Motion Picture News (Jul-Oct 1914)

THE MOTION PICTURE NEWS 31 Trade Events in Western Pennsylvania Herrington Warns Exhibitors Against Trading Stamps and Coupons — Arrest Film Thief in Pittsburgh New License Laws of West Virginia Arous e Comment — Doings of the Exhibitors and Exchange Men in and Near the Smoky City special to The Motion Picture News Pittsburgh, July 29. MAYER SILVERMAN, of the Libert}' Renting Film Company, has taken the exhibitors of the Pittsburgh district to his heart and has issued an invitation for all of them to partake of his hospitality in a big banquet he intends giving at some future date. He has asked the exhibitors of this section to set the date for the banquet, and his invitations contain a card which each is asked to fill out and return to him, telling just what date morning, noon or night, is best suited for them to attend. The majority will rule regarding the date that will be set later. The Downtown Cameraphone changed hands this week, ]\Ir. Beatty selling out to ^Nlr. Aronson. The transaction is to be consummated on August 1. This sale was rumored about among the exchanges here for a number of weeks, but was always denied by ^Ir. Beatty. It is said that Mr. Beatty will make his headquarters in his new East Ohio street theatre. There will be no radical change in the policy of conducting the theatre, and aside from a few alterations which the new owner contemplates, it will hardlj be noticeable when the new manager takes charge. All of the present employees of the theatre will be retained by the new management. THE exhibitors of Asceola Mills and Phillipsburg, Pa., are howling a long, loud howl. There has been a revival in their towns and the ''gospel sharks'' walked away with most of the money in the two towns. The motion picture business in that section is, for the time being, dead, but it will come back again. It always does after one of those red hot campaigns against iniquity gets out of the public's svstem. Sam N. Lichter, manager of the Libertj' Film Renting Company, of Cleveland, O., was in Pittsburgh last v.eek and states that business in the Forest City is slow, but anticipates big business in the fall. He says that there are at least twenty-five new theatres going up in the Ohio city, and that they will all be doing business before winter. Robert Ellis, of Fulton, W. Va., was in Pittsburgh recently and announced he had bought the theatre conducted by William Thomas in that town. He says he intends using Universal features and will make a number of big improvements about the theatre before he gets it going right. George Shafer, of the Victoria burlesque theatre in Pittsburgh, has announced that he will shortly begin the erection of a new playhouse in Market street, Wheeling, W. Va., which wilt be the largest motion picture house in that part of the state. He has left for the East, where he will consult Eastern capitalists relative to his plans. He has two thirty-day options on }.iarket street property between Twelfth and Sixteenth streets. He alread} has one theatre in Wheeling. It is known as the Victoria and he states it will run nothing but features this coming season. "One Wonderful Night,'" the Francis X. Bushman prize production, and "The Eagle's !Mate" are two films that are having an exceptional run in the East Liberty Cameraphone. This house gets ten cents for each admission, instead of the regular price of five cents charged at the other theatres in the district. PRESIDENT Fred J. Herrington, of the Gloving Picture Exhibitors Association, has issued a warning against trading stamps and coupons. A firm from the East has representatives in the field here, and it is said the same scheme failed in the eastern part of the state and should not be tried here. He has warned them so as to keep them out of trouble, as he states it will be more costly in the end than they anticipated. The Feature Film and Calcium Light Company has on display a new Westinghouse contrivance called a mercury arc rectifier. It is a heavy contrivance weighing 500 pounds but can be placed anywhere in the building. It is said that the contrivance makes it possible to get direct current where alternating current is supplied in the building and the former current cannot be secured. It also makes a better light, cooler projection room, and cuts down the bill for current besides cutting out the flicker that is so bothersome and harmful tc the eyes of the patrons of motion picture theatres. It works automatically. AFIL^I thief was arrested at the office of J. F. Hatch while he was trying to sell a Warner feature, 'Tight for a Birthright." There were three films and the young man offered them to J. F. Behan, manager of the office, for $3.50. Behan turned him over to a clerk and notified the Warner office, and the young man was arrested and later fined. Several other films have been stolen in this section lately, but have never been recovered. W. C. Bachmeyer, manager of the Pittsburgh branch of the Famous Players Film Service, Inc., has left the city on a booking tour that will take him as far south as Louisville, Ky. He has reported to his office that he has met with wonderful success so far on the trip. Mr. Steele, general manager of the company, has charge of the Pittsburgh office at present. Two Mirroroid screens were sold by Manager F. G. Galbreath, of the Feature Film and Calcium Light Company. The theatres purchasing the new screens were the Family Theatre, of Altoona, Pa., and th,e Opera House of Clearfield, W. Va. The Home Theatre in South Wheeling has closed for repairs. It is said arrangements have been made for opening it August 17 and the Universal service will be used. A number of the exhibitors of Pittsburgh have arranged an auto trip from Pittsburgh to Niagara Falls. They will leave the city next Sunday, headed by Thomas Thompson, of the Columbia Theatre in Fifth avenue, VL. 2^L\RKS has purchased the • Bijou Theatre at 7707 Frankstown avenue, Pittsburgh, from J. A. Watt. The capacity of the theatre is 250, and business is reported to be good. Under the new management some repairs will be made and an increase made in the seating capacity of the house. Many feature films will be run. 'The Toll of Mammon," the new feature of the Excelsior Film Company of New York, is being pushed in this city by Arthur Rosenbach, sales manager of the Eastern firm. Rosenbach is well known and liked in Pittsburgh, and reports that he has done exceptional business during his stay here. The new license laws of West Virginia will be discussed by Wheeling Local No. 6 at a special meeting called for next week for that purpose. The new laws, it is said, do not appeal to the Moving Picture Exhibitors League of West Virginia, and they will try to have some of the laws changed in such a way as to make it easier for them to operate.