Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

A pril 7 , 192 3 1657 A HUNDRED or more of Ben Schulberg's m a 11 y friends waxed merry and complimentary at a dinner held in his honor at the Ritz, New York, last Monday evening. B. P. 's interesting career from office boy to a position today as a big operator in productions was reviewed wittily and otherwise by Rube Goldberg, Roy L. McCardell, Joseph L. Friedman, George Blaisdell, Robert E. Welsh, Morris Ryskind, Jack Bachnar, Dr. Giannini and others. Harry Reichenbach was toastmaster. A vaudeville entertainment followed. pOLA NEGRI has cancelled an insurance policy for one million marks which if collected at this time would pay to the beneficiary the sum of fifty dollars at the present rate of exchange. The star took out this policy several years ago when she was at work in Berlin studios. When she began activities in "Bella Donna," her first American feature, she took out a similar policy with an American company for the sum of $250,000 which, by pre-war standards, approximates in value the million marks which the star recently renounced forever. • • « THE talking pictures again ! Elias E. Ries, electrical engineer of New York, has received a grant of important patents on the talking motion picture, according to an announcement made Tuesday. The claim is advanced for him that this gives priority for his invention, called by him the "audioscope," in devices which depend upon the recording of sound on a strip of film. Mr. Ries holds patents on several devices and invented a submarine detector, for which patents were turned over by him to the United States Government during the war. • # # ALOUD protest against a continued demoralized street car service is being made by the picture theatre owners and managers in Schenectady, New York. The assertion is made that the service has cost the theatres thousands of dollars during the winter months. The trouble is said to have started last fall when the company introduced one-man cars and later are said to have cut the wages of the men. The condition has become so bad according to Edwin 0. Wienberg, manager of the State theatre, a house which cost $500,000, or more, that many persons have declared to him that it takes anywhere from, an hour to ninety minutes to reach their homes, and for that reason they are not attending the theatres. Bus service has lately been started and this is affording some relief. • • • LJERE'S service for you! Sound proof glass cages have been installed in the picture theatre at Bandon, Oregon, for the pleasure of mothers ivhose children accompany them to the show. Why not install a few of these cages in every theatre for the benefit of those pestiferous patrons who read the captions out loud? MC. LEVEE, president of the United Studios, has just • purchased from the Government, five 125 H.P. aeroplanes for use in the production of films at this plant. When the planes arrive at the studio they will be partly dismantled and used as wind machines for the picturization of storm effects. Incidentally, Mr. Levee, should feel proud over the Maurice Tourneur production, "The Isle of Lost Ships," which comes Index to Departments Editorial 1655 Pictures and People 1656-1657 General News and Special Features 1658-1669 Check-Up, The 1676-1677 Chicago and Mid-West 1679 Comedies, Short Subjects and Serials 1699-1701 Construction and Equipment 1707-1718 Exhibitors' Box Office Reports 1678 Exhibitors' Service Bureau 1680-1685 Feature Release Chart 1719-1722 Pre-Release Views of Features 1686-1691 Regional News from Correspondents 1692-1698 Studio Notes and Player Brevities 1670-1671 With the First-Run Theatres 1672-1675 of a wheel-chair. to the screen as one of the most distinct novelties ever recorded. See it and be carried away on a fantastic cruise. It is rich and romantic, quaint and colorful, and deserves a place among the better things. TOM (JlBSON of Hollywood is playing Harry Lauder's song, "A Wee Dcoch an' Doris,'" upon his Vic these days. The "Stork Special' whistled into the studio city last week and deposited another daughter on Gibson's doorstep. She weighed nine and a half pounds and while her name was 'David' before her arrival, it only took the fraction of a second to make it Doris. Mrs. Tom is doing nicely while Tom himself may be expected to continue with his present picture without the aid TJ/'OVLD you know what has become of Edwin Thanhouser, " whose company in the old days of the business was noted as among the foremost? We will advise you that he is in retirement at a handsome home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Mr. and Mrs. Thanhouser are at present on their yearly pleasure trip to California. THE Follies will not take to the road this season after the New York engagement, but that doesn't mean that theatregoers west of the Hudson will be denied a close-up or the show which glorifies the American girl. Flo Ziegfeld plans to make a permanent motion picture record of this year's Follies. Words and music, of course, will be silenced, but the girls should screen wonderfully well. And the professor of pulchritude can enlist the services of Will Rogers to write the captions. We predict some agitation around the hearts of the bald heads when they get the close-ups of Gilda, Jessie, Shirley, Blanche, Avonne, Phoebe, Helen, Hazel, Anastasia, Dorothy, Margie, Marcel, Jessica, Betty and fifty others. It is estimated that twelve reels will be required to record the performance. KENNETH HODKINSON, general manager of United Artists, has left on a swing around the circle which will include many of the U. A. exchanges. His first stop will take him to Cuba. IT looks as if Rupert Hughes had made a raid on every motion picture lot in Hollywood to collect the players for his "Souls for Sale." In this stupendous cast are Eleanor* Boardman, Mae Busch, Barbara La Marr, Richard Dix, Frank Mayo, Lew Cody, Arthur Hoyt, David Imboden, Roy Atwell, Wm. Orlamond, Forrest Robinson, Edith Yorke, William Haines, George Morgan, Dale Fuller, Snitz Edwards, Auld Thomas, Leo Willis, Yale Boss, Walter Perry, Sam Damen, R. H. Johnson, Jack Richardson, Rush Hughes, Aileen Pringle, Eve Southern, May Milloy, Sylvia Ashton, Fred Kelsey, L. J. O'Connor, Jed Prouty, Charlie Murphy, Margaret Bourne and the directors, Marshall Neilan, Eric von Stroheim, Fred Niblo and Charlie Chaplin. Oh yes, the King of Comedy is there with the megaphone for a brief moment. Major Hughes' story is much more serious than his picture, which, while it has its dramatic moments, is mostly pointed with satire.