The Film Daily (1918)

7/^BRADSTREET of FILMDOM m\m 7/feRKOCHIZED Authority Vol. V, No. 105 Thursday, August 22, 1918 Price 5 Cents ARLINE PRETTY IN NEW SERIES Levy After Features Star Returns to Screen Under Management of E. Lanning Masters — Backed by Exhibitors' Organization Arline Pretty, formerly with Vitagraph and Artcraft, is to be presented in a series of eight special pictures, in which she is to be featured alone, according to announcement by E. Lanning Masters, under whose management Miss Pretty will appear. ' Fully recovered from illness, which caused her retirement from the screen for the past year, Miss Pretty will leave next week for the Coast to begin the first of the series to be submitted for release on the co-operative plan. The pictures, it is stated, will be made by one of the foremost producers in the industry. Announcement of producing affiliation will be forthcoming in a few days. The cast, direction and stories for Miss Pretty's first three productions have already been approved. She will be supported by a leading man of prominent stage and screen achievements, and will be directed by one of the best known directors of women in the moving picture field. The first story to be filmed by this new producing unit, it is understood, is one for which a great deal of rivalry has existed between prominent companies, $10,000 having been offered for it, it is said, by the largest of three organizations shortly before it was acquired for Miss Pretty. It is a drama of modern life. The foreign rights for the productions have already been contracted for by Sidney Garrett, president of the J. Frank Brockliss Co.. Miss Pretty will make a number of personal appearances throughout the country co-incident with the release of the first picture of the new series. Arrangements for such a tour are already being made by the executives of the exhibitors' booking organization interested in the distribution of the pictures. Following the completion of the series, two pictures of special magnitude will be produced with Miss Pretty in the stellar role. Farrar Company Back Goldwyn Players Complete Making of Scenes at Cody, Wyoming Geraldine Farrar and other members of the company, including Thomas Santschi and Harry Lee, producing "The Hell Cat" for Goldwyn, returned from Cody, Wyoming, yesterday, where they have been for several weeks making exteriors. Miss Farrar appeared none the worse for her recent accident. This is Mr. Santschi's first visit to New York in twelve years. Head of Feature Rights Corp. Making Headquarters at First National Col. Fred Levy, head of the Big Feature Rights Corporation, the Keith and Mary Anderson vaudeville theatres, the Strand and one of the owners of the Levy Brothers department store in Louisville, arrived in town this week and has been looking <->ver the feature market for material for his distributing organization. Mr. Levy is also the franchise holder for the First National in the states of Tennessee and Kentucky and is making his headquarters at the home office of that organization while here. During the week he has closed a contract with Dr. Shallenberger, of the Arrow, for seven features for the southern territory. SULLIVAN TO RUN DISTRIBUTION Former Mutual Executive Appointed To Succeed Berst in Division of Films Denis J. Sullivan, recently assistant general manager of the Mutual Film Corporation, has been appointed by Chas. S. Hart, Director of the Division of Films, Committee on Public Information, to the position of Manager of Domestic Distributions, to succeed J. A. Berst. As assistant general manager of the Mutual, Mr. Sullivan was in close touch with the distribution for that concern, and he introduced many innovations in the way of business methods that were subsequently adopted by other corporations. Mr. Sullivan had come in contact with buyers during a connection extending over a period of fifteen years with the American Tobacco Company, and I he quickly discovered that the same persistent methods that had won success for his work with that corporation could be successfully applied to the film industry. He came into the trade at a time when many customers had become disgruntled by reason of an over-zealous salesmanship that was not always careful of its facts and prone at times to forget its promises, and he aimed to establish sound relations with buvers. In an interview, following his appointment, Mr. Sullivan said: "I think the human element in the film business is the biggest thing in it. It avails nothing to have a good product unless you have sincere men handling it. This is truer of the film than of any other line of merchandise. I have come to appreciate, too, the peculiar requirements of service in the film trade. Every man in it must have some of the peculiar requirements of showmanship, some of the deftness of a press agent, some of the substantial brass-tack characteristics of a certified accountant and a whole lot of sand. "I feel highly honored that I have been called into the Government's service by Director Chas. S. Hart. It will be my purpose, throughout all activities, to work in close harmony with the exhibitors of the country, to the end that the greatest possible showing under the most advantageous conditions may be accorded the exceptional productions which are now being put out under the title of United States Official War Films."