Exhibitors Herald (Oct-Dec 1920)

40 EXHIBITORS HERALD October 16, 1920 Denies Juvenile Delinquency Caused by Motion Pictures (Special to Exhibitors Herald) WASHINGTON, D. C, Oct. 5.— Charges that motion pictures are a contributing cause for juvenfle delinquency are based "on facts which appear as purely surface facts and are not borne out by a probing search of what constitutes the real reactions of children to the photodrama," according to W. A. Barrett of New York, secretary of the National Board of Review. "The motion picture has not been developed for the benefit of the feeble and the abnormal," Mr. Barrett declares. "It has been developed for the amusement of reasonably healthy and orderly peoplechildren as well as adults. Don't Regulate Fiction "We do not seek to regulate popular fiction in our magazines for the guarding of our irresponsibles, nor for them have we placed a ban upon the stage; both of which mediums of popular amusement it has frequently been recognized are far less vital as a source of relief and freedom from daily realities of life than is the motion picture. "Why, then, should we concoct plausible figments of the imagination in order to set verboten signs around the photodrama? If they must be placed around the amusements of a free people, let it at least be done after a precise and unprejudiced knowledge of the authentic facts." Conference Makes Charge The claim that motion pictures were partly responsible for youthful wrongdoing was made in Washington recently by delegates to the National Conference of Catholic Charities. In his reply to the charge, Mr. Barrett declares that films must not be regarded as an influence of themselves, but studied in connection with the environmental life and hereditary tendencies of the child. The claims made at the conference, he asserts, were sponsored by hope of censorship regulation. "It must be acknowledged that all of II. C. FARLEY Elected president of tke M. P. T. O. Of Alabama. the arraignments of the motion picture are for one purpose: to create a legal censorship," he points out. Hot Springs House For Colored Folks (Special to Exhibitors Herald) HOT SPRINGS. ARK., Oct. 5.— Hot Springs will have a theatre for the exclusive patronage of negroes, expected to be one of the best houses in the country owned and controlled by colored people. Vapor City Amusement Company is back of the project with a capital of SIOO.OOO stock to build the theatre. The organization is headed by leading negro residents of the community. B. C. Truman is president, Josephine Claridy, vice-president; L. R. Wilson, secretary; Clara Truman Clark and H. L. King, stock salesmen. The house will be located just south of the Pythian bathhouse in Malvern avenue and will cost about $7.'i, 000. Vidor Will Direct For Cathrine Curtis (Special to Exhibitors Herald) NEW YORK, Oct. 5— Cathrine Curtis, president of the Cathrine Curtis Corporation, announces that King Vidor has been engaged to direct "The Sky Pilot," by Ralph Connor (Major, the Rev. Charles W. Gordon), and that production has already been started in Los Angeles. The picture will be handled by First National. E. C. Grainger, New York representative for King Vidor, says that Mr. Vidor is engaged by the Cathrine Curtis Corporation to direct only "The Sky Pilot," upon the completion of which he will again resume making his own independent productions. Pioneer Purchases Nick Carter Series (Special to Exhibitors Herald) NEW YORK, Oct. 5— Pioneer Film Corporation announces that it has acquired from Broadwell productions the Nick Carter stories for the United States and Canada. The deal was closed by M. H. Hoffman, general manager of Pioneer, and John J. Glavey, acting for Robert B. Broadwell, the president of the Broadwell organization. The pictures are in two reels. The first series consists of fifteen pictures, six of which have already been completed. Tom Carrigan plays Nick Carter and Mae Gaston appears as Patsy. The publication date for the first subject has not yet been set. Sign to Produce in Louis Mayer Studio (Special to Exhibitors Herald) LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5.— Nell Shipman hereafter will produce at the Louis B. Mayer studio, according to H. Heywood Hurley, Miss Shipman's personal representative. W. H. Clune and Bert Van Tuyle have signed a lease with J. R. Crone representing Mayer. Exhibitors Agree on Forms of Contracts Negotiations on Question Are Progressing Rapidly Declares Burford First public information as to the uniform contract contemplated by the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and the distributing companies which have agreed to adopt it was given by W. D. Burford, a director of the national organization, in speaking at a recent exhibitors' convention at Springfield, III. Three Forms Necessary According to Mr. Burford, it has been decided that three forms of contracts will be necessary: one for the booking of individual pictures, one for the star series contracts, and one for the blanket, or program, contracts. When the question is settled, the term "first-run" is expected to be so safeguarded that it will actually be first run and "pre-release" and "pre-pre-release runs" will be eliminated. Guards Against Reissues It is also intended that an exhibitor will be able to cancel a contract at his option if the distributor issues a reissue or recreated picture to him under the contract, or in case of the death of a star. Contract-jumping is to be curbed by a clause which will prohibit the delivery on a program contract of pictures by a star who has not completed his or her contracts with other producers, if the injured producer serves notice on the contracting company, the M. P. T. O. A. Silee Gets Permit to Return Films to Loop Lee Herz of Silee Film Exchange has signed a new lease for his offices in the Consumers building, 220 South State street. Chicago, which permits the return to the building of the company's film. Removal of the film to a point outside of the loop was made necessary prior to the granting of an injunction preventing the city from ejecting the exchanges from the loop district. guofiniBuiiiiiinimiiiiiiiTuiiiiu uimmiuinHiiiiiitiiiiicnitiuiiiniriininuiiiniuiiii:'! miiuaag 1 Have You A Lease? | Sam I. Berman surprised the IUi 1 nois convention when he declared | | that he had found a great many I I small town exhibitors who held no | | lease on the building they occupied, | | depending upon the friendship or | | oral assurance of their landlord. | "In the light of recent develop I ments, it behooves every exhibitor | to protect himself with a lease," he | declared. i He apparently had in mind the | pitiful story of a New England | widow, who, after the building she | occupied had been leased by Alfred | S. Black, said: | "We had contemplated buying I the building and had a verbal op | tion on it, which, of course, does | not stand legally. Knowing the | owner personally, we evidently | took too much for granted."