Show World (July 1908)

18 THE SHOW WORLD July 25, 1908. NEWS OF ALL SORTS PERSONAL NOTES. A. E. Pretogeot, manager of Thrall’s Opera house, New Harmony, Ind., is in the city looking for attractions and good things in general. Are the Republican party and the town Pretogeot hails from synonymous? Al. A. Powers, promoter with the Great Parker Amusement Co., sojourned here forty-eight hours to see the flags and hunting while on his way from Parsons, Kansas, to Hancock, Mich. For the win¬ ter season Mr. Powers contemplates launching The Night Riders with John D’Ormond and Agnes Fuller featured. The prospects of The Night Riders looks as good to Al. A. as an easy “bank shot” in the Saratoga billiard room. Chas. O. Hobbs, manager New Park Opera house, Lutesville, Mo., is desirous of booking attractions for the coming season. Genial Harry J. Vance, the globe trot¬ ter, now of the Russeli-Morgan Litho Co., was in the city recently as a guest of the Ohio Republican delegation. Har¬ ry’s initial bow dates back for ages, but his silvery growth only adds dignity to his sunny disposition. Will C. Seers spent several days here last week visiting friends and incidentally looking for attractions for his two houses at Macon and Bevier, Mo. The towns are but five miles apart and Mr Seers states his methods of hustling have proven re¬ munerative in the past. Dave Levis is still about town and ap¬ parently happy. The Board of Trade re¬ ceives Dave’s spare time and he inti¬ mates there are moments when ’tis more exciting on La Salle St. than it ever was on the Josh Spruceby farm, even when crops were good. P. V. Peterson, promoter of publicity and general business manager of the Na¬ tional Opera company, again has a desk in the Tribune Bldg. Kitty De Lorme, "the girl wonder,” is visiting managers in these parts. Kitty deserves success for long and faithful service and because once upon reading her hand a fortune teller intimated that “she is good to her folks.” DISCUSSES MOVING PICTURES. T. O. Edmunds, the well known amusement manager, who controls amusement park and a string and is the manager of a film - = - handling the goods of the Kleine Optical Co., in Winnipeg, Can., reading as follows: My dear Mr. Streyckmans: Permit me to compliment you on your clever write¬ ups- re the Henry Lee, Kleine Optical Co. big stunt in the Auditorium in your issues of May 30 and June 6. It is certainly a big feature, and really astonishing the heights the film business is attaining. I have just returned from a trip through western Canada and find conditions out there far from settled. There has been considerable change in the past two months, due of course to the uncertainty of the crop outlook. However, the pros¬ pects from the car windows are for the biggest yield ever known in America, the vast fields of wheat stretching from either side of the railway track as far as the eye can see and growing rapidly. This is true also of the Canadian Northern line, the farthest to the north, as well as the C. P. R. Rainfall is general throughout the west, with temperature just right. I found the moving picture business rather slow at present, but with prospects of a betterment in conditions. It has been my desire in handling the Kleine Optical goods to create a more solid ba¬ sis, and I find that while the majority of picture houses, like mushrooms, spring Up in a night they are totally unfit for the really hard work necessary to make a successful enterprise. They are realiz¬ ing this, however, more each day and seem to feel that the presence of such a solid concern as the Kleine Optical com¬ pany adds a firmer tone to the moving picture world in this country, and I feel that we have sown seed where it will bear _ ... ___1 blast and another in struction, and it being a Saturday there was a constant grind from 2 P. M. to 10:30 P. M. to capacity houses and all this, without artistic fronts, or anything to recommend them but a few lights and an electric sign reading “Arcade, Edison and Gayety,” but the people know there is a show inside and they purchase. We have from this city to Vancouver thirty-five or forty houses in operation. I will use your article “Moving Picture Is the Enemy of the Saloon,” with the ministers and prohibition workers in this city and throughout the west, and it is a corker for the moving picture man. Moving Picture Incorporation. The Criterion Company of Springfield. O., was incorporated with a capital of $10,000 by N. C. McCutcheon, A. B. Mar- gileth and others to conduct a moving picture show at Springs Grove Park. CHICAGO FIREMEN’ The members of the Firemen’s Benevo¬ lent Association of Chicago are fairly jubilant over the splendid showing already made in the sale of seats for the benefit in aid of the Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund