Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

July 31, 1915. MOTOGRAPHY 219 Brevities of the Business CHICAGO GOSSIP Two very well known Middle West exhibitors were in Chicago this week from Iowa, one being A. H. Blank, Garden theater, Des Moines, the largest theater in this enterprising little city. The other is I. E. Greenebaum of the Casino theater, Davenport. Mr. Greenebaum has just bought the new Garden theater at Davenport and is spending sixty thousand dollars in remodeling this house to be what, in his own words, "will be the finest decorated theater west of the Mississippi river." Frank J. Rembusch, the smiling mirror screen man, was in town on Thursday, having stopped over in South Bend on his way to Chicago, where he secured an order for a mirror screen from the Majestic theater and an order for a seamless silver fibre screen at the Colonial theater. Arthur H. Sawyer, who will be remembered as the president of Sawyer's Film Mart, is now the general sales representative for the John Cort Film Company of New York, and is in Chicago with the Cort production of the "Melting Pot," copies of which he delivered to the Celebrated Players Film Company, also supervising the censoring of the picture. Mr. Sawyer leaves here for Boston the latter part of this week, but will return in about ten days, at which time he hopes to straighten up the affairs of the old Kinetophote Company, whose films he has for disposal in this territory. C. C. Pyle, general sales agent of the Bartola Musical Instrument Company, is one of the busiest sales agents we know, never being found in his office. Pyle is always around where there are any exhibitors, so he appeared at the Sherman House on Thursday, where the out-oftown exhibitors were having a meeting. He says business is holding up very well with him, his chief difficulty being in supplying the instruments as fast as he can sell them. "Jake" Kempner of the Radium Gold Fibre Screen Company has been stopping at the Sherman House, Chicago, for about ten days and will leave about the 20th for New York. Mr. Kempner has engaged two salesmen for the Chicago office of his company, and while he has been here has made business overtures to over 100 theaters, assuring us that he has received contracts from a great many of them for his well-known screen. Mr. Kempner stays here to make an installation at the Harper theater on Monday. There was quite a meeting of out-oftown exhibitors at the Sherman House on Thursday, July IS, and we were glad to shake hands with some of the biggest moving picture theater men in the United States, most of whom have been subscribers to Motography ever since there was such a book. Tom Saxe of the Saxe Amusement Enterprises, Milwaukee; E. Mandelbaum, representing the Strand theater interests of New York; L. J. Dittmar of Louisville; Tom Howard and his partner, N. J. Gordon, of the Scolly Square theaters of Boston, Mass.; Tom Furniss of Brunswick Amusement Company of Duluth; Frank Rembusch, who has six theaters in Indiana; William J. Sievers of the Grand Central and New Grand Central theaters, St. Louis; Aaron Jones of the Jones, Linick & Schaefer interests, are names to conjure with and represent a large portion of the firstrun exhibitors throughout the country. The meeting was a little meeting for the purpose of getting better acquainted with each other, and that it was a complete success was testified to by the good feeling on all sides. W. N. Selig got back from New York Thursday, July 15, and in his pleasant way chatted of business conditions as he found them from coast to coast. Mr. Selig has some very extensive plans for one of the most elaborate productions ever made. He purchased in New York a number of travel books illustrated with actual photographs of scenes in the Sahara desert, which illustrations will serve as a guide for the scenes used in the immense production of the "Garden of Allah," which the Selig company is going to produce. Mr. Selig states that he and his company have worked for several months gathering the essentials and planning the props and properties of this play, and laughingly interpolated, "Do you know that I heard of a film company making films of this kind in six reels in two weeks, while my company, with its tremendous facilities, big staff of artists and actors, knowledge and experience gained in over twenty years of picture making with some' of the largest studios in America and a large staff of producers and acting folk, work for several months on a single big production. It seems to me," continued Mr. Selig, "that exhibitors sometimes fool themselves into taking these quickly and illy made productions and do not have enough loyalty for the men who have made film making a business, thereby making it harder for the responsible manufacturers, whose effort is to make pictures that will live and make money for the exhibitor." Mr. Selig promised for some time in the near future a de luxe presentation of "The Spoilers" in its original length of twelve reels. More will be said of "The Spoilers," as it is a production that has few contemporaries in this country. There is no reason why "The Spoilers" should not be an annual, as it is a picture which may be shown every year and obtain the same reception as is given such dramatic productions as "Way Down East," "Rip Van Winkle." etc. Mr. Selig said that in the Clune theater in Los Angeles "The Rosary" has been running for two weeks to capacity business. The theater is decorated so as to give the patrons the impression of being seated in a great cathedral, and the musical effects all tend to carry out this thought. George Kleine returned to New York on Sunday last and is expected back again the latter part of this week, at which time he will probably complete arrangements for the moving of a considerable portion of his Chicago office to New York, where he can personally oversee it. We will be sorry to lose Mr. Kleine, who has ever proved a courteous listener and an entertaining speaker— a film man of tremendous" ability. He brought to Chicago "Quo Vadis," the first big moving picture production. Diplomatic W. J. Sweeney is having all of his talents called into play with the various operators' difficulties and vicious censorship problems which crop up from time to time. The only objection we have to Mr. Sweeney is that he does not talk. Getting information out of Bill is like pouring water up hill — it can't be done. The Famous Players Film Exchange is now located on the nineteenth floor of the Consumers building in very splendid offices. The manager, F. M. Brockell, is quite pleased with the large amount of business which he claims to have done during the past month. Salo Auerbach, who recently opened the Star Feature Exchange in the Mailers building, is a member of the firm, Choyinski, Wolf & Auerbach, which is completing the Strand theater, with a seating capacity of 1,000, on Division street, near Hoyne avenue, at an approximate cost of $50,000, and another house to be known as "The Vision," at Division street and Washtenaw avenue. This will give the firm five houses, its other houses being the Monarch, at Division and Hoyne; Newberry, at Clark and Chestnut, and Pastime, at Division and Robey. Mr. Choyinski of this firm has been a subscriber to Motography for many years and we are glad" to know of the success of these enterprises. Louis Noto, local manager North American Film Company, states that the "Diamond from the Sky" is booking better than any other picture he has ever had anything to do with. Even the hot weather does not bother him, although he claims that some other serials are being reduced in price in order to maintain their schedule. The friends of Adolph M. Eisner will doubtless be glad to learn that this enterprising young man is now in charge of the Mid-West Amusement Weekly of Minneapolis, a newsy publication devoted to the amusement field, reaching exhibitors of the Northwest. We extend the editorial right hand of friendship. Adolph, and wish you every success. J. L. Friedman, manager Celebrated Players Film Exchange, claims that he did a business of over $3,000 in advance bookings on the "Melting Pot." Harry Weiss of the Metro local exchange has taken the entire sales force who worked under him at the World and is going along like a 90-horsepower automobile. He has booked the Jones, Linick & Schaefer chain of theaters for the Metro program. N. M. Reubens of the Fox theater, Aurora, 111., was in Chicago last week looking over a few features. We were very sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Reubens' sister in an automobile accident a short time ago. One of our subscribers, C. E. Irwin of the Princess theater, Bloomington, stopped in last week to speak about his