Motography (Jul - Dec 1915)

452 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIV, No. 10. ing a firm belief in the financial gain to be derived from the manufacturing of high class features, I deemed it best to discontinue my business connections with the company and vindicate my belief by allying myself with that end of the industry." Mr. Goldburg has not definitely determined his plans for the future excepting that he will ally himself with the executive end of the productions of photoplays. Several offers have been made him which he has taken under advisement, determining to proceed slowly but surely. TRIANGLE'S NEW MANAGER HOW SEER Y GOT HIS STAR T Roie C. Seery, as announced in the last issue of Motograph'y, after being affiliated for several years with the Mutual Film Corporation, has severed his connection, and will in the future guide the destinies of the Triangle Film Corporation in Chicago and the Middle West. R. C. Seery is one of the men whom we might style as a dreamer. He sees ahead. 'Way back in 1908 he was attracted to the moving picture industry and saw possibilities of its future. Mr. Seery was then living in Allegan, Mich., the town in which he was born and where he graduated with the civil engineering class of 1903, but five years later he decided that his future should be with the moving picture industry, and as the result of that decision he purchased the Electric theater in Allegan. In those days Mr. Seery considered himself quite a magnate in the theatrical circles when he proudly looked over his ninety kitchen chairs which were loosely distributed on a flat floor. A reel of film of questionable length and the whine of a phonograph constituted the entertainment for which the jitneys were accepted. Crude as the Electric theater was, the personal touch of Mr. Seery placed within it an atmosphere of welcome that brought prosperity to him far beyond his expectations, and as a result Allegan, Michigan, was too small for the continuation of his theatrical career. Chicago was picked as the next field for operation and with a theater of two hundred seats located at Sixty-ninth and Halsted streets, he continued to coax nickles from the pockets of the passersby. Late in 1909 he felt the irresistible call of the film exchange and after connecting with the Calumet film exchange as a solicitor, it was only a matter of a few months until he was promoted to the manager's desk. One success followed another, which is bound to be the result when conditions are carefully studied with a determination to forge ahead. C. J. Hite had been watching the progress of Mr. Seery for some time, and in 1910 they pooled their interests in the Majestic Film Service Company, which they later sold to the Mutual Film Corporation in 1912. The Mutual retained Mr. Seery as manager of its three Chicago branches until the fall of 1913, at which time he was sent to the Northwest to act as special representative of the Mutual in Seattle, Wash., Portland, Ore., Butte, Mont., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colo. The Mutual Film Corporation evidently recognized that it had taken a good man from a hard territory, as it was not many months before telegraphic instructions were sent Mr. Seery to report to New York City at once, and it was then that he learned to his great joy that he was going back home, among his hundreds of friends in and close to Chicago. All this happened in the spring of 1914, and since that time R. C. Seery has held forth in Chicago as special representative of the Mutual Film Corporation by watching its interests in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Omaha, Sioux Falls, Des Moines and all Chicago offices. Later the Mutual Film Corporation added the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City to this extensive territory, but Seery was on good terms with work and neither one was afraid of the other. Aside from exerting his mental and physical efforts, he invested his money and was a stockholder in the Thanhouser Syndicate Film Corporation and the Syndicate Film Corporation. He urged many of his friends to purchase heavily of stock in the "Million Dollar Mystery," and those who followed his advice realized enormous profits on their investments. Consequently, the opinion of R. C. Seery and his final judgment on almost any angle of the film industry is recognized throughout the Middle West as close enough to the exact facts to prove an incentive to others to follow where he leads. FAMOUS PL A YERS COMPANY BUYS MANHATTAN SITE FOR STUDIOS The Famous Players Film Company has secured a plot of thirty-one lots atop Marble Hill in upper Manhattan, New York, for the purpose of erecting studios, open air stages and laboratories and factories designed for the production of elaborate feature motion pictures. The property is assessed for tax purposes at over $160,000. The Famous Players' decision to transfer its producing activities to Marble Hill is considered in motion picture and real estate circles as the first move toward the conversion of upper Manhattan as a motion picture producing colony, similar in scope to the film aggregations now operating in Los Angeles and other Western screen centers. The Famous Players Film Company, the first concern to present the famous plays and stars of the stage in motion pictures, is also the first film organization to seek grounds within New York City, when the growth of the film industry demanded physical expansion. A feature of the plans is a special experimental laboratory in which research work will be conducted with the view of improving the mechanical factors of motion picture production and projection. This experimental work will be under the supervision of Edwin S. Porter. H. S. Mandelbaum, formerly connected with World Film Corporation, and more recently employed as a road man, for the Blinkhorn Photoplays Company, has been chosen as manager of the Big Attraction Film Company with offices at 311 Columbia building, Cleveland, Ohio, where he is making extensive arrangements to exploit the many features controlled by that firm. Alex. Bartow, formerly of the Mutual Film Corporation, is his assistant.