Moving Picture World (July-Dec 1909)

THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 877 dence, as, for instance, when "filling in" a date at a small show recently in a settlement where the sons of Ham predominate, he was describing the large attendance at Coffroth's Arena, "the gate receipts exceeding upon this occasion thirty-three thousand dollars, out of which Mr. Johnson received twenty-one thousand dollars (emphasizing this, during which he paused while murmurs of "Oh, my," "Heah dat, honey," etc., were heard all over the house). Then he remarked, sotto voce, "So I guess Mr. Johnson won't have to telegraph his baby for money this Winter," at which every darkey yelled with delight. Sam says this and other "bits" are appreciated by whites as well as blacks; incidentally he says that the above little place of 140 capacity, which never played to over $30 in a day, netted one hundred and sixteen dollars ($116) that day at 10 cents, and the manager wants a return date at 15 cents. Another place he quotes at Cleveland, all run down; the new owner put it on and did $195 the first day, over $200 the second day, and wants another booking "any old time." Still a third at Cincinnati, "a dead one" about to close — 145 capacity — took in over $100 a day and several good showmen in Cincinnati are bidding for a return date. Sam says public interest in the Johnson-Ketchel fight pictures is intense and attributes it to the coming match between Johnson and Jeffries. Anyway, he says it is a winner and clean enough for the ladies. POPULARITY OF MOVING PICTURE SHOWS IN WESTERN CANADA. The success which has attended the experiment of moving picture shows in Western Canada, inaugurated last year, indicates to Consul-General John Edward Jones, of Winnipeg, the large market in the cities of the Northwest for this form of amusement. Mr. Jones adds: "It would be profitable for the manufacturers of moving picture machines to send a representative through Western Canada to exploit the field. In Winnipeg this form of amusement only became popular during the past year, and the promoters are now reaping a fine business as the result of their enterprise. "The people soon acquire a fondness for this form of amusement, and willingly pay 10 cents for admission. In this new country, where all forms of amusement are scarce, moving pictures are welcomed, and there is no reason why the manufacturers of the United States should not control the business." THE CARSON FILMS. The Film Import & Trading Company announce that they have secured the exclusive sale of "Carson" films for the entire world. The first release will be shipped on December 14 and is entitled "Comrades Under General Grant," a patriotic American subject that ought to be popular. NEW THEATER FOR BROOKLYN. Mr. Frank Widor has opened a new moving picture theater at 23 Bartlett street corner Harrison avenue, Brooklyn, which in equipment represents the latest in the moving picture line. J. H. Hallberg, 30 Greenwich avenue, has installed a Motiograph No. 1 flickerless moving picture machine with stereopticon attachment, complete with Hallberg Automatic Electric Economizer. The pictures are very steady, brilliant and absolutely flickerless. The outside of the theater is illuminated by two Hallberg flaming arc lamps, giving 10,000 candle-power. The New England Film Exchange, 611 Washington street, Boston, Mass, write us: "We received a big supply of new, up-to-date films amongst which we have quite a selection of foreign makes, such as Lumiere, Pathe, Gaumont, Lux, Ambrosia, Eclaire, Itala, Vesuvio and several other foreign makers too numerous to. mention for lack of space, and also several up-to-date American manufacturers, such as New York Motion, Phoenix, Powers, Columbia, Edison, Selig, Biograph and several others, and we are ready to supply, as we have been in the past, with all these up-to-date features, a grand selection of dramatic, comic and scenic pictures, and together with our song slides offers a good opportunity for New England managers to secure a service which has never been offered before. We extend an invitation to the public at large to visit our offices at 611 Washington street, Boston, Mass., and convince themselves as to what we say being so. Business is very good at the present time, and a steady increase is noticed every week." When I sat in Hammerstein's Theater, last Thursday afternoon as never was, my mind was full of the possibilities of the moving picture, and the suggestion came from, what do you think? The rehearsal of the band! Creatore's band! Creatore got in my way for a space of about 30 minutes and Creatore was the subject of my sincere curses, because Creatore stood in the way of what I had come to see. Never mind what I had come to sec; you will realize that it the succeeding paragraphs. Anyway Creatore came on at last and got his band in working order in a dark and silent house. He started his work on the stage while some of us sat in the auditorium. Then we saw the nervous conductor, absolutely in sympathy with the inner skin of his music, controlling his forces by pschyo-physical effect. In other words establishing a link between the man who directed and the man who played the instrument, whether it be reed or brass. As the executants played the various pieces or numbers we had the opportunity of studying the controlling mind of the man who conducted the performances. Creatore is the modern personification of Paganini, the violinist, a whole race of temperamental conductors concentrated in one individuality. In other words, Creatore symbolizes in his own personality the series of sounds that he was controlling. * * * This has nothing to do with moving pictures, but I halt regretted, as I sat and watched this wonderful man at his work, that it was not possible to get a moving picture of him, so that the world at large might have seen an up-to-date musical conductor at work. Creatore and his band kept me waiting for the entertainment that I wanted to see at my friend, Mr. Hammerstein's Theater, at Forty-second street and Broadway. But I did not regret my wait because of the music and when the music was over my patience was rewarded by a very fine lecture indeed which temporarily is in the hands of Edward E. Rice, of 1402 Broadway, New York City, a man well known in theatrical producing and who, I was glad to learn, is disposed to take up the moving picture end of things. It is in consonance with the policy of The Moving Picture World that the theater should realize the importance of the moving picture and I am glad that the man of the experience of Mr. Rice thinks as I do on the matter. * * * Then up and arose on the stage a cultivated English journalist, Mr. Wynee Granville ,the Toronto correspondent of a Dundee paper, to tell the story of the Shackelton films. Granville had met Shackelton many years ago at school and subsequently. I also have met Shackelton, so that there was a bond of sympathy between lecturer and hearer. A bond of sympathy unsuspected by Granville, I am sure. But the point of it all is that Granville, who is an experienced lecturer, had with him on the screen a very marvelous series of moving picture films — such series as held his small audience spellbound. * * * Shackelton is the man who has been nearest the Antartic pole, or as it is called, the South pole, and he was wise enough on his journey to take with him a moving picture camera. He was also lucky enough to have made, or rather to have had made for him, a series of exposures which showed the life to us that is lived in those frigid regions so that, aside of the geographical renown which attaches to his name for having got to that particular part of the world before anybody else, he also has the unique distinction of having photographed it all with a moving picture camera. And that is exactly what we saw. We saw the life on the ship and incidents on the voyage out by way of Australia, and then when we got there, some of the daily life and experiences of this exploring party. One seemed to feel as one was looking on these pictures that one was living one's life in those ice fields. There were the quaint penguins, seals, dogs; the cold, freezing, chill of the illimitable ice fields that all of us in our warm rooms have read and thought of. There they were. Here were the photographic renderings of the polar regions of the life lived there by the men who went there. * * * Shackelton and his party went about their business in a thoroughly scientific and business like way. They went up