Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

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.3eptember 30, 1916 MOTION PICTURE NEWS 2047 Spurin, Well Known English Film Man, in New York Loug Associated with RufFell's, One of the Largest and Most Successful of the British Distribution Organizations, He Lately Formed His Own Company for the Release of Twenty-six Features a Year, at the Rate of Two a Month — Pictures Will Be Selected from Best Obtainable Here and Abroad ROSCOE C. SPURIN, one of the bestknown motion picture men in England, who has been publicity manager for Ruffell's, one of the largest and most successful of the English distributing organizations, or renters, as they are called over there, arrived in New York last week, and is stopping at the Waldorf. Air. Spurin resigned from Ruffell's to organize a film renting company of his own. He has become associated with one of the wealthiest men in the British Isles, and will commence releasing pictures about the first of November. When seen by a representative of Motion Picture News, he said : " My plans are not sufficiently matured to permit me to talk in great detail at the present moment. This much I can saj-, however. My organization in England is completed, and we are ready to start work as soon as I return. For the first year I expect to re Roscoe Spurin lease about twenty-six feature pictures, or two each month. " These pictures will be the best that can be bought both in this country and abroad. I do not care how much a picture costs, but it must be of a quality commensurate with that cost. When a picture bearing my trade-mark appears in England, the fact that it does bear that trade-mark will mean that it is the best picture that can be obtained, that it is the best that is on the market. " I am now buying the English rights to American pictures. I have concluded some contracts, and others are still under consideration. I am on the market for any production if it is clean and high class and of the best quality. It must be clean, however, it must be a picture that any young girl, or young boy for that matter, can see without it bringing a blush to their cheek. It must be a picture which I, as a father, would not be ashamed to have m}^ young daughter witness. To Be Known as Roscoe's Exclusives " These pictures will be known in England as Roscoe's Exclusives, and in line Mrs. Roscoe Spurin with the foregoing statement they will be censored bj me before they go out. I will not consider any but high-class pictures that are clean and without the least suggestion of anything that is the least bit off color. " I have taken as my trade-mark a w indmill, and that mark will not only appear on every picture that I handle, but on ever},piece of advertising that is used to exploit it. Inside of a year wherever that windmill is seen, will be seen the best pictures that are on the market. " My whole idea for success in this new venture is founded on quality and on guaranteed quality. I will not only tell my customers that they are getting the best that there is, but I will guarantee hat the pictures which they book through me will be the best that can be obtained. I shall conduct my business in just the same manner as any reputable house dealing in other commodities. If my customers are not satisfied with the pictures as I represent them they are at perfect liberty to return them and get their money back. When I guarantee the best that can be obtained, I will live up to that guarantee in every way, shape and manner." During the fifteen months that he was in charge of the publicity department of Ruffell's Mr. Spurin was responsible for some of the cleverest as well as the most profitable advertising and publicity work that the motion picture business in England has ever seen. He was the inventor of the Metro Parrot, and created the brilliant series of advertisements which have made such a success for these pictures on the English market. He has five of his sons serving at the front with the British forces. His eldest boy, who was recently invalided home from GalHpoli, recently qualified as a firstclass bomb and musketry instructor, and looks forward to receiving his commission very shortly. His second son, Roscoe, who also went through the GalHpoli campaign, and is now somewhere in Greece, has already received his commission, while Robert, the youngest member of the family, has been for fifty days in the trenches taking part in the " Big Push." Before returning to England, Mr. Spurin expects to cable for his wife to come over just for the purpose of showing her the sights of New York. He anticipates giving her a week filled to repletion of typical New York hustle, and then they will both take the steamer for the other side. "YELLOW MENACE" PUT IN STRING OF KOPPIN HOUSES All of the theatres operating under the Henry S. Koppin Company, including the Grand Circus, Rosebud, Woodward, and La Salle, will show " The Yellow Menace " serial. Manager Jesse Fishman, of the Standard Film Service, Inc., at Detroit, says that bookings are coming in better than he anticipated. He is getting splendid co-operation from exhibitors, although comparatively little effort has been made as yet to sell it through the state. The Detroit Journal, a leading afternoon newspaper, is running the story in its columns. The first shownig of the serial in Detroit is at the Grand Circus theatre, recently taken over by the Koppin interests, of which Bert Williams is general manager. MUTT AND JEFF OFFICE OPENS IN NEWARK Due to the many requests of exhibitors in Northern New Jersey for Mutt and Jeff and Hans and Fritz, animated comedies, the Mutt and Jeff Film Company has opened Jersey offices in Proctor's Palace Theatre Building, Newark, in charge of R. S. Clarke. Mr. Clarke, who is wellknown among the exhibitors of that territory, predicts a bright future for Mutt and Jeff and Hans and Fritz Animated Comics. MEMBERSHIP OF CLEVELAND CLUB IS SIXTY-FIVE At the regular monthly meeting of the Cleveland Screen Club last week, the following were elected to membership : E. M. Mandlebaum, G. H. Gardner, I. Grohs, Max Schachtel, W. C. Watson, A. H. Abrams. L. C. Thompson, J. D. Mooney, J. D. Kennedy, C. A. Meade, August Illg and George Schade. This brings the membership up to sixty-five.