of the association. The benefit will be given at the International amphitheater, Forty-third and Halsted streets, from October 5 to October 18, inclusive. Judg¬ ing from the rate at which tickets are being purchased in blocks by the generous spirited merchants and business men of the city, it looks as if the mammoth building will be taxed to its capacity, twice daily, to accommodate the crowds. The fact that the Carl Hagenbeck and Great Wallace Shows Combined will fur¬ nish the entertainment serves in no small measure to assist the sale. The numer¬ ous and multi-varied features of this splendid organization are held in high esteem by Chicagoans, young and old, and their return visit, under such glow¬ ing auspices, will tend to make the names of the combined showmen kings favorite household words in every home in the The competitive designs for the front cover of the Historical Review of the Chi¬ cago Fire Department and Official Souve¬ nir Program will be passed on shortly by the committee on printing. Some of these are already in and display tasteful art and beautiful emblematic work in connection with the fireman’s hazardous calling. The compilation of the historical portion of the book is also under way, and it can be safely predicted that the work will be a handsome and valuable souvenir of the benefit. Every penny of the sum netted from the advertising pages will be used to swell the Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund, and it is expected that the amount will show up splendidly when stacked along¬ side the profits of the benefit at the In- *- p -’ ‘ “iphitheatre. rnational . FILM MEN TO CONTEST. DINING ROOM AS STAGE. NEW ORLEANS PICTURE THEATERS. Best City In jntry. H. L. (“Buck”) Massie, manager of the Shubert theater, New Orleans, La., who enjoyed an enviable reputation as a close 3 contractor previous to his present MjjH “ the show connection, in writing 1 WORLD, says: New Orleans might be considered the best moving picture theater city in America, population considered, without a great variance from the truth, but with one proviso. The New Orleans public are a people who never criticise unless criti¬ cism is essentially their right; so Mr. Moving Picture Man must give them full value or they tell him about it. There are many moving picture estab¬ lishments operating in this city and all are prospering. It was left to O. T. and Roy Crawford of St. Louis, Mo., to in¬ augurate moving pictures in one of the city’s largest and highest class theaters it he Shubert), a Klaw & Erlanger house, of admirable ■ construction, sumptuous, roomy and conceded to be the safest playhouse in New Orleans, with a seating capacity of 1.700, but located very poorly, being five blocks south of Canal street The Shubert change of policy was in¬ augurated March 8, 1908, and success was instantaneous, due to the methods adopt¬ ed in the preliminary advertising entire¬ ly new to the New Orleans public. It is safe to say 60 per cent of its population was reached with the decidedly novel ad¬ vertising scheme. After the public was apprised of the unusual merit of the O. T. Crawford performance it was then only a question of maintaining the high stan¬ dard of performance, and if possible im¬ prove upon it. This has been done from the very beginning, but not without a great effort in keeping continually at the people through the sole medium of the newspapers requiring forty-two press stories being written weekly with longer stories on Sunday and Thursday and changing the ads. four times weekly in six daily papers; the employment of the absolutely best moving picture operators procurable; a fine vocalist with a cul¬ tured, high-class tenor voice; a pianist with exceptional merit and ideas; a lec¬ turer of intellectuality and personality, and the clearest of moving picture mas¬ terpieces thrown upon a screen as white as snow and which no light can pene¬ trate and every mechanical device ap¬ plied intelligently to augment the realism of the subjects. The staff is as follows: H. L. Massie, manager and press agent; Mrs. M. H. Hal!, treasurer; I.ouis Mountjoy, lecturer; Jules Esmar Bolian, vocalist; Thomas Zimmerman, pianist; Carl J. Lines, chief operator; R. Bailey, assistant; Geo. Jen¬ kins, doorkeeper; Chas. Jenkins, city of- t House Commissioner Dick P. Sutton’s Butte Road Company to be Resisted. Makes Novel Production. Manager Walter Van Dyke is piloting a company through Montana, and al¬ though a competent manager, he is shy a few reds and blue when it cornea to weather forecasting, which accounts for the fact that recently he was completely sidetracked in a mountain village onithe St. Paul railway’s Pacific coast extension, with a repertoire company on his hands. The town of Lombard was show hun¬ gry and the