Exhibitors Herald (Jun-Aug 1923)

46 EXHIBITORS HERALD July 28, 1923 ::::7Ae FILM MART : : : : Production Progress Fox "ST. ELMO" has been placed among the early fall publications by Fox. John Gilbert is cast in the title role of this Augusta Evans opus, which was directed by Jerome Storm. Barbara LaMarr, Bessie Love, Warner Baxter and others support the star. + + + MARY PHILBIN has been engaged by Fox to play the role of Mona in "The Temple of Venus.". Al St. John discards his trick bicycle in a forthcoming Fox comedy and in its place he will use a motorcycle Ed Gallagher and Al Shean, famous comedy team, have started work on their Fox production, "Around the Town with Gallagher and Shean" under the direction of Bernard J. Durning. + + + TOM MIX assumes a somewhat new role in his forthcoming fall publication, "Soft Boiled," a story concerning a "hard boiled" cowboy who through necessity and_ circumstances is forced into a "soft boiled" job and winds up the reformer of a shady roadhouse, heir to a large estate and winner of a beautiful girl. And with all of this Fox promises the usual Mix thrills. F. B. O. ED HURLEY, for some time in charge of trade and newspaper publicity for Film Booking Offices, has been placed in charge of the personal appearance campaign featuring Mrs. Wallace Reid in conjunction with her production, "Human Wreckage." The tour will last fifteen weeks, and will cover all of the principal cities. + + + "DIVORCE," the Chester Bennett attraction starring Jane Novak, has been booked by the Fox circuit Harold Goodwin, Earl Rodney, Alta Allen and Lucille Hutton will appear in the new series of H. C. Witwer short subjects, "Alex the Great." Discovering that there were 200 divorce cases on the court calendar, Sid Grauman influenced Judge Summerfield to invite the 200 women to witness the showing of "Divorce" at the Rialto. A special section was reserved for the women and the stunt gained wide publicity in the Los Angeles dailies. + + + IN A RECENT issue the "Minneapolis News" gives high praise to Mrs. Wallace Reid for her efforts through "Human Wreckage" to combat the dope evil. The paper said that Mrs. Reid had answered the challenge for men and women to cooperate in wiping out "the leering white curse." Paramount GLENN HUNTER'S FIRST Paramount picture will be "West of the Water Tower," an anonymous novel which is now enjoying a big sale, it is said. . . . Madamoiselle Liane Salvor, leading woman at the Champs Elysces theatre, Paris, makes her film debut with Gloria Swanson in "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife." . . . The company making "Ruggles of Red Gap" for Paramount has returned to Hollywood from northern California. + + + A NOVELIZED VERSION OF "The Cheat," Hector Turnbull's story recently produced by Paramount with Pola Negri in the leading role, will be issued by Grossett & Dunlap August 1. . . . • •••••• • •••••• The next "Better Theatres" section will appear in the "Herald" dated August 18, going to press August 6. Robert Edeson has been added to the cast of Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments." . . . Work has been started on Rudyard Kipling's "The Light That Failed," by George Melford. + + + ROD LA ROCQUE, WHO will be seen in one of the leading roles in "The Ten Commandments," has signed a long term contract with Famous Players-Lasky. . . . Filming of Zane Grey's production "To the Last Man" has been completed by Director Victor Fleming. . . . Bebe Daniels has been chosen by Sam Wood to play an important role in "His Children's Children," now being filmed. . . . William S. Hart is going to write his own story for the film that will mark his comeback to the screen after an absence of several years. First National CHICAGO is taking another step in supplanting New York as the world's premiere center. "Circus Days," Jackie Coogan's latest picture, will open at Balaban & Katz Chicago theatre on July 16. + + + SAMUEL GO.LDWYN'S "Potash and Perlmutter," an adaptation of the stage success, will be completed for First National within three weeks. Barney Bernard and Alexander Carr, two prominent stage stars, make their screen bow in this offering, which will be published in September. Vera Gordon has the feminine lead. Clarence Badger directed this Montague Glass play. Selznick "RUPERT OF HENTZAU," the Myron Selznick special, was held over at the Mark Strand theatre in New York for a second week. "Fine picture will do it every time," was Manager Joe Plunkett's comment on the extended run. + + + HEAVY NEWSPAPER advertising, hundreds of one and three sheets in the subway and on the elevated, window and lobby displays and horsemen dressed in dragoon uniforms mounted on white horses and carrying blue and gold banners formed the basis of the extensive campaign put on by Will Kraft prior to and during the run of "Rupert of Hentzau" at the Strand. That was one reason why the picture was held over at the Strand despite the hot weather. + + + MYRON SELZNICK, vice-president of the distrihuting company, announces the early publication of the Paul Gcrson production, "The Cricket on the Hearth," an adaption of the Dickens story. Goldwyn "SECOND YOUTH," the Distinctive Pictures-Goldwyn production, will have in its cast five comedians as well as four or five players of dramatic skill. Chief of the comedy players are Alfred Lunt, Distribution News Jobyna Howard, Walter Catlett, Herbert Corthell and Lynn Fontanne. In the dramatic roles are Mimi Palmeri, Margaret Dale, Winifred Allen, Faire Binney and others. Albert Parker is directing. + + + CHICAGO REVIEWERS liked "The Spoilers," the Jesse D. Hampton-Goldwyn special which is playing an indefinite run at the Roosevelt, and they let the public know it in their comments in the dailies. Polly Wood of the Herald and Examiner said: "Goldwyn has outdone everything it ever did in making this new version of the Rex Beach classic." Rob Reel in the American, said: "The photodrama has about everything demanded by exacting film fans." Mae Tinee in the Tribune said: "Certainly there fives not a soul so dead but who will admit Goldwyn's 'The Spoilers' is a good, live picture." Other reviewers were equally as enthusiastic. + + + THE SELECTION OF Hobart Bosworth for the role of Douglas Stowell completes the cast for Victor Seastrom's "The Master of Man." .... The general feeling around the Goldwyn studio is that Emmett J. Flynn's "In the Palace of the King" will be one of the outstanding screen spectacles of the season .... Carel Wilson is in daily conference with Elinor Glyn on the scenario for "Three Weeks" .... Rupert Hughes is now selecting the cast for his next production, "The Law Against Law." Vitagraph FIRST OF THE J. Stuart Blackton Productions under the Vitagraph banner will be a screen version of "On the Banks of the Wabash." the scenario of which is being prepared by Elaine Sterne. A typical allstar cast will be selected for this drama inspired by the Paul Dresser song. + + + ENDORSEMENTS by fire chiefs of Vitagraph's special, "The Midnight Alarm," will figure prominently in the extensive exploitation planned by the company on this David Smith production. Fire chiefs who have viewed the picture say that the big fire scene is one of the most sensational ever done. Percy Marmont, Alice Calhoun, Cullcn Landis and Joseph Kilgour are featured. + + + VITAGRAPH has completed arrangements for ticups with postal clerks, mail carriers and postmasters in promoting the Whitman Bennett special, "Loyal Lives." The Postofhec Clerk, a publication devoted to the interests of 40,000 postal clerks, urges all members of the National Association of Post Office Clerks to give the picture every assistance possible. Palmer Photoplay NATIONAL AND LOCAL contests, for the best short, constructive criticisms of the Palmer Photoplay production, "Judgment of the Storm," will be held when the picture is published this Fall, it is announced. Prizes totaling thousands of dollars will be offered. The picture was recently given a preview test under such an arrangement at Glendale, California, and many valuable suggestions obtained.