Motion Picture News (Jan - Feb 1926)

986 Motion Picture N e zv s Plans Shaping Rapidly for Los Angeles Convention of M. P. T. O. A. PLANS are already shaping rapidly for the annual convention of the M. P. T. O. A. to be held in Los Angeles from June 1st to 5th inclusive. Among other reports made by Glenn Harper, Secretary of the California unit, to Joseph M. Seider, business manager of the M. P. T. O. A., was one to the effect that Cecil B. DeMille will serve as a head waiter and all of his stars as waitresses at a banquet and ball being planned by De Mille at his Culver City studio one night during the convention. The Ambassador Hotel will be the convention headquarters in Los Angeles and local managers are making miles of banners and streamers to properly decorate. The special train which will conduct the exhibitors in the Eastern and Middle Atlantic States to Los Angeles will be the first transcontinental express of its kind. Reservations are reported coming in rapidly. They should be sent at once to Sam Sonin at National headquarters. Theatre Bootleggers a Menace Seider Issues Warning at Annual Installation of Brooklyn M. P. T. O. Two warnings wereissued by President R. F. Woodhull and Business ]\Linager Joseph M. Seider of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America at the eleventh annual installation of officers of the Brooklyn M. P. T. 0. last week. One was to beware of " Theatre Bootleggers" and the other the "Dyspeptic Minds." Seider described as "theatre bootleggers" and "screen leeches" those temporary exhibitors "whose system of encroaching upon territory already meritoriously and adequately covered by pioneer exhibitors is being done through no other purpose than for the milching of the industry." The Business Manager said the industry must be purged of those people who become exhibitors solely for the reason of "bleeding our honest members by compelling them for the sake of their very existence to buy up these business-destrojdng decoys erected by theatre bootleggers." In sounding the warning against Avhat he described as "dyspeptic minds," President AVoodhi\ll said he .'would inaugurate a speakers bureau at national headquarters to which all forceful personalities and convincing speakers would be eligible. Such a bureau would make it possible for an unjust or unwarranted attack upon the industry to be immediately retarded and stifled at its very source. Public Favors Bible History De Mille Contest Reveals Lack of Interest in Love and Sex Themes ASUMMA.RY of public opinion so far expressed in the Cecil B. De MilleLos Angeles Times "Idea Contest" shows the Bible and history are leading love and sex themes by ten to one as suggested ideas for big pictures. De Mille recently announced he would distribute $2,100 in cash prizes for original story ideas. The latest response shows 80 percent as favoring Biblical and histoi'ical subjects. The lives of strong American and early Christian leaders are suggested more often than the contemporaneous events they helped create. Two Hundred Reels Are Donated to Leper Colony APPROXIMATELY two hundred of motion picture films donated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal and Famous-Players Lasky were shipped last week to the leper colony at an isolated port in Balboa, Canal Zone through the offices of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc. Among the photoplays donated are prints of many of the outstanding pictures with many of the best known stars featured. The films were delivered to the Chief Oflicer of the Medical Supply department of the United States and were addressed to Colonel W. P. Chamberlin, Chief of the Sanitary Corps in Balboa. The astounding feature of the report is the very few friends of love and sex themes. Where these are advanced most of the suggestions are that they be used as background or relief for a universally recognized occurrence of fact and history. "This national canvass of the public will result in a better understanding between producer and public," said De Mille. "It is revealing to me that the public is tiring of the frivolous and nonsensical in their pictures and that it wants, above all, a wholesome educational element. Unique Window Display for ''Time, the Comedian'' Exceptional attraction value distinguished the unique window display for "Time, the Comedian" used in St. Louis by Loew's State Theatre thtre. Against a colored background of drapes, was silhouetted a figure of the conventional Father Time, while a little to the right of the figure was a revolving globe, representing the world, and bearing on its surface the photos of principals in the picture. Baby spot lights were used to illuminate the revolving world, a red light on one side, and a green light on the other. This window was designed h\ Mr. Maurice Davis, director of Publicity at Loew's State. Highlights from the "Lefty" Flynn starring vehicle for F. B. O. release titled "The Traffic Cop." Arbitration Board Names New Members New members of the Ohio Joint Board of Arbitration have been announced. They include Max Shenler, Family Theatre, Cleveland ; Charles Burton, Lincoln Theatre, Cleveland; Louis J. Frisch, Harbor Theatre, Ashtabula Harbor. M. B. Horwitz. J. JHarwood and J. Schwartz, all of Cleveland, were chosen alternates. Fire Chief Injured When Film Explodes While attempting to put out a fire in the Star theater, Oshkosh, Wis., caused by explosion of film, Edward F. Kelley, assistant fire chief, was burned seriously in a second explosion. An audience of 200 moved quietly out but the theatre suffered $15.rt0(> damage. Carl Laemmle Off to Universal City CARL LAEMMLE was nor back from Europe long before he departed early in the week for Universal City to supervise production on the Greater Movie List, Universal's schedule of big pictures for the 1926-27 season. Accompanying Laemmle on the trip to the coast were his son, Carl Jr., Andre Mattoni, European film star who has been engaged to appear in Universal pictures, and E. A. Dupont, noted Ufa director, who is to make pictures under the Universal banner.