The Film Daily (1918)

T&4A AILY Tuesday, November 26, 1918 Indianapolis Items INDIANAPOLIS. — The government has recently installed a complete motion picture outfit in the atrium of the big military hospital at West Baden, Ind., formerly the West Baden Springs resort hotel, for the entertainment of wounded soldiers. Two shows are given daily, and the screen is arranged so that the soldiers can view the pictures from their rooms. More than $1,000 was cleared by the registered men of the Third division at Evansville, Ind., by the exhibition of the picture "To Hell With the Kaiser," which was shown for three nights at the Coliseum there last week. The proceeds are to be used in equipping a new camp near Evansville. Hammond's new motion picture theatre, at Hoffman street and Calumet avenue, was opened last week with William S. Hart in "The Lone Stranger." Max Heifer, of Hammond, is the manager of the new house. Employes of A. F. Brentlinger, general manager of the Liberty theatre at Terre Haute. Ind., presented him with a gold fountain pen and pencil last week as a token of their appreciation for having been paid during the four weeks the theatres were closed because of the influenza epidemic. "America's Answer" drew big crowds at the four-day showing at the American theatre at Terre Haute last week. A big street parade was staged prior to the presentation of the picture on Monday night. Henry Dollman, president of the Doll-Van Film Company of Indianapolis, has just returned from a business trip to New York and other eastern cities. While on the trip he purchased the state rights for Indiana and Illinois of two big pictures. Dr. Herman G. Morgan, secretary of the board of health, says that if exhibitors, theatre managers and store managers co-operate with the board in the enforcement of the mask order now in effect, it is probable that the closing ban will not have to be reestablished. Ont would think the ghosts were having a theatre party from the looks of audiences in Indianapolis motion picture shows this week. In a number of other cities and towns throughout the state the closing ban, as it effects theatres, has been resumed. Hugh Jeffrey who used to play all the "crook" parts at the Metro studio is now assisting Harry Revere of the Revere Producing Co. GET AT THE BOTTOM ONE COMMON EXCHANGE AND OPEN BOOKING ( )ne hears so many admonitions and distress signals these days, the subject has gotten to be almost a bore. Each producer has his solution, each exchange a remedy, each large exhibitor a cure, until many being more or less disgruntled, so to speak, say "To hell with it," loosen their grip on the only weapon of defense (public opinion) which they hold, while the octupus ( wise old owl) keeps drawing in the net and if he can keep the minds of the exhibitors diverted by other common enemy than himself for a time longer, biff goes the trap, the net will be closed, and Mr. Exhibitor will find himself smothered inside or frozen outside. There is onl}> one way to permanently cure a physical ailment, "Get at the bottom," "Remove the cause." This is a fundamental law of nature and holds true in everything everywhere. Reason it out for yourself and see how utterly impossible it is for any wrong condition to be fully remedied otherwise. Here we arrive at the point. The main point. The only point in moving-picture trouble. "Get at the bottom of it." At the present this industry is conducted along the lines of avarice and abnormal profits and even this would not be absolutely fatal if, perhaps, certain big producers and exchange men were satisfied with this, but not so ; they are aspiring to make millions instead of thousands by controlling and squeezing the exhibiting end of the business. This necessarily forces ah other competing interests into the same race for box-office power and what happens — overpaid and too many salaries, with careless waste through abject haste to gain supremacy and wrong selling prices to mitigate the error. Stop this race, conform to sane business and moral principles and we have got the most excellent industry on earth, bar none. Give us exhibitors a common warehouse from which to select our own attractions and let the rental of these attractions be governed by their demand arriving from their own value as attractions and the whole industry will quickly conform to the same sane methods as all other lines. Mary, Doug, and Charlie would yet get large returns ; they deserve great returns because they have arisen to great heights through their own efforts, but these revenues would be governed in consequence of the voluntary purchases of the exhibitors and not by the compulsory methods of some of the present-day distributors. In other words, the prestige of certain stars could not continue to be used as a club to force consumption of ordinary films as it is at the present. Once an exhibitor established a following for a star he would continue being able to get the star at a market price, governed by laws of production and demand, the same as exists in all other merchandising. So I say let the producers establish one common, absolutely impartial exchange in each film center and you have solved the whole dilemma, because the universal law of "The survival of the fittest" would then assert itself and our industrv would quickly profit bv fair and just principles. N. M. TRAFTON, Manager. O-ROW-NAY CIRCUIT, Trail, B. C.