Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1914)

22 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS TORONTO CONVENTION FOLLOWS NEW YORK FETE The first Canadian Exhibition of Motion Picture Art, under the auspices of the Moving Picture Association, of Ontario, will be held in Toronto, in conjunction with the Third Annual Convention of the Ontario Exhibitors' League, from June 20 to June 27. C. Gordon McGarry is the manager of the convention and the exposition. Daily meetings of the convention will be held in the Exposition Building, Arena Gardens, Toronto. A large attendance from all over the province and from other quarters of the Dominion is anticipated. Waterbury Exhibitors in Trouble Two Managers Fined for Alleged Immoral Exhibition — The Old Connecticut Blue Laws Pertaining to Sunday Admission Invoked LEAGUE CONVENTION IN MINNESOTA A league convention will be held in Minneapolis, Minn., at the West Hotel, on June 4 and 5. G. M. Westley, special organizer, is now in Minnesota. For full particulars to all who wish to give an exhibition or information pertaining to the convention, address G. M. Westley, at the West Hotel, Minneapolis, Minn. Exhibitors from other states that are now organized will attend the Minnesota convention. A full set of officers will be elected and delegates to attend the National Convention to be held at Dayton. Every bona fide exhibitor, eligible to membership in the league, is invited to attend the Minneapolis convention. FILM COMPANY FORMED IN ATLANTA Atlanta, Ga., May 26. Atlanta's first film company, with its own studio, has just been incorporated under the name of the Al Bartlett Film Company, capitalized at $100,000. Al Bartlett is president and general manager; Martin F. Amorous, treasurer; Hoyt G. Morrow, secretary. Both Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Morrow are men of wide experience in exchange and producing work. The company has just finished construction of a big studio at the junction of Irwin and Bradley streets, and a company of players is now being organized. The films are to be produced here and probably will be released through the Warner's Features. The new studio is an indoor aflfair where operations can go forward regardless of weather conditions. The laboratory is 50 by 80 feet, constructed of block cement. The Al Bartlett company has just completed a 1,000-foot film called the "Shriner's Fidelity," the story being woven about the recent Shriners' parade here and featuring Forrest Adair, potentate of Yaarab Temple, Jennie Lu Lindsey and Hunter Perry. Special to The Motion Picture News Waterbury, Conn., May 28. THE motion picture exhibitors in Waterbury are "up against it," so to speak. Only a few weeks ago a member of their fraternity was fined $100 and costs for exhibiting an alleged obscene and immoral play, entitled "Traffic in Souls," and on May 19, two managers of local theatres were pulled over the coals and each fined $50 and costs for permitting children under fourteen years of age to enter their theatres without being accompanied by an a.dult. The alleged violation of the law took place on Saturday afternoon, May 9, but the cases were not heard until this week. The managers fined were Benjamin Tint, of the Alhambra Theatre, and William Carroll, of the Carroll Theatre, Waterbury's newest motion picture house. The fines, with costs, amounted to $59.52 each, so that the city treasury was enriched by $119.04, Carroll and Tint taking no appeals. In fining the motion picture managers Judge Thorns said something that has created a furore among exhibitors here. It was to the effect that unless the law appertaining to children entering theatres without an adult was obeyed, he would close all motion picture theatres in the city on Sunday. There is a state law against allowing these houses to do business on Sunday. As most of the motion picture theatres in Waterbury "get by" on what they make Sunday evenings. Judge Thoms' statement put them on the qui vive, and no doubt from this time on managers will conduct a strict campaign against youngsters entering their houses without an adult. It came out at the trial that these young boys and girls get older people to secure their tickets and then enter the theatre at the same time as these men and women do. Of course when the latter leave the youngsters are left behind. It was just such a condition of things that resulted in the arrest of Carroll and Tint, at least that is what the defendants claimed. E. C. Erk. Features Win Recognition from Press Rochester Newspapers Pay Same Attention to Pictures as to Legitimate Attractions, Since Advent of the Multiple — Notable Change Special to The Motion Picture News Rochester, N. Y., May 28. THE finest kind of theatrical weather has been enjoyed by the motion picture houses of this city in the past two weeks, and excellent business is reported. The managers already are beginning to prepare for summer campaign, and the newspaper advertising, as soon as the weather gets warm, will begin to assure the public of the coolness of the various houses. Gradually the newspapers of this city are coming to realize the importance of motion pictures as a public institution, and as a big factor in the theatrical world. Slowly but surely they are paying more and more attention to the pictures. Advance notices of the attractions coming are now printed in the same columns as notices of regular attractions in all the local papers but one, which still separates the photodramas from the regular attractions, putting the films in a column by themselves. The practice of giving a reading no tice after the presentation of multiple reel features which are booked for more than one day is also growing. This notice is usually in the line of a criticism of the picture, the same as a dramatic criticism. There was a time when such a thing as a criticism would be laughed at, and even advance notices were given grudingly. That, of course, was at a time when only the one-reel pictures were shown, and then only for a day at a time. With the coming of the multiple reel features the papers began to pay more attention to the productions. Rochester at present hasn't a house in which pictures are given at performances starting only at stated times. The Gordon comes nearest to that, with three or four performances a day of a lengthy program. A new house now building may adopt the policy of giving only two or three performances a day, at stated times, for which reserved seats may be sold. The city must first be educated to that plan of showing pictures. Arthur R. Tucker.