Canadian Moving Picture Digest (Apr-Sep 1918)

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Page Ten t 1 A ee a See eesiers eee ame 1% i MONTREAL AND QUEBEC NOTES THE CANADIAN MOVING PICTURE DIGEST. Oe ah adm fe eae em Merrick R. Nutting had taken over the office and furnishings at the Orpheum and may later open a booking ageney here in the fall. Chas. Lalumiere, manager Montreai branch, Specialty Film Import, has just returned from Quebec, Chicoutimi, and La Tuque, where he has placed service with seven theatres out of nine in Quebee and in the onlv houses in the other two towns. Mr. Eddie Ouimet, President and general manager of Specialty Film Import, will stop over at the Toronto branch on his return from New York where he is closing some big deals for next year’s ontput. Vitagraph report that ‘‘Over the Top’’ has been booked at the Olympia, Quebee; the Crystal, Cornwall; the Babberson theatre, Perth; and the Imperial Renfrew. Andy Keenan, salesman for the Montreal branch, has had a very siccessful trip around the Ottawa Valley this last week. ‘At the soldier’s camp at St. John, Que., there is a picture theatre in operation which is reported to be doing good business. On the other hand the two photo-play theatres at Valcartier camp are getting somewhat disappointing results, according to reports received here. . Writing from Estevan, Sask., to the Montreal offices of this paper, Miss Ruby Gleiser, lessee of the Delight Theatre in that city, says some kind . words. ‘‘I do not think that any live theatre manager should be _ without the Digest or Wid’s’’ she writes. Miss Gleiser has the distinction of being the first lady in the Province of Saskatchewan to pass the operator’s exam. She adds that she ‘‘takes a great intérest in your page ‘Live news from all over Canada’. It gives the small , town exhibitor a chance to see what the ‘Big Fellows’ are doing and what service they are booking. The interest that is evident in Mon treal in motion picture developments and gossip is proved by a double column full page editorial in Saturday’s Montreal Star, over the signature of 8. Morgan Powell, the well-known dramatie critic. Mr. Powell makes a number of accusations and statements with which we do not pretend to be in agreement and against some of which we strongly _ protest. Nevertheless there is a deal of good sound sense in his argument that much of the matter which now passes for art is pure unadulterated rubbish with a detrimental influence on the juvenile mind. It is on the whole a candid statement of facts from the pen of one of Canada’s best known journalists and such writing carries weight in circles not altogether friendly to exhibitors and ex Digitized by Google change men. Mr. Powell has at times used his trenchant pen to good effeet on the censors so may be fairly regarded as a friend to motion picture interests. He promises a series of articles on the whole subject which we shall summarize for the benefit of Digest readers. A series of new and unusual pictures illustrative of the possibilities of aviation work, both in war and peace, were given last week at the Ritz-Carlton here on behalf of the Aerial League. The pictures had mostly been secured by Major K. E. Kennedy, of the Royal Air Force, who was present and who later gave a talk on the future possibilities of acrial mail delivery, laying stress on aviation trips across the Atlantice which he considered well within the realm of the probable as soon as the exigencies of war should give time to consider the other phases of aerial serviee. <A very distinguished audience was present who were given, not only a peep into the future of aircraft, but were also impressed by the fine film work shown. The main feature of the exhibition of views was a series of ‘‘guardian angel’’ parachute as demonstrated by the film. This is a light and compact contrivance whose object is that, if anything happens to an aeroplane in action it can be utilized for speedy escape. A number of other pictures were shown, illustrating the possibilities of aerial transport and mail delivery. The pictures will later be releused over the Domirion by Pathe. What Canada does in the way of patronizing the film industry is strikingly proved by the following figures supplied through Montreal last week. For the ten months to April, 1918, there were a total of 12,961,974 feet of film shown in the Dominion at a total SEAR A RTA AAAI IAAT I t Film Offerings in Montreal i z This Week Fe ERO pe RRR RIOR ERO: LOEW’S. “‘The Blindness of Divorce.’’ Star cast. ; isso ....IMPERIAL. “‘Hit the Trail Holiday,’’ with Geo. M. Cohan; ‘‘Her Final reckoning’’ with Pauline Frederick. STRAND. “The Kid in Clover,’’? with Geo. Walsh. All HOLMAN. ‘“‘Her Body in Bond,’’ with Mae Murray. : NEW GRAND. ‘*The House of Gold,’’ with Emmy Whelan. : , TIVOLI. F ‘*The Firebrand,’’ with Virginia Pearson. cost of nearly a million dollars. How the industry here has grown may further be gauged by the fact that for the ten months to April, 1917,there were 11,503,038 feet shown of a value of $879,581 and for the ten months to April, 1916, there were shown in Canada 8,975,994 feet of a value of $685,162. Thsi is not all the films shown here during the periods mentioned, for these figures only represent the film footage imported from the United States. What this footage represents in tax under the new schedule at 15 ceuts a foot is something pretty stiff to contemplate. But it is after all only another proof of the outstanding position of the film industry on this continent. Still in its infancy, as other industries go, it yet ranks fifth in importance in America. There are 750 theatres in Canada, while in the States the number of photo-play theatres runs into the vicinity of 18,000. All this is the growth of the past fifteen years. The Famous Ptayers-Laskey Combination alone controls 6,000 active theatres on the continent and three other companies, the Goldwyn distribution mechanism, the Fox Film Corporation and the Universal Film Company are each credited with having in excess of 5,000 active theatre customers under contract. Metro Pictures Corporation, Select Tri‘angle, World, General, Film, Vitagraph, and Mutual each has a very large volume of business with international distributions of foreign alliances. The war has done much to make the pieture industry a _ serious concern. It blocke dthe export of films in nearly all the _ war-stricken countries, throwing into the United States almost the entire business. J. H. Aloz, of the J. H. Aloz booking agency, Orpheum Theatre, which he has been running for the past eight years and formerly manager for four vears of the Auditorium theatre, Quebee city, has closed the offices here and is going to New York to the United Booking Offices to fill the position latevacated by John McKee. Mr. Aloz owns a farm at Hampton, Mass., on which he has recently spent considerable for improvements and as this farm is only four hours from New York, he will be able to see the chickens each week-end as a change from five days sight of them on Broadway. The tragedy of Vaudreuil has brought into public, if not pleasurable notice James O’Neil Farrell, now in a serious condition at the Royal Victoria Hospital here. Farrell was well-known here in the picture world. <A year or two back he was closely connected with the management of the St. Denis theatre and he was overseas for a time getting pictures of war views. It is the hope of all his numerous frineds that he will have a speedy recovery from the murderous attack of which he was the victim. Original from z; NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY