Motion Picture News (Dec 1920-Feb 1921)

374 Motion Picture News TERRITORIAL SALES AND PURCHASES In the Independent Field STATE RIGHT AND E XP 0 RT NEWS AND V I E IV S "Woman Untamed" Booked Heavily in Illinois Illinois exhibitors are quick to book " The Woman Untamed," featuring Doraldiiia, the dancer, according to a statement from Harry Weiss, president of the Superior Screen Service of Chicago, who controls the rights on this picture for the State of Illinois. Bookings are coming in very fast and the keen interest that exhibitors are showing towards the picture forecasts a new booking record in that territory. Byron Morgan to Continue with Famous Byron Morgan, well-known magazine writer, has signed a new contract whereby he will continue for a term of years to write original stories and scenarios for Paramount, according to an announcement from the Hollywood office of Jesse L. Lasky. Mr. Morgan is probably best known for his Saturday Evening Post stories, notably a collection of tales of motoring called " The Roaring Road." Several of these have been produced by Paramount with Wallace Reid as the star, including " The Roaring Road," " Excuse My Dust " and " What's Your Hurry?" Levey Completes Fifth of "Aladdin" Series " His Magic Lamp," the fifth episode of " The Modern Aladdin " series on electricity which the Harry Levey Service Corporation is producing, depicts the evolution of light from the sun's rays to present day incandescent lamps. All forms of lighting are to be depicted, and many difficult and heretofore unattempted photographic feats will be accomplished, it is stated. Fine Sets for Elsie Ferguson Vehicle When Elsie Ferguson began work at the Lasky studio, Hollywood, on " Sacred and Profane Love," a William D. Taylor production in which she is to star for Paramount, she found some of the most exquisite sets imaginalile awaiting her. One of these sets represents a midVictorian home and garden in England. The exterior shows a typically English garden. The interior is a big living room, quaintly and strikingly decorated. Other big sets represent the concert hall and boudoirs. New Company Enters Field Dominant Pictures Announces Two Series of Short Subjects ANNOUNCEMENT is made this week of the formation of the Dominant Pictures Corporation, a new entrant into the independent field. The announcement comes simultaneously with the resignation of Jacques Kopfstein as general sales manager of the Victor Kremer Enterprises, who has resigned to assume the general managership of the new company. Offices have been rented at 135 West 44th street, and according to Mr. Kopfstein, the new company will be well prepared to take care of the manifold requirements of the independent exchangeman and the state rights operator. The company will specialize in the production and distribution of high-grade independent offerings, which will embrace, it is said, everything from a one-reel subject to a five-reel spectacle. In this connection, a number of special productions have already been secured. A series of twenty two-reel Western subjects to be released as the " Western Star Dramas " is announced for distribution by the Dominant Pictures Corporation according to Mr. Kopfstein. The first of the series is " The Cowboy's Sweetheart " which features Art Acord and Edythe Sterling. Dominant Pictures Corporation also announce for ready release in the state rights market a series of twelve one-reel comedies featuring Rosemary Theby, which are to be known as " The Newlywed Series." "Mr.Wu," Stoll Film, Ready Production Based on Stage Play with Lang Again in Leading Role A FORTHCOMING release of the Stoll Film Corporation on its one-a-week schedule will be "Mr. Wu," a photodrama based on the speaking stage success of that title by H. M. Vernon and Harold Owen, in which Matheson Lang made so pronounced a hit. The screen version was directed by Maurice Elvey from a scenario by Frederick Blatchford. The art direction was by Barry Barnard. Critics who have had previews of " Mr. Wu " pronounce it a remarkable picture, in every way sustaining the deserved vogue of the spoken version. The Asian atmosphere which was so marked an element in the success of the latter has been very successfully caught by Mr. Elvey, it is said. The scenic effects are especially attractive, particularly that portraying Mr. Wu's garden, a riot of exotic growths. The star role is taken by Matheson Lang, the same actor whose success in the spoken role is one of the most discussed in connection with modern drama. Supporting Mr. Lang are Meggie Albanesi, Teddy Arundel, Lillah McCarthy and Roy Royston, all sterling performers of the stage and screen. G.H.Hamilton Enters Field Well Known Showman to Market Three Features to Independents GEORGE H. HAMILTON, one of the oldest showmen in the picture business, who was responsible for the selling of " The Son of Tarzan " for David P. Howells, has started in business for himself with offices at 729 Seventh a'-enue. Because of the rapid manner in which he disposed of the states rights for " The Son of Tarzan," selling the entire United States in a period of six weeks, the owners of the three pictures which he is now handling, who had been watching his smoke, induced him to handle their product. The three pictures for which he has taken over the distribution, offering them on the states rights market are " Kazan," by James Oliver Curwood, starring Jane Novak ; " The Mask," by Eugene Hornblow, starring Hedda No\'a, Jack Holt and Mickey Moore, the greatest child actor on the screen, and a rip roaring five-reel comedy called " Hey Rube." New Negatives for Kineto Charles Urban has just received one of his chief scientists, F. Percy Smith; of London, a condon, a consignment of new negatives that will go into his Movie Chats and Kineto Reviews. These pictures are said to constitute an entirely new endeavor in motion picture making. Mr. Urban is himself editing and titling the negatives. Their release will mean, Kineto states, that the motion picture will be performing the same service and function that such magazines as Popular Science, Popular Alechanics, Science and Invention, Scientific American and other such journals are performing. The pictures will be released under the general title of " Science in the Home," and they will illustrate the possibilities of experiments at home in the same way that these weekly and monthly magazines do. The advantage to the exhibitor is at once apparent. In the average, his price of admission is seldom as much as the cost of any one of these magazines and the lesson in the film is so much clearer than it is in the magazine. The materials employed in all of the " Science in the Home " Series are such as are to be found in any home. Union Film Company Busy on Coast For some time past rumors about the Union Film Company or a company similar in name have been rife around the film circles in the W^est, but the first to bear fruit is the one concerning the Union Film Company's actual producing activities and the announcement that the first two pictures are ready. Alexander Alt is president of the company, Miss Helen Howell. secretar>' and treasurer, and J. T. Whitlaw, general manager. It is said that the new concern is amply financed and able to carry out its plans, which at first call for the completion of twelve two-reel comedies starring Alexander Alt and Helen Howell. These pictures are to be completed at the rate of two every month. Distribution plans have not been made public. The studio is located out at Sherman, California, coastward from HolMvood. The executive offices, which until recently were located in the California Building in Los Angeles, have been moved temporarily to a downtown place in Sherman. This was for the purpose of keeping in closer touch with the producing forces, which was ' found necessar>when production commenced. As soon as the administration building, now under construction, is completed these offices will adjoin the studio. Much building and rebuilding is going on at the studio.