Motion Picture News (Oct 1913 - Jan 1914)

E. MANDELBAUM Concerning the President of the World Special ^JpHE fluctuation in the motion picture business his policy deserves the commendation of this paper. has brought to the fore a man who has the Mr. Mandelbaum is conservative in his methods and capacity of playing a distinguished part in it — the outlook. He is one of those men whose business judg man who is the subject of this portrait. Mr. Mandel ment in all affairs is animated by caution, by prudence, baum was for many years prominent in the exchange branch of the business. He now is president of the World Special Films Corporation. He bids fair to be prominent in the picture publishing and producing end. Mr. Mandelbaum1 is one of those men — quiet and self-centered — ■ who shows his mind by his actions. He has associated with him the popular and suave Jules Bernstein, an acknowledged master of exchange and distributing work. Then he has enlisted the aid of Stan Twist, a clever and cultured young recruit to the great New York film world. If a man is known by the company he keeps, then Mr. Mandelbaum demonstrates that he is entitled to a place of great esteem and respect in the motion picture business of the nation. Mr. Mandelbaum is in his intellectual prime. He is eminently one of those who realize what it is the fashion to call the "possibilities" of the picture. He has shrewd business principles allied with very fine ideals as to the proper qualities of motion pictures. He is a man who would deprecate sensationalism in posters, in subject, in dramatic treatment. He stands for pictures which tend to appeal to the better instincts of the human mind, and as such, E. MANDELBAUM by, above all things, common sense. He realizes that the picture at the present time is the subject of a "boom," i.e., that a period of inflation may be setting in. In this crisis, for such it is, regarded from an economic standpoint, a man of the type of Mr. Mandelbaum proceeds warily. There are not wanting those who think with the subject of this sketch that over-production, over-capitalization and the other symptoms of inflation, such as have been apparent in other industries, like that of the automobile, are plainly to be discerned in the motion picture business. Reading these signs of the times, Mr. Mandelbaum is adopting a policy of conservatism which is bound, we think, to result in success for the World Special Film Corporation. The "World Special," under the guidance of Mr. Mandelbaum, should be watched not for what it does in the way of making pictures, but for how it does it. A good business policy by any individual or corporation is bound to react favorably on the business in general. There are many fly-by-night organizations in the business which have all the potentiality of "going up" sooner or later. And sooner than later. But Mandelbaum, Bernstein and Twist shall endure. ^1 RIGHT OFF THE REEL (Continued from page 15) of these photoplays. In a reel of a thousand feet, in order that the thing can get over, there must be a certain amount of automatically-provided pabulum. You have to assure so many units of action — movement — animation — thrills — call it whatever you will ; there must be something doing, more or less, all the time. In order to hold the attention of the audience you must calculate this out, this something, with a fair amount of accuracy. ^\ F course I am leaving out of consideration such factors as the appeal to the emotions, the sentiments, the sympathies of the individual. This is another matter. But many a bad play has succeeded because it had plenty of action in it — I mean a badly constructed play, old in theme. And many a good play on a new theme, or at any rate an uncommon theme, has failed because there was a lack of action in it. It is the same with film plays. It is the plav that is the thing, and there must be action. While thought is a great factor in making this little old globe