in its de- livery, the plans for the presentation of the moving .pictures came to naught, and both Mr. Zaraphonithes and Mr. Corafa allege that they sustained damages amounting to $50,000. "Somebody in Athens opened the letter," says Mr. Sachs, "and taking advantage of the suggestion it contained, estab- lished a chain of moving pictures of the Peace Congress and realized a fortune." • Mr. Sachs says the Greek Government will be asked to pay an indemnity for the damage sustained by his clients. BRITISH ACHIEVEMENTS WITH MOVING PICTURES. That the moving picture industry is only in its infancy, in spite of the fact that it provides amusement for hundreds of thousands of people daily, is generally conceded. Europe,. while being far behind this country in the me- chanical end of the moving picture industry, has regarded it far more seriously and placed it on a higher plane. At the present time the British Government has under considera- tion the advisability of forming a department, with a large staff of experts, for the exact chronicling, by means of mov- ing photographs, of all "important public events. The rapidity with which happenings of great moment can be caught by the camera and reproduced many miles away with all their graphic reality, has caused an Englishman, Will G. Barker, manager of the Warwick Trading Company, who has . recently visited this country, to coin the phrase, "An animated newspaper." He has conceived the notion 01 showing thousands of people; hundreds of miles away, the