Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

1958 Motion Picture News Jottings from Kansas City and Vicinity : : TF for no other reason, the attendance at the semi-annual convention of the M. P. T. O. of Kansas at Wichita, Kas., April 16 and 17, promises to be a near record breaker because of the fact that many Kansas exhibitors recently have been made defendants in music tax suits. Samuel Handy, attorney for the M. P. T. O. K, has instructed all exhibitors not to pay the tax. At the convention, which will be in (he Hotel Broadview, he will outline his reasons for instructing theatre owners to refuse to pay any tax. A steady stream of letters from exhibitors, defendants in suits, has been pouring into the office of C. E. Cook, business manager of the Kansas organization, the last three weeks. Headquarters of the Kansas league was moved from the Hodkinson branch to the F. B. O. branch, Eighteenth and Baltimore avenue, last week. When Milton Feld, managing director of the Newman theatre, Kansas City, introduced his " discovery concerts," he started something. Sundav a record crowd packs the house, the daily newspapers aided with liberal space and the concerts will continue each Sunday of this month. The names of all participants in each of the ten acts, which were selected by Mr. Feld from more than 500 preliminary tryouts, were published in the newspapers and the plan already has proved unusually profitable, as well as furnishing excellent entertainment. The acts varied in type, from grand opera to burlesque, the performers being amateurs of the city, who \\ pre more than anxious to compete. The motion picture committee of the Wom an's City Club of Kansas City has issued cards to the 2,700 members of the organization, requesting that they support the following films to be shown in Kansas City : " The Hottentot," " The Girl I Loved," " The Little Church Around the Corner," " Brawn of the North," "Robin Hood," "The Christian," "Nobody's Money," " Grumpy," " Safety Last," and " The White Flower." Randolph Elliott has joined the sales force of the Associated Exhibitors Kansas City branch and will cover the Southern Kansas territory. While Eddie O'Neill has been employed as a Pathe representative in Northern Kansas, Mr. Elliott formerly was with the Kansas City F. B. O. office. Bob Carnie, formerly with Educational, now is selling Metro product, while A. H. McLaughlin, formerly with F. B. O., also has joined the Metro salesforce. A conference of the salesforce of the First National branch at Kansas City Sunday, grew so interesting that it was continued until Monday afternoon. The plans and policies of First National in the Kansas City territory were outlined by E. C. Rhoden, branch manager. A conference of St. Louis, Kansas City and Omaha Goldwyn branch managers was called by W. E. Truog, division manager, upon his return to Kansas Citv from New York last week. Jack Weil of St. Louis and L. P. Hollander of Omaha were the out of town managers to attend the meeting. Several of the above productions already have shown in downtown theatres, but the dates of showing in suburban theatres and the names of the women members of the committee who will act as hostesses have been published in the daily newspapers, which have been giving liberal space to the plan. Motion picture scenes of the annual spring ball given by students of the Kansas City Art Institute, which were shown at the Liberty theatre, Kansas City, this week, served as a real drawing card. The film showed the prize winning costumes and others designed in the school. Applications from a score of nearby towns have been received by the management of the Pantages theatre, Kansas City, for an old fiddlers' contest this week. The stunt has been productive of valuable publicity. The contestants are limited to certain old tunes. In celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of his motion picture theatre in El Dorado, Kas., last week, W. R. Rowell drew an editorial in the El Dorado Times, an excerpt of which read : "Considering the present amazing proportions of the motion picture industry, it is hard to conceive that only fifteen years in this business establishes a man as a pioneer. For Mr. Rowell is the 'dean' of motion picture exhibitors in El Dorado." Consummating one of the largest deals of its kind negotiated by a Kansas City vaudeville and motion picture houses in several years, the Mainstreet theatre Tuesday purchased from the Metro Pictures Corporation its thirteen biggest feature releases of the year. Tli eatre and Film Row Items from Cleveland H. Hirsch NORTHERN OHIO exhibitors, meet, Mr. H. Hirsch. He