Movie Age (1927)

PAGE 4 MOVIE AGE MOVIE AGE MARGARET FOLEY Editor & Manager 140 N. 33rd St. Omaha, Neb. Telephone — Harrison 1285 MADELINE GRAHL Des Moines Rep. Published Weekly by ASSOCIATED PUBLICATIONS, Inc. BEN SHLYEN President and Publisher Subscription Price $2.00 per year Single Copies 10 cents. Harry Cohen of the Fox staff sur¬ prised the folks by getting married Christmas Day to Miss Cecil Greenspun, contract clerk at M-G-M. * * * * A. Beams of the Grand Theatre at Geneva, Nebr., visited the exchanges last week. * * * J. D. O’Neil, assistant manager of the National Theatre Supply Co., spent the holidays at home in Chicago. * * * Emil Grosse of the Gem Theatre at Beemer, Nebr., called on the exchanges during the past week. * * * E. P. Albertsen, formerly with Fox, has left for San Francisco where he will work on the Call. * * * Ike Ruben, formerly with Paramount at Omaha, who is now ad sales manager of the Chicago exchange, returned to Omaha for a few days last week. * * * ♦> Nick Paper of the Sun Theatre at Lincoln, Nebr., was in Omaha last Tues¬ day. * * * Jack McCarty, Paramount salesman, spent the holidays in Dallas, Texas, at his home. * * * Miss Gertrude Horwitz was married Sunday. * * * Miss Clare Foley, who was transfer¬ red from the Omaha to the Pittsburg Film Board in September, visited Oma¬ ha during the holidays enroute to San Francisco, where she will reorganize the Film Board there. Early Days in Film Business Reminescences of “Buster” Brown, Probably the Oldest Exhibitor in the State of Iowa Vmmbmbbmmmmwmmbmmbmmwhbbbwmw — — — Of all the claimants to the honor of being the oldest exhibitor in the state of Iowa, Thos. A. (“Buster”) Brown of the Strand Theatre in Iowa City seems to have established the longest active record. Mr. Brown is a real pioneer, having presented a total of over 5,000 productions on the silver sheets of his different theatres in Iowa City. THOS. A. (“BUSTER”) BRORWN He started in the business ’way back when “The Great Train Robbery” was still in vogue, April 12, 1907, to be ex¬ act, and has exhibited the products of nearly every producing company in the industry. His reminiscences regarding his first venture as a full fledged exhibitor are amusing in many respects when the crudity of presentation in the old days are compared with present methods. Mr. Brown’s first show shop was given the significant title of “Brown’s Nickledom’” and consisted of an empty store¬ room in the heart of the college town. The equipment included 130 folding chairs (unfolded only for paid occu¬ pants), an Edison projector mounted on a dry goods box enclosed in a verita¬ ble tent of the most inflammable can¬ vas, a white muslin screen, a cashier’s ticket selling stand six feet high, an au¬ tomatic piano and a phonograph stick¬ ing out of the front door for a ballyhoo. For the opening season, it was only nec¬ essary to remind the patrons that he was showing pictures that moved. This was accomplished by a huge sign in the front window which read: “MOVING PICTURES” They Do Everything But Talk! An honest bit of exploitation, indeed! Mr. Brown can recall visits to Carl Laemmle, when “Uncle Carl” was a struggling distributor of French films, including a short drama and comedy on one reel. Mr. Laemmle held forth in a small store room on south State street in Chicago. For several years a one-reel show for five cents was the vogue of the thriving “Brown’s Nickledom.” This policy held until one day Mr. Brown was offered the Pathe French production of the Passion Play “done in hand colors.” No mention was made of the length of the picture during the transaction and “Buster” naturally thought the picture would come in one reel. He was amazed, therefore, to find upon its ar¬ rival, that it consisted of three reels. The length of the picture no doubt im¬ pressed him the same way that a 24-reel program would impress him now. At any rate, he was sure that it would be impossible to show such a tremen¬ dously long program to his audiences, so he proceeded to show one reel each day for three days! It seemed that the en¬ tire town tried to get in the theatre the first three days of the week, and Brown was forced to hold over the picture and repeat the process of showing it for the remaining three days of the week. The picture played to 11,500 admissions. Quite a record when the entire popula¬ tion of Iowa City at that time was no more than 9,000! The Nickledom proved to be such a successful venture that Mr. Brown erect¬ ed another theatre in Iowa City in 1912, called “Brown’s American,” which fea¬ tured two reels of pictures for an ad¬ mission charge of 10 cents. The Amer¬ ican seated around 300 patrons. It was in this theatre that “Buster’s” movie fans witnessed their first super-features, including Adolph Zukor’s first impor¬ tant release, Sarah Bernhardt in “Queen Elizabeth,” and Selig’s “Coming of Columbus,” starring Charles Clary. Pop¬ ular serials of the time were the “Ad¬ ventures of Kathlyn” and “The Million Dollar Mystery,” starring James Cruze. In 1915 the Strand Theatre, seating over 600 people, was constructed for the presentation of the longer programs which were fast coming into favor. “Buster” is still successfully operating the Strand and hopes to continue in the business for many years. . i ! u • • ■ Mill ■ iiltliii