Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1923)

September 8 , 1923 1225 entral Penn. THE policy of having one man attend to all the publicity and advertising work of the half dozen Wilmer & Vincent theatres in Harrisburg, has been adopted and on August 22 the announcement was made that Walter J. Hurley, a Bpston man, had been chosen for the place, to assume his duties at once. A statement to this effect was given out by C. Floyd Hopkins, who heads the Wilmer & Vincent organization for Harrisburg. Mr. Hurley is a former newspaper man, having had experience in both the advertising and editorial departments of a number of newspapers. Immediately prior to his going to Harrisburg he had been publicity man for one of the Wilmer & Vincent picture houses in Reading. In Harrisburg he has charge of publicity for the Colonial, Victoria, Grand and several neighborhood picture houses, as well as the Orpheum, legitimate, and the Majestic, vaudeville and motion pictures. H. C. McCort, former publicity man for the Majestic, Harrisburg, recently resigned to accept a similar position in one of the picture theatres controlled by Athenas George in Altoona. The American theatre, a picture house in Pottsville, it is just announced, has been leased for a twenty-year period by W. B. Shugars, of that city. The annual rental is said to be $18,000. New projection machinery will be installed and there will be other improvements. Negotiations are reported to be pending whereby the Order of Moose, in Mahanoy City, will acquire the Family theatre there at a price said to be $95,000. The property will be bought from the Knoblauch family and it is expected the transfer of title will be effected at an early date. The Chamberlain Amusement Company, controlling a chain of motion picture theatres throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania, has declared a dividend payable to all stockholders as of July 1. William L. Heiss, at one time chief organist for Southern Enterprises, controlling a big chain of picture theatres in Southern cities, is reported to have signed a contract as organist for the theatre operated in Shamokin by the Chamberlain Amusement Company, in which a new $30,000 Moller organ has just been installed. Mr. Heiss started his professional career as an organist when 8 years old. When seventeen years old he was graduated from the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, and has since played the organ in many theatres and churches in various parts of the country. Following an expenditure of $40,000 for improvements the Shenandoah theatre of Al. Gottesman was reopened on August 16. What has been described as one of the finest display advertising signs in the city of Allentown has just been installed for the Strand Theatre, of Which Dr. Benjamin Stuckert is manager. The proportions of the sign are ten by three feet. It has frosted enamel letters that are visible for several blocks in either direction. E. F. Meadway has been appointed publicity man for the Kurtz and Lorenz theatres, Bethlehem. He formerly held a similar post with the Opera House, in the same city. Each week increasing success is reported for the amateur nights that have been introduced as a feature of the performances in the Opera House, at Mauch Chunk, of which Mr. Dolan is manager. A gold fountain pen was presented by the Chamberlain Amusement Compan^ employees in Shamokin to James Lawson, special policeman at the Victoria Theatre, in that city. The occasion was this retirement from that position to accept a position in Philadelphia. He had resided in Shamokin for 37 years. Marshal Neyhart, of East Stroudsburg, driver of a truck of the Horlacher Film Service, which distributes films among theatres in Allentown, Bethlehem and vicinity, had a narrow escape when the truck caught fire recently on a road near Doylestown. By quick work he managed to extinguish the flames and save from destruction films valued at $1,000. A short circuit caused the blaze. Hereafter Norman Hoffman, night watchman at the Rialto theatre, Allentown, will carry a revolver. At 2 a. m. one day recently he heard a night prowler moving about the theatre. Hoffman was unarmed and went to a nearby hotel to obtain assistance in searching for the intruder. He and his aids returned to the theatre in time to see the stranger make a hurried get-away through one of the side doors. ansas City THE Pantages theatre, Kansas City, a combination vaudeville and motion picture house which closed June 29 for installing of a cooling system, will reopen September 1. Other changes in the theatre include repainting and redecorating. The new cooling plant, installed at a cost of $100,000, forces the cool air from above and below, thereby keeping the entire house at the same temperature. The plant was installed by the Tiltz Engineering Company of Los Angeles. Official tests were made by the installing engineers this week. James H. Rice will remain as manager of the theatre. An alternative writ of mandamus in favor of the Kaysee Amusement Company, which operates the Regent theatre, a down town motion picture house of Kansas City, was issued this week by Judge O. A. Lucas of the circuit court against Matt S. Shinnick, city superintendent of buildings, and James Taylor, city license collector. The writ commands that Shinnick issue a certificate to the theatre showing that it has complied with all regulations, and that Taylor issue a license to operate the theatre, or that both appear in court and show why they have not done so. This action ends an alleged political frameup by competitors to "get" the Regent following a cut in admission prices, the house being located on Twelfth Street in the heart of Kansas City's movie row. Chief C. A. Vassar of the Kansas City police department represented Mayor Frank Cromwell in welcoming Lon Chaney when he arrived in Kansas Ci'y this week, Mr. Chaney being on his way to New York to appear with the premier showing of " The Hunchback of Notre Dame." He was a guest of honor at the Union station. Not for several months has a program in addition to the picture at Frank L. Newman's Newman theatre at Kansas City proved more attractive than the one this week, which is given over almost entirely to children, furnish ing more than two hours of real entertainment. The " Juvenile Jazz Revue," with a cast of forty children, ranging from 4 to 16 years old, was offered as a prologue to " Penrod and Sam." There were two jazz orchestras, one of boys and one of girls, as well as numerous song and dance numbers. The condition of Cyrus Jacobs, manager of the Globe theatre, Kansa City, who is in the hospital suffering of heart disease, is much improved, according to attending physicians. The following changes in management and improvements of theatres in the Kansas City territory have been announced during the last week : New stage equipment for road shows installed in the Columbia theatre, Junction City, Kas. ; Electric theatre, St. Joseph, Mo., to be managed by F. O. Williams, former manager of the Globe theatre; Wakeeney theatre, Wakeeney, Kas., taken over by American Legion Post of that city. An exploitation combination of E. S. Van Hinning, manager of the Kelley theatre, Iola, Kas., and Homer Gill of Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan, proved to be productive of good crowds at the Kelley theatre last week. The night was dark. So to the top of the theatre went Van Hinning and Gill, installed a powerful search light that shot straight up in the air, being visible for miles around, and Ike flies the patrons swarmed about the house, a good portion of them buying tickets. " Alabama " Walker, in charge of accessories at the Fox Kansas City branch office, resigned last week to accept a position as exploitation man with the Hippodrome theatre, Leavenworth, Kas. From operator to manager — that was the jump made last week by Roy Sweetland of the Memorial Auditorium, Hiawatha, Kas., his new duties starting September 1. It was a joyous three-day visit that Howard " Jamey " Jameyson, formerly of the Liberty and Doric theatres, Kansas City, and now advertising manager of the Miller Theatre Company, Wichita, Kas., spent among old friends in Kansas City last week. Up and down " Film Row " walked " Jamey," greeting former comrades like a prodigal son. Enthusiasm with W. E. Truog of Kansas City, Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan district manager, is not " commercial," upon returning from New York last week, where he saw the first block of Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan productions, he had an oil stock salesman "backed off the boards" in praising the product. THE Liberty theatre, owned by Samuel and David Harding, one of Kansas City's downtown first run houses, closed Monday for repair and decorating and will reopen August 31. The work will be rushed by day and night shifts. Edward Grossman, district manager of the Kansas City and Omaha branches of Preferred Pictures Corporation, who last week received a promotion to a post in the home office, will leave to assume his new duties in about two weeks. Hoyt G. Morrow, well known to exhibitors in the Kansas City territory, will succeed Mr. Grossman. The new releases of the Kansas City and St. Louis Enterprise offices, as announced by Truly B. Wildman, manager of the Kansas City office, include seven special and state right productions, six Franklyn Farnum westerns, thirty new Mack Sennett comedies and a one-reel Educational, "The Romance of a Lemon." C. A. Whitney, manager of the Star theatre, Ottawa, Kas., used a very effective but simple method for starting the serial, "The Haunted Valley," each child who presented a clipping of the theatre's ad in the Ottawa Herald being admitted free. Hence a run on the Herald office for extra conies of the paper and a flood of profitable publicity.