Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1923)

September 8 , 1923 1231 Aronson Says Independent Prospects Are Good AFTER a swing around the Middle West, Alexander S. Aronson, general sales manager of Truart, reports a healthy business with most exhibitors. The outlook for the coming season is unusually encouraging. He says: " Exhibitors generally realize that most of the independent producers are creating box office attractions that are worth first-run showings and these independent productions are receiving the first-runs they deserve. " The exhibitors further realize the independent producers are not burdened with excess overhead and can therefore deal with the exhibitor on a very equitable basis. It is my firm conviction, from contact with exhibitors and exchange men in most of the key centres in the Middle West, that independent product of merit will enjoy unusual success this coming theatrical season." Special Fox Displays for "Silent Command" Fox Film Corporation has prepared special twenty-four sheets of block design for the opening of "The Silent Command," the J. Gordon Edwards special production, both in New York and Chicago. Both metropolises will be covered with the large, impressivelylettered posters this week as the premieres are scheduled for September 2nd in New York at the Central Theatre and August 31st at the new Monroe Theatre. More than three hundred 24sheet stands in New York City alone will bear the standards and about half this number in the Michigan Lake city, it is said. Much eminence is being devoted to the indorsement of the picture by various Washington officials, including General Pershing and Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Warner Advertising Campaign On Opening Gun Fired with DoubleSpread in Eleven Leading Newspapers Film Big Scene in " His Children's Children " Sam Wood was engaged the greater part of last week at the Paramount Long Island studio in filming the largest interior scene for his new production, "His Children's Children," which Monte M. Katterjohn adapted from Arthur Train's novel. The scene shows the social debut of Sheila Kayne, youngest daughter of Rufus Kayne. New York millionaire and three hundred extra people were used for the party. It is the first scene in the picture where practically the entire cast of principals is shown at the same time, those appearing being Bebe Daniels, Dorothy Mackaill. Hail Hamilton, James Rennie, Mahlon Hamilton, George Fawcett, Sallv Crute, Warner Oland, John Davidson, Lawrence D'Orsay, Joe Burke, Dora Mills Adams and Sidney Dean. THE opening gun of the Warner Brothers' three-quarters of a' million dollar advertising campaign was fired last week in eleven of the largest newspapers in the United States. This was in the nature of a four-colored, double-spread in eleven selected publications. This advertising campaign will be carried on in the magazines and newspapers of national importance throughout the country. In launching this campaign the Warner Brothers are taking a decisive step to help solve the problems of the exhibitor. The advertisements which will be carriecT throughout the United States are not placed to call the exhibitor's attention to the Warner Brothers' product, but to arrest the attention of the public at large and inform them of endeavors toward better pictures of the Warners. In other words, the campaign sells the picture not to the exhibitor, but to his public. The combined circulation of a specially selected list of metropolitan newspapers and magazines which will carry the Warner advertising at frequent intervals amounts to over eighteen million, it is claimed. And more than one thousand newspapers in other cities ana towns will be pressed into service. Among the prominent magazines selected are The Saturday Evening Post, The Cosmopolitan and The Literary Digest. Realizing that the theatregoers of the country read the " fan " magazines extensively, the Warners have selected the following: Motion Picture Magazine, Classic, Picture Play, Screenland, Photoplay, Film Fun and Movfe Weekly. In addition to this extensive newspaper and magazine advertising campaign, billboard space has been acquired by the Warners in all of the important cities, calling attention to all of the Warner product, particularly the eighteen features. Chaplin Feature Is Highly Praised Smashes Sacred Film Conventions with " A Woman of Paris," Says Critic UNDER the headline "Chaplin Smashes Sacred Film Conventions " the motion picture reviewer for the preview section of the Los Angeles Times gives the highest ot praise to Charles Chaplin's seven reel feature photodrama, " A Woman of Paris," the great comedian's first serious contribution to the screen, which is scheduled for premier showing in New York in October, prior to release through United Artists Corporation. " A Woman of Paris " was written and directed by Mr. Chaplin and features Edna Purviance and Adolphe Menjou in the leading roles. In the course of his lengthy review the Times' critic says : " Of late there has been considerable concern among producers over the fact that instead of developing along original lines the photoplays have been becoming more and more the victim of technical conventions of production and presentation. There has been a growing sameness in the manner of handling situations ; originality has been, in most instances, lacking in the way ot putting over scenes, emotions, plot developments and characters. " Now comes something different ; now comes a photoplay which smashes the old conventions and — what is more important— gives something better in place of what is smashed. The photoplay is ' A Woman of Paris,' and the man who wrote and directed it is Charles Chaplin. " ' I have tried to get away from the old system of doing things,said Mr. Chaplin when he and 1 and a handful of people sat in the Chaplin projection room after 'A Woman of Paris ' had been run off. " ' You haven't blazed a new trail ; you have paved a new boulevard,' 1 replied. And there you have ' A Woman of Paris ' reviewed in one sentence. " People who have not made a study of the technicalities of photoplay production and plot building will probably not realize why they find this picture so refreshing. They will probably say that it moves along quickly — that there isn't a slow movement in the whole film. But those who study screen plays will find it packed with innovations. "The story? It is simple and direct and has been told many times. It is the story of a girl from a small town in France who misunderstands the man whom she is to marry. She goes to Paris and becomes the mistress of the richest and gayest bachelor of the capital. Then she meets her old sweetheart, who has become an artist. The old love revives, and there is some shooting. "Simple? Yes, but not too simple to hold one breathless with interest. And that is because of the way the story is told. And it is treatment, not material, which makes it a classic." Oldknow Buys Principal's Five for South Oscar S. Oldknow, president of the Southern States Film Company, returned to the South about two weeks ago. after his having secured a franchise for his territory from Irving M. Lesser, for Principal's five productions, " Bright Lights of Broadway," "The Spider and the Rose," " Temporary Marriage," " Gold Madness " and " East Side, West Side." Mr. Oldknow's company covers practically the entire South, including, as it does, eleven states. Exchanges are maintained in Atlanta, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Memphis and Dallas. Preferred Completes " Virginian " ff/-p\HE VIRGINIAN" has just been completed at the studio of B. P. Schulberg, producer of Preferred Pictures. Mr. Schulberg is highly enthusiastic over this production. In a wire to Al Lichtman, president of Preferred, he said: " I am confident that ' The Virginian ' is going to be one of the really big pictures of the season. Tom Forman has taken the supreme masterpiece of Western fiction and has made a picture worthy of the book. This picture has a tremendous audience appeal, and I have absolute confidence that it will be one of the biggest money-makers ever given to exhibitors." Blackton Completes Work "On Banks of Wabash" J. Stuart Blackton last week completed his super feature, " On the Banks of the Wabash," with a remarkable climax taken on Manhassett Bay, L. I. This photoplay, which was inspired by Paul Dresser's famous song classic, deals with the people of a small town along the banks of the Wabash river in Indiana. Vitagraph built in Manhassett Bay a reproduction of one of these Middle West towns. The town was built on piling in a wide cove of the bay. The episode taken at Manhassett filmed a flood which swept down the valley and leveled the village. The entire cast comprised, of James Morrison, Mary Carr, Burr Mcintosh, Lumsden Hare, Madge Evans and Marcia Harris, as well as scores of women and children engaged as extras, participated. * ESTELLE TAYLOR Was a hit in "Only a Shopgirl" 'Thorns and Orange Blossoms" She's Great in FORGIVE AND FORGET ANOTHER CB.C. BOX-OFFICE WINNER