Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1927)

1860 M 0 t i o II Picture N c iv s Chicago A/f ARKS BROTHERS are ■^*^-l planning to open their huge Alarl)o Theatre on May 17, altliongh the date may have to be put back slightly on account of delays in finisjiing the house, which seats 4,000. Tom Mitchell of Progress P'ilms, started for the Aurora Race Track last Saturday, but en route, crossed wires set his automobile on fire and the machine was totally wrecked. The passengers, however, escaped witlu)ut injury. Mike Siegel is now managing the Prairie Theatre which is owned by Ludvvig Siegel. The gentlemen in (|iiestion are not related. It is reported that Bruce Godshalk has resigned from the Karzas organization to become connected with Schoenstadt & Sons. General Aianager \'an Ronkcl is leaving the latter organization. Anthony Caputo, head of the A. B. C. Studios, 845 S. Wabash .Avenue, has joined the ranks of the benedicts, having been married last week to Tillie Antoinette l-"lorentine, popular Chicago girl. The Kankakee interests, which intended to erect a house which was to be leased to Great States Theatres, have been Unable to get together, it is reported, and construction of the house is indefinitely postponed. J. Roder of the Astor Theatre has taken over the La Salle Theatre, for many years a legitimate and musical comedy house, located in the loop on Madison Street. After redecorating and installing a new organ, this eight hundred seat theatre will be reopened as a motion picture house under a daily change policy at ten cents admission on week days and twenty cents on Sundays. J. P. Koppel will be in charge of the La Salle. It is reported on good authority that Manager Levine of the Adams has secured the lease on the Randolph Theatre and will take it over on August 1, and will operate it on a ten cent policy. It is understood that the State Street entrance will be converted into a store. Manager H. C. Young of the National Screen Service has returned from his company's national convention at Atlantic City. The Fischer Circuit is planning t(i open its new house at Portage, Wisconsin, this week. It is a modern de luxe theatre of two thousand seats. The Hscher Circuit has also added to its chain of theatres, the Pastime at Delavan, Wisconsin, the Orpheum at Burlington and the theatre at White Water, Wisconsin. Frank Goldquist has resigned as managing director of Great States' theatres and has been succeeded by Perry Hoeffler, who is a son of J. P. Hoeffler, general manager of (ireat States Theatres in Quincy. Tom Sawyer who has been managing the La Petite in Kanakee has been api)ointed managing director of the four Great States houses in that city. It is reported that Joe McCormick has sold his Jefferson theatre on E. 55th Street. K ansas City THE Olive Theatre, St. Joseph. Mo., has been sold by Mrs. S. E. Moore to George Montray. Among the out-of-town exhibitors in the Kansas City market this week were : Edward Smith, Cozy, Minneapolis, Kan. ; Frank Whittman, Bonner Theatre, Bonner Springs, Kan. ; T. D. Block, Odessa, Mo. ; Charles Fiske. Butler, Mo.; S. E. Wilhoit, Electric, Springfield, Mo. ; Walter Wallace. Orpheum, I.eavenworth, Kan. C. A. Schultz, manager of the Kansas City P. D. C. branch, will become manager of the Midwest Film Distributors, Inc.. of Kansas C'ity, May 1, it was announced this week by E. C. Rhoden, president of the latter company. Russell Borg, booker for the Kansas City Educational branch, had a sore right arm this week from shaking hands of congratulating friends, following his victory in the monthly "Hall of Fame" contest, it being the first time a booker ever had won the C'lntest. Frank Harris, field representat've for Harold Lloyd, was a Kansas City visitor this week. In the last two fire drills at the Warner Bros, branch the exchange has rated 100 per cent. E C. Rhoden, president of the Midwest Film Distributors, Inc., returned from a business trip to Chicago this week, but Fred Willoughby, of the HaywoodWakefield Company, is reported "Lost" in Oklahoma or Kansas, he having been driving back from Oklahoma when the floods occurred. Nat Levine, producer, was a Kansas City visitor, he being en route to the Pacific Coast. The accounting and office management of the Kansas City F. B. O. branch is nearer perfect than any other branch which A. J. McPhail, home ofifice auditor, has visited thus far, according to Mr. McPhail's frank admission to J. A. Masters, assistant branch manager, this week. R. A. McGuire, Warner Bros, home office representative, departed from Kansas City this week after spending two weeks here. Edward Alperson, district manager for Warner Bros., also was a Kansas City visitor. ''l^HE Crystal theatre, 305 HenneA pin avenue, Minneapolis, celebrated its eighteenth anniversary last week. The theatre opened in 1909 and has operated continuously since except for a short time while undergoing repairs after a fire. Ten cents has always been the admission price. The house is owned by William Nelson, prominent Minneapolis banker and real estate man, and is managed by Anton Janssen. The Crystal was the first theatre in Alinneapolis to use a pipe organ in connection with pictures and some of the most prominent organists in the Twin Cities had their first experience there. Mel Evidon is to succeed Ernie Fravis as manager of the ad sales department at the Minneapolis branch of Paramount. Fravis has gone to Des Moines to manage the same department there where his home is. The "Vodvil" dance given by the St. Paul Finkelstein and Ruben managers' club at the Coliseum ballroom last week was attended bv mure than 500. Music for the dancing was furnished by the Coliseum orchestra and many vaudeville acts were on the program, which was arranged by J. T. Stroud, manager of the Oxford theatre. A recent visitor at the Minneapolis exchanges was Art Johnson who owns the Orpheum theatre at .\berdeen, S. D. At the June election in Alinneapolis one of the candidates for Park Commissioner will be Bob I^Piner of the Minneapolis office of Finkelstein and Ruben. Park Agnew, formerly of Minneapolis, has been promoted from booker at the Des Moines office of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to traveling booker out of New York. The Lyric theatre at Huron, S. D., has been purchased from .S. A. Goethel and Ralph Jones by A. B. Leak, who is planning immediate improvements. J. F. Osborne is now operating the Grand theatre at Big Falls, Minn. It was formerly under the management of Hogan Burud who has entererl another business. a,o G1 EORGF E. JACKSON, manf ager, F. F. Vincent, exl)loitecr, E. I. Hudson and J. T. Moran, salesmen, left last Wednesday evening to attend the Universal convention at the Drake Hotel, Chicago. Tiiey expect 1o he gone ten days. Charlcv Hudson, Paramount salesman, is in the Good Samaritan Hospital, Portland, recovering from an operation for appendicitis. J. J. Parker motored to Seattle Thursday to meet Harry Arthur, Jr., and discuss the revised plans for alteration of the Majestic Theater. Neal East, inanager ft>r Paramount here, is also in Seattle. Louis Amacher, M-G-AI local manager, is away on trip o\er the territory. Frank A. Lacey, formerly manager of the Majestic, is back in Portland for the purpose of disposing of his real estate holdings here. I^cey has connected with several Sacramento liouses, and will make his home there. Manager George Christophers of the Hollywood Theater, sponsored an amateur theatrical entertainment and banquet held by members of his staff at the theater after the show Friday. The piece de resistance of the evening's entertainment was a play written and produced h.\ the staff.