Exhibitor's Trade Review (Sep-Nov 1921)

1508d EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW Volume 10. Number 22. "Exhibitors Demand Clean Pictures" /. S. Woody, Realart General Manager, Returns From Long Trip and Gives Interesting Observations on Conditions "The one thing that struck me most forcibly," said J. S. Woody, general manager of Realart, who jusc recurned from a ten weeks' tour of the country, "was the definiteness with which the exhibitors spoke regarding their intentions to run nothing but absolutely clean pictures. This sentiment is not sectional; it is universal. I cannot fail to see in this desire to show only clean production a well-defined campaign on the part of the exhibitors to eliminate censorship by stagnation. In other words they figure, and rightly, that if pictures contain no censorable qualities there will be no necessity to maintain expensive censor boards. "That is the practical side of it. But there is another too, which reflects to the exhibitors' credit. As more than one of them expressed themselves to me, they have no wish to run any pictures in their theatres which will antagonize the local reform influences or possibly offend their patrons. The day of the salacious, suggestive picture is past; clean, artistic productions are the only ones that can possibly survive. And those that seek a masquerade under the cloak of 'pointing a moral' will have short shrift. Producers will do well to read the handwriting on the wall. "There is little for me to say regarding the dissolution of the recent depression, as other film executives who have been abroad in the field have accurately reported conditions," continued Mr. "Woody. "No one wnl even pretend that such a depression did not exist. It did, but happily there has been a steady resumption of normal business with the return of the cooler fall weather. I found the exhibitors as a general rule fairly optimistic and in more than one instance, they have shown me that their theatres are doing a greater volume of business than they did a year ago. "Exhibitors throughout the country show decided evidence of being conversanc with the major affairs of the day, especially as they affect the motion picture industry. They keep abreast with legislative matters and through local bodies no doubt exercise considerable influence upon their political representatives. Everywhere I went I heard deprecatory comments regarding the shortsightedness of Congress in its advocacy of a high tariff, but few exhibitors think that it will go through. Exhibitors are getting more and more awake to the fact that they have in their control a powerful medium for the molding of public opinion, the screen, and they will not be loath to use it should the necessity arise in the battle to keep the motion picture industry free and untrammeled by political and notoriety seeking malcontents." Bookings for "Son of Wallingford" Wide Publicity Received by Title Through Fiction Pages Big Boost for Vitagraph's Feature — Theatre managers all over the United States and Canada are reported to be recognizing the publicity pull back of Vitagraph's super-feature. The Son of Wallingford." The fame of its authors — creators of the original Wallingford characters — the wide publicity received by the title through its publications in Collier's Weekly, and its success as a book, all have impelled managers to inquire about this special. Moreover, managers who may not have recognized the full value of these ad vantages, have had their attention aroused by the circulation of the story in hundreds of newspapers to which George Randolph Chester, the author, syndicated the story in the United States and Canada. But the real harvest of bookings was reaped from exhibitors coincident with the showing at the Vitagraph branch offices of the first advanced prints of the film itself. C. J. Marley, Vitagraph's manager at Los Angeles, screened his first print several days ago, and within one week's date from the screening had booked this big Vitagraph special at the palatial Kinema Theatre in Los Angeles, and in addition to this wrote contracts for first runs in twenty-eight towns within a radius of a few miles of that city. The Los Angeles booking is for a run of at least one week; the runs in the smaller cities range from showing of from two days to one week. Mr. Marley's achievement sets a record for Vitagraph managers for the number of towns booked in so short a period, but other Vitagraph branch managers are running neck and neck in one of the biggest and most successful competitions of this sort in the history of Vitagraph, or, in fact, the entire film industry. Among the earlier theatres to book The Son of Wallingford was the Capitol at Hartford, the largest in the entire State of Connecticut, and, as it happens, the identical playhouse which first ran the now far-famed Black Beauty. The Cleveland run opened October 16. Allen's Theatre, which is showing it, is the largest motion picture theatre in the State of Ohio. Vitagraph's Minneapolis branch office insured some novel entertainment for the playgoers of the Twin Cities when it booked The Son of Wallingford into the Capitol Theatre at St. Paul and the State Theatre, the latter in Minneapolis, and incidentally the largest one there. Pantages in Salt Lake and the Crescent in Syracuse are among the larger theatres which have arranged for this special during the past few days. The number is increasing daily, hundreds of first-class theatres in the larger and middle-sized cities making bids on this super-feature. More prints are being shipped to the Vitagraph branches on The Son of Wallingford than on any special ever produced by Vitagraph. Vitagraph's administrative offices at 469 Fifth Avenue are in receipt of a telegram from its Boston office stating that the Gordon Circuit has just booked The Son of Wallingford for its New England territory, taking in its big house in Boston, Gloucester, Chelsea, Worcester and New Bedford. Riesenfeld Commends "The Four Seasons" Illustrative of the effect of The Four Seasons on the exhibitors themselves is a letter which has just been received by Charles Urban from Dr. Hugo Riesenfeld, of the Rialto Theatre in New York. It was in the Rialto that this Urban Popular Classic, the first feature-length picture to be put out by the Kineto Company of America, played its pre-release engagement a week ago. Immediately following the showing came from Dr. Riesenfeld the following letter: "New York, Oct. 6, 1921. "Mr. Charles Urban, "Kineto Co. of America, "City. "My dear Mr. Urban: "I feel that I owe you more than a mere price or mere thanks for your picture, The Four Seasons, which I showed at the Rialto Theatre last week. "As a nature feature it is unique. It is beautiful, instructive, and, above all, intensely interesting. With proper music it becomes an illustrated poem, with an appeal to all classes — highbrow and lowbrow. "Don't let anybody persuade you to make the picture any shorter or to run it in four sections. Friends tried to persuade me to break it up. The audience really loved it — applauded when it was shown, spoke of it on leaving the theatre. "Yours very sincerely, "Hugo Riesenfeld, "Managing Director."