Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

2538 This department is designed to keep the industry informed of all news concerning new or projected laws. Federal, State, County or Municipal, that may affect the business, and all events involving any branch of the trade with the authorities in all sections of the cpuntry License of Boston Theatre Suspended After Showing of Any Girl Safe? " Is THE license of the Majestic theatre was recently suspended after Boston's Censorship Commission, consisting of the Police Commissioner, Stephen O'Meara, Chief Justice Winfred Bolster and Mayor James M. Curley, had witnessed the matinee exhibition of the film play, " Is Any Girl Safe." The previous day Mayor Curley had announced that no censoring of this film or any other Boston performance would be performed by the commission unless formal complaint was filed. Last week he was informed that a complaint was about to be filed by Secretary Charles T. Daly of the Catholic Federation. Boston's censorship law, enacted as a result of " The Birth of a Nation " agitation, was so worded as to prohibit elimination of parts, requiring instead either approval of the performance as a whole or suspension of the license. Lester Davis, manager of the Master Producer's Photoplay Company, owners of the film, said last night: " When I learned that Mayor Curley, through his board of censors, had ordered the film stopped I could hardly believe my ears, in view of the fact that moving pictures that were infinitely more objectionable in every respect had been shown in Boston during the last few weeks. Mr. Curley stopped the film without a hearing, following a telephone call that he see the film. The film has been passed by the National Board of Censors, which is not true of the other films which have been freely run here. The Mayor's act is an outrage." Mayor Curley was last week interviewed by a committee of exhibitors and declared that it was his opinion that the ban on children under 16 would probably be lifted after the children had been in school a short time and no bad results followed. In the meantime about half the cities in Massachusetts have placed the ban on picture houses and exchange men report that business is suffering to some extent. Manager Patten of the General reports that the new fall and winter program starts October 2. Manager Browti, of the Allston theater, has booked the Selig-Tribune news series. The Kalem two-reel series is booking strong in New England as is " Grant, the Police Reporter " to be released October 2. The Boston theatre is showing the Mary Miles Minter series. Manager Harris, of the Boston, says he wishes he could get a Minter picture once a week instead of once in every four. Charlie Chaplin made his bow in his fourth first run theatre in Lawrence last week. It is " The Movie," recently opened, and their program is exclusively Mutual. The New Elm theatre at Portland is using all Mutual Pictures, also, Minter, Holmes, Russel, Star, etc. The Owl theatre, Lowell, has come back to Mutual service after a lapse during the summer. The Bowdoin Square, Olympia, is now running pictures, after having devoted itself to Yiddish drama for two years. They are using Mutual special service. PECULIAR MIX UP OVER CANADIAN THEATRE A peculiar situation has arisen with regard to the Royal Victoria theatre in Victoria, B. C, which was brought to light when the Victoria Opera House Company, builders of the theatre, succeeded in having set aside a judgment for $2,000, obtained some time ago by the AdamsonMofTat Heating Company in default proceedings for the balance due on the contract covering the installation of the heating and ventilating plants for the theatre. It has been discovered that one of the associate architects had given a final certificate to Simon Leiser, the president of the Opera House Company, somewhat over a year ago. Counsel claimed that this certificate had not been handed over to his clients. It is now disclosed that as the owners of two of the lots on which the house stands have foreclosed, the ownership of the building is divided, the foreclosers holding tlie front of the house, and the major part of the auditorium, while the Victoria Opera House Company owns the stage and the back door. The Dominion Theatre Company, which is operating the house with Fox and Pathe pictures, under a lease entered into some months ago, continues in possession. SAN FRANCISCO PRECEDENT APPLAUDED The abolition of the Board of Censorship at San Francisco, has had a profound effect in California cities, where the censorship of moving pictures is still permitted by law, and exhibitors in several of these places are making inquiries as to the steps to be taken to rid their cities of this yoke upon the business. Congratulations are being showered upon the Film Exchange Board of Trade and the Exhibitors' League for the part these organizations took in the local fight, these coming from all parts of the country. Plans are being quietly discussed for a fight against censorship at Sacramento, where pictures are said to be censored without a screen inspection, and where exhibitors up to the present time have been unable to get their cases before the courts. The victory at San Francisco has been far reaching in its effects and is expected to do more than anything else to assist in abolishing censorship in the smaller cities of the state. ABSURD CENSOR RULINGS IN OHIO " Cut out scene where woman murders man with dagger," reads the order of the Cleevland censors. This is in spite of the fact that no scene of the movie shows a woman murdering a man. What is shown is an actress going through such a scene on the stage. The movie is a story of the stage called " Diane of the Follies." " Saint, Devil and Woman " is a play about a labor strike. The censors, as usual, refuse to permit a picture that suggests that corporation managers ever use violence in strikes, or incite violence. All scenes showing riots are ordered cut out. Also they ordered out a sub-title which reads, " If the strikers enter our properly, shoot to kill. It will teach them a lesson." The censors continue to bar pictures showing a man and a girl at a table touching shoes playfully, or otherwise. They appear to consider it immoral ; this in spite of the fact that it has been a favorite subject for such artists as Charles Dana Gibson. The latest order of this sort by the censors is in a comedy called " The Surgeon's Revenge." BATHING SUITS BARRED BY OHIO CENSORS Recent mandates received by the Selig' Company from the Ohio Board of Movie Censors, signify that the Buckeye authorities on what one should and should not see are keeping up the usual pace. It will be remembered that this Board barred " The Birth of a Nation " from Ohio to please the voters of Wilberforce. This wonderful film has been exhibited in every other state in the Union and in almost every civilized country. Then the Ohio Censors ordered a picture of \'illa cut from the Selig news weekly because " he was a bandit". And now, the august censors have ordered cut outs from the Selig news weekly of girls attired in bathing' suits. It might be stated that these maidens wore bathing suits which have been approved by the bathing suit censors of Chicago and elsewhere.