Motography (Jan-Jun 1918)

356 MOTOGRAPHY Vol. XIX, No. 8 "Laugh and the World Laughs With You" A Two-Column Remedy for the Blues jyiTTY KELLY, motion picture re•**■ viewer of the Chicago Examiner, recently published the following on a Wednesday following Dark Tuesday: "The Coal Cure, or Sherman Was Right." Written by Fuel Comissioner Garfield. Produced by the United States Government. Directed by Local Fuel Administrator Durham. Presented at all the motion picture theaters. "This is an amazing stupendous production, involving a vast number of people and blanketing the country with its offering. Its outstanding virtue is thoroughness, not a detail being allowed to slip up. "The title is the inspiration of Harry C. Miller, proprietor of the Boston, Rose and Alcazar theaters, who has booked the offering straight through for his theaters for Tuesdays for about eight weeks more, so patrons are requested to watch for it. "Though Mr. Miller, to this writer's knowledge, was alone in titling the production, he is not alone in booking it, all of his exhibitor colleagues joining with him in a uniformity of behavior never before found among moving picture people. "As a feature, the popularity of 'The Coal Cure' is questionable, there being too little action stretched over too much space for the preservation of anything like interest. "But the behavior of the cast, made up of motion picture exhibitors, is magnificent. Everywhere one perceives graceful acquiescence to the director's directions, so that the result is a matter of unusual harmony. "The thing shows what can be accomplished with sufficient pressure properly administered and is a credit to the personnel of the performers, if not particularly to the producing company. And at that, as propaganda, it may accomplish what it has set out to — cure the coal situation." * * * Monte M. Katterjohn, who supplies the big stories for Paralta productions, has been having a hard time of it since his chauffeur ran his car into a trolley-car a few weeks ago. Monte simply cannot get used to riding in the streetcars. The other day, when he thought he was about to be taken past his street, he jumped up and grabbed for the bell rope and before the conductor could head him off he had rung up six fares. * * * While in Jacksonville, Florida, recently, completing the final scenes in "American Buds," Jane and Katherine Lee, William Fox "Baby Grand" stars, heard of the fuel shortage in New York, v/here they live, and were told that their apartment had been closed because of a lack of heat. "Gee!" said Jane, "I left my doll home and I just know she will have pneumonia. Why didn't I think to bring her with me?" Director O. A. C. Lund, in charge of Peggy Hyland's first William Fox production, told his assistant, George Grimier, to engage three "extras" for parts as army officers. The picture is tentatively called "The De'bt of Honor." When Mr. Lund arrived at the studio he was surprised to see four men in uniform. The director knew three of them because they had appeared in previous productions. "I told you to get three, not four," Mr. Lund said to Grimier. "That fourth chap isn't the right type for this picture. We can't use him." "No, you bet you can't" Grimier replied. "He's the real thing. He's an aviator in the naval service who just dropped in to watch us work." "For Freedom of the World" Draws Crowds Up to the close of the first week in February "For the Freedom of the World" had been played to capacity business by more than 1,000 exhibitors in every section of the United States and Canada, it is announced by the Goldwyn Distributing Corporation. Inspection of the booking records reveals that more than a thousand additional theaters have contracted for this spectacle at an early date and that contracts are coming in at the rate of 100 a day. Goldwyn regards the business done by this production as little short of phenomenal. Not one exhibitor has complained that the picture fell short of his expectations, either as a spectacular drama of powerful audience interest or as a boxoffice money getter. All declare they could have played it — as some, in fact, did — at advanced prices and for an extended engagement. Arrow President Takes Rap at Steep Rentals The producer who sells his product at inflated prices is not only murdering his own organization, but he is forcing the buyer into film suicide, according to W. E. Shallenberger, president of the Arrow Film Corporation, one of the best known independent film men in the country. According to Mr. Shallenberger, the majority of the buyers are paying too much for their pictures and all of them are overbuying. "The trouble," he said, "can be traced directly to the: producer and the inflated prices he has been placing on his negative. The producer comes into the market heralding the fact that his picture cost him so many thousands of dollars to make. This is the cream of his selling talk. He places an exorbitant price on the picture and expects to make a handsome profit for himself. The point is, he doesn't. He blankets himself. "If the producer would be satisfied with selling his picture at a fair and equitable profit the entire business would be on a much better basis and there would be fewer failures — but he isn't. Too many producers are trying to squeeze every penny they can from every picture they make and in this squeezing process they are not only murdering their own organizations but are forcing the buyer to commit film suicide. "But economic conditions due to the war in general and the motion picture industry in particular are bringing about a new state of things which will automatically eliminate the man who inflates prices. In the meantime, however, more intelligent attention will have to be given to prices placed on pictures if the industry is to be kept on an even keel." "Miss Cinderella" Released "Miss Cinderella," another Strand comedy with Billie Rhodes, was released by Mutual, February 18. The story is this: Mary has an idea that the son of her father's old friend who is coming to visit them is the usual spendthrift and pampered scion of wealthy parents. To prove her assertion she poses as a working girl and manages to have him meet her when she is apparently starving. He proves a real fellow and rescues her from black-handers who are about to blow up the house. Woman Becomes Operator The first woman in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, to receive a provincial license to operate a projection machine is Mrs. Art. Pelletier, wife of the exhibitor at Estuary, Sask., who operates the Sunset theater.