Motion Picture News (Apr - Jun 1914)

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68 THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS I Post," now is being put into a sixreel picture under the title of "Beating Back." " A ND now we come to the techni ■^X cal end of things," smiled Mr. Hite, leading the way across Thanhouser Lane into the developing and mechanical departments. "The first thing I want to show you is an invention of W. C. Nelson, our chief mechanic, who did all the millwrighting in the plant and, in his spare moments in the last six months, completed the duplex printer which we have in this corner. "This is the Nelson Duplex Printer," explained Mr. Hite. "It is operated by an independent motor and one man can print two reels of film at the same time. It is compact and accurate and is one of the few printing machines which print the film at right angles with the light. Most machines, as you may be aware, print the film while it presents an arcshaped surface to the light." In a room off the machine shop Mr. Hite pointed to two barrels, one of which was filled with what appeared to be coarse rice, "That barrel is filled with perforations from the thousands of feet of film which go through our battery of perforators," explained Mr. Hite. "The other barrel is filled with the cuttings of unused bits of film. ' "The film ends and perforations are sent to a laboratory where the photographic silver in them is extracted. The celluloid is used over again for various purposes. The salvage nets us more than $5,200 a iyear or about $100 a week, so you see it is well worth our while to keep the floors clean." "XT' OU will notice," continued Mr. I Hite, dipping his hand into the barrel of tiny white perforations, "that each one of these punched out pieces of film is of exactly the same size as its neighbor. Under the microscope and the caliper the same thing holds true. ■ That means that our perforators are running smoothly and that the film when it runs over the cogs in the projection machine will not 'wobble.' "Attention to just these apparently trifling details has made for the success of Thanhouser films." Mr. Hite next took his guests down a long corridor of drying drums, where thousands of feet of films revolved under the blasts of innumerable electric fans. "Don't go away just yet," suggested Mr. Hite, when his guests displayed an inclination to make their exit, believing that they had been shown all that was to be seen. "You haven't visited 'The House of Mystery' yet." Mr. Hite called his chaufi'cur and then saw that we were safely tucked away in the Thanhouser limousine. NEW ROCHELLE is a beautiful little town where Americans live in American houses, eat American food and, in general, live blameless American lives. Perched on a rolling knoll in the heart of the residential district of this fashionable suburb of New York, the visitors to the Thanhouser studio saw a great mansion which Mr. Hite, with pardonable pride, pointed to as the most expensive "prop" ever acquired by a motion picture company. "That," he explained, "is 'the House of Mystery'." The visitors, before entering the $200,000 "House of Mystery," rolled past a long rambling garage through the great park surrounding the house, past fountains and flowerbeds, pansy gardens and rows of shrubbery and carefully tended terraces, up to the porte cochere entrance to the mansion. And the interior, it could be seen at a glance, is furnished in keeping with the imposing exterior of the mansion. Priceless Persian rugs carpet the entrance hall. In the dining-room heavy carven furniture groan under the weight of the silver service and in every room on the three floors it is apparent that exceptionally good taste has been used in the selection of the works of art which eventually will be seen in the completed film, "The Million-Dollar Mystery." They do things on a big scale at the Thanhouser plant, li a certain effect is to be achieved, cost is no consideration. Month by month the plant continues to grow. Recently carpenters and masons worked day and night erecting a new stage. This month the new fireproof "prop" room will be finished. Meanwhile, a baker's dozen of directors keep shoals of people on the run, and the cameras click merrily on. Robbers Kill Cleveland Exhibitor Second to be Shot Down in Six Months — $500 Taken from Victim — Board of Trade Will Take Up Shagrin and Goldman Cases Special to The Motion Picture News. Cleveland, O., June 4. THE exhibitor's fraternity of Cleveland lost its second member last week by the hand of the hold-up man. Leo C. Goldman, manager of the Monarch Theatre, at Euclid avenue and East 105th street, was shot and robbed of $500, May 29, on his way home from his theatre. In December Samuel Shagrin, another manager whose theatre was located on East Ninety-third street, was killed and robbed and his murderers never have been captured. Goldman has been at the Monarch for several months and it is believed by the police that the men who held him up and killed him because he refused to hand over his night's receipts, may be the same who murdered Shagrin. Goldman was a member of the Exhibitors' Board of Trade, of this city, and that organization will continue its effort to capture the men who committed the crime. Since the shooting of Shagrin last December the theatre managers who live at some distance from their theatres have been cautious about exposing themselves to attack when returning home at night. Goldman, however, lived but a few blocks from his theatre and was accustomed to walk home. P. C. MOONEY. Pathe Will Issue Film Daily Two Hundred Feet a Day Will Be Issued and Weekly Will Continue — Orders from Exhibitors Are Coming Fast THE Pathe Daily News, to be put in circulation on Monday, June 8, will, besides marking an epoch in the motion picture industry, realize the plans of those, who a year ago were laughed at for even thinking of such an idea. It hardly seems possible that we are now to have a news daily in pictures. In the morning a man can read of some event going on in the world, and then the same afternoon or night he can go to see the event in motion pictures. The wonderful organization and large equipment of the Pathe company, which has sixty offices and studios in the world and thirty-seven caniern-nicn in the United States alone, make this proposition a reality. They are able to receive, develop, print and send out films by mail in one day. The mail is always used for such purposes. The daily will be about two hundred feet in length and at the end of the week the exhibitor may show all the dailies together, thus making them into a weekly. The usual Pathe weekly will not be discontinued. Of course, the daily and the weekly will contain much the same news, and one house will not show them both. The Pathe company have already received many applications for the daily and from the interest that is being shown its success is assured.