Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

10 THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS Published Every Saturday by the CINEMATOGRAPH PUBLISHING CO., 30 West 13th St., New York City Telephone 4091 Chelsea. "WILLIAM M. PETINGALE JOHN A. WILKENS Business Manager and Treasurer Secretary The address of the ofScers is the of&ce of the newspaper. Subscription $2.00 per year, postpaid in the United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands. Canada and Foreign $2.50 per year. Advertising Rate Card ^tSS^^%^ Entered as Second-class will be sent on applica C^^^^^^^^52 matter in the New York tion. ^wssbbS^^ Post-Office. Vol. VIII August 16, 1913 No. 7 EDITORIAL COMMENT PROMISES are good; performances better; mutually satisfactory results best. * ^ * * Our advertisers and readers are with us ; others may be but their support is of little, if any, real value. Talk is cheap. Advertising pays — you and us. 1 * * * Inquiry has been made for the future policy of this newspaper — easy to answer. Help us to help you and us and it will be done; neglect us and we will not reflect your interests. Our columns are open to all for anything in the way of fair and proper comment or criticism having reference to the moving picture business. Include correct name and address or its fate is the wastebasket. * * * * What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If the exhibitors organize a trust won't they look rediculous under federal prosecution? The manufacturers have been forced before the bar of justice. Still, turn about is fair play. * * * ♦ Just think of it ! There is a rumor in circulation that another moving picture trade paper is to be started. Good for the printer; besides it keeps money in circulation and administers stinging experience. How many issues do you suppose it will put out? * * * * The trade should observe moderation in all things ; the manufacturer should be satisfied with a moderate profit and he should so control the exchanges as to prevent their exacting the extreme price from the exhibitor. The harvest is rich but it should be so divided as to return a just, fair and equal reward to all engaged in garnering it. Tremendous developments are promised before Thanksgiving turkey is eaten. We are told that film manufacturers are to lose hundreds of customers and millions in revenue before the snow flies. Startling, if true, isn't it? Manufacturers should employ William J. Burns immediately and protect their future. * * * * Never in the history of the film industry have the manufacturers' exchange men and exhibitors realized more fully than at the present time the importance of giving the public the best films that their studios can produce, while a few years ago anything projected on the screen would satisfy; the industry at that time being to a certain extent regarded in a much lesser light than it is to-day. DOROTHY KELLY Dorothy Kelly, whose picture appears on the front cover, is a charming little ingenue, who is always an attraction in or out of pictures. She has had no past stage experiences which would emblazon her name on the programs of the city playhouses where headliners are the indication of fame. She is a product of home surroundings which have fitted her for the pictures in which she shines, as a natural actress, giving them an extra touch of life and lustre. Miss Kelly is of Quaker extraction and was born in the city of "Brotherly Love," in the Keystone State, the birthplace of so many who have attained prominence in the history of our country. Everybody in The Vitagraph Company calls her "Dot." During the period of one year that she has been with the Vitagraph Company she has made herself a Vitagraph player from whom great pictorial achievements may be expected. ARTHUR H. SAWYER Our frontispiece portrait this week is that of Arthur H. Sawyer, manager of the Kinemacolor Company of America. It will be noticed that while Mr. Sawyer talks most interview with him (which appears on pages 8 and 9 of this interview with him v>rhich appears on pages 8 and 9 of this issue), he has not told us anything about himself. That's something he left to his publicity lieutenant, Willard Holcomb, formerly known to newspaper fame as a dramatic writer and something of a dramatist withal. According to the biographical data supplied by IMr. Holcomb, Mr. Sawyer received an excellent education and was then launched upon a business career. After fifteen years' experience in commercial lines he entered the dramatic profession as an actor in order to study all the different phases of dramatic art. After a brief histrionic apprenticeship he became leading man for Nance O'Neill and other woman stars. Incidentally, he wrote and produced various vaudeville plays, making a study of the picture game at the same time. Realizing the commercial possibilities of film entertainments he secured several motion picture theatres, and built others in Western Massachusetts and New York State, and made big successes with them as a result' of advanced ideas in advertising and methods of putting on shows with appropriate music and other accessories. He has been in the motion picture field for nine years, beginning when the "store" show was in popular evidence. He introduced the first "talking" picture with people behind the screen that was ever exhibited in Massachusetts. When Kinemacolor was brought to this country Mr. Sawyer sold out his theatre interests to secure an interest in the natural color pictures. He is the original Kinemacolor man in this country as the original American company was formed in Allentown, Pa. This company is closed out, and a new company, capitalized at six millions, has been organized. This is the present Kinemacolor Company of America, and, as it was largely through his efforts that the company was organized, he obtained a substantial financial interest and was appointed secretary and manager. Mr. Sawyer has made a special study of moving pictures during the past ten years, and is acknowledged to be an authority in every branch of film production. The Vitagraph Company has some open-air studio, occupyin.g a stockade enclosure, covering an area of 150 by 450 feet. The stage is 100 feet deep by 150 feet in width, which can be enclosed whenever necessary. This studio is set apart and the stage built, for the large productions which it is rapidly making preparations to enact in the near future. The new building to the already large plant, is nearly completed. It provides a new glass-covered studio, 400 by 100 feet. So rapidly has the business grown these additions were imperative, and it is now hoped that they will meet the immediate needs of the company. We are informed by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company that Warren Kerrigan has signed with them and will be connected with their Pacific Coast organization.