Moving Picture News (Jan-Dec 1911)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 11 in due time that will also include Law of necessity. More power to your pen and more pennies to your purse ! Ever sincerely. JAMES D. LAW. CHICAGO LETTER Since the last writing the greatest matter of importance which has been brought to light is the shameml manner in which the picture exhibitors are being treated on Alilwaukee avenue and the raw tools that are being employed to hght competition. Now, 1 myself am a great believer in a man going his competitor one better at all limes, but also believe m doing it in a fair way and n_c .njuring the exhibiting business by setting a precedent. The general seat of disturbance ccems to be that A. M. Gollas, who runs the Royal Theater, on Alilwaukee avenue, has been flopping about once a week from the General Film Co. to the Independents, and vice versa, until his patrons are not sure of what kind of pictures can be seen at his theater. To satisfy every one, he conceived the brilliant idea of running six reels, three reels of i rust pictures and three reels of Independent film. Steingard, who runs the Peerless and uses Trust pictures, and Gollas arranged a sub-renting system and by hiring a boy to carry the reels, as fast as they are run in one place, to die other, they are each running six reels of pictures to a show and outdoing their competitors who are unable to put on such a large show. L'p to the present writing both the Trust and Independent exchanges renting these men have closed their eyes to this violation of agreement on the sub-renting. Hyman Bros., owners of the Janet Theater, the home of the Independent picture on North avenue, are negotiating with Zippwald & Co., theatrical contractors, with a view of enlarging their house. By putting in a balcony and other alterations they can secure between three and four hundred more seats, which means a great deal on North avenue, which is the biggest picture show center in Chicago. The Plaza Theater was the first Chicago house to boost the Daylight Pictures. They opened the show with Independent pictures on the Herbst machine during the past week. Managers from different parts of the city and out of town were invited to the demonstration. The Chautauqua Film Exchange, 356 Dearborn street, opened for business Feb. 6th, buying through the Motion Picture Distributing and Sales Co. The Chicago Moving Picture Machine Operators are gaining a national reputation on account of their progressive spirit. Local 145, I. A. T. S. E., which was organized a little over three years ago, now numbers over 500 men, and are recognized by all to be, as a mass, the best electricians and operators throughout the country. Local No. 2, the I. A. T. S. E. stage hands' local in Chicago, began to realize that the junior local, 145, was fast passing them in workmanship, intelligence and numbers, and fearing they would be obliterated called upon the International body to place a check on the "aggressive upstarts," as they put it. Local 145 did not see why their honest progress should be checked off and went quietly about building an impregnable defense. They took out corporation papers of organization under the Illinois statutes and at the proper moment withdrew from the International body. They have nailed their colors to the mast, claiming they are out to control everything electrical in the theatrical field, switchboards, spot and effect lamps, picture machines, etc. They are prepared to accept any locals of operatiors throughout the country, and are putting organizers on the road to gain control of picture locals now under control of the International body. Several prominent picture locals in the West and Middle West are signifying their intention of joining forces with Local 145, as they, too, are being oppressed and held in submission. The leader in this "Declaration of Independence" movement by Local 145 is W. F. Menzel, who was formerly connected with the National Proj. & Prod. Co., and other memorable projects in the moving picture industry. P. C. Aloore. a former president of Local 145, I. A. T. S. E., is another man prominent in the good work for the operators. There were a great number of feature reels turned out by the Independent manufacturers of late. "The Westerner" and "The Earl," by the Thanhouser Co.; "Her Darkest Hour," Imp; "The Half-Breed's Plan," a Bison; "The Schoolman's Courage," a Reliance, and the Ambrosio reel, "Savoy Cavalrj'," and "Tweedledum" as a detective, were among the best for the week. Am glad to see so many manufacturers turning out war stories for Washington's Birthday J. J. SULLIVAN. OUR WESTERN CORRESPONDENT Hot Springs, Ark., February 15. — Just when it looked as if we were going to have a nice, dignified, quiet and most gentlemanly primary campaign for the mayoralty