Motion Picture News (Mar-Apr 1923)

April 2 8 , 1923 2031 Elaborate Plans for the Monroe Centennial Film Industry to Take Prominent Part; Screen Stars Touring Country for Exposition Ruth Roland PLANS for the holding of the Motion Picture Exposition and Monroe Centennial Celebration in Los Angeles from July 2nd to August 4th are rapidly takingdefinite form. From present indications it will prove the greatest celebration of its kind ever held, rivalling New York's celebration of the Hudson-Fulton Centennial in 1909. Located as it will be at the production center of the film industry in the United States, motion-picture interests are preparing to take a prominent part in the exposition's activities. The Misses Ruth Roland and Madge Bellamy, the industry's representatives of the Centennial, have been busy during tbe past week carrying the message of the coming event to governmental executives in different parts of the country. Miss Roland, accompanied by Garrett Graham of the exposition's publicity department, first went to New Orleans from Los Angeles via the Southern Pacific Railroad and made stops at all the big centers en route to extend invitations to the Los Angeles jubilee this summer. From New Orleans Miss Roland came by water route aboard the Southern Pacific's steamship Momus to New York, where she personally presented Mayor Hylan with an invitation from Mayor Cryer, of Los Angeles. Miss Bellamy, meanwhile, has been pursuing a busy itinerary in the East. The highlight of her week's activities has been an interview with President Harding and Mrs. Harding at the White House in Washington during the course of which she extended an invitation to the Centennial and received the chief executive's acceptance. At the same time the President posed for a motion picture, taken by Miss Bellamy with a gold inlaid camera which she is carrying with her on her tour in behalf of the exposition. Last week Miss Bellamy attended a series of functions in New York City, the most important of which was a luncheon on Friday, April 13th, at the Hotel Astor, where she met representatives of the daily and trade press. In a leat little speech she informed the gathering of the coming celebration in Los Angeles and expressed her pleasure at meeting the members of the Metropolitan press. During her stay in New York, Miss Bellamy appeared New York Bill Provides For Admitting Children BILLS amending the penal law of the state to the extent that unaccompanied children under sixteen years of age, in New York City, may be admitted to the motion picture theatres of that city, under certain conditions, have now been introduced in both houses of the New York State Legislature, the companion bill having been introduced in the Assembly last Monday night by Assemblyman Steinberg, of New York City. It is generally conceded that the bill stands a fair chance of passage. Meet Mrs. Raymond McKee and Ray himself. Mrs. McKee was Miss Marguerite Courtot until April 4th. Photo taken outside of the Little Church Around the Corner just after the ceremony. Both players were co-starred in Hodkinson's " Down to the Sea in Ships." at the International Travel Show and the annual dinner of the Theatre Owners' Chamber of Commerce. Leaving New York, Saturday, April 14, she went to Philadelphia, attending the fifth memorial service for the late Stanley V. Mastbaum. She then proceeded to Washington, thence to Baltimore, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. The exposition proper will occupy about twenty acres in the Exposition Park at Los Angeles. The great show to be given will be held in the Coliseum, which has just been completed there, and which has the largest auditorium in the world, seating 80,000 people. This monster stadium will be dedicated by the American Historical Revue and Motion Picture Exposition and the local budget calls for an expenditure of $300,000. The events covering this dedication will require thirty days to stage all the various episodes in connection with the historical items with which the company has been identified in the past, such as the Discovery of America, the First English Settlement, the First Continental Congress, the Founding of the Army and Navy, the Birth of the American Flag, and the Declaration of Independence. Arrangements are being made for daily peformances during the period of this month, and the Revue will be presented in tableaux, melodramatic, and pageant forms on the biggest stage ever built. There will also be a water course, replete with water falls, electric fountains, and deep pools for fancy diving exhibitions. There will be hundreds of features representing appropriate novelties, and all the remarkable achievements which the mechanical genius and the moving picture experts will devise. The celebrities of the film industry are to take part, and for this purpose a special day will be set aside in behalf of the Actors' Fund of America in which all the professional people of the West are interested, which will be especially under the direction and authority of Daniel Frohman, the President of the Fund, who has been promised the co-opera tion of all the moving picture organizations in California and the personal co-operation of the chiefs of the profession. The event has already received the personal and official endorsement of the Government of California, the Mayor of Los Angeles, the City Council of Los Angeles, its Board of Supervisors and Chamber of Commerce, and the other business organizations of the Western city. It has also been decided to award prizes to the participants in the Revue and Exposition, for their display of floats and items of parade. The opening parade is expected to be at least five miles long;. Amended Lien Bill Due For Early Passage The bill which was introduced in the New York State Legislature some time ago, seeking to amend the lien law in relation to liens on motion picture films, will probably be passed this week, at least so far as the Senate is concerned. The bill provides that persons and corporations operating motion picture laboratories shall have a lien on positive or negative prints in their possession, including the distribution and exhibition rights therein, and shall retain such film until the payment of any sum due from the owner is made. The possession of motion picture films by any person delivering the same to . a laboratory is to be presumptive evidence of the consent of the owner to the work which may have been clone. No lien granted shall be waived or impaired by the taking of any note for money so due for the work and labor performed. Pioneer Demonstrator of Kinetoscope Dead The death has occurred at Ottawa, Ontario, of Andrew Holland, a pioneer resident of the Canadian capital and for years an official of the House of Commons staff. One of the prized possessions of the late Mr. Holland was a personal letter from Thomas A. Edison complimenting him on the success of the first demonstration of the Kinetoscope in New York City almost 30 years ago, the projection machine devised by Mr. Edison having been used by the Holland Bros, during the early days of moving pictures. The deceased had also demonstrated Edison's projector in Canada and Australia. Mr. Holland introduced the use of the typewriter in several Canadian cities. North Carolina Exhibitors Meet in June THE annual convention of the M. P. T. O. of North Carolina will be held at the Oceanic Hotel, Wrightsville Beach, on June 28th, 29th and 30th, it was announced this week by Secretary Henry B. Varner. Hon. Will H. Hays will be invited to attend the convention and address the exhibitors of the state, and invitations will also be extended to the organizations of South Carolina and Virginia to send representatives.