Exhibitor's Trade Review (Mar-May 1922)

1244 EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW Volume 11. Number 18 ^'Sunshine Harbor'^ Playgoers Release Scheduled for Showing April 2nd — a Springtime Story with a Selected Cast Headed by Margaret Beecher Sunshine Harbor, scheduled to be shown April 2, is the first Playgoers Picture attraction to be released in the coming month. It is a springtime story. "The name is in keeping with the spirit of the season," says the announcement. "The settings in the opening reels reveal the quiet beauty of an estate in the South, in which S'Urroundings the central figure, a pretty little girl of sunny disposition, is introduced. The locale is transferred to New York, with its bustle and energy, and intensely dramatic situations are portrayed. "Prominent in the cast is Margaret Beecher, whose relationship to national celebrities already has won for her a vast amount of effective publicity. Miss Bee Starting its career in the New York territory with bookings on the entire B. F. Keith circuit. The Vermilion Pencil, the latest screen drama starring Sessue Hayakawa and distributed by R-C Pictures, seems to be on the first lap of a successful race with all existing booking and attendance records throughout the entire country. The Vermilion Pencil received its New York premiere at B. S. Moss' Broadway Theatre on March 19, its release date, where it enjoyed a week's run. Following this it played at the Eighty-first Street Theatre, and from there it will travel to practically every first run house in the New York territory. Hayakawa's latest effort is a picture of thrills and stupendous effects, and was hailed by trade paper critics as among the most intensely absorbing screen dramas that this popular star has ever made. It marks the star's return to wholly Oriental pictures. The entire action is laid in Japan, with the star cast in a dual role — playing an elderly Japanese chieftain, and his son, an Americanized Japanese who returns to his native country to help in its upbuilding. It is, announces R-C Pictures, a feature that not only affords the talented star, acknowledged one of the most powerful actors of the screen, an opportunity to display his dramatic abilities, but also combines some thrilling scenes of physical action. The climacteric scenes show a volcano in eruption. An entire city lies at the base of the mountain. With the mass of seething lava running through the streets, the heroine of the picture, played by Bessie Love, is left tied to a post where she was about to suffer execution. Her rescue by the star provides, states R-C Pictures, a breath-taking thrill that will satisfy any audience who want virile screen action. In the leading feminine role is Bessie Love, once a screen star in her own right. This dainty young actress is considered to add considerably to the box office value of the production. She has won thousands of admirers by her piquant personality and exceptional amount of charm. In The Vermilion Pencil she is cast as a little Japanese girl who is coveted by a Japanese prince. The role allovfs her to display her charms to full advantage. Exhibitors Trade Review, in reviewing the production, stated that the star gave an excellent performance and that Bessie Love makes an attractive heroine. It also cher, however, does not rely on the fact ..LcLi her grandfather was a famous preacher and her grandaunt an author of worldwide renown, for she is an actress whose ability has commanded admiration. "The cast for this production includes Howard Hall, Ralph Hardde, Coit Albertson, Dan Jarrett and Myra Brooks. The story was written by Jerome N. Wilson and the picture was produced and directed by Edward Hemmer. "Sunshine Harbor, it should be explained, is a charming little apartment occupied by the Southern girl after her removal to New York, and the name was chosen because of the radiant cheerfulness which never deserted her,' even when she had been temporarily blinded while "covering" a fire for a newspaper." stressed the point that the volcano eruption sequence will have a strong audience appeal. Moving Picture World cited The Vermilion Pencil as a model of technical excellence. "The photography and lighting are beautiful," stated the reviewer, "and the interiors are a revelation of art. The exteriors show scenes of the mountains and woods that are sure to win admiration." "The Vermilion Pencil," stated the Motion Picture Neivs, "has the action, atmosphere and photographic beauty." Hayakawa's performance and the truthful Oriental atmosphere of the picture were especially lauded. Snow Scenes Filmed by Terriss for "The Challenge" Exteriors of The Challenge (working title), which Dolores Cassinelli is making under the direction of Tom Terriss, have been completed and the company is now engaged on the last few settings in the Harry Levey Studio in West Thirty-eighth Street, New York. The bulk of the outdoor scenes were photographed in and around Elizabethtown, N. Y., where the last of the winter's snows were utilized by Mr. Terriss. The company, including Mr. Terriss, Miss Cassinelli, Rod LaRocque, leading man; Warner Richmond, DeSacia Mooers, Jane Jennings and Frank Norcross, suffered much discomfort in a snowstorm that struck them on the peak of one of the Adirondacks. A hundred successful picture theatres This organization has desigTied a hundred — and more — picture houses that in every feature have proved workable. Among: them the successful Stanley Theatres. That Is the surest proof of practical work. Hofifman-Henon Co., Inc. Architects and Engineers Finance Building Philadelphia, Pa. Rothacker Issues Book of Real Service to Industry Watterson R. Rothacker, president of the Rothacker Enterprises, has just published a book, "Motion Pictures the Universal Language," which excels anything of the kind ever gotten out. In a big way^ with beautiful typography and art work, it tells the story of the development of the motion picture as an amusement and factor in building great industries. Watterson R. Rothacker The publication is appropriate at thisf time because the Rothacker Laboratory in Chicago is about to celebrate its twelfth anniversary. In typical Rothacker sentences the story of motion pictures is told and the well known laboratory man opens his story with this graphic paragraph: "The best advertisement in the worldi will never be written because The Motion Picture is the superlative advertising: medium and exceeds limitations of any pen." Rothacker then tells the story of his. modest beginning with the Industrial Moving Picture Company in 1910 and of his present enterprises, chief among which are the Rothacker plant in Chicago and' the Rothacker-Aller laboratory in Hollywood. He advises the world to "say it. with Motion Pictures." Concerning the circulation of industrial motion pictures Rothacker says "we candidly tell you all about the limitations as: well as the possibilities of Motion Picture circulation," which covers a situation which has caused much misapprehension among manufacturers using screen advertising as to what circulation can be guaranteed among the theatres of the country. Those interested in this phase of motion pictures will thank Rothacker for playingsquare with big advertisers. Both Chicago and Hollywood plants are fully described and pictured and a valuable talk on dramatic photoplay printingfurnishes interesting reading. He gives a talk on the last page on "The Extravagance of Cheapness," and makes this typically Rothackerian remark, "the' higher the brow the less it sweats." The book should be in the handsi of half a million persons who think the motion picture is but a fleeting creation of this generation, destined to die shortly. It will do much to stimulate interest in the industry and stabilize it. — H. McL. U. O. Books R-C's Vermilion Pencil Entire Keith Circuit in New York to Show Hayakawa Production, Which Is Hailed as His Greatest