Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

1464 Motion Picture News Comedies, Short Subjects & Serials Campaign on "Topics" and "Fables" Begun A nation-wide campaign exploiting "Aesop's Film Fables" and •Topics of the Day," released by Pathe, started with the week of March 12 in Greater New York, Keith and Moss theatres co-operating. Exploitation includes space for "Fables" and "Topics" in 24-sheets used by Keith theatres in Brooklyn and Jersey City, and by Moss New York houses — Coliseum, Franklin, Hamilton and Regent Keith houses in New York: The Colonial, Eighty-first Street, Royal and Riverside. These subjects had space in 48-sheets used by the Bushwick and Orpheum theatres in Brooklyn. The subjects mentioned also share space in other paper and general publicity of the theatres cooperating. It is announced that the foregoing are details of the exploitation campaign being extended in a similar way throughout the United States. 1 'Crystal Jewels" March Release Fox Educational Shows How New York Is Provided With Water Supply AMONG the March releases of Fox Educational Entertainments is "Crystal Jewels," which shows how New York City is provided with its water supply and the terrific task accomplished in completing the mammoth tunnel from the Catskills to Manhattan. Concerning this unusual engineering feat the New York Times, in an editorial printed Sunday, February 18th, 1923, says: "The Shandaken tunnel borers met in the heart of a Catskill mountain after five years of burrowing night and day * * * The eighteen mile tunnel has been completed. As soon as it is lined with concrete Schoharie Creek will deliver 250 million gallons of water a day to Greater New York by way of the Ashokan Reservoir. The job of the engineers was to reverse the flow of Denby Assures Pathe News of Navy "Doings" In appreciation of the continuous efficiency of Pathe News in picturing for the screen events in connection with the U. S. Navy affairs, Secretary Edwin Denby addressed to Editor Emanuel Cohen the following letter, dated March S, 1923, which he concluded with : "Through the continued picturization of what "the Nav^ is doing in peace times the American public has, I am sure, a better understanding and a fuller appreciation of what their Navy really is. "I wish to thank you personally for the interest in our Navy which you have shown on this and other occasions, and to assure you that the Department will co-operate at all times with you in keeping the public informed of what 'their Navy' is doing. "With kindest personal regards, "Yours sincerely, "Edwin Denby." the stream * * * by building a dam and piercing the Catskill Mountains for a distance once and a half as long as the Simplon of the Swiss Alps * * * The town of Gilboa, with its churches, houses and stores, farms and pastures had to be sacrificed to make room for the waters of the dam." The particularly interesting points of this waterway are set forth in the Fox reel, showing the interior of the tunnel, one of the largest in the world; the Ashokan Reservoir, and the laboratory where the water supply is continually examined under the microscope. Those who watch the picture, follow the amazing route of the crystal stream along its entire course, doing a mental dive as the main line passes under the Hudson River. Harry Edwards Directs Baby Peggy Baby Peggy is at work on her first productioin for 1923. It was written by William Friedle, recently engaged to write plots for the talented youngster. Edwards was given the job of directing Peggy as a reward for his excellent work with Buddy Messinger. The picture, which has not yet been named, shows Peggy swinging in her favorite swing. The rope breaks and she is thrown into "a wagon full of orphans which is passing by. Peggy is, in spite of her tears, taken along to the orphan asylum with the rest. Adoption day comes round and all the children are adopted except Peggy. She sees the new parents buying dolls for their adopted children and she conceives the idea of slipj ping into a box and passing herself off as a doll. Hamilton Comedies Prove Popular Educational Reports First hour of Series Enjoying Splendid Bookings International News Shows Baby Peggy The International News Reel shows an amusing sequence of Baby Peggy, the four-year-old Century Comedy star, meeting Irene Castle while the latter spent two weeks in Los Angeles. The reel shows Peggy calling upon Mrs. Castle and the famous dancer showing the little tot the latest dance steps. Other scenes show Peggy's home life in a series of intimate pictures, which show how she spends her day. Peggy is shown playing on the lawn of her new home with