Motion Picture News (Nov-Dec 1917)

4566 Motion Picture News Sterling Pictures Beck Heads Arthur Beck, Prominent Figure in Industry, President and General Manager — Ebenstein, Sales Manager STERLING PICTURES CORPORATION, a newly formed organization, announces that Arthur Beck, has been elected president and general manager and will assume full control of the new firm. Mr. Beck will confine his activities to the duties which his position as head of this organization create. The plans of the organization and the reason for its organization are set forth in the following statement made by Mr. Beck: " The Sterling Pictures Corporation was organized by men who are prominently connected with the theatrical and motion picture industry. Two are affiliated with the Shubert Enterprises and Klaw and Erlanger and one with a big motion picture manufacturing concern. We are organized and financed to purchase and handle independent feature productions for all or any portion of the U. S. and Canada. We will purchase full negative rights or the rights to one territory depending upon the nature and quality of the production. " We will maintain a selling organization out in the field at all times — within the next ten days two of our men will leave for an extended trip to see the independent exchangeman to obtain the cor Keeney Forms Frank A. Keeney, Theatre Owner, Organizes the Frank A. Keeney Pictures Corporation — Catherine Calvert Engaged as Star FRANK A. KEENEY, theatre owner in Brooklyn and Newark, N. J., announces the organization of the Frank A. Keeney Pictures Corporation. Mr. Keeney is president of the corporation and Ray C. Owens, general manager of the Keeney Theatrical Enterprises, is secretary and treasurer. Offices have been opened in the Putnam Building, Broadway and Fortythird street. Catherine Calvert has been engaged as a star, under a long-term contract, to appear in a series of original feature photoplays and in screen versions of popular rect viewpoint. My own experience of eleven years in the exchange business enables me to feel and see'the present crisis in independent exchange operations and the plan we have worked out in my judgment cuts the Gordian knot of operations between the producer and the exhibitor." Mr. Beck is well known throughout the entire industry as a conservative and capable film executive. From coast to coast he is well known and liked by exhibitor, exchangeman and motion picture employees who have worked under his direction. The announcement is made, also, that H. R. Ebenstein has been appointed sales manager of the organization. Mr. Ebenstein has been associated with several leading organizations and will be remembered as a pioneer in the establishment of a periodic release on the states right basis. His experience as an exhibitor, exchange manager and general manager of a states-right distributing organization has given him an accurate knowledge of this factor of the business, and his resignation from the U. S. Amusement Corporation, a long established producing organization operating the Solax Studios at Fort Lee, N. J., terminates the experience w-hich has added to this knowledge, a perfect understanding of the production value of motion pictures. He said : " I believe Sterling Pictures Corporation will assist materially in alleviating existing conditions, and will do so in a manner heretofore neglected. It will institute new methods of financing state-right distribution." Producing Co. novels and dramatic successes. Other stars are to be engaged in the near future. A studio with all modern equipment is to be erected within five minutes' walk of the executive headquarters. It is to be equipped with special facilities for work on a big scale. Mr. Keeney will retain all of his present theatrical holdings and is planning the erection of theatres in different cities throughout the country, at which his productions will be shown. Miss Calvert has had an extended experience on the dramatic stage. She has been in pictures only since last March. She made her debut as a star at the age of seventeen in " Brown of Harvard." She also starred in some of the most successful plays by her husband, the late Paul Armstrong, including " The Deep Purple " and " A Romance of the Underworld." Dooley Speaks Highly of " Fringe of Society " Charles H. Dooley, president of the Motion Pictures Association of Paterson, New Jersey, in making the announcement that he has booked the George Backer Film Corporation's feature, " The Fringe of Society," for the Regent and Garden theatres, of which he is managing director, said in commenting upon price of production and its relation to .the profits it earns the exhibitor of the United States says : " No star is big enough to earn a profit for the exhibitor if the picture is too costly. My opinion is that entirely too much attention is being paid to the star, and entirely too little attention to the story. " The present salvation of the exhibitors of the country is in booking pictures at prices that will give us a fair return on our investment. I believe that there are thousands of exhibitors in the country in the same position. 'The Fringe of Society,' produced by the George Backer Film Corporation and distributed by Foursquare Pictures is against exorbitantly paid stars and the needlessly highpriced picture. I booked it because I feel that it will give me a fair return on my investment." Wolfberg Advises Exhibitors to Advertise Harris P. Wolfberg, head of the Harris P. Wolfberg Attractions, who has finished a tour this week of the principal cities of the Middle West after a careful study of trade conditions, said : " If you fall down on your advertising when business is not coming as fast as you like it, you overlook the most logical step for stimulating it. " In the field of merchandising you will find that the shrewd advertisers keep up the advertising appropriation throughout the year because they know the effect it has on future business. They consider it as so much good will that turns into dollars. In the moving picture field the advertiser does not have to wait on the future for his advertising to pay. Intelligently applied, it can be made to produce immediate returns. " The exhibitor who decides to lower the quality of his show during a time when there is a bit of slowing up makes the grave mistake of driving trade away at a time when he needs it most. " Its the house that holds up the stan dard of its shows that is going after success in accordance with business-building principles. The same thing holds true with the motion picture exhibitor. He can not afford to be shifting his standard at any time. Once he adopts a policy he ought to stick to it, through thick and thin.