Moving Picture World (May 1919)

668 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD May 3, 1919 ard for portable projectors, already adopted by the society, ought to stand. The other is the opinion that the society should work for the adoption of slow burning film for all purposes, finally ending by the total elimination of ordinary inflammable film. Against this latter is the fact, made quite clear at the meeting, that sufficient slow-burning film stock to supply the entire industry could not at present be had, nor could it be had for a considerable period of time, to which must be added its comparative low efficiency (80 per cent.) and higher cost. Tuesday evening there was a banquet which was one of the most thoroughly enjoyable affairs ever. Altogether the meeting was a decided success from any and every point of view. The next meeting will be held in Pittsburgh in the fall. Those in Attendance. Among those in attendance were George Perkins, Perkins Electric Company; George A. Blair, Eastman Kodak Company; Dr. Henry Phelps Gage, Corn ing Glass Works; Frank Rembusch, secretary Motion Picture Exhibitors' League; Dr. Herman Kellner, Bausch & Lomb Optical Company; H. H. Cudmore, .\rgus Lamp and Appliance Company, Cleveland; William C. Hubbard, Cooper-Hewitt Electric Company, New York City; W. R. Mott, Research Laboratories, National Carbon Company, Cleveland; A. C. Roebuck, Enterprise Optical Company, Chicago ; A. F. Victor, Victor Anamatograph Company, Davenport, Iowa ; F. H. Richardson Moving Picture World, J. C. Aloulton, Fort Wayne Electric Company, New York office; Bernard DeVry, DeVry Corporation, Chicago; R. P. Burrows, National Lamp Works, Cleveland; C. Francis Jenkins, Washington, D. C. ; Will C. Smith, Nicholas Power Company, New York City; E. K. Gillette, Motion Picture News ; Harry M. R. Glover, Gundlach Manhattan Optical Company; W. B. Cook, Pathescope Company, New York City; Max Mayer, Max Wohl Company, New York City, and J. H. Hertner, Hertner Electric Company, Cleveland. "MIDNIGHT ROMANCE" PRESS BOOK PULLS Omaha's Big Rialto, Uses Anita Stewart Picture Manager H. M. Thomas, of Every Ad. in Sheet on HM. THOMAS, manager of the big Rialto Theatre, Omaha, re•cently opened a press book sent him, advertising a picture he was to play. Mr. Thomas ripped of? the wrapping, gave the sheet a glance, and whizzed it through the air, swearing softly as it phlopped against the wall. "There's a press sheet!" he exclaimed, pointing to the dilapidated ruin lying on the floor. "It is supposed to tell me how to advertise my picture. If I use the ideas in that press sheet it will cure bunions, it will cure a cold, it will clean the streets, it will give my ticket girls prostration, it will wear the floor off my lobby, it will break down my seats with the crowds — yes-s-s-s-s-s it will!" "Why do they waste their money?" inquired Thomas. "And even if they have got plenty of money why do they waste my time? I read press sheets. I have to read press sheets. That is why my eyes are turning glassy; my hair turning gray; my ears are drooping and my teeth falling out. I have to read press sheets. I am going to the sanitarium— just because I have to read press sheets." Thereupon Showman Thomas started out on a long rigmarole concerning press sheets. Some, he said, were good — fairly good; others were impossible. Thomas an Able Judge. Now, Thomas is an original advertiser. His ideas have won him fame. He doesn't have to depend upon press sheets; he can write press sheets for himself, if he has to. Certainly he can write advertisements for himself. He generally does, and they draw the crowds. But he grows sad as he thinks of the effort that might have been saved if only press sheets were what they should be. Suddenly the interviewer spied something. "Here's an ad of yours which, I'll bet thirteen cents was taken from a press' sheet," he said. "Look. Now CO .e clean." There it was. An ad, a big, glaring, well written, convincing ad, taken from a press sheet. Thomas looked. A gleam of joy came into his eye. He grinned. Life was interesting, once more. "Yeh, boy. I said some press sheets were good. That one is. Remember when we knocked 'em dead with 'Virtuous Wives?' Well, some of those ads were from the press sheet. "'The Midnight Romance' is another. I guess I used just about every ad in that press sheet. Say, I wish every one was like that. You know what I mean — nifty, attractive, striking, got the punch." He pointed to this ad; then to that one, in another evening paper. He drew a press sheet from his desk and pointed to the copy from which his ads of the afternoon had been taken. He talked earnestly, enthusiastically, interestingly. He was all wrapped up in his subject. He pointed to the pictures in the press book and to the notation, "Talk to the women in your ads." Takes Press Book's Advice. "Did I talk to the women in my ads?" he said. "Did I! Boy, every woman in town came to see that picture, or was prevented for some reason that she could not avoid. Think of it — a woman wrote the story, a woman directed it, a woman star, and I suppose a woman turned the crank of the camera. "Think of the pretty gowns I And Anita Stewart is a woman's actress anyway. This is her second picture in my house, and they've got to stop selling tickets downstairs in a few minutes. I booked the picture for five days, and I had to hold it over for two more days or be inobbed." Again he turned to the press sheet, and he raved some more. Some day, he hoped, every press sheet would be as good for their pictures as this one was for the picture he was advertising. Press Books Arouse Comment. Down at the A. H. Blank Enterprises headquarters. First National Circuit franchise holders for Iowa and Nebraska, Manager C. E. Holan said, "Press sheets ? Oh, yes, our press sheets arouse frequent comment. But so do our pictures." Mr. Holan recalled days when he was exchange manager for other film companies. No, he said, he did not recall enthusiastic appreciation of the press sheets issued by those companies. He coyly admitted his press sheets are the best on the market, but he wouldn't talk about them enough — he insisted on referring to a big indefinite looking book, and saying it told the story of how Anita Stewart's latest picture is booking like wildfire throughout the Middle West. Seadeek Goes to Siberia with Films for Soldiers JESSE ^ SEADEEIv, of Rochester, N. Y., and well known in moving picture circles there, sailed from Vancouver, Canada, on April 19, for Vladivostok, Siberia, as a representative of the Community Moving Picture Bureau. Accompanying him were six operators and fifti' projection machines, together with various other equipment, and miles of film which will be exhibited to the Allied armies now in Siberia, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. Arriving in Vladivostok, the party will first organize the e-xhibition of pictures' for the men there. Following this the picture service will be extended along that thin ribbon of civilization which crosses lake Baikal and runs overland along the line of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It is understood that the party will be the first to exhibit films in this part of Asia. Leslie Martin, director of the service for Asia, sailed with the party. Foreign Rights to Zane Grey Films Secured by Brockliss SIDNEY BARRETT, president of the J. Frank Brockliss Companj', has purchased the entire foreign rights of "Desert Gold," the special production now being made of Zane Grey's novel by the author's own company, together with the rights of all Other books by this writer which are to be picturized in this manner, according to an announcement made this week by C. A. Weeks, secretary and treasurer of the Zane Grey Pictures, Inc. The acquisition of the foreign rights of this series, which are to be distributed in America by the W. W. Hodkinson Company, is in line with the recently announced policy of the Brockliss company to eliminate star and program pictures from their offerings, and handle only productions of special merit and magnitude. Steve M.Farrar Married. Steve M. Farrar, of the Casino, El Dorado and the Orpheum, Harrisburg, 111., has found time in spite of his double duty, to get married, and on April 16 was united to Miss Minnie Talbot at Cairo, 111. If Steve is as good a husband as he is advertising hustler, we'll reserve the usual custom and' congratulate the bride,, for Steve is one of our best little crowd getters.