has just come from Boston to join J. S. Jossey of the Progress Pictures Company, which specializes in the distribution of Arrow pictures. While new in Ohio, Hirsch is old in motion picture experience, having been associated with the old Mutual Film Corporation and, more lately, with the Lightning Photoplay Corporation of Boston, where he was known as the " serial king," having established a new high record in serial bookings throughout New England. Furthermore, Mr. Hirsch states that he was a bachelor while living in Boston, is now a bachelor and intends to devote his time so exclusively to the distribution of pictures released by the Progress Pictures Company that he will continue in that same state of single blessedness. W. C. Bachmeyer, Metro district manager, while in town last week, tried to diagnose the illness of the local motion picture business. General industry in Cleveland is good. Factories are all working full time. The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce reported to Mr. Bachmeyer that there is practically no unemployment. And •-till the theatres are way below normal. Going over all the causes and effects', examining the kind of pictures that have made some money nut here, Bachmeyer has decided that the public is just tired of spending. But he thinks it is only a temporary attack of economy. In a little while the public will begin to spend moderately, and then the movies will come in for their share of the profits, he says'. Cleveland was one of the last cities in the Union to get hit. It will be one of the last to recover, so says Bachmeyer. Manager M. Goldman of the Select Distributing Corporation sent out letters to all exhibitors in the territory announcing the glad news that Select will continue to do business at the old stand. Almost every letter brought a congratulatory reply. Some exhibitors even took the trouble to come to Cleveland to see Goldman personally and tell him how glad they were to hear of a satisfactory readjustment of Select affairs. J A. KOERPEL, Goldwyn central district • manager, held a convention in Cleveland recently of all managers in his territory. This included Manager Jack Stewart of Cincinnati; Manager W. W. Willman of Indianapolis; Manager Harry Lorch of Detroit and Manager Nat Barach of Cleveland. This meeting was an immediate outcome of the recent district managers' convention in New York, and was for the purpose of discussing distribution policies Goldwyn managers in session: Standing, left to right: Jack Steivart, Nat Barach. Seated, left to right: J. A. Koerpel, IV. IV. Willman, and Harry Lorch for the coming season. The accompanying photo shows the Goldwyn chiefs in session. H. A. Bandy, district manager for First National in the Central States, left Cleveland for a week's visit in Detroit. Word has been received in the Cleveland First National office that Madge Bellamy is soon to be in the city. Miss Bellamv was recently named official representative of the Monroe Doctrine Centennial and Motion Picture Exposition to be held in Los Angeles, July 2 to August 4. Her visit through the country is to personally invite the mayors, the state, and the national officials' to attend the exposition. The trip is being maneuvered by Thomas Ince. Milton Mooney, of the First National Cleveland sales familv. is on the sick list. It started with a bad tooth, followed by an infection that promised to be serious, but the trouble was caught early, and now Mooney is once more making plans for the future. Joe Tolland, publicity manager for the local First National outfit, who has' been a compulsory guest at Mt. Sinai Hospital, Cleveland, for the past month, was taken to his home last Monday and is now on the slow but steady road to recovery. Cleveland Motion Picture Company has moved from 600 Film Exchange building to number 210 of the same building. The Cleveland Fox exchange, beginning Anril 12th and continuing every Thursday thereafter until further notice, will give exhibitor screenings in their private screen room. The program to be screened will be sent out to every exhibitor in the territory a week in advance. The program will consist of Fox news, comedies, novelties and features. Max Schachtel, one of Cleveland's veteran exhibitors, and at one time manager of Universal's Cleveland exchange, is very ill, so it was learned the other day. Schachtel is at Mt. Sinai Hospital. A new 700-seat house has just been opened in Delphos, Ohio. Delphos boasts of about 3,000 inhabitants. But that doesn't keep it from supporting a beautiful, high-class movie theatre, which operates seven days a week and shows only the best releases.