Exhibitor's Trade Review (Sep-Nov 1921)

1512 EXHIBITORS TRADE REVIEW Volume 10. Number 22~ Critics Praise Neilan's "Bits of Life" Over 100 "Four Fastidious Metropolitan Reviewers Commend Marshall Neilan's Production as "Unique," "Novel," "Something New and Different" and "Splendid Entertainment" The newspapers of New York City are as one in recognizing Marshall Neilan's Bits of Life as a dramatic innovation and unit in praising the producer for espousing and expounding a new idea in motion pictures. Bits of Life, which is a First National attraction, opened its metropolitan engagement at the Capitol Theatre, New York City, on Sunday, Oct. 16th, presented under the supervision of S. L. Rothapfel. Says the World: "Cinema patrons may refer to Bits of Life, a unique motion picture feature being shown at the Capitol Theatre this week, as a novelty. But this photoplay, which combines into one reel four separate stories, each of a distinct character and treatment, is far more than that. In the motion picture industry Bits of Life corresponds to the short story of literature or to the vaudeville of the spoken drama." The New York Times treats the picture from a different angle, but in an equally serious vein, commenting as follows: "One of the chief complaints against many photoplays is that they are too long," observes the Times. "They are padded until everything in them that might be of interest is smothered. This is due in part to the fact that exhibitors demand footage. Programs, you know,, are as unchangeable in their form as the laws of the Medes and Persians. Give the average exhibitor the finest photodramatic work in the world and, if it is only two, three or four reels long, he doesn't know what to do with it. It's not a comedy, so he can't tag it on to the end of his bill. It's not a travel picture of a scenic, so he can't run it in as a filler somewhere. It's a feature in everything but Loew Opens New Buffalo Theatre With seats sold out in one hour and 20 minutes for the first performance, the new Buffalo Loew State Theatre was opened to the public Monday evening, October 17, with brilliant ceremonies. All the elaborate ceremonies attending a Loew opening were carried out in Buffalo. Marcus Loew, officials of his company, Mayor Buck, Rotary and Kiwanis Club members and a dozen or so stage and screen stars attended the opening festivities. Eugene O'Brien, Hope Hampton, Doraldina, Marguerite Marsh, Winifred Westover, Seena Owen, Kenneth Harlan, Diana Allen, Helen Davis, Lillian Walker, Zena Keefe, Leo Carillo, Edythe Baker and Betty Browne were among the luminaries of filmland who were introduced to the audiences Monday evening and at all performances the following day. The Loew State is a million-dollar theatre, --has a seating capacity of 3,000, and is one of the most beautiful in the Loew chain. Al Beckerich is manager and Ralph Mau, assistant. "Mother o' Mine" was the opening film feature. Following the opening performance Monday evening, the Buffalo Theatre Managers' Association and the western New York unit of the M.P.T.O.A. united in giving a dinner dance for Mr. Loew and the stars in the Hotel Lafayette. On Tuesday, the stars went on sight-seeing tours and visited stores. The store visits were exploitation stunts, arranged by Terry Turner of the home office publicity forces. Mr. Turner handled all the opening publicity. length, but that means to him that it's lacking in the most important characteristic of all. A feature simply has to be at least five reels long, and preferably six, or it doesn't consume the time allotted to it on all wellregulated programs. "Obviously the exhibitor can't run a three or fourreel feature and then tell his audience to sit and gossip or play toddle-top for fifteen minutes or half an hour, until the time that would have been occupied by a regular feature has expired. So what can the poor fellow do? Of course he might fill up his program with other interesting short stufl, but that would be asking him to get out of his comfortable rut and go scouting for things that do not come to him in the ordinary flow of films through exchanges. It's easier to say that every feature must be five or six reels in length and nothing shorter will be accepted. "It's up to the directors, then, to supply footage. So they pad. They And a fairly good story that can be best told in two or three reels, and they industriously go to work to make it fill five or six. That is, they do so almost invariably. And, of course, tiresome photop'ays are the result. "But Marshall Neilan has done something different. He has made a feature of prescribed length, but he has told four stories in it. instead of one. The first person to do this, according to the records, was Charles 3. Brabin, who made WMle New York Sleeps, which you may remember, gave you a set of separate thrillers in one film. And now Mr. Neilan offers you his four in Bits of Life. Who's the next? Let somebody else carry on the good work." The New York Tribune praised the picture as "an entertaining novelty," and commended in particular the first episode, The Bad Samaritan, as being "extremely well done." In this the Herald concurs, designating The Bad Samaritan as "the most dramatically effective and amusing of the four aspects of life treated by Neilan." The most human and appealing story, however, in the estimation of the Herald, is the second, called The Man Who Heard Everything. The New York American said in part: "Bits of Life offers novelty — and film fans like novelty. In addition it presents four distinct and interesting short stories — much as if one might pick up a magazine and, for more than an hour, trail along the pathways of four sets of folk." "The program at the Capitol this week." savs the Homing Telegraph, "is one of the best