Motion Picture News (Sep-Oct 1922)

September 2 , 1922 1191 men and Eprjij\rrj[ i_n_ the film centres With “News” Correspondents / T EM S OF THE EXCHANGES A N D~ T HE A T R EE OKLAHOMA CITY • — — — — — — — — — Lilly & Wheeler of Commerce, Texas, have bought both houses of Barnes and I Hunter at Sulphur Springs. Texas. The l! Buford, one of the houses, will be closed temporarily, but is expected to reopen i some time next month. The Amus-U theatre at Cordell, Okla., ■is made quite a hit when it gave the people l! of that place complete election returns , by radio in conjunction with the regular i night performance. The theatre charged 5 only the usual admission prices and after I the show everyone was admitted free to H get the returns. Jack Schaefer, chief in Hodkinson’s J Dallas, Texas, office, has returned after a I; trip to the home office in New York City. I R. I. Payne, assistant manager of the Dallas, Texas, branch of the Consolidated j Film and Supply Co., is vacationing in Galveston, Texas. H. J. Bailey, branch manager for Vitai; graph at Dallas, Texas, has resigned and I. gone to New York to live. He was sucj ceeded by J. E. Huey of Dallas, as branch ij manager. Jack Corbett, for a long time with i Southern Enterprises at Dallas, Texas, ; has been transferred to Atlanta, Ga. He j is succeeded as branch manager at Dallas '• by Rockey Newton who was formerly r assistant to Mr. Corbett. W. F. Lange has purchased the Queen theatre at Nordheirn, Texas, from H. F. i Heldt. The Oasis theatre was opened at Abilene, Texas, August 10. E. G. Langley, R. E. Brookshire and E. A. Holmes are the owners. WASHINGTON, D. C. Saturday, August 19, the Pathe people 1 gave a screening in their Washington ' projection room of No. 67 Pathe Weekly, showing the Tank Corps at Camp Meade, a picture taken by one of Tommy Baltzell’s camera men. In the same reel, we saw the scenes of Tommy Baltzell’s departure on the international air flyer from \ New York for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Capitol theatre at Charleston, W. Va., is to be the scene of the annual memorial services for the dead of the 80th (Blue Ridge) division, to be held at the third annual reunion at Charleston of the Division’s Veteran Association. The mothers of the Phenix City, Georgia, Parent-Teachers’ Association gave performances of D. W. Griffith’s “ Way Down East,” the lion’s share of the receipts being turned over to them by the Phenix, the town picture house. Starting last Friday, the film was to be shown afternoon and evening and the last performance on Saturday night, August 19. Proceeds will go towards the school sanitation scheme. Commencing Sunday, September 3, the Strand, under the management of Mr. Sparrow, has announced the better 1922| 23 Loew Vaudeville-Strand theatre feature pictures. Mid-summer renovation, new hangings, and change in entrance 1 and exit lobbies, are to greet the early fall patronage. One change will make the main entrance face the intersection of 9th and D streets, thus bringing the present entrance into harmony with the exit foyer on D street. A new steel and glass marquee is to feature this new limestone office building front. Over the ' lobby will be a new electric sign facing ■ down to the avenue. All these changes have been made gradually. The Columbia theatre started its morning showings to orphans last week when some fifty youngsters were guests of Manager Beattus of Loew’s and the Washington Times. The Washington Bus line motored the little ones down, and Mr. Brownley, a local candy man, presented candy, through Miss Hiser, who sings the solo, Forget-Me-Not, composed by Director Ernst Lutz especially for the Metro film of that name, now showing at the Palace. CLEVELAND The Stillman theatre opened last week with big feature productions for long runs. Prices have come down. They are 65 cents for evenings, Sundays and holidays, and 40 cents for matinees as against last year’s prices of 75 cents and 50 cents. Reade’s Hippodrome opens this week, thus adding another home of feature photoplays. The Hippodrome formerly showed Keith vaudeville. Walter Reade of New York leased the house when the Keith lease expired. In addition to eight numbers of vaudeville, the Hippodrome, under the new management will show big features and a complete picture show. The opening production is “ Orphans of the Storm,” the first release of this feature at popular prices. CANADA The LaPlaza theatre, Toronto, Ontario, has long been looked upon as a neighborhood institution because of special features which have been presented in conjunction with pictures. The theatre has carried out this idea still further by offering radio concerts at evening performances. Community singing is also being conducted. R. L. Gregory has sold his theatre, the “ Wonderland,” at Acton, Ontario, to Mr. Silverthorn and has arranged to build a new moving picture theatre at Brampton, Ontario. The Opera House at Bathurst, N. B., which was burned last spring, is being rebuilt and will be opened in September. The original theatre was built only two years ago for the presentation of pictures. The Bijou theatre, St. Stephen, N. B., which was destroyed by fire last spring, has been rebuilt and will reopen shortly. While building operations were under way, the local curling rink was utilized as a moving picture theatre. This rink was the first picture house in St. Stephen, by the way, having been used for this purpose 12 years ago. The Gem theatre, Fredericton, N. S., is nearing completion and is to be opened as a moving picture house by F. G. Spencer of St. John, N. B., who controls theatres in St. John, Fredericton, Woodstock, Windsor, Amherst and other centers of the Maritime Provinces. Herman Kobold, the new owner of the Dominion theatre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, has 'installed himself as the manager of the house with Walter Dolman, a wellknown Winnipeg organist, as musical director. Improvements costing $10,000 were recently made in the Dominion, which is one of the oldest houses in Winnipeg. INDIANAPOLIS Great dramas in the Bible some day will be put in motion pictures and widespread good result, declared William Jennings Bryan in a talk in Cadle Tabernacle on Sunday, August 13. Date for reopening of Loew’s State has not been announced. Emil Seidel, direc tor of Loew’s State orchestra before the house was