Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1928)

24 EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD March 3, 1928 Columbia Starts Victory Drive To Fete Seventh Anniversary Seven W eeks Allotted to Nationwide Campaign — Special and Four Other Productions Available for Drive (Special to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World) NEW YORK, Feb. 28. — Columbia's Victory Drive, in celebration of seven years of progress, is now under way in the 33 branches of the sales division of the corporation, with the twofold objective of commemorating the company's seventh anniversary and cementing the friendship between it and exhibitors. CEVEN weeks have been allotted to the campaign, each week representing a year of growth. Special circulars, accessories and Joe Brandt Jark Cohn other agencies arc being employed. Five productions, one a special, have been made available to exhibitors in addition to those previously announced. Heading the new pictures is "A Woman's Way," with Warner Baxter and Margaret Livingston introduced as a romantic team. Edmund Mortimer directed. The other four are : "The Sporting Age," directed by Erie Kenton with Belle Bennett starred ; "The Matinee Idol," cofeaturing Bessie Love and Johnnie Walker under Frank Capra's direction ; "The Desert Bride," with Betty Compson, Walter Lang directing; and "After the Storm," with George B. Seitz directing Hobart Bosworth. Those already released as part of the "Perfect Thirty" include "The Blood Ship," "Alias Harry Cohn the Lone Wolf," "Sally in Our Alley," "The College Hero," 'The Tigress," "The Opening Night," "The Wife's Relations" and "That Certain Thing." Call Wampas Frolic Best Staged; Some Balk at $10 Seats (Special to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World) HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 28.— The Seventh Annual Wampas Frolic and Ball, held at the Ambassador auditorium, Saturday night, was characterized as the greatest ever held by that organization. Scores of screen celebrities attended the annual feature, which marked the height of filmdom's social season, and thousands lined the walks leading to the auditorium to glimpse the stars as they passed in. Thirty vaudeville acts and stage revue specialties gathered together by the Wampas committee, served to entertain the crowd between dance periods. The whole affair was the best managed of the frolics thus far held. Every act clicked and the program was disposed of with celerity. The sale of tickets was limited to 3,000, but the receipts this year did not come up to expectations. Many of the $10 seats were vacant, and also quite a few boxes. The auditorium was beautifully decorated, while a more comfortable seating arrangement was provided than in former years. Charlie Murray and Jackie Coogan served as master of ceremonies. Among those present were Mayor Rolph of San Francisco, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Tom Mix, Milton Sills, Jack Mulhall, Estelle Taylor, Jack Dempsey, Thomas Meighan, Dolores Del Rio, Clara Bow, Florence Vidor, Bebe Daniels, Robert Edeson, Jacqueline Logan, Phyllis Haver, Marie Prevost, Robert Leonard, Lew Cody, George Hill and the 13 Wampas "stars" of 1928. Dolores Del Rio was presented with the Don Lee trophy for the greatest achievement in 1926. Laboring Classes Need Sunday Shows, Montreal Merchants Tell Government (Special to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World) MONTREAL, Feb. 28. — The battle over Sunday shows in Quebec took a sensational turn last week, when the Retail Merchants Association of Canada, representing thousands of organized retailers throughout the Dominion, came out with petitions in favor of the continuation of Sunday performances at theatres in Quebec. Thousands of petition blanks were circulated in Montreal by the association and a public statement was issued outlining the stand of the merchants in opposition to the proposal of the Quebec government to ban Sunday shows. The association took the step, it was announced, "in order to protect and safeguard the commercial interests." The arguments advanced were that patrons attending Sunday performances in Montreal represented 75 per cent of the laboring classes, that the workers considered attendance at Sunday shows as a privilege and as a rightful liberty after six days of laboring, that the closing of Quebec theatres would add to the privations and restrictions of the workers; and that the lack of Sunday shows would have a tendency to stir up pernicious agitations among the laboring classes. . If a decree ordering the closing of the theatres on Sundays be promulgated, it was asked that an exception be made in the case of Montreal, as a concession to the working classes there. Re-Takes WELL, another Wampas Frolic is now but a memory. A memory of a pleasant evening, however, with the boys in charge surpassing all former affairs. Everybody interested in pictures was there and the 3,000 guests got their money's worth for they could gaze to their heart's content at the headliners in picturedom. * * * And all the former Wampas stars, for several years back attended. There'll soon be enough of these to hold a little ball of their own. Let's see, 13 of them in 100 years will make 13,000. Quite a bunch. * * * The crowd outside the Auditorium was almost as large as that inside. They all wanted to get a glimpse of Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, Bebe Daniels, Colleen Moore, Billie Dove, Jack Mulhall, Bob. Edeson, Ronald Colman, Thomas Meighan, Richard Dix and a host of other celebs. Pretty Quiet If many more studios close hereabouts Hollywood will become a deserted village. * * * Those Jazz Jugglers I see a New York genius has invented a manless orchestra for theatres. That's going to take half the pleasure out of life, watching the antics of the trap drummer. * * * Easy on Heroes Washington, D. C, authorities are trying to pass an ordinance prohibiting the firing of guns and revolvers in theatres. Villains will hereafter be disposed of by being pushed over cliffs in plays at the capital. * * * Rumor Hounds Busy There are so many rumors floating around Hollywood these days a lot of folks don't know who their boss is going to be when they get back from lunch. Almost every executive in town has changed places with some other executive, according to rumor, and on top of the local crop we get oodles of rumors direct from Broadway, New York. Some lots are not making many pictures but they are turning out an awful lot of first-class rumors. * * * Famous Last Words "I'm going to ask for more money before I sign a new contract." * * * Meadows, you've got to quit eating that $1.10 lunch at the Montmartre, you're splitting vour livery. — R. M. Motion Picture Men in Buffalo Organize (Special to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World) BUFFALO, Feb. 28.— The Motion Picture Association of Buffalo has been recently formed and is composed of film men in the city. At the last meeting the following were elected officers: G. Emerson Dickman, president; Otto Siegel, vice-president; F. Ray Powers, secretary-treasurer. Twelve directors will be elected on March 5 at the next meeting. Kennedy Passes Cigars (Special to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World) BOSTON, Feb. 28.— Joseph P. Kennedy, president of F B O, appeared early on the film row here one morning last week, passing out cigars in announcement of the arrival of his eighth child, a daughter. Kennedy is now the father of five daughters and three sons.