nomination, with all the big gambling houses running without brass bands and notification to the wide, wide world, to say nothing of a gradual prying off of the "lid" that was clamped on the resort by the Prosecuting Attorney's office, Mayor Martin Jodd, who is a candidate for a third term nomination, threw a political bomb into the camp of his opponents and instructed Chief of Police W. W. Willey to immediately suppress all forms of gambling in Hot Springs. "Ain't it awful, i\Iabel?" We have had some very interesting events transpire since the man on the "case'' worked on my last effusion. The Alayor decided that his old Chief of Police was not as active in the suppression of gambling as His Honor would have him be, and the city's chief executive intimated that there would be a change in the police department; that he had so informed W. Frank Moore, who was then chief of police, and that if he would not pack up and leave without being asked, he, the Mayor, would prefer charges against him of incompetence and non-attention to duty. Well, the most irate citizen in this beau-ti-ful "valley of vapors" was Chief Moore, and he came back with a rejoinder that if he had ever received orders to stop gambling that he w'ould have made the places look like a desert without the welcome oasis. The next day the Chief resigned. W. W. Willey was appointed. Then the other candidates in the field got busy, and they have had the merriest time harpooning the portly form of Alayor Jodd with their political shafts of pointed interrogations. For instance, they want to know why it is that Alayor Jodd, who has been in office now nearly four years, has had such a sudden and violent change of heart regarding gambling. John A. Riggs, manager of the Lopez Aledicine Co., the only candidate running on a strictly anti-gambling platform, calls attention to the fact that this was the first time Mayor Jodd ever took such drastic steps and leaves the public to judge the motive implied. W. W. Walters, one of the resort's most shrewd business men, who has also been Mayor, declined to dignify the circus play by public comment, saying he would "take care of Mr. Jodd at his political meetings, but Attorney James L. Graham, who is also a candidate for Attorney-General of Arkansas, declared that the Mayor's action showed a state of mind bordering on collapse; that he cannot get away from the record he has made and that nothing he can now do will save his sinking craft. Then along comes C. C. Lemly, former candidate for Mayor and Sheriff, who asserts that he is in favor of licensing the gambling houses and doing away with the "hole-in-the-v.'all" joints the city has to bear with under present conditions; that if we are to have gambling here, let the city get some revenue from the houses and place the gambler in a position where he can be watched. It was not so long ago that Hot Springs realized $1,600 a month from the gambling houses when they were under police regulation. But the edict has gone forth and gambling is supposed to be as dead as Judas. Didst notice I said "supposed to be"? Well, here is where the supposition comes in. Chief of Police Willey, who was appointed to succeed W. Frank Moore, is a witness in one of the many murder trials from this city. The defendant asked and received a change of venue, and the case is on this week in the Circuit Court at Alalvern. Chief Willey is over there, so the gamblers, appreciating the first law of physics, "that no two things can occupy the same place at the same time," have opened on the quiet and violated instruction received from him. But wait until "Big Bill" gets back. Ye gods and little fishes, if he doesn't get busy and inaugurate a general smashing of gambling paraphernalia then I miss my guess, for, as they say in these parts, "He's bad medicine when he's started." He will do his duty regardless of personal views on the subject, believe me, and the "Knights of the Green Cloth" are going to be a wiser lot of men if they try to buck this boy. I have detailed the foregoing not because it has any bearing on motion photography (although I would liked to have taken a moving picture of the political situation here the past week), but because, by the gradual resumption of gambling and other forms of pleasure that it was to be used as a silent argument to permit the picture houses to also get busy Sunday. For some weeks the rumor has been current here that the moving picture and vaudeville interests would "get to.gether and stick" and, opening their houses on Sunday, stand for arrests and, if necessary, have the case carried to the Supreme Court. So, with this end in view, representatives of the Scenic, Lyric, Lyceum, Orpheum, Princess and Majestic were on hand. Also "numbered among those present" were Attorneys Boiuc and Sawyer, the latter also being the legal