closed early in July, was instructed to hire musicians a week ago but since received cancellation of the order from New Y'ork. He will become director of the orchestra at the Park, where Shubert vaudeville starts Labor Day. BALTIMORE The Parkside theatre, which has been closed for several months, reopened last week with a policy of three or four pictures a week. The Parkside is a neighborhood playhouse of some 250 capacity. The Southern Moving Picture Corporation has been incorporated at College Park, Md., to deal in motion picture cameras and supplies. Stock totaling $100,000, with a par value of $100 a share, is authorized. Warren E. Claflin, Frederick O. Petrie and Eloise P. Claflin are the incorporators. Arrangements have been made for a receiver’s sale of the entire stock of supplies of Palmore and Homand, Inc., of this city, recently declared bankrupt by the Circuit Court. The property consists of equipment of a film exchange of some proportions, and includes a number of features and short subjects released on a State Rights basis. William E. Stumpf, secretary of the Exhibitors’ League of Maryland and house manager of the Garden theatre, is at Hebrew Hospital recuperating from £n operation. He will return to work in a fortnight. ATLANTA The Better Films Committee Of Atlanta met last Thursday at their regular monthly meeting in the private dining room of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Mrs. B. M. Boykin, president of the committee, outlined plans already formulated for the Better Films Week to be held in Atlanta beginning September 18. S. Y. Freeman, vice-president of Southern Enterprises, Inc., is in New York on a business trip. An attempt was made last Tuesday night to rob thesafe of the Southern Enterprises, Inc., located in the Howard Theatre Building, Atlanta. The intruder had succeeded in clipping one bolt from the safe and had removed the hinges when the approach of the night watchman frightened him away. There was $1,000 in the safe at the time. An employee is suspected of the attempted robbery. ST. LOUIS “ Monte Cristo ” will be the opening attraction of the William Fox Liberty theatre for the 1922-23 season. It starts on September 2. Harry Greenman, manager of the Liberty, returned from New York Thursday, August 17, to arrange for the opening. The audience at a recent showing of “ The Scoffer ” in the Piasa Chautauqua Moving Picture theatre by a 9 to 1 vote decided in favor of continuing the film when some of those present protested to Edwin Johnson, manager of the theatre, that certain sub-titles in the film made too lightly of religion. Johnson decided that everyone present should determine whether the picture should be taken off. About 90 per cent of those present voted to continue the show. Joe Mogler, president of the St. Louis Motion Picture Exhibitors’ _ League, has been re-elected to membership on the Re publican Missouri State Committee. He has held the honor two terms. The Monmouth, 111., Ministerial Alliance is threatening that city with a Blue Law drive. At a recent meeting the organization adopted resolutions condemning Sunday baseball and similar amusements. The sky pilots charged that all such Sabbath practices of the individual are painful to the Christian conscience of the community and prevent the highest moral development. Fannie LIurst, well known moving picture -scenario writer, was the guest of St. Louis relatives recently. She plans a trip to Russia to study social conditions as material for several contemplated magazine articles and moving picture scenarios. The continuation of the coal strike in Illinois has the managers of St. Louis motion picture houses alarmed regarding their winter’s supply of fuel. Usually they stocked up in August, but there is hardly a house in town with more than a shovelful of coal in the supply bins. The New Grand Central. West End Lyric, Lyric Skydome and Capitol theatres controlled by Skouras Brothers and the Missouri theatre, the Famous Players Missouri Corporation first run house, paid their respects to' the St. Louis Browns the week of August 19 by showing special moving pictures of the St. Louis American League club in action. Skouras Brothers supplemented their film with pictures of Brown stars of former years, including members of the famed Four Time Pennant Winners of 1885-86-87-88. The Browns are threatening to win a pennant for St. Louis. The Opera House, O’Fallon, 111., has been purchased by Sam Taylor from H. P. Schwarz. The price paid was not made known. Taylor takes charge September 1. The house seats 400. NEW ORLEANS The New Orleans Association of Commerce wants the industry to tidy up their internationalism, and change their attitude of showing up in their productions every foreigner as “a boob,” according to a series of resolutions recently adopted by the association’s foreign trade bureau. The commerce association members exhibited great anxiety over what they described as the “ impossibility of a motion picture presenting a Mexican in any other light than that he is a villain.” The difficulties between the New Orleans Fire Board and the motion picture theatres of that city concerning complaints by the board that the houses are not adequately protected against fire hazards has culminated in a proposition by the board to the effect that each theatre maintain, at its own expense, of course, a uniformed city fireman, at its doors during the entire business hours. To this proposition and the considerable additional expense it entails the picture interests, through the Amusement Division of the New Orleans Association of Commerce, have promptly, emphatically and unequivocally sounded the voice of opposition. “ The theatres of New Orleans are adequately equipped with exits,” declared J. Eugene Pearce, chairman of the amusement division. “ A fatality from panic would be virtually impossible and in case of fire any theatre could be emptied before the blaze would gain headway. License fees for theatres here are so high in comparison with other communities that it would be unfair to impose this additional expense on theatres, when such a burden is not placed on factories, department stores, dance halls and any other place where large crowds of people habitually congregate.” No definite action has as yet been taken by the citv authorities with respect to the opposition voiced by the exhibitors.