Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

1520 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 14. No. 10 GRIFFITH IN NEW YORK FOR " INTOLERANCE " PREMIERE D. W. Griffith arrived from California, Saturday, August 26, with the final touches on his colossal production " Intolerance " which opens at the Liberty theatre on Tuesday night, September 5. Mr. Griffith will take personal charge of the preliminary arrangements for this next offering and remain here until sometime after the opening which he was compelled to defer a few days from the original date announced in order to permit the final installation of numerous improvements in the Liberty theatre before the run opens. THURLOW BERGEN AGAIN APPEARS IN A PATHE, "A WOMAN'S FIGHT" Thurlow Bergen, who has had leading parts in a number of well-known Pathe features, is again to be seen in one. In " A Woman's Fight," the five-reel Pathe Gold Rooster Play made by Herbert Blache, he plays opposite Geraldine O'Brien. Mr. Bergen will be remembered for his work in " The Stain," " The Boundary Rider," " A Prince of India," " The Fireman and the Girl," and "A Change of Heart," all Pathe five-reel features with the exception of the latter, a two-reel picture, which is to be released on September 10. Special to Motion Picture News. Detroit, Mich., Aug. 26. «</^RGANIZATION " and "Censor your own pictures " were the keynotes of the special meeting of exhibitors and exchange managers to the number of seventy-five which was held at the Hotel Griswold, Friday evening, August 18. The special guests of the evening were Hon. John B. Gilliespie, Commissioner of the Detroit Police, and Ira W. Jayne, Chairman of the Detroit Recreation Commission. The meeting started about midnight, following the serving of a Dutch Lunch in the Crystal Room. It was indeed a compliment to the motion picture industry to have present two such important city officials at that hour of the day. A. J. Gilligham, president of the Detroit Screen Club and owner of the Empire theatre, acted in the capacity of toastmaster, it being at his suggestion and call that the meeting was held. The first speaker was Commissioner Gilliespie and he spoke openly and frankly to the exhibitors and exchange men on conditions in the industry. He called attention to the fact that his department had always been most liberal and open-minded " The Chaperon," Stage Success, Is Bought by Spoor Edna Mayo Will Star in the Subject, Adapted by Sheldon from the Play by Marion Fairfax • — Eugene O'Brien Is Picked to Support Actress in the Essanay Production GEORGE K. SPOOR, president of Essanay, has just purchased the picture rights for another drama which made a big success on the stage not long ago. It is "The Chaperon," written by Marion Fairfax and adapted into scenario form by H. S. Sheldon, the playwright. The play first appeared on Broadway with Maxine Elliott and Julian L'Estrange. Edna Mayo, who has just finished "The Return of Eve," will take the leading role and Eugene O'Brien, who supported her in the latter piece, will again be her main support in the new production. Sydney Ainsworth will take the heavy lead. Arthur Berthelet, the director, will at once begin work on the piece, which is expected to be ready for release late in October. The play will be a five-act feature. A large part of the play is located in the Adirondack mountains, and it is planned to take a troupe of players to the Adirondacks to lay the scenes, in a location exactly according to the idea of the piece. The drama calls for a beautiful summer lodge, and Director Berthelet now is endeavoring to find an available place. A large portion of the play is laid in the open and a spot of great natural beauty will be selected. Outdoor sports of the mountains will be shown, trout fishing, canoeing, bathing, et cetera, not for their own sakes but because called for in the piece. That part of the play which touches New York City, will be taken in Chicago as it merely requires a large city home and does not bear on local color. The troupe will stop in New York long enough, however, to take the scenes at a steamboat dock, because of difference in style of " Censor Your Own Pictures " Is Keynote at Detroit Meeting Police Commissioner of Detroit, at Gathering of Exhibitors and Exchangemen There, Speaks Frankly on Certain Phases of Industrj' in His Town in handling complaints against motion pictures— and he said he received in the neighborhood of two hundred complaints per week. He said that he did not favor censorship and did not believe any group of men were capable of accurately censoring motion pictures ; in fact, he said he could not see the need of censorship ; the fact that occasionally a bad film was being shown did not necessarily mean that strict regulations were necessary for governing all motion pictures. The one big point the commissioner brought out and emphasized strongly was that exhibitors should censor their own pictures — that the censoring of motion pictures was really a problem for the exhibitors— and that they should be well able to handle the problem satisfactorily without the aid of censorship boards, city ordinances and police regulation. He cautioned exhibitors against showing indecent, immoral, sensational and socalled reform pictures; he also cautioned them against misleading posters, out advertising and publicity. He said that the purpose of attending the meeting was to get ideas from exhibitors, to find out what they were going to do to censor pictures and what they would do to assure the police department of their co-operation. In closing, he said : " Gentlemen, the problem of censorship is right up to you. If you are big enough men — and I believe you are, judging from the amount of money invested — you ought to be able to take care of your business so that there will be no occasion for outside assistance from the police department to suppress bad pictures. We want your co-operation because we are both interested in the welfare, in the cultivation and development of our citizens and children." The other speaker of the evening was Ira., W. Jayne, who talked practically along the same lines. The point he dwelt upon was that organization was necessary first to assure the proper co-operation with the city authorities. He urged exhibitors and exchange managers to organize — and organize strong. He pointed out how every other line of trade was organized to safeguard its industries. He said that city ordinances and talk of censorship would not be necessary if the exhibitors would take care of their own problems — and that censorship was a problem for exhibitors to solve themselves. Coming from a man like Mr. Jayne, who has always been considered an advocate of censorship, this remark was a great relief to e.xhibitors. A motion was offered that steps be taken toward the organizing of an association to comprise exhibitors and exchange managers, whereupon Chairman Gilligham appointed twelve exhibitors as a committee to meet with the Detroit exchange managers at 2 P. M., September 12, at the Hotel Griswold at which time the proposition will be thoroughly gone into. Everj'body present was in favor of a strong organization locally. A vote of thanks was tendered to Commissioner Gilliespie and Mr. JajTie. A. U. Thornburg. ocean steamers here and lake steamers there. The story deals with the problem of wealthy American girls marrying foreign noblemen. In this particular instance the girl weds a count partly because pressed by her mother and partly through pique, the American youth to whom she had secretly been engaged having insisted on reelasing her because she had inherited enormous wealth while he was comparatively poor. She finds it a bad bargain, however, and not being willing to stand for the count's attentions to other women, she leaves him and returns home. Then in the Adirondacks she accidently meets her old sweetheart. He has regretted giving up the woman he loved even on the principle that she had too much wealth for him to wed her. The courtship is renewed and the piece ends with her promise to wed him when she is freed. K-FILM COMPANY IS ORGANIZED TO BRING OUT ANIMATED KATZENJAMMER KIDS The K-Film Corporation, organized to bring out animated cartoons of the Katzcnjammer Kids, reports receiving a considerable number of inquiries for state rights and the closing of some territories. The first release is scheduled for October 1, and the K-Film Corporation believes that by that time the greater part of the state rights territory will have been signed up for the pictures. The corporation is to handle the motion picture interests of the King Features Syndicate and the Newspaper Feature Service, two of the largest newspaper feature organizations to America.