Moving Picture World (May 1919)

May 3, 1919 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 649 Entered at the General Post Office, New York City, as Second Qass Matter PublUhed Weekly by the CHALMERS PUBLISHING COMPANY 516 FIFTH AVENUE, AT 43D STREET, NEW YORK CITY (Telephone, Murray Hill, 1610, 1611, 1612. 1613.) J. P. Chalmers, Sr President J. F. Chalmers Vice-President and General Managrer E. J. Chalmers Secretary and Treasurer James L. Hofif Assistant General Manager George Blaisdell Editor A. MacArthur, Jr Advertising Manager The office of the company is the address of the officers. CHICAGO OFFICE— Suite 917-919 Schiller Building. 64 West Randolph St., Chicago, III. Telephone, Central 5099. PACIFIC COAST OFFICE— 610-611 Wright and Callender Building, Los Angeles, Cal. Telephone, Broadway 4649. G. P. Harleman, Business Representative. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. United States, Cuba, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and Philippine Islands $3.00 per year Canada 3.50 per year Foreign Countries (Postpaid) 4.00 per year Changes of address should give both old and new addresses in full and be clearly written. Two weeks' time should be allowed for change. ADVERTISING RATES. Classified Advertising — 3 cents a word for Help or Positions Wanted, minimum SO cents ; 5 cents a word for all commercial ads., minimum $1. Display Advertising Rates made known on application. NOTE — Address all correspondence, remittances and subscriptions to MOVING PICTURE WORLD, 516 Fifth Avenue, at Forty.third Street, New York, and not to individuals. CINE-MUNDIAL, the monthly Spanish edition of the Moving Picture World, is published at 516 Fifth Avenue by the Chalmers Publishing Company. It reaches the South American and Spanishspeaking market. Yearly subscription, $2. Advertising rates on application. Saturday, May 3, 1919 New York Exhibitors Show Teamwork NEW YORK STATE has a Sunday local option law. The measure permitting municipal governing bodies to sanction motion picture performances after 2 o'clock Sunday afternoons was signed by Governor Smith on April 19. The act was the culmination of a campaign waged along progressive lines by the exhibitors of New York. At the head of the picture showmen Striving for the triumph of majority rule were Sydney S. Cohen, president of the State Exhibitors' League; Samuel 1. Berman. its secretary, and Charles O'Reilly. Their work has been energetic and intelligent. They discarded old lines. They organized first and talked afterward ; and when there was talking to be done, before legislative committees or the Governor, they avoided the employment as speakers of too many men directly connected with the industry. So ends a situation in the Empire State that has been a menace in those communities where Sunday pictures were condoned, rather than permitted. As the Governor truly said in his memorandum accompanying the signing of the bill, "neither party seems to have dared to put the question to a hazard of the decision of the Court of Appeals and by obtaining the judgment of the court of last resort establish a uniformity of judicial holding on this subject." As an indication of the vigor with which the picture showmen attacked the difficult task of upsetting deeprooted prejudice, it is necessary only to mention the accomplishment of the Buffalonians who secured 225,000 signatures to favoring petitions. Then there was Rochester, a "hundred per cent, town," the five assemblymen and one voting Senator of which all were recorded in favor of the measure. New York has done well. It has set a mark for other states to shoot at— and it will be strange if some of these, with the example of the Empire State before them, do not register a bullseye. It all reminds of the remark of Joseph H. Choate, vears ago, following a decision by the United States Supreme Court that a certain income tax measure was unconstitutional : "It just goes to show that some things may be done as well as others." The World and "Bolshevism on Trial" IN its issue of April 19 the Moving Picture World printed a page article entitled "Bolshevik Play Has Big Points." The aim of the writer was to indicate to the exhibitor how in the exploitation of "Bolshevism on Trial," he could increase his receipts. The writer in question was strongly of the belief that the picture contained a message and that it should be shown as widely as possible. In his zeal to accomplish this end he suggested the use of means plainly not in the interest of public order. We regret the publication. It afiforded opportunity for exploitation by professional spokesmen for discontent. It did not reflect the attitude of the World as maintained throughout the twelve years of its existence. Inspired by eagerness but not by heat crowds may storm a box office without public danger resulting. In a production containing a theme upon which feeling runs high, however, exhibitors are bound to use every care to avoid arousing the passions of their clientele or of their townspeople. The World will continue to be an advocate of sane showmanship. The "Service" We Give to Exhibitors IN a majority of instances picture showmen of today are men who have gained "showmanship" either in the business they now follow or in other branches of theatrical entertainment. There are others, however, who are just coming into management or ownership of picture houses— and to this element among our subscribers it seems fitting that something should be said of the "service" Moving Picture World gives to its readers. Two-thirds of the matter printed in our pages, week after week, year in and year out, is "service" in some form. The other third 'may be broadlv classified as "news" that, in itself, is Largely "service" in that it keeps our readers posted on' what is happening throughout the industry — bringing into i.solated towns the a.sscmblcd news of the "business in which our subscribers are engaged. In various departments are segregated material citlicr written by our own stafl^ or' submitted hv the