Moving Picture World (May 1919)

1312 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD NATIONAL EXHIBITORS MEET JUNE 25 THE annual convention of the Motion Picture Exhibitors of America will be held this year on Wednesday and Thursday, June 25 and 26, at St. Louis, Mo. The headquarters for the convention will be the Hotel Statler. It is important to note the change from the originally scheduled date of June 11 and 12. According to National Secretary Frank Rembusch and Hector Pasmezoglu, chairman of the convention committee, Missouri is going to live up to its reputation as the "Show Me State." St. Louis merely wants the exhibitors to "Show up," and it will joyfully undertake to "Show them." There will be entertainment to make the session "worth while," according to the plans of the committee, but the convention will be devoted exclusively to the problems of the industry as they af?ect the exhibitor. Any one with an idea of special benefit to the welfare of the exhibitor will be welcome to present it. The officials of the convention, however, do not intend to have the ideas limited to those which arise out of floor discussion, but promise several big surprises themselves. The tide of prosperity which is sweeping through the entire industry at the present time is expected to flood St. Louis with a record number of exhibitors on June 25 and 26. St. Louis can be reached from any point in the South or East in less than a day's time. A special train is being organized to run from New York and pick up exhibitors all along the line. Exhibitors all over the country have been doing excellent organization work localh' and this convention will not only provide a medium for the interchange of ideas, but will also present an opportunity for the amalgamation of beneficial policies into a strong national program. Any details desired may be secured from Frank Rembusch, 1109 L O. O. F. Building, Indianapolis, or from Hector Pasmezoglu, 302 Chestnut street, St. Louis. Miami Valley League to Move Into Larger Quarters ACCORDING to an announcement made by John Seifert, president of tke Miami Valley Exhibitor's League, with headquarters in Dayton, that organization will move into larger quarters in June. Mr. Seifert stated that the present room in the Rauh Building was altogether too small for the league. A suite of four rooms will be rented in the Lindsey Building, and permanent headquarters established there. A girl clerk will be at the league rooms all day. Mr. Seifert also stated that all supplies for the members of the league would be bought direct from the manufacturers and sold to the members at cost plus a small margin to take care of the shipping expenses and incidentals. Mr. Seifert and George Oxrider, manager of the Maple Theatre, went to Chicago Saturday, May 17, to see about the purchase of music rolls by the league, which would in turn be sold to the members at cost. to probably 170,000 persons a day or 1,000,000 a week, Mr. Potter advanced the opinion that practically every little wrongdoing could be traced to the lure of the movies. State censorship, he explained, would provoke endless litigation with film concerns and Detroit would have no recourse in case objectionable films were passed by a state board. Detroit Has Best Censored Films Says Police Sergeant THAT pictures are better censored in Detroit than in any other city in the country and that films so censored are adopted by the rest of the state were concluding statements made by Sergeant Lester Potter, Detroit police censor, in an address strongly opposing state censorship given before the Women's Citizens' League at the Hotel Statler, May 14. Mr. Potter, whose experience on the force extends back some fourteen years, four of which have been given entirely to censorship work, explained that picture censorship has resulted in eliminating entirely from films shown in Detroit everything tending to illustrate the technique of crimes. With 400 films on an average shown weekly in Detroit Southeastern Theatre Men to Meet June 15 A MEETING of the newly organized Southeastern Theatre Managers' Association had been called for Sunday, June 15, in Atlanta, and it is expected that at least 500 leading exhibitors of the territory will be in attendance. A total of 151 motion picture theatres in several south-Atlantic states are represented in the organization, which was fourtded at a meeting held in Atlanta on April 13. The object of the association is the betterment of conditions in the exhibiting field through co-operative efifort. Several important matters requiring action will be passed upon at the coming convention, and it is predicted that the membership of the I)ody will be materially increased. Among the prominent and progressive exhibitors who are officers of the Southeastern Theatre Managers' Association, most of whom were active spirits in the preliminary work which resulted in the formation of what promises to be the first live ' organization of its kind in this section, are Willard C. Patterson, Criterion theatre, Atlanta, president; Percy W. Wells, Wells Amusement Company, Norfolk, vicepresident; Hugh L. Cardoza, manager of the local Wells' houses, treasurer; and B. Lee Smith, manager of William Oldknow's Tudor theatre, Atlanta, secretary. On the Exchange Board are Edward A. Schiller, Southern manager of the ■ Loew interests; chairman; George C. May 31, 1919 Werner, Columbia, S. C. ; Walter Bracken, Bainbridge, Ga.; Joseph Burton, Toccoa, Ga. ; W. S. Mudd, Birmingham, Ala.; Frank J. Hiller, Augusta, Ga. ; and E. L. Stringer, Marietta, Ga. Multnomah Company to Make Films in Portland ANEW film company has been started in Portland, Ore., primarily for the purpose of filming the historical Western epic, the W^hitman massacre, but eventually to produce dramas with Oregon's scenery as a background. The name of the company is the Multnomah Film Corporation, and the studio is that of the .American Lifeograph Company at Thirty-third and Halsey streets. Those connected with the enterprise are Raymond Wells, director; Jean Hersholt, assistant director and Louis Moomaw, cameraman. Jean Hersholt has been working with Triangle for the past two years, and came direct from the California city to Portland. Louis Aloomaw has a good reputation as a cameraman, having been with Burton Holmes and Paramount in Chicago. He photographed and directed "Where Cowboy Is King" here several years ago. The studio of the company is well equipped with up-to-date lighting facilities and printing equipment. For the first picture a replica of the old Whitman mission has been erected at Troutdale, near Portland, and a tribe of Indians has been brought down from the reservation at Pendleton to work in the picture. Eva Emery Dye, author of "The Bridge of the Gods," and an authority on Indian manners and customs, has been engaged to supervise the settings. Maclyn Arbuckle Selects Studio Site in San Antonio MACLYN ARBUCKLE entertained a party of Dallas business men when they visited San Antonio early in May. He is making much progress in arranging the work of the San .\ntonio Moving Pictures Corporation, a $450,000 concern, the stock of which already has been fully subscribed by San Antonio business men who want to make their city a second Los Angeles, so far as picture production is concerned. "We have selected ideal studio headquarters in an abandoned beer garden," Mr. Arbuckle says. "I hunted carefully all round the place, but empties were all I could discover." Mr. Arbuckle says the light conditions in San .'\ntonio make it ideal for taking pictures. Companies can work from early morning until 8 o'clock at night. The quaint scenery, varying from Spanish mission to that of the sage brush, hills and cactus suitable for Western films also is ideal for film production. The coast is only a few hours run distance, where marine views can be secured if wanted. Mr. Arbuckle says that he has an ambitious program scheduled for the company, including a filming of "The Round Up." He told his Dallas friends that Texas is his native state, and that he intends to stay there. He was born on the Arbuckle Ranch, where the Dallas Brewery now stands.