Exhibitors Herald (Dec 1924-Mar 1925)

88 EXHIBITORS HERALD January 3, 1925 MIDDLE mSI EVENK OPENS DRIVE FOR BIG ATTENDANCE . AT NATIONAL MEET Staab Invites Ohio Theatre Owners to Mihvaukee for M. P. T. O. Conclave (Special to Exhibitors Herald) MILWAUKEE, WIS., Dec. 23.— The opening drive to insure a record attendance at the national convention of the Motion Picture Theater Ow'ners of America, which will be held in Milwaukee in May, was launched last week when Henry Staab, executive secretary of the Wisconsin unit, extended a personal invitation to members attending the Ohio state convention. Mr. Staab appeared as a speaker at the Ohio gathering, his subject being “Organization.” Besides addressing the meeting, however, he spent considerable time buttonholing individual members and selling them on the idea of boosting the national sessions. Work in anticipation of the national convention is expected to begin in earnest in Milwaukee on Dec. 30 when the board of directors of the Wisconsin unit meets to name special committees and discuss preliminary steps towards welcoming the nation’s exhibitors. * * ♦ With the state legislature scheduled to reconvene shortly, Wisconsin exhibitors are pricking up their ears in an effort to discover if advocates of the blue laws and similar reform movements will start a new assault at Madison. The last two sessions have been marked by considerable activity on the part of the reform element and it is regarded as certain that the new meeting will be no exception. However, according to Ered Seegert, president of the Motion Picture Theater Owners of Wisconsin, members of his organization are not particularly worried. Exhibitors this year occupy a somewhat improved position inasmuch as they are now officially represented in the legislature by Henry Staab, executive secretary of the Wisconsin unit, who was returned victor at the last election. ♦ * * Milwaukee, after experiencing two of the greatest weeks of business of the present season, appears finally to have been hit by the annual pre-holiday slump. With few exceptions, exhibitors throughout the city are registering their yearly complaint that Christmas shopping and the expense attached thereto has put a crimp into the show business. “He Who Gets Slapped,” playing the Alhambra, appeared to hold the edge among downtown houses a't the beginning of the week while “The Ten Commandments,” starting a two weeks’ run at the Davidson, Thieves Again Patronize Newman ( special to Exhibitors Herald) KANSAS CITY, MO., Dec. 23. — For the second time within ten days and the third time within a year, Frank L. Newman, prominent exhibitor of Kansas City, was the victim of bandits Friday. This time the loss was only $1,000, the previous loss a few days ago having been $15,000. The receipts taken this time were from the Royal theatre, the Newman theatre having suffered the two previous losses. A lone bandit had hidden himself away in the basement of the theatre. About 10 o’clock at night William Jacobs, house manager, and Lee Buchta, doorman, took the receipts of the night in a metal box and started for the manager’s office in the basement. /Is they entered the children’s playroom they were commanded by the bandit, who had a revolver concealed beneath an overcoat slung over his arm, to hand over the box. Both Mr. Jacobs and Buchta, being unarmed, offered no resistance. regularly the home of the spoken drama, did fairly well with prices ranging from so cents to $1.50. Saxe’s Wisconsin, playing Thomas Meighan in “Tongues of Elame,” also did fair business, but all other theaters reported considerable falling off in patronage, including the Palace Orpheum. “Business is rotten — worse than it was last year before the holidays,” declared Fred Seegert, who besides being president of the Motion Picture Theater Owners of Wisconsin, operates the Regent, an outskirt house. “Saturday and Sunday business is holding up, but conditions during the rest of the week are bad,” was the report of A. L. Gutenberg, president of the Milwaukee unit of the M. P. T. O. and operator of the Grand theatre, also an outskirt house. Managers Out in Territory Even though the temperature hovers near zero and the ground is covered with snow, Kansas City exchanges refuse to be checked in a prosperous rush for Christmas business. M. A. Levy, Fox branch manager, left in a hurry for Topeka, Kan., and other key centers, while close upon his heels followed Bob Withers, Enterprise branch manager, who made his 999th trip into the territory. After spending six weeks in the territory, C. E. Reynolds, Educational representative, returned to find himself almost a stranger along the “ol’ row.” J. D. Jernigan, traveling auditor for Vitagraph, stopped long enough in Kansas City to give the books of the local branch the “once over.” KANSAS-MISSOURI LAUNCH CAMPAIGN FOR NEW MEMBERS C. E. Cook, Business Head, Will Make Four Months’ Tour in Territory (Special to Exhibitors Herald) KANSAS CITY, MO., Dec. 23.— At a meeting in the Hotel Muehlebach, Kansas City, of the organization committee of the M. P. T. O. Kansas and Missouri Tuesday, C. E. Cook, business manager, officially was appointed to conduct a membership campaign in Missouri and Kansas, which will last about four months, going out into the territory and meeting all exhibitors personally. Although Mr. Cook literally has been “loaded down” with routine work at headquarters in Kansas City, he will abandon the office and a temporary substitute will be obtained. J. W. Watson, Kansas City ; A. F. Baker, Kansas City, Kan., and L. M. Aliller, chairman, constituted the organization committee. In conjunction with the membership campaign in the territory, another campaign now is under way to make Kansas City, Mo., a 100 per cent organization. Following the completion of both campaigns, no exhibitor in either state will be solicited for membership. He must come in on his own initiative. The running of slides, or similar co-operation, will not constitute a membership in the future. All dues must be paid promptly. The organization committee also approved the newly arranged schedule of dues V/a cents per capita for towns up to50,000 and 1 cent per capita for cities more than that. The assessments against each town will be divided equally among the number of member theatres. A $200 maximum has been fixed for a single exhibitor. About 850 theatres will be visited by Mr. Cook on his trip. * ♦ * Several important matters, including legislative problems, are expected to be discussed at the next regular meeting of the board of directors of the M. P. T. O. Kansas and Missouri at Kansas City, January 19. Statements on dues now are being mailed out by the “wholesale” at the organization’s headquarters and, according toC. E. Cook, business manager, results are coming fast. * * * No expense has been spared by the Kansas City Star in renting Convention hall, Kansas City, which seats more than 15,000, for the premier showing of “Peter Pan,” Paramount production, as a Christmas party for school children of Kansas City and suburbs. The showing will be December 27, but Miss Betty Bronson, who plays the title role, will be in Kansas City Friday and will be escorted by an honorary bodyguard to all schools of the city. The fact that the Rialto and Rivoli theatres of New York and the Newman theatre of Kansas City would show the picture simultaneously the week after Christmas received a liberal portion of the column story which was devoted to the picture.