Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1923)

670 Motion Picture News jUTTING over big deals has become so common in the picture business PICTURES AND PEOPLE that when they are given an airing in the columns of publicity they create a one-day sensation and the public which is interested soon looks for another big scoop. Sol Lesser put over a big deal last week that will keep the boys talking for some time. The Lesser group have taken over the T & D California circuit, which carried with it an 80 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ per cent interest in the New York franchise of First National. Lesser, Mike and Abe Gore and Adolph Ramish control the West Coast Theatres, which have developed rapidly under their management. These theatres will be amalgamated with the T & D, which means that Sol Lesser has become the boss on the Coast. The boys who use the table cloths to mark up profit and loss or to emphasize their million-dollar talk will have something to record when they mention the Lesser project. It is a deal involving millions — oh, several of them. Sol Lesser's production activities are also going on apace. Principal Pictures Corporation, of which Sol, Irving Lesser and Michael Rosenberg are the guiding spirits, has some ambitious plans. Harold Bell Wright's stories and George M. Cohan's plays will carry the Principal trade-mark. IT'S a great purpose which is guiding Dorothy Davenport Reid these days. Wally Reid's widow will carry on her battle against the drug menace through the screen. She expects to have the aid of leading figures in the picture industry toward making a feature which will arouse the public to the perils of dope. It will be her message to the world, and Wally 's gift to the thousands in the grip of the drug evil. Mrs. Reid hopes that it will aid and inspire the founding of a Wallace Reid Memorial Home for Drug Addicts. There is no better medium than the screen for the expose of the drug menace. * * » jt/HAT'S this we hear about Theodore Roberts taking a flyer in vaudeville the middle of February? The screen can ill afford to lose the gifted character actor and it is hoped that he will soon return to the Kliegs. Roberts lias not been on tht stage sine* he became identified with pictures several years ago. It is possible that he wants to use his voice again. He will appear in a dramatic sketch with a small supporting cast. The act will liave a try-out in St. Paul. * . * * THE appearance in a recent issue of Photoplay magazine of an article over the signature of Rodolph Valentino, in which the actor presented his version of the controversy with Famous Players-Lasky, led us to remark editorially that Valentino had pursued a wise course in taking his case directly to the public. Rodolph evidently intends to continue the policy. On Friday of last week he appeared befoie an audience at the Y. W. C. A. in Yonkers, N. Y., and while there were other celebs on the program, including State Censorship Commissioner Joseph Levenson, the Yonkers Herald headlined the fact that Valentino's speech was the " big attraction " and adds that the ladies were there in such numbers that " hall and gallery were jammed to the doors." * * * VT7HBN the Olympic leaves New York harbor February * Y the tenth the big boat will carry Adolph Zukor and S. R. Kent of Famous, who will make a tour of Europe in the interests of the company's foreign business. Their itinerary includes Paris. Nice. Naples, Rome, Constantinople, Bucharest. Budapest. Vienna. Berlin. Copenhagen. Stockholm and Chris tiania. They will be accompanied on their trip by Clarence Bowden. former member of the Hoover Relief Commission, who is said to be well versed in European trade conditions. fiORINNE GRIFFITH will w arrive in New York Sunday to select a vehicle for the first production of her own company to be released by Hodkinson. It shouldn't be very liard finding suitable material for this star, . who is so easy on the eyes. Any ^^^^^^^^™"^^^^^™"™" thing will do except a story featuring a temptress of the Nile, the Ganges, the Seine, the Rio Grande, and the Amazon. Her forte is society drama. A SIZABLE portion of New York as it used to be back in the days of John Jacob Astor has been transferred or to be exact has been reproduced in Brooklyn. Cosmopolitan Productions is making a picture version of " Little Old New York " with Marion Davies in the leading role and the only building big enough to house one of the scenes, that of lower Broadway, the Battery and Bowling Green, as it was a century ago, was the 23rd Regiment armory. Here has been built a set that tells its own story of why a motion picture can cost a million dollars. Little old New York in every detail has been built in the armory drill room. Delmonico's restaurant, with its open front resembling a present-day lunch wagon. Bowling Green, with the iron fence surrounding the spot today, just as it was in 1810, the old city hall, the old court house and whipping post have all been included in what is claimed as the biggest set ever built. The young maple trees are in full leaf, and slab stone walks with cobble stone gutters are there and the old-time fire wagon with its leather buckets have been built for the fire alarm scenes of the story. The most extensive research work was necessary on the part of Miss Davies, Director Sidney Olcott, Joseph Urban, who designed the settings, and Luther Reed, who made the adaptation, in order to faithfully reproduce the correct atmosphere. Miss Davies entertained about fifty magazine and newspaper scribes last Friday at a luncheon given at the armory. Prior to the luncheon the guests watched the filming of several scenes that required the services of a large cast of principals and a thousand extras, all of whom were costumed in the period of the story, 1810. ^ _ $ 4t WILL ROGERS is busy these days appearing nightly in the Follies and doubling in speeches at banquets, a pastime -which he has taken up seriously this winter. His presence at a banquet indicates that the sting is taken out of listening to a deal of dry chatter concerning " co-operation, co-ordination." etc. The Oklahoma humorist is always scheduled to appear on benefit programs. He had them laughing uproariously last Sunday night during the Actors' Fund Benefit at the Hippodrome. After talking about the Ruhr. Dr. Grant, bonuses and other current topics, he closed with some snappy remarks about the Ku Klux Klan. Says "Will : '' I'm no fool, I*m not goin' to say anything about the Ku Klux. I'm not goin* to have 'em after me." Called before the curtain, he said: <; The Ku Klux is against all Jews, Catholics and colered people. They say they are 100 per cent perfect. Well, they won't get over in New York, working on a one per cent margin. Besides there aren't enough clean sheets to cover 'em." ♦ # * rT'HE prevalence of the all-star cast has resulted in a peculiar ■* condition on the Coast, according to word from there. Hie demand for these multiple-luminary casts has caused salaries