Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1916)

2658 MOTION PICTURE NEWS Vol. 14. No. 17 WOMEN PLAN NEIGHBORHOOD CENSORSHIP Now that the official censorship of moving pictures at San Francisco is a thing of the past the question of securing better shows in neigliborhood houses is being taken up by women's clubs in various parts of the city. At a meeting held a short time ago in the Sunset District, one of the most thickly populated sections of the city, it was decided that one of the most effective ways of securing programs to their liking would be to get into close touch with exhibitors and indicate to them the class of productions they would most like to see. It was proposed that they ask to be allowed to compile a program for Friday evenings, when their children would be permitted to attend, and that pending the education of producers along the line of making better pictures they allow their children to patronize moving pictures on Friday nights only. Pathe News Makes Record Showing Submarine Film On Monday, October 9, at Nine o'Clock, Scenes of Survivors Rescued from Vessels Sunk by U-53 Off Newport, R. I., Were Shown at Strand and Other Theatres THIRD CONVENTION OF FOX MANAGERS NEXT WEEK The third annual convention of the Fox Exchange managers will be held at the Hotel Biltmore, New York City, October 23 to 29, inclusive. Details of the program will be announced later. THE Pathe News on Monday, October 9, at 9 P. M. was showing to the audiences of the Strand, Keith's Palace, Broadway and Loew's theatres, New York City, scenes of the survivors rescued from the vessels sunk by the German submarine U53, ofT Newport, R. I. The survivors were landed at Newport on Monday morning by the U. S. torpedo boat destroyers which had rescued them. A Pathe News cameraman, sent to Newport on Sunday night when the story was first flashed over the wires, was awaiting them, secured his pictures and then rushed them to Jersey City by special messenger. At Jersey City they were developed, cut, printed and titled at top speed. Prints were delivered before 9 o'clock the same day to the New York theatres showing the News and special messengers were sent with them to Boston and Philadelphia. In consequence, according to the testimony of the various theatre managers who received the pictures, the Pathe News scored a clean beat. Harold Edel, managing director of the Strand theatre said : " Pathe is to be " Twenty Thousand Leagues " Is Shown in Chicago Dailies Speak of It as " the Greatest Evening of Cinema Ever Offered in the History of the Art"— A Thrill in All the Nine Hundred Feet Chicago, Oct. 14. JULES VERNE'S most picturesque hero, Captain Nemo, and his submarine that terrorized the ocean fifty years ago as told in " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," appeared for the first time on a screen at the Studebaker theatre, Chicago, last week while the German U boats were duplicating the story in reality of? the American .coast. Crowds began to arrive at Jones, Linick and Schaefer's Studebaker before sundown only to find every seat in the house sold. When the doors opened a squad of police had to be called to clear Michigan boulevard. The same was true at the first matinee on Tuesday and since then hundreds have been turned away at every perforance. The Chicago Tribune said the Universal had the Kaiser for a press agent and the Chicago American declared this submarine photo-drama to be the " greatest evening of cinema ever offered in the history of the art," adding that " anyone who missed seeing it would be in the class with the visitor to Niagara who didn't see the Falls." Chicago papers speak of " Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea " as the Universal's wonder picture. It was filmed at the bottom of the ocean by the inventions of the Williamson brothers, who have solved the secret of ocean photography. President Carle Laemmle of the Universal, with J. Ernest Williamson, saw the first performance. There is a thrill in almost every foot of the 900 scenes in this submarine play. Captain Nemo proves to be the mighty wizard of the deep that Jules Verne made him, and the wonders of ocean depths viewed through the magic window in his submarine Nautilus reveal an enchanting panorama, which, the Chicago Post says, defies the " most superlative adjectives to describe." Director Burton George and The Isle of Life" Universal Company: Eileen Sedgwick in Front; Roberta Wilson on Hii Right congratulated on its enterprise in getting out these pictures so quickly." The management of Keith's Palace, America's greatest vaudeville theatre, said: " Pathe scored again. They beat the town with these pictures." Stanley Mastbaum of Philadelphia, said : " The first pictures in Philadelphia of the submarine survivors and the World's series baseball game were shown at the Stanley and Palace theatres. Pathe News service cannot be beaten." Such speed and smoothness of co-operation between the different departments almost approaches the feats of the newspapers themselves in getting out their extras, despite the fact that unlike news, films cannot be carried over the wires. Only the day before the Pathe News had accomplished another " scoop." Pictures of the first World's Series baseball game at Boston on Saturday were delivered in Jersey City the same night, and were shown in the most prominent New York, Boston and Philadelphia theatres on Sunday. In New York, Keith's Palace, Proctor's, Loew's and the Strand were among those showing them; in Philadelphia the Stanley and the Palace; in Boston the Orpheum, St. James and Fenway. Manager Vic Morris of the Orpheum and St. James theatres, Boston, reports large houses to see Pathe's baseball pictures and says his patrons were very much surprised and pleased at the rapidity with which the game had been brought to the screen. Manager Stanton of the Fenway theatre of Boston, says : " Pathe put over a big one on the World's Series," — that the pictures were the big drawing card of his show and brought much applause. Manager Newhall of the Strand theatre in Lynn, Mass., reports that the pictures were a big success and that his patrons were much pleased. It goes without saying tliat the theatres showing these timely and interesting pictures were able to " pack them in " by means of special posters. The Pathe Exchanges in New York, Philadelphia and Boston, under the direction of Business Manager Seelye, gave immediate and efficient co-operation in order to " put the thing over " properly in each instance. J. A. Berst, vice-president and general manager of Pathe, summed it all up when he said : " News events like those of the submarine survivors and World's Series baseball games rival in drawing power in the motion picture theatres the best features, especially when they are put out as quickly as these. We are making special eftorts to see that our news pictures are delivered to the exhibitor as soon as possible after the event. " Our many successes along these lines is most gratifying to me, for I am a firm believer in the value to the exhibitor of the Pathe News. Our long experience in news films, for ours was tlie first, has enabled us tp eliminate waste motion until now feats that would have been a seven day's wonder a year or so ago are of almost weekly occurrence. We expect, however, to do even better in the future."