The Film Daily (1924)

Conditions Bad {Special to THE FILM DAILY) St. Louis — The continued rainy, cold, unnatural weather of the past few weeks has played havoc with box office receipts. In Southern Illinois to this is added the closing down of the coal mines with no prospects of things opening up until September or October. Every day more theaters are closing. In one county in Kentucky 18 theaters have closed for indefinite periods. Among the houses closed recently are: People's, Terre Haute, Ind. ; Lannae, Worden, 111., two nights a week; New Grand, Frankfort Heights, III; Bijou, Scottsville, 111.; Princess, Winfield, Mo.; Moonbeam, Modesto, 111., and the Rex, Bevier, Mo., is closing on Fridays and Saturdays. Jack Underwood of Enterprise is back from a trip to Arkansas. He reports that the cold, wet weather has completely killtd cotton and the planters will be forced to plant their crops over again. Cotton is a big factor in Arkansas. Capitol in Church Squabble {Special to THE FILM DAILY) Vancouver, B. C. — The CapitO|l, Ralph Ruffner manager, figured in a lively church dispute recently, when 90 per cent of the congregation of the Centennial Methodist Church attended church service and Sunday School in the theater rather than attend the regular services. The trouble arose when the British Columbia Methodist Conference appointed a successor to the pastor, Rev. Clem Davies, against the wishes of the congregation. The latter turned to Manager Ruffner of the Capitol for assistance and he placed the theater at their disposal. "The Chase"— Hammons— Educ'l Get This Without Fail. Type of production 2 reel special scenic This is an outstanding short reel. Don't miss it, and don't let the other fellow get it. It was taken in the Swiss Alps and has breath-taking thrills as well as some of the most exquisite shots of snow-covered mountains ever seen. The champion ski jumper is shown in the beginning being presented with a silver cup. A wager is made between him and the rest of ski jumpers that he has beaten that in a chase over the Alps lasting from dawn to sundown he will be caught. In other words, he will be the fox, and the rest of them "the pack". He is to scatter red paper to act as a scent. The thrills are little short of marvelous. The photography is exquisite and altogether it is a wonderful hot-weather picture. Get it sure. Many "Felix" Sales The following sales have been made on the new series of 24 "Felix", the cat, cartoons: To Famous Players, for all Canada; Masterpiece Attractions, for Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Washington; F. & R. Film, for Minnestota, the Dakotas; Enterprise, for Georgia, Florida, Alabama, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi Greater Features, for Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming; Peerless Film, for California, Arizona and Nevada. M. J. Winkler handles the series. "Grandpa's Girl"— Christie— Educ'l Well-Produced and Moderately Funny. Type of production . . 2 reel comedy Kathleen Clifford is the featured player in this Christie Comedy. She may be remembered by some of your folks for her male impersonation work in vaudeville. "Grandpa's Girl" gives her an opportunity to do much the same sort of work. Her grandpa is going to Europe, so Kathleen gets herself expelled from boarding school so she can go with him, but he disowns her, and advertises for a grandson. Kathleen applies and is hired. But after a wild party in a cabaret where she dances and flirts with the old man, getting him into a fight, etc., he takes his grand daughter back with open arms. This has a moderate amount of laughs and is well-produced. Changes in Kansas City Exchanges (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Kansas City — Lew Nathanson, formerly of Selznick, is now selling for Associated Exhibitors. R. H. Jones, formerly with Universal, is booker for the Blank Enterprises. J. Morrisy, formerly with Metro is with F. B. O. E. A. Westcott has resigned as Educational salesman. Film Salesmen Hold Ball (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Albany — The newly organized film salesmen's club gave a ball at Hotel Ten Eyck, recently which proved highly successful. "Young Oldfield"— Pathe Well Directed. Type of production. ... 