ever given at this theatre. It's the kind of program nobodv should miss. The feature film is called Bits of Life, produced by Marshall Neilan, and based upon four short stories. It is the utmost in short r^el subjects, each episode being set and acted with the care and skill of the best of features. . . . Altogether Bits of Life is a most successful experiment. We hone there will be more of the same kind of thing done." "Man's Home" Crowns Career of Ralph Ince In announcing A Man's Home as "a Ralph Ince production" the Selznick organization adds one more to the many angles that will increase the sale of tickets for this special attraction at the box office. Mr. Ince has attained distinction and fame in picturedom through years of experience as both actor and director, and his screen career is but an extension of his achievements as an entertainer that began when he was a youth upon the dramatic stage. That A Man's Home crowns an essential service to motion pictures will be freely conceded when the results he has attained are considered. His work as a director began with Vitagraph in 1907, and for four years previous to his entry into pictures he was an actor on the stage. Thus his thirty-four years of life measure, from his youth, excellent service to the field of general amusement plus the specific accomplishment of more than 300 screen productions to his credit. Index to Reviews Page 1554 Horsemen" Shows Playing the Road More than one hundred road companies of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a Rex Ingram production for Metro of the internationally famous novel of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, are to-day touring the country while the home offices of the big producing company are besieged with requests to send out additional companies to meet the demand for this, the most popular film in the history of the screen. Hundreds of letters and telegrams from motion picture patrons and exhibitors in the numerous cities where this colossal presentation of the greatest story of the world war has been shown are reported to have been received by Metro, praising its dramatic power and attesting to its wonderful artistic appeal. With such a deluge of congratulations as followed the New York premiere Metro rushed arrangements to present the picture to the millions who had read the novel and were eagerly awaiting to see how it looked on the screen. In rapid success other cities fell into line all unanimous in their enthusiastic praise of this wonderful screen representation of the story which the world declared the supreme story of the great war. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Denver, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Providence, St. Paul, Seattle, Richmond, Dallas, Kansas City, Dayton, Bangor, Wheeling, Providence, Youngstown, Toronto — all put the seal of their approval upon The Four Horsemen, while other communities urgently petitioned that the additional companies be sent out to them. Indicative of the sustained attractive power of the big picture is that the following theatres played it three weeks : The New Theatre, ' Baltimore, Md. ; Lyric Theatre, Minneapolis. Minn. ; Criterion Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y. The Four Horsemen had a run of a fortnight at the Crystal Theatre, Cedar Rapids, Iowa ; Rialto Theatre, Des Moines, Iowa ; Pantheon Theatre. Toledo, Ohio ; Loew's State, Sacramento, Cal. ; Rialto Theatre, San Diego, Cal. ; Orpheum Theatre, Easton, Pa. ; Spreckles Theatre, San Diego, Cal. ; Garrick Theatre, St. Paul, Minn. ; Shubert Jefferson, St. Louis, Mo. ; Hartman Theatre, Columbus, Ohio ; Davidson Theatre, Milwaukee, Wis. ; Atlanta Theatre, Atlanta, Ga. ; Lyceum Theatre, Memphis, Tenn. ; Shubert Theatre, New Orleans, La. ; Salt Lake City Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah ; Oliver Theatre, South Bend, Ind. ; Majestic Theatre, Peoria, 111. ; Rockford Theatre, Rockford. 111. Representative of the legion of theatres which showed the Ingram masterpiece for one solid week are the following playhouses : Columbia Theatre, Columbia, S. C. ; Apollo Theatre, Tacoma. Wash. ; Broadway Theatre, Muskogee, Okla. ; Ellany, El Paso, Texas ; Sigma Theatre, Lima, Ohio ; Waldorf Theatre, Lynn, Mass. ; Majestic Theatre, Chill icothe, Ohio ; De Luxe, Utica, N. T. ; Hippodrome Theatre, Alton, 111. ; Wysor Grand, Muncie, Ind. ; Broadway Theatre, Long Branch, N. J. ; Palace Theatre, Danville, 111. ; International Theatre, Niagara Falls, N. Y. ; Laughlin Theatre. Long Beach, Cal. ; Strand, Sioux Palls, S. D. ; Lyric Theatre, Chattanooga, Tenn. ; Marinette Theatre, Marinette, Wis. ; Appleton Theatre, Appleton. Wis. : Washington Theatre. Richmond, Ind. ; Opera House, Sheboygan, Wis. : The Rhode Theatre. Kenosha, Wis. ; Victory Theatre, Kokomo, Ind. : Riviera Theatre, La Crosse, Wis. ; Colonial Theatre, Logansport, Ind. ; Grand Theatre, Green Bay, Wis. : Strand Theatre, Evansville. Ind. ; Armory, Binghamton, N. Y. : Garden Theatre, Asbury Park, N. J. ; Raymond Theatre, Pasadena, Cal. ; Hoyt's Theatre, Long Beach, Cal. ; Majestic Theatres, Dallas, Tex. ; Houston, Tex. ; San Antonio. Tex. ; Fort Worth. Tex. ; Orpheum Theatres. Tulsa, Okla. : Oklahoma City. Okla. ; Lyric Theatre. Akron. Ohio : Colonial Theatre, Haverhill, Mass. ; Majestic Theatre, Kankakee, 111. ; Temple Theatre, Santa Ana, Cal. ; Fort Armstrong, Rock Island, 111. ; Plaza Theatre, Sioux City, Iowa ; Auditorium, Newark, Ohio : Grand Opera House, Dubuque, Iowa ; Savoy Theatre, Superior, Wis. ; Barcli, Schenectady, N. Y. ; Orpheum Theatre, Marion, Ind. ; Strand Theatre, Clinton. Iowa ; Gladmer Theatre, Lansing, Mich. ; Fuller Theatre, Kalamazoo, Mich. ; Lyceum Theatre, St. Joseph. Mo. ; Elite Theatre, Muskegon, 111. ; Grand Theatre, Greenville, S. C.