Exhibitor's Trade Review (Mar-May 1922)

1102 EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW Volume 11. Number 16 Business Satisfactory, Pearson Finds Pathe Executive, Back from Southern Trip, Declares Improvement in Immediate Future Is Inevitable Elmer Pearson, General Manager of Pathe Exchange, after three weeks of travel and personal investigation finds present business conditions in the South reasonably satisfactory, with substantial improvement inevitable in the immediate future. Mr. Pearson's tour, from which he has just returned, included Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans and towns lying between those important centres. "From a general business standpoint," he said, "it is quite apparent that the South is justifiably very hopeful for the future. But it must be admitted that until another crop is raised and marketed, the strictly cotton districts will have very little spare money. "In all the mill sections, especialy in the Charlotte territory, the conditions seem to be very good. The mills are running at full capacity with consequent big weekly payrolls. The banks report that they have neither frozen credits nor any paper that is not being met on due date in a normal manner. "This good general condition is reflected in good box office receipts — scarcely any exhibitor complaint was heard in that section. "Further south, however, exhibitors claimed that the box office failed to respond to hardly any kind of stimulus. It was my impression, however, that exhibitors, even so, were making some profit. But until money becomes more plentiful Unique Celebration for Universal Anniversary Carl Laemmle has consented to a very unusual manner of celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the existence of the Universal. This anniversary falls on the tenth of the month of May, the company having been incorporated and established on that day in the year 1912. Heretofore the anniversary has been commemorated by a month set apart in which the exhibitors were asked to book Universal Productions exclusively. The Universal felt that it was time to depart from the established form of celebrating such anniversaries. The Universal exchange men have devised a form of celebration in which the exhibitor will share equally in profit with the Universal exchangemen. The details of the plan were communicated to Mr. Laemmle at the Coast and he has just given his consent by wire and told the exchanges that he wants the news to be conveyed to the exhibitors as soon as possible. in such sections one cannot expect big attendance every day at prevalent admission prices. "It was everywhere evident that exhibitors were operating without so many expensive frills as formerly; thus, witla improving business, there is a bigger margin of profit. "Exhibitors everywhere expressed much satisfaction with Pathe's excellent serial offerings, and were particularly looking forward to the forthcoming Pearl White chaptei'play. "Several exhibitors told me that during the past months, when general conditions were so bad, that the only profit their theatres made was on serial days. "One rather illuminating sidelight on conditions was the fact that very few theatres seemed to be changing hands, and the few such transfers that came to my attention were at rather handsome prices. "I take it that all of us in the motion picture industry, as well as business men in general, are finding present conditions reasonably satisfactory, together with a well-founded belief that substaiitial and steady improvement in the immediate future is inevitable." "Reckless Youth" Being Completed for Early Release When Elaine Hammerstein's production of Reckless Youth is finally completed it is declared that more time and attention will have been bestowed upon the work than is usually required to complete the average Selznick production. Most of the work was done on schedule time, but there were sections of the story that demanded unusual care and attention to detail. "Special construction and mechanical preparations involved time and labor to an unusual degree and when the completed product is turned over to the laboratory and editing forces there will ensue still further demonstration of Myron Selznick's determination to make Reckless Youth the best photoplay Elaine Hammerstein has appeared in of late. Ralph Ince, who directed the new subject from a Cosmo Hamilton story, is 'seeing it through' to a state of screen completion," says the statement. "Showmen who have sensed the public's appreciation of the team work of Miss Hammerstein and Niles Welch in the pictures Miss Hammerstein has recently presented will be glad to know that the same leading man will be seen in Reckless Youth." "Sheik's Wife" Wins Praise of N. Y. Papers Vitagraph's French special production, The Shiek's Wife, made its American premiere on March 5 at the New York Strand. An elaborate advertising campaign had been carried on in the pages of all the metropolitan newspapers, playing up the facts that the picture had been actually made in Arabia, that it was the first big French production to reach this country since the war, and that it contained a thrilling story of Oriental love. These appeals brought out the crowds. The general verdict of the newspaper critics agreed entirely with the judgment of the house the night before. Almost all the reviewers were enthusiastic in their praise. "The Shiek's Wife is the real thing in. Oriental setting," wrote Gertrude Chase in the Morning Telegraph. "Filmed entirely in Arabia, it shows the most beautiful Moorish houses, troops of Arabs on marvelous horses and the luxurious tents in the desert. The photography is fine and the mobs skillfully handled." "This is something different in the way of a story about the desert," was the verdict of the Times. "The photography is uniformly splendid, even in the half lights," said the Herald, "and the atmosphere, while lengthy, is more veracious than that of The Sheik, the tents smacking less of a comer in a charity bazaar." "A foreign picture that takes rank with the best that have been imported into this country, from the standpoint of excellence of production, photography, faithfulness to detail and action, while the continuity is rather an improvement on many that have been shown here, is presented at the Strand Theatre, a French picture entitled The Sheik's Wife, said the Evening Mail. "This is a French picture filmed in Arabia and now we know why the Arabian romances made in Hollywood left us quite cold," virrote the Globe's critic. "For the Mojave is the Mojave and the Sahara is the Sahara and never the twain shall meet even in the most elaborate of our native 'superpictures.' " Camera Work Completed on New Mae Murray Picture Mae Murray has completed camera work on her new Tiffany production, Fascination, which will be released by Metro on March 27, presented by Robert Z. Leonard. The picture is now being cut by Mr. Leonard, who directed it, at Tiffany Studios, West Forty-fourth Street, New York. The cutting and titling will take about two weeks. Complete prints will be ready about the middle of March. The cast includes Helen Ware, Creighton Hale. Robert W. Frazer, Courtney Foote, Charles Lane, Vincent Coleman, Emily Fitzroy and Francis Puglia. 40% SAVED ON FIRE INSURANCE COST This has been our subscribers' experience. You can do the same if your theatre is an acceptable risk. THEATRE INTER-INSURANCE EXCHANGE 137 SO. 5TH STREET PHILADELPHIA, PA.