1 reel comedy An excellent introduction is used in this. Charlie Chase is seen winning an International automobiie race in which Barney Oldfield is an also-ran. Oldfield is in it himself. Chase goes over to him, pats him on the back and gives him a cigar, telling him, "Don't you care, Barney, You're a good driver too." And then he wakes up to find that he is a clerk in his mother's drug-store and the mortgage is due at twelve o'clock. His mother goes to pay it but forgets the money and Charlie borrows a racing car — that he doesn't know how to drive — and proceeds, to get there. And he does. The titles in this are worthy of mention, and the entire comedy is the hot Chase has made so far. "The Iron Man" — Universal Parisian and American Thriller. Plenty of action. Type of production .. 15 episode serial "The Iron Man", a fifteen episode serial, features Albertini, the foreign daredevil who has appeared in several European productions, and judging from the first three episodes, he lives up to his title of "Daredevil" very well. He is cast as a reporter on a Parisian newspaper and assigned to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the niece of a wealthy American motion picture magnate. Because the Uncle has never seen his niece, and because she has become heir to a great deal of money, a band of crooks kidnap the girl and substitute Mimi, a dancer. This, briefly, is the plot, but from the moment the picture starts there is action. Fights, brawls in underworld cafes, much haste, chasing, escaping, capturing, explosions, falls, etc., abound. There is always one thing or another happening. Where you know your crowd likes this sort of excitement, you should have no trouble in pleasing them with this. Play up Albertini. He really does some good stunts. The supporting cast includes Lola Todd, as the dancer, Margeret Morris as the niece, Jack Dougherty, Jean DeBriac and others. "His New Mama" — Mack Sennett Pathe Langdon Does Good Work. Type of production . . 2 reel comedy Harry Langdon succeeds in being really funny especially in the first reel of this. His facial expressions are sure-fire laugh getters. Madeline Hurlock looks very well in this too, and there is a good cast including in addition to the Sennett bathing girls, Alice Day, Andy Clyde and Jack Cooper. The early sequences, in which Langdon comes down the stairs in a nightshirt with a lighted candle in his hand, to look for Santa Claus are very funny, as is the sequence in which the old man chased him out into the snow. Altogether, it is an entertaining comedy. Northwest Notes (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Seattle — Thomas Meighan was in Seattle with his company en route north, on location for "The Alaskan." Manager Von Herberg managed to squeeze in four personal appearances, stealing the star from the Chamber of Commerce, for that purpose. Big crowds attended on short notice, making splendid advance publicity for the later showing of the picture. Guy F. Navarre, former manager of Fox here, and past president in his second term, of the Northwest Film Board of Trade, was tendered a farewell dinner by that organization, before his departure for the East. He was presented with a gold charm appropriately inscribed. J. A. McGill, of the Liberty, Port Orchard, Wash., has secured legislation through the city council establishing a $5 a day tax on all traveling vaudeville and tent shows. This has already deflected one show from this community. Recently an exhibitor in Colville, Wash., where the tax on such attractions is negligible, closed for three weeks, rather than try to compete with such a show. Melba Theater Bldg. in Deal (Special to THE FILM DAILY) St. Louis — One of the notable real estate deals closed in the past few weeks, was the purchase of the Melba Theater building, Grand boulevard, from the Audrey Realty Co., by Fred Wehrenberg. The Melba was built six years ago and is one of the larger and most popular movie palaces of the South Side, seating 1200 Wehrenberg has been operating under lease for several years and plans extensive improvements. He has plans for theaters on Grand boulevard at Meramec, and also at Bates St. He owns the Cherokee. Announce "D'Orr's Island Cast (Special to THE FILM DAILY) Newton Highlands, Mass. — Gladys Leslie, Effie Shannon, Burr Macintosh, J. Barney Sherry, Adele Dore, Alice Chapin, Dorothy Allen, Russell Griffin, Paul Winchell and Raymond Lowney, are included in the cast of "The Pearl of D'Orr's Island", which will be made by the Paul Whitcomb Prod. Leon E. Dadmun will direct. COMING SOON ai>» Dean *%e Siren of Seville Storubij HH.VAN lOm-Oirtdedlx/ JEROME STORM