Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1919)

62 Motion Picture News S. Goldfish Becomes S. Goldwyn Head of Goldwyn Pictures Gets Permission from Court to Adopt Name Which He Coined for His Organization C AMUEL GOLDFISH, of Goldwyn Pictures, is no longer Samuel Goldfish. Under an order of Supreme Court Justice Thomas F. Donnelly he has been authorized to adopt as his legal name for the future Samuel Goldwyn, which is the name he coined two years ago when he organized the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Behind this change of a name lies an interesting story. When in 1916 Mr. Goldfish and Edgar and Archibald Selwyn organized a new motion picture producing organization they cast about for a name that would blend their identities and wound up by contributing one syllable of each of their names to the word " Gold-wyn." Through the medium of the screen their company's output soon reached out to the ends of the earth. Within a few weeks after the formation of the company inquiries addressed to the president and chief executive officer of the company began to arrive from foreign lands and invariably they were addressed to "' Samuel Goldwyn." This error also found its parallel in the United States, and for the two years of the company's existence fully l^alf of the mail intended for Samuel Goldfish has been marked or typed " Samuel Goldwyn." The recurrence of this confusion of identities soon convinced Samuel Goldfish that in building Goldwyn Pictures Corporation he had created a friendly Frankenstein that was destined to swallow up the man who had conceived it. Under ordinary circumstances the chang ing of his name by a man in his thirties who has made his name count in an important industry is a matter not to be acted on hastily, so for the past twelve months Mr. Goldfish has watched his new identity make inroads upon his old identity. Not until a day or two before he departed for his mid-winter trip to the company's California studios did he make the decision, and news of Justice Donnelly's approval of the change was conveyed to him by telegraph from Gabriel L. Hess, general counsel for Goldwyn, in the following message : " Samuel Goldfish is dead. Long live Samuel Goldwyn ! " This is a step that is rarely taken by a man who has reached the elevation of business success such as Mr. Goldfish has attained, but here again the screen itself will be called upon to perform a news function and engulf in oblivion one of the best known personalities ever identified with the industry. Beginning with the Goldwyn Pictures releases for the New Year and thereafter screen patrons will , see the words " Samuel Goldwyn presents " whatever Goldwyn picture is being shown, and the billboards of the country on which picture are widely exploited will carry the new name, as well as any and all advertising of the Goldwyn Pictures and Goldwyn Distributing corporations. The fact that this can be done and blot out a name that for ten years has figured on a large scale in two industries and simultaneously substitute therefor a mythical name that became a fact is but another example of the potency of the motion picture and the screens on which they are shown. "Stand Up and Tamar Lane Writes from Boston Criticizing Industry's Attitude During First Influenza Scare WRITING from the Fellsway theatre, Medford, Mass., Tamar Lane shows that handling a playhouse has not dulled the point of his pen. The letter follows : Fellsway Theatre. Medford, Mass. Dec. 20th, 1918 Editor, MOTION PICTURE NEWS, Dear Ed.: With the influenza epidemic returning in many parts of the country and a new shut-down threatening the theatres, it is about time that the picture industry came to its senses and took some steps to protect its interests, instead of standing by in clammy silence while the business is being subjected to the rawest kind of unfair treatment at the hands of the various local and state authorities. During the last shut-down the exhibitors and exchanges, at least in this district, were dead from the heels up. They had no more spirit than a dried up Egyptian mummy and submitted to the closing of their businesses without a whimper. As is the case with all troubles of the picture industry, there was no organization, no getting together of interests. This time — in the event of the epidemic returning— things have got to be different or the industry will receive a blow from which it will be some time recovering. The closing of the theatres during the last scare was an outrage and a flagrant case of discrimination. The picture men were fools to stand for it. Even to the extent of defying the authorities they should have refused to close unless other businesses were closed. It is not so much a matter of being closed which is so galling; it is the being singled Fight!" He Says out among all other businesses. The theatrical business has always been the first called upon for benefits, donations, free advertising and every other kind of charity, and the first to be taxed, abused and closed by the very individuals it has helped. The theatre men have just as much regard for the health and welfare of the public as anyone else, and if the authorities believe that places in* which crowds gather are helping to spread the disease, then the theatres are perfectly willing to close, but when they close they demand that every club, store, saloon, restaurant, etc., where any large number of persons gather be also forced to close. It is the rankest kind of injustice to close the theatres and then allow these other places to remain open. It is the purest kind of nonsense to infer that theatres help spread the disease and that stores, restaurants, etc. do not. I think that if any honest health official were asked, he would be forced to admit that the large department stores and quick lunches where food is exposed on the counters are a far greater agent in spreading the disease than the theatres. If it is such a serious affair that the livelihood and investments of the fifth largest industry must be jeopardized then it is serious enough for the public to submit to a little inconvenience. If the theatres and exchanges are going to die — and that's what will happen to many of them if there is another shut-down — then let them die fighting. It doesn't cost any more. The leading theatre and exchange men in every district should get together and appoint a committee to present their case clearly and forcefully before the proper authorities. You can't expect the authorities to worry about the picture business if the picture men won't worry about it themselves. " Close one close all " should be the demand of the picture business, and I am doing my best to rally the exchangemen and exhibitors of New England so that they will get a square deal from the authorities should the epidemic again threaten their business. Very truly yours, TAMAR LANE. Wm. Fox Takes Two More Soldiers Back In pursuance with the Fox Film Corporation's policy of re-employing men who left the organization to enter war service, two more Fox men returned to their former positions last week. Sam Dembow, Jr., formerly Fox branch manager at Atlanta, Ga., who was discharged from the army last week, has resumed management of the Atlanta exchange, succeeding F. G. Marchman. Burt C Phillips, who left the Exhibitors' Service Bureau to accept a commission as lieutenant in the Signal Corps, returned this week as photographer in the bureau. Last week George Dembow, formerly branch manager at Philadelphia, resumed his old position, having been honorably discharged from the army after winning a lieutenant's commission. Irving Maas, for the last several months head of the requisition department in the Fox home office, has been transferred to Chicago as assistant manager of the Chicago exchange. He is succeeded in the requisition department in the home office by W. E. Sennett. Colorgraph Laboratory Is Ready for Business After many years of experimenting and development by Arturo Hermandez-Mejia, the art of making color films by the colorgraph process is now declared ready for the public. The Colorgraph Laboratory has been incorporated and is installed at New Rochelle, N. Y., and the price of this color work is declared to be the same as black and white films to the distributors — about 5 cents a foot. The inventors and promoters claim that natural color pictures with the color on the films without any filters on the projectors, by means of double-coated film, is here now and they declare that the process is commercially practical. Nine years of hard work and the expending of thousands of dollars is said to have been injected to procure the final results. The company gives notice that its process is thoroughly covered by patents and that all imitators will be vigorously prosecuted. Former Exhibitor Honored for Daring in France F. E. Kindley, formerly active in work of the Motion Picture Exhibitors' League of America, has written a letter to Lee Ochs of United Picture Theatres of America. Mr. Ochs says that Mr. Kindley is now Captain F. E. Kindley, commanding officer Seventeenth Aero Squadron, American Expeditionary Forces in France, and has a record of IV/2 Huns in the air. having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by the King of England and recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross with an oak leaf. He writes Mr. Ochs that American pictures have registered heavily " over there."