Motion Picture News (Jan-Feb 1922)

e b r u ar y 4 , 1922 849 , nil 111111111111 11 'Must Keduce Prices" [ ■ iiiiniiiiimimimmiimiimiiimiiiimiimiimmmiiiimiimimmimmiMiimmimmimimmiiiiimiiimimiimiiir RICES must be reduced if moving picture houses are to be made profit ■ • able to their owners, is the opinion : Joe Hopp, of Rosenfield, Hopp & Com[ny, who recently put his theory into factice and quadrupled the business of :e of his theatres by making a drastic cut i admission prices. Mr. Hopp made the following statement i support of his contention that prices fould come down : “ In Rock Island and immediate vicini', the big industrial plants closed about the months ago and are still closed, with 1 indication of when they will resume ceration. It is estimated that this has trown out of work about five thousand lead winners in Rock Island, nearly all c whom, or in equal number, are still unjjjiployed. Our company operates two buses in Rock Island, one on a high grade tj'sis, the other upon an ordinary basis. \ith a continuous losing business here we I'd an economic problem to meet. “ In our second house, seating about s-en hundred, we tried so-called super fin features, a combination program consiting of the feature film and musical t)loid, and other things, each requiring a admission charge ranging from twentye/ht cents to fifty cents and we continued t flop in business. ‘ We were seriously considering closing t; house, but finally decided to try one hire thing, which we had been consideri 1 for some time. We made a radical c Dp in price admission, charging adult ad child the same. We have now entered qr third week of this experiment and as a’esult we must agree with those who in lie with the keeping of the times, reduced p.ces of admission. We have thus far land that approximately four times as rnny people attend that theatre and our rreipts are more than double, and we nw find ourselves a little across the profit lie. ‘ In our opinion exhibitors during the posperous war period were going too f ;t and now exhibitors must do their part ti help bring things back to a pre-war b;is. Another, and perhaps the most imprtant angle, is consideration of the fact tlit the man unemployed cannot take his vfe or sweetheart to a show and pay s<renty cents or more for a pair of tickets, a hough he can spend twentv or thirtv c its for a pair. The head of the family cp take his wife and children at ten or fi een cents a piece to see a movie show oiasionally, where he cannot go at all at h her prices. He, too, must have his recnption, and exhibitors hoping to win popur favor should adjust their business to net the exigencies of the present industnl situation. ‘ Admission prices will have to come dwn, and with this, of course, the cost of Deration, of which the film service plays tl greater part.” Patent Case Is Decided in Favor of Prizma Adviser Word from Prizma, Inc., advises that the Patent Office interference, obtained by A. Hernandez-Mejia in 1918 with Kelley Patent No. 1,259,411, owned by Prizma, Inc., has been finally decided in favor of William V. D. Kelley, technical adviser of Prizma, Inc., by the unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, written by Mr. Chief Justice Smyth in patent appeal No. 1,429. The Kelley patent involved was issued March 12th, 1918, and A. HernandezMejia subsequently demanded and obtained an interference. The first decision of the Examiner of Interferences awarded part of the claims to Kelley and part to Hernandez-Mejia, which on appeal by Kelley to the Board of Examiners in Chief was reversed and all claims awarded to Kelley, according to Prizma. This decicision of the Board of Examiners in Chief was later affirmed by the Commissioner of Patents upon appeal by Hernandez-Mejia, and has now been affirmed by the Court of Appeals upon further appeal by Hernandez-Mejia. The subject matter in controversy, it is explained, relates to methods of making double-coated positive motion picture film in natural colors, and the product itself, and the decision now finally establishes the priority of one of the patents under which Prizma Master Pictures in Color are made. Stanley Theatre Celebrates First Anniversary The first anniversary of the Stanley theatre, erected by the Stanley Company of America at 19th and Market Streets, Philadelphia, will be celebrated the week of January 30. The opening of this $2,000,000 theatre a year ago marked a new and prosperous epoch for business on Market Street west of Fifteenth. Prior to the selection of the large lot at the Southwest corner of Nineteenth and Market Streets as the site for the new Stanley theatre, that section of Market Street was practically deserted save for a few large wholesale warehouses, little stores, automobile places and such business as required locations near the river. Today there is a remarkable change to be seen and this influx of business is increasing each week. And He Walked Out ALBANY, Jan. 28. — (Special.) — When Senator Clayton R. Lusk informed the New York State Senate last Monday night that it had been invited to an illustrated talk in the Assembly Chamber on the New York port development, Senator James J. Walker interrupted: “ Wait a minute,” said Senator Walker. “ Have the pictures been censored. It is well to know whether or not the law has been complied with.” “Yes, the pictures have been censored ” replied Senator Lusk. “ Then they will not be worth looking at.” Senator Walker remarked. Rupert Hughes Flays Censorship “ Anyone who is willing to be a censor is not fit to be one,” said Rupert Hughes, well known author and scenarioist, in an address on the “ Future of the Motion Picture ” on Thursday evening at the Bushwick High School, Brooklyn. Mr. Hughes invaded Brooklyn, the stronghold of New York censorship, as spokesman for the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. Mr. Hughes characterized the film censorship boards as “ sausage machines ” and said that it is eminently unfair that film productions, on which months of painstaking effort have been spent by authors, actors and directors, are obliged in several states to be ground through these machines before the public itself is allowed to see the result of this serious, intelligent and painstaking effort. “ The motion picture studios are really laboratories where people work as earnestly as in many other laboratories in the world,” said Mr. Hughes. “ These people are not gypsies. They are earnest, conscientious people, working hard and exercising self-denial and strict attention to their art. The comedians, or clowns of the screen, work like chemists to get the exact formula which will produce an explosion of laughter. Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and other notable clowns are in reality great dramatic artists, all working just as seriously and earnestly as any other professional workers in the world.” “ Pennsylvania has spent millions of dollars on censorship, but I defy anyone to go to Philadelphia and find any cleaner pictures there than that are shown elsewhere, or any less depravity and crime than is found elsewhere. Certainly the motion pictures cannot be blamed for crimes and evils that have been existing since the creation of the world.” Mr. Hughes’ address was one of a seines of lectures that are being given in the public schools of New York through an arrangement between the Board of Education and the National Association of the Motion Picture Industry. Other speakers in the near future will be D. W. Griffith and Paul H. Cromelin. Testimonial Luncheon for Robt. Levy of Chicago Motion picture theatre managers of Chicago gave a testimonial luncheon to Robert Levy at the Illinois Athletic Club last week. Mr. Levy has just been appointed by President Harding as United States Marshall of the Northern District of Illinois with headquarters in Chicago. It is the first time that the motion picture business has been honored to such an extent in this section of the country. Catch Front