her older sister, reading her fairy tale books, playing with her large family of dolls, washing the doll's clothes and sorting her thousands of fan letters with her mother WITH four of the six comedies in his first year's series of Hamilton Comedies for Educational already playing in the theatres throughout the country, Lloyd Hamilton now stands in a unique and pre-eminent position among the leading comedians of the screen. While his contemporaries in tht. first rank of screen comedians have been devoting their time and efforts to making feature length comedies, Hamilton has been turning out box office attractions of no less merit, and keeping them within the short subjects limit in length. With no less effort expended in their production, and no less quality apparent on the screen, these two-reel comedies have proven to be the most dependable of the short length pictures of their type offered to the exhibitor at the present time. The first four pictures made under the management of Hamilton have been released and are now showing. They are "The Speeder," "The Educator," "No Luck" and "Extra! Extra!" Each of these pictures has earned excellent reviews at the hands of trade paper reviewers, and also from newspaper critics. Large metropolitan dailies in the past have seldom devoted much space to reviews of short subjects, and therefore the reviews from these papers are perhaps more significant than those from other cities. The News of Washington, D. C, reviewing the piogram at one of the Broadway houses, and speaking of Hamilton's "No Luck," says : "This fellow Hamilton is one of the screen's greatest pantomimists, with a marvelously mobile face and an unerring sense of comedy. Hamilton, one day, will be a mountain among the screen molehills. You owe it to yourself to see him." The New York Morning Telegraph reviews "The Educator," stating that it is a "masterpiece of comedy," and this paper's review on Hamilton's next picture, "No Luck," says that "It is the funniest comedy seen since Hamilton's last.-' A typical report from exhibitors is summed up in the words of the manager of the University Theatre, Minneapolis, Minn. " The Speeder," says Glen Vliet, manager of the University, "is the finest tworeel comedy we ever ran. It pleases, and you can boost Hamilton, as he will get them in and send them away happy." That exhibitors are short-sighted who do not capitalize on the growing popularity of Hamilton is the opinion expressed by Miss Ray Lewis, managing editor of the Canadian Moving Picture Digest. Commenting editorially on "The Speeder," Miss Lewis says : "Why more of these most amusing comedies are not given special attention and mention we cannot understand, save that it appears to take an unusually long time to convince exhibitors that it is quality and not quantity in a picture which makes a feature." Hamilton has recently completed his fifth comedy of the year, "Uneasy Feet," which will be an early release, and has started production work at the United Studios on the final comedy of this group, which has not vet been titled. Keaton Comedy Again Called Big Feature " Buster Keaton's 1 The Frozen North ' is about as funny a tworeeler as one could ask for, and even if it were the only thing on the bill it would repay one for a visit to the Rialto," is the New York Evening World critic's comment on this new release of the famous smileless comedian. '"The Frozen North" is a stirring tale of the land of chilly landscapes and burning hearts," says the New York Evening Telegram. "Buster Keaton is nothing short of superb in 'The Frozen North.' This comedy is a conglomerate satire of the screen dramas of the great open spaces. Robert W. Service, the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, the William S. Hart and Eric Vcn Stroheim type of villiains all of the western and northwestern stuff is here with a vengeance." — N. Y. Evening Journal. Experimental Laboratory for Pathe Review Recent novel effects screened in Pathe Review which cannot be produced with the equipment of the ordinary motion picture studio are said to have inspired many inquiries from exhibitors and individual patrons. The answers reveal the fact that Pathe Review has established an experimental laboratory for the working out of novel ideas requiring new developments in motion picture technique. The innovation was materially encouraged, says the Pathe Review editor, by the long standing, close cooperation of experts and curators at most of the important art and scientific institutions — notably the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. Further striking developments are promised in the near future.