inhabitants having nothing to do but wait for the high v ' —sting of Messrs. Joseph Driscall, A. Weiss, and Mr. Portale, to contest the ruling of Tenement House Commissioner Butler, who seeks to close a large num¬ ber of moving picture shows on the ground that they are dangerous to the life and health of the occupants of the buildings in which these shows are lo¬ cated. Thomas J. Gilleran has been appointed as counsel for the picture men, and has made application for an injunction re¬ straining Commissioner Butler from re¬ voking his approval of alterations to be made by William Fox and Sol Brill, the proprietors of houses on Third avenue, Manhattan, and Broadway, Brooklyn; also to prevent the commissioner from in¬ terfering with the business of the plain- props—all tiffs. Other cases of the same character which- have been taken up. Van Dyke couldn’t done, but George Seymour ith the hotel proprietor! ar J vas a stage about eights^ l entrances from the A n organ for the orcltM GETS GOLD MEDAL. it could be got busy^w and the offic_,_ nnd a dining table s_ _ _ _ " a level with the audiB capacity one at 50-75. actors used their sleeping apartments ftj* -ehestra, Audience, dressing rooms, and as the experie Great Northern Film Co. of Copenhagen Wins Valuable Prize. - -- account of Ingvald C. Oes, American representa- what tive of the Great Northern Film Co., Co- “Ms penhagen, has received a cable to the effect that his- firm was awarded the first prize gold medal and prize ble question whether they o ence had the greater treat, town Daily News gives a pre a debata- exhibition held m.._ 0 _ month. The particulars infant in of the award have not yet reached Mr. — g— Oes; but the cable advice ' " ' ” would have to cross the stage, mifl !i '| the actors during his journey.! _t in an adjoining room would occasional squall and the performance " stop while the cHjg| Under these circumstances, the award t< the Great Northern Film Co. is c exceptional merit exhibit, tended to its wants. But t “QUICK LUNCH” VAUDEVILLE. Manager John Cort of the Moore Thea¬ ter, Seattle, has arranged with the Sulli- van-'Considine people for a vaudeville bill of the “quick lunch” variety. This en¬ tertainment took well and on the opening night every box was filled as^ well r ” ' three t: ing enjoyed a play so much.” THE PROFLIGATE AS A PLAY. The Profligate, by Arthur HornblOW, has already attracted the attention ofpev- eral managers as a possible vehicle the stage for next season. It is drama tic and picturesque to the last degree. 9K| “ing and atmosphere for ti-“* floor and balconies. The best "1 was Tony Johnson and -- - = -,- ...._dogs. Others on the bill were combines that of the two greates McLinn Bros., horizontal bar performers; l -”— --*- -- “Musical Lowe” appeared in the melo- deon act. Harry Holman delighted the audience with his funny stories and the show closed with moving pictures depict¬ ing movements of the battleships Hampton Road. The bill - - and delighted the audience. _ probable that the theater will continue vaudeville. i New ; Leslie Zimmermann, effects. Moving Picture Notes. Ashland, Ky.—The new electric theater which opened here recently and known as the Pike Annex, owned and managed by the Great Eastern Construction & Supply company, is doing a fine business. Crystal, Minn.—The Star theater, which opened up recently at the comer of Main and Lake streets, is managed by C. L. Kimball. bling establishments in the world, i York and Monte Carlo. The chief egg _ acter, namely, Forrester. the’profiig^^B and the drawn and developed with insight a sympathy. The character i drawrgand a fascinating type _ arraignment’ against an almost universal vice, that of love for play and quickly gotten gold. Though diffuse in action, it is nevertheless in spots absorbing]^* tense, theatrical way. This is the third olume from the pen of Arthur Horn- low, who is a playwright and journalist f note, and at present editor of The ter, New York. The Profligate bids fa® 3 repeat the success of his former work novelization of The Lion and the Mouse, •hich reached the hundred thousand^* Third Auerbach Theater, Salt Lake City. It is probable that the Auer’ k H ater, now under construction South street, between Main and State streets, Salt Lake City, will be controlled bv John N. Cort, manager of Florence Roberts, and other players. The theater will probably be opened some time in October. It will be a popu¬ lar-priced playhouse, and some of the Klaw & Erlanger attractions, which go > Nellie Brewster Goes to popular price theaters in other cities, $ Nellie Brewster has b will go to Third South street, while then Mr. Carle for his new i leading plays and players will continuellSThe Boy and the Girl, ti to appear at the Salt Lake theater. 'educed early next fall.