Motion Picture News (Sept-Oct 1921)

September 24, 1931 1627 N EPF S Y BRIEFS FROM CENTRAL FILM BELT Chicago and the Mid-West L. H.MASON, REP RESENT A TIVE, 910 S, MICHIGAN AVE. First National to Hold National **Get-Together" in October ASSOCIATED FIRST NATIONAL PICTURES will hold a national " Get-Together " in October. Delegates are to be selected to represent every territory in the country. The " Get-Together " will probably cover four days of meetings. Detroit has been tentatively selected as the "Get-Together" city, and October 17 to 20 as the tentative dates. A final meeting is suggested to be held in Chicago, the delegates going from Detroit to Chicago on Wednesday, October 19. While the place and date are subject to the final action of the executive committee of First National franchise holders may rest assured that the city chosen will be centrally located for the general convenience of all the delegates from the various territories, and the date wnll positively be sometime between October 15 and October 31, declares the statement from First National's headquarters in New York. This statement describes the mode of selecting the delegates as follows: " The initial step is the issuance of ' A Call for Volunteers.' This was sent out this week, and all franchise holders who are willing to have their names placed in nomination as delegates to the ' Get-Together ' have been urged to send their names and addresses to the home office. All franchise holders who are willing to serve as delegates have been requested to have their names in before September 20, in the case of territories east of the Mississippi River, and not later than September 25 in the case of all territories west of that point. As soon as the names of the nominees are all in, ballots will be prepared and mailed to every franchise holder in the United States and Canada. Each franchise holder will be asked to vote for three delegates from his territory. A Ballot Committee of three franchise holders will be selected in every exchange center, and to this committee all ballots from the territory will be mailed. The polls will be closed and a count of the votes taken on October 1st in all axchanges, east of the Mississippi River, on October 5th in all exchanges west. As soon as the Ballot Committee has completed the count, in each exchange, a tabulated list will be prepared by the exchange manager, showing the name, address and theatre of each volunteer nominee and the exact number of votes cast for each one by the franchise holders of the territory. A copy of this report will then be sent to every franchise holder in the territory. In the case of a tie between any two delegates, the ballot committee will be authorized to cast the deciding vote." Steve Bennis, of the Lincoln tlieitre, Lincoln, Illinois, reports that ic finally has won the fight for ■Sunday movies, which he has per-tcntly waged since 1908, having II defeated at three general elecns on the proposition to allow tion picture theatres to operate Sunday, during that time. Mr. nnis, however, continued to work th the city council and now has ceeded in having an ordinance -<ed allowing motion picture theI cs to open their doors on Sunhiy. Mr. Bennis is determined to how his fellow townsmen that nmday shows can have a moral as cll as amusement value, and is '■oking his pictures for Sunday howing with great care. The first o be exhibited will be " The Great Redeemer," followed by " The Old Nest," " Mother O' Mine," and )thers of similar high class. i Manager Lesserman, of Uni( rsal, reports that Lubiner & nz have booked "The Rage of aris," the first Universal feature tarring Miss Dupont, for pre-recase showing at the Pantheon and ienate. This special feature was igned for by Lubliner & Trinz repesentatives for a full week at each louse after a careful review of the ■icture. Edward P. Steinberg, well known o the motion picture industry of -hicago, is engaged to marry Miss Vnna Lubliner, daughter of Airs, ioodman Lubliner of 4338 Clarenon avenue. A trio of well known salesmen ave been added to Robertson'ole's Chicago staff within the last ew days. They include H. A. Vashburn, who will make the key ities of the territory; O. Wooden, ormerly of Select, who will cover he south side territory, and Paul )eoto, who will cover the west side f Chicago. Manager Clyde Eckhart is back t his desk after spending several ays in Xew York conferring with 'ox officials there. He is very luch pleased over the way the first f the Fox super specials are getng over and says the outlook for cod business is excellent. George De Kruif, of Exhibitors upply Company, has returned rom a trip to Minneapolis where e inspected the branch located lere. The supply business in that ;rritory is showing a decided imrovcmcnt, according to Mr. Dc I Iruif, who states that the steady i icrease in mail business at the hicago headquarters is also a very ticouraging feature of the busicss situation at present. W. D. Burford is back on the job fter a vacation spent at Petoskey, Michigan. Mr. Burford, as usual, divides his time between Aurora and Chicago and is kept very busylooking after the interests of the powerful chain of theatres in which he is interested, as well as filling his duties as secretary of the Illinois Exhibitors Alliance. District Manager Givens headed a delegation of department heads and the Paramount sales force which motored to Fox Lake, Saturday, for a day's outing in celebration of Paramount w'eek and the record business done during that period. Outside of the splendid luncheon and dinner, a feature of the outing w'as a baseball game V)etween the married men and the single men, in which the Benedicks went down to defeat to the tune of eight to four. The batteries were Givens and Busch for the married men and Bernstein and Gore were their opponents. Manager Givens proved himself a regular pitcher, holding the bachelors without a hit up to the seventh when the married men's team went up in the air and allowed five runs. High lights of the game were Harry Manning's slide from first to second ; Milt Hirch's mufT of a fly in a field of cockleburs ; Goldberg's daring attempt to block Agnew off first and Rockabrand's " Adam " style costume. The success of the day was largely due to the efforts of salesman Jack Wolfberg, who had the entertainment in charge. Abe Stern stopped off in Chicago last week en route to the Coast and reports he has some big production plans in the future for Universal. The motion picture business is showing a steady improvement, according to Mr. Stern. Paramount's Milwaukee exchange has opened its doors and Branch Manager Al Bernstein is proud of the splendid new offices and sales rooms, which have just been completed. The exchange is located at 7th and Sycamore and is all on one floor. Paramount being the only occupant of the building. The Chicago office of Paramount has moved the sales, booking and exploitation departments from the third to the fifth floor of the building at 845 S. Wabash avenue. Carl Lesserman, Universal salesman, and son of Manager Lesserman, who has been covering the Chicago territory for some time, has started on a selling trip throughout northern Illinois and may be continued in the country territory. More than fifty Chicago exhibitors attended the mass meeting held at Schaffer's Projection Rooms, 24 E. Eighth street, last week and heard two brilliant speeches on the advantages of organization. Michael L. Igoe, former member of the legislature and closely connected with politics, was one of the orators and Sydney Lyon, a sitting member of the legislature, also spoke and pointed out the advantages of getting together and organizing in a brilliant way. This meeting was the first gun ia the campaign of education which is being waged by the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Chicago to awaken exhibitors of the territory to the necessity of lining up with an organization. The exhibitors who attended the meeting were told of the legislative and other perils confronting the industry in Illinois and urged to take an active part in combating the evils with which the industry in this state is menaced. Fred J. Ireland, who for several months following his retirement from Reelcraft, made his headquarters in Los Angeles and Hollywpod, has returned to Chicago, and it is understood will become interested in a theatrical producing company. K. E. Belford, salesmanager of" Kipling Enterprises, has returned' to the Windy City after two weeks spent in New York and Boston, during which he closed territories on some of the Kipling product. Mr. Belford states that while there is some improvement in Eastern motion picture business, the better tone in the central west is more marked than it is on the Atlantic Coast. A meeting of all Chicago exhibitors except members of the bigcircuits has been called for September 8th at Schaffer's Projection room, 24 E. Eighth Street. Well known speakers of ability are scheduled to address the gathering and problems of great interest to. local exhibitors will be taken up.