Moving Picture World (May - Jun 1918)

June 8, 1918 HII-. MOVINC PICTURE WORLD 1 IT for --iHTi.il features, principally for stage performances, The Majestic, owned in I'. I. Koppelberger, who also the Opera House, is the largesl motion picture house in tlu city, seating 1,400, original!} a vaudeville theater, It is efficiently managed by W. Freise. We called on II. ll. Burford, who runs the Bijou ami many more houses in Wisconsin. The Bijou has 500 seats, is well managed and thoro ly equipped with a pipe organ ami an up-to-date Operating booth. We had the pleasure of listening to his blind organist play. He is a marvelous musician, All the other theaters are smaller. Two of them are suburban houses in North ami South I. a Crosse. While af] ed by war and warm weather conditions. La Crosse upon the whole is enjoying a fair business. We were impressed with the new and novel decorations instituted in the Majestic, particularly the cages of canary birds bung in the lobby and interior. They seemed to sing in harmony with the orchestra. -Mr. Freise was redecorating the lobby for the summer with hanging baskets of flowers, plants and ferns. He was also making provisions for two fountains of flowing water to give the place an air of coolness and outdoor atmosphere. From these reports of our visits you can probably get a general idea of the motion picture situation in these communities. The summer months concern the exhibitors most and their main anxiety is to get through them at an even break. They are all sanguine about a general revival in the fall. H First Lady of the Land to See "Joan" Goldwyn Patriotic Comedy-Drama Given Invitation Showing Before Children's Year Campaign Association. JOAN of Plattsburg," Goldwyn's great patriotic comedydrama starring Mabel Normand, is to have a private showing in Washington Tuesday, June 4, under distinguished auspices. It will be presented to an invited audience at the Knickerbocker theater by the Children's Year Campaign Association, and among the guests will be Mrs. Woodrow Wilson, wife of the president, and ladies of the Cabinet. It is possible that President Wilson also will be present. In connection with the presentation of the picture Miss Normand will make a personal appearance as part of a program of patriotic numbers especially arranged to give the production an appropriate setting as the story of the unswerving faith of the nation's women in time of war. The performance will be staged under the personal direction of Harry M. Crandall, owner of the theater, and Arthur Robb, his manager. One of the Cabinet officers — probably Secretary Wilson of the Department of the Interior — will begin the afternoon's program with a short address. He will be followed by a Canadian officer direct from the battlefields of France, who will sing some of the trench songs of the soldiers. Colonel Barry Bulkley, a Washington lecturer, then will recite "The Star Spangled Banner" in an appropriate stage setting, and a Washington society woman will sing "Joan of Arc." R. W. Bingham will sing "The Vacant Chair," and a soldier's quartet from Camp Meade will be heard in "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground" and other field melodies. Then will come the picture and the personal appearance of the star. The ushers will be chosen from among this year's Washington debutantes. Members of the Cabinet, the War and Navy Departments and representative figures in all of official Washington have been invited to attend. The Children's Year Campaign Association, with which George F. Lenehan, Goldwyn's Washington manager, is arranging the details of the affair, has the indorsement of President Wilson and Mrs. Wilson is one of the patronesses. MACNULTY WITH FAMOUS PLAYERS. The settings appearing in Paramount and Artcraft pictures now being produced in the Fort Lee, N. J., studios of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation are the work of William MacNulty, who has been appointed technical and art director. Mr. MacNulty comes to his new post well equipped for the exacting duties required, with knowledge and experience gained from ten years spent in the motion picture business following a thorough artistic and dramatic training. Previous to his association with the silent drama Mr. MacNulty had gained prominence as .a cartoonist, artist and draftsman and was an interior decorator for a large Chicago firm, and selected the furnishing and appointments for many palatial homes in the Windy City. Hal Roach in New York Rolin's Director General Planning Bigger Productions for Harold Lloyd Comedies. \i ROA< H, director general oi Rolin Btudios, arrived m New York from Los Angeles last week, n, u,n remain in the big town a fortnight perfecting plans with Paul Brunet, vice president and general managei ol the Pathe Exchange, for bigger productions foi the Ha.,, id Lloyd one i eel laughmakers. "Ii isn't so surprising (hat Lloyd is going so big in his new work." said Mr. Roach. "I (irmly believe the vogue oi the screen comedians who depend largelj upon gi make-up or physical infirmities to get them over out. I believe that more legitimate methods will be demanded by the public even in slapstick." Rolin is spending a large appropriation on studio extensions, Mr. Roach said, preparatory to increasing production facilities. Hobart Henley, Director Till-', reason for Hobart Henley's skill as a director is no secret to those who know his methods. It is sympathy which gives him power and perception. He is as acutely alive to the feelings of the player of a "bit," as he is to the star's conception of a role, and' labors as diligently to bring out the best in a child as he does to surround a leading player with appeal. His striking success with Goldwyn Pictures starring Mae Marsh is evidence of this. They are perfect examples of Hobart Henley's art. Immediately a script is handed to him he reads it as he would a novel, for enjoyment only. It takes form in his brain as a narrative. He looks upon it almost impersonally Then, as the story begins to digest in his mind, it assumes the aspect of a photoplay, with the high lights visualized. From this moment the production may be said to start. Once again Mr. Henley reads the scenario, slowly, carefully, visualizing every moment of the play and every detail, making copious notes as to costume, business and the development of the drama of the story. He repeats this process several times, adding notes, strengthening impressions until finally he sees the play exactly as it will appear when it is photographed. He leaves nothing to the inspiration of the moment, nothing to chance and little to the exigencies of actual direction. For this reason he produces rapidly, smoothly and with the least appreciable delay. His value to Goldwyn is enhanced by this thoroughness and facility. The success of Hobart Henley in directing Mae Marsh, now in the midst of her third production with him, has occasioned no little comment among those in touch with Goldwyn activities. Heretofore Miss Marsh has had a new director for each of her productions. Goldwyn feeling that the summit of Miss Marsh's delicate art had not been reached. Shy, elusive and inclined to retire within herself. Miss Marsh responds only under intelligence, sympathetic understanding and a sense of dramatic values as keen as her own. In Mr. Henley she recognized all these essentials at their first meeting, and with characteristic wholcheartedness enthusiastically accepted him as her ideal director. At once she corroborated her judgment by doing the best work of her career in their first production, "The Face in the Dark." and in "All Woman," released June 2, Mae Marsh has given even more of her many-sided self, according to those who have seen an advance showing of the story of "a good girl who tamed a bad town." Hobart Henley.