Exhibitor's Trade Review (Mar-May 1925)

Page 32 Exhibitors Trade Review " Shenandoah "To Be Picturized Soon B. P. Schulberg Announces He Will Produce Famous Civil War Drama ONE of the most significant production announcements for next year, issued thus far, came last week from B. P. Schulberg when he made public that his producing organization will make an elaborate screen version of the famous American play, "Shenandoah," as one of its first releases for 1925-26. "Shenandoah" is a spectacular drama full of pictorial effects and swift moving plot. Its background of Civil War days will be transformed to the screen on a large scale. With the exception of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "Shenandoah" has received the widest presentation of any American drama ever staged. Written by Bronson Howard, it was first presented in 1888 with General Sherman as guest of honor at the opening performance. Wilton Lackaye, Henry Miller and Effie Shannon appeared in the original cast. For the last thirty-six years the play has been a regular feature of stock repertoire and has been presented in practically every city and town in America, reaching an audience of many millions. It has had five revivals on the New York stage. "Shenandoah" was the first stage piece to dramatize in a spectacular way the colorful era of the Civil War. It established a vogue for war plays that resulted in "Barbara Fritchie," "The Warrens of Virginia," "The Girl I Left Behind Me," and others. The Bronson play, however, reached double the audience of its successors. * * * BERGER OPTIMISTIC ABOUT INDEPENDENTS Following a six months' survey of the independent market, B. Berger, general manager for Gerson Pictures Corporation, producing a series of Richard Holt productions at their San Francisco studios, expresses himself as optimistic about the immediate future of the independent market. "With all the national distributors making claims^ for nothing but super-special films there is a decided lack of the middle value productions being exploited. Among the seventeen thousand theatres about the country we must not overlook the fact that che vast majority of these are theatres of the middle value class. "There is a great market which the average independent producer has access to. And it is a very profitable business, as is attested by the success which was attained by the former series of productions m-'de by Gerson. This success is being closely followed by the Richard Holt series. Both the New 'York and West Coast territories, where the pictures have been released prior to their general release about the country, report unusual bookings, starting with 'Ten Days' and following with 'Too Much Youth.' " * * * BANNER SELLS 26 REELS IN LONDON Banner Productions, Inc., announces the sale of 26 Bert Green Cross Word Puzzle reels to Ideal Film of London. The brokers who acted in the transaction were Milton Cohen and Sidney Garrett, of Interglobe. The Cross Word Puzzle reels have already taken America by storm and are quite the* film novelty of the season. Banner Productions will shortly make some interesting announcements about the Cross Word Puzzle reels. WEISS BROTHERS ENLARGE QUARTERS Weiss Brothers' Artclass Pictures Corporation is planning to take over additional space in the Loew State Theatre building, 1540 Broadway, in order to make room for the press books and other advertising accessories on the Buddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill, Jr., series and their other attractions. Formerly this material was shipped directly from the manufacturers and was stored by him, but so many mistakes and delays occurred and so much confusion of orders resulted, that Weiss Brothers*" Artclass Pictures determined to handle all shipments to their exchanges and theatres, as far as possible, directly from their own offices. In this way it is possible to ship out orders on the same day that they are received, an advantage which Louis Weiss, managing executive of Artclass, declares far outweighs all other considerations and insures the promptest kind of service to their franchise holders. This increase in the size of the Weiss Brothers' offices has been necessitated by the two new Buddy Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill, Jr., 1925 series, and the third series of eight five-reel action-stunt features, with a well known Western star, making twenty-four in all, which Artclass will handle this year, in addition to their regular specials. ALBANY, N. Y. Alb— 1 First Graphic Exchanges, 656 Broadway. ATLANTA, Ga. Atl — 1 Southern States Film Co., 87 Walton St. Atl — 2 Creole Enterprises, (See New Orleans Add.) BALTIMORE, Md. Bal — 1 Art Film Service, 228 No. Gay Ctreet. BOSTON, Mass. Bos — 1 Independent Films, 10 Piedmont Street. Bos — 2 Cosmopolitan Film Co., 14 Piedmont So. Bos — 3 McConville & Montague, 12 Piedmont St. Bos — 4 American Fea. Film Co., 37 Piedmont St. BUFFALO, N. Y. Buf — 1 First Graphic Exchanges, 257 Franklin St. CHICAGO, IU. Chi— 1 Celebrated Play'rs Corp. 810 S. Wabash Av. Chi — 2 Epic Film Attractions, 808 S. Wabash Ave. Chi — 3 Renown Pictures, Inc., 806 S. Wabash Ave. Chi — 4 Film Classics Ex., 831 So. Wabash Ave. Chi— 5 Greiver Prod., Chicago, 831 S. Wabash Av. Chi — 6 Security Pictures, 808 S. Wabash Ave. CINCINNATI. Ohio Cin — 1 Standard Film Serv., Broadway Film Bldg. Cin— >2 R. G. Hill Ent. (See Pittsburgh Add.) CLEVELAND, Ohio Cle — 1 Standard Film Service, 617 Film Bldg. Cle— 2 R. G. Hill Ent. (See Pittsburgh Add.) Cle — 3 Skirboll Gold Seal Prods., Film Bldg. Cle — 4 Security Pictures Co., 514 Film Bldg. DALLAS, Texas Dal — 1 Southern States Film, 302 S. Harwood St. Dal — 2 Creole Enterprises (See New Orleans Add.) Dal— 3 Southwest Film Corp., Film Bldg. Dal — 4 Midwest Film Ex., 2111 Moser Ave. Dal — 5 All Star Feature Films, Film Exch. Bldg. DENVER, Col. Den — 1 Mountain States Film Att., 2104 Broadway. Den — 2 Arrow Photoplays, 2040 Broadway. Den — 3 De Luxe Feature Film Co., 2020 Stout St. Denver, Colo., for territories of Colo., Utah, Wyo., Ariz., and New Mexico. DETROIT, Mich. Det — 1 Standard Film Service, Joseph Mack Bldg. Det — 2 Rex Film Company, Joseph Mack Bldg. INDIANOPOLIS, Ind. Ind — 1 Celebrated Players Film Corp., 144 W. Vermont Street. Ind — 2 H. Lieber Company, 215 Wimmer Building. KANSAS CITY. Mo. KC — 1 Independent Film Co., 117 West 17th St. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LR — 1 Homestate Film Co., 1114 W. Markham St. LOS ANGELES, Cal. LA — 1 All-Star Feature Dist. Inc., 915 S. Olive St. LOUISVILLE, Ky. Lou — 1 Big Feature Rights Corp., 221 S. Third St. Columbia Students Submit Forty Plots One-Half of Photoplay Class Competes for Prizes as Scenario Contest Ends OUT of eighty students attending Mrs. Florence Taylor Patterson's photoplay writing class at Cdlumbia University, forty have prepared scripts for the prize contest of the Independent Pictures Corporation. The contest closed last week and awards will be announced in a few days. The awards consist of three cash prizes and the winning scenarios will be screened by the film producers. They will also be submitted to the Continuity Classes of the University and an additional prize will be offered for the winning continuity. The result of the contest is being watched with interest and will, more or less reflect the ability of the Columbia school to prepare writers for the screen. Heretofore, various schools teaching scenario writing have fallen down in technique, and directors were compelled to rewrite available material that offered prumising ideas. MILWAUKEE, Wis. Mil — 1 Celebrated Players Corp., 713 Wells St. Mil — 2 Epic Film Attractions (See Chicago Add.) Mil — 3 Ludwig Film Ex., Film Bldg. Mil — 4 Mid-West Distributing Co., Toy Bldg. MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. Min — 1 Friedman Film Corp., Film Exchange Bldg. Min — 2 F. & R. Film Co., Loeb Arcade Bldg. Min — 3 Celebrated Film Exchange, fc06 Film Exchange Bldg. Min — 4 Advance Pictures, 306 Film Exch. Bldg. MONTREAL, CAN. Mon — 1 Film De Luxe Co., 12 Mayor St. NEW ORLEANS, La. NO — 1 Southern States Film Co., 616 Saratoga St. NO — 2 Creole Enterprises, Inc., 1401 Tulana Ave. NO — 3 M. D. Martin Attractions, 405 Dryades St. NEW YORK CITY NY — 1 Commonwealth Film Corp., 729-7th Ave. NY — 2 A-l Film Exchange, 729-7th Ave. NEW YORK STATE NY — 3 Dependable Pict. Corp., 729-7th Ave. N. Y. NY — 4 Capital Film Co., 729 Seventh Ave., N. Y. OMAHA, Neb. Oma — 1 Liberty Films Inc., 1514 Davenport St. PHILADELPHIA, Pa. Phi — 1 Masterpiece Film Att., 1329 Vine Street. Phi — 2 De Luxe Film Co., 1318 Vine Street. Phi — 3 Imperial Pictures, 1302 Vine St. PITTSBURGH, Pa. Pit — i Federated Film Exchange, 1018 Forbes St. Pit — 1 R G. Hill Enterprises, 1010 Forbes St. Pit — 3 Apex Film Service 1026 Forbes St. Pit — 4 Standard Film Exch. 1030 Forbes St. SALT LAKE CITY. Utah SLC — Preferred Pictures Co., 52 Exchange PI. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal. SF — 1 All-Star Fea. Dist., 209 Golden Gate Ave. SF — 2 Progress Film Service, 177 Golden Gate Av. ST. LOUIS Mo. SL — 1 Columbia Pictures Corp., 3317 Olive St. SL — 2 Sam Warner, United Film Exchange 3314 Lindel Blvd. SEATTLE, Wash. Sea — 1 Western Film Corp., 2014 Third Avenue. Sea — 2 Quality Pictures, 2006 Third Avenue. TOKONTO, CAN. Tor — 1 Premier Films, Ltd., 15 Richmond St., E. WASHINGTON, D. C. Wash — 1 Trio Produc. (926 N. Jersey Ave., N. W. Wash— 2 Exhibitors Film Exch., 916 G St., N. W. FOREIGN RIGHTS, N. Y. CITY FR — 1 Simmons-Kahn Enterprise, 220 W. 42nd 8t FR — 2 Inter Ocean Film Corp., 218 W. 47th St. Where to Book Them! A Selected Active List of Independent Exchanges Listed alphabetically by key-cities and presented for abbreviating purposes in the advertising of national distributors so any exhibitor may quickly locate the nearest exchange to his town which handles any independent release. For example: When a national distributor advertises "Phi — 2" in his list of exchanges, any exhibitor in Western Pennsylvania or Southern New Jersey can readily understand by referring to this list that the Philadelphia exchange mentioned is the "De Luxe Film Co., at 1318 Vine St."