Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

34 THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS ■uniforming your attendants, and before you spend more money on inducements or souvenirs, pay better wages to secure clean-cut, polite and courteous employees. The cultured class expects a clean service and much courtesy and if you follow this advice you will not only retain but increase your patronage. If you read my article on Music on another page of this issue, you will see that the Leader and the Colonial, two theatres of Philadelphia, only a few doors apart, have very different patronages. The cultured patrons of the Leader would not think of visiting the Colonial, while the patrons of the Colonial would not visit the Leader, as they would find themselves outclassed. Be the leader. Let it be known that your theatre is the rendezvous of the elite of society and your success will be assured. Evidently, you will suffer for the few first weeks, as a new theatre always draws as a matter of curiosity, but when the novelty will wear off and when the better class will find tliat you show the best pictures, that you have the best projection, the most appropriate music, the neatest, cleanest and most courteous service, they will soon return to you. To win you must be refined in everything, and if you take my pointer and uniform your attendants, give them a neat uniform, something like the one represented in the following cut, make them look dignified and feel at their ease. Do not make monkeys out of them with gaudy uniforms of bright colors, over-trimmed with gold lace, etc. Have your attendants to wear the uniform correctly, always buttoned, clean face and hands, fresh collar, polished shoes, etc. The employees must appeal to the public by their neatness and polite manners, and as ladies always appreciate a good, clean service they will always go where they are assured of some courtesy. Remember that there is always some sunshine after a storm, so do not get downhearted with the prospects of some new competition, but hold your temper, remain dignified and better days will return to your theatre. In closing, I wish to call the attention of the reader to a novelty which is meeting with a great demand, as it is badly needed by the manager wishing to maintain the good appearance of his uniforms. It is a sort of a brooch made of metal letters to form the words "Usher," "Doorman," "Lyric," "Orpheum," etc., to be pinned on the cap or coat of the uniform to take place of the gold embroidered letters. The following cut gives the exact size of said brooch. These metal letters will retain their color and can last a lifetime and are remoable at will. The embroidered gold bullion letters tarnish in no time and when the letters turn black they give a shabby appearance to the whole uniform. While these metal letters are more durable than the gold embroidered letters, they are also cheaper as they retail at 6 cents per letter or 30 cents for the word "usher," 42 cents for the word "doorman," 54 cents for the word "fire guard," etc. The Exhibitors' Times will give three of these brooches (from five to seven letters each) free with one year's subscription. J. M. B. FANTOMAS: THE MAN IN BLACK (Gaumont) The second series of detective tales to be made by the Gaumont company are truly worthy successors of the first set, both in excitement and in their ability to hold the attention of the audience from the first to the last foot. It seems that the French manufacturers have the ability to make pictures of this class better than their American rivals. The story starts with the suspicions of Juve, the sleuth, being aroused by the fact that although a man enters a cab in one disguise he leaves in another. He watches the man for a time and sees enough to fully justify his keeping "tabs" on him. While his assistant is watching the "girl in the case" Juve follows the man, who is one of many aliases and disguises, but unfortunately loses him. The assistant has, however, been able to follow the girl and traces her to a depot, where he gets in the same compartment with her. It is learned here that it is the intention of the "gang" to relieve a messenger of a large firm of some $30,000 through the assistance of this girl. The feature of the drama is the wrecking of the Northern Express. Several fights ensue between the detective and the robbers fol lowing the train wreck, one of them in the cellar of a house being particularly exciting. The end is good; both detective and Lawrence alias Fantomas, alias, etc., are apparently killed in the deserted mansion which the latter blows up. Whether they are really dead is not made certain, but they will probably be resuscitated soon. Both in acting and mechanical makeup the film deserves a prominent position on the week's roster. RUBY, THE CRIME SPECIALIST Film buyers should find interest in the operations of Leon J. Rubinstein, managing director of the Ruby Features, at 145 West Forty-fifth street. New York. He has made good in a field which he had to conceive in order to enter, that of the "educational sensational." In giving the trade a production entitled "The Gunmen of New York," he presented, not a faked Rosenthal tragedy, but an educational document written around the problem of juvenile delinquency. Mr. Rubinstein found, in marketing this picture, that the feature exchanges were prepared to buy all he could turn out along these lines, and he immediately set to work gathering material. His investigations led him into every den and dive in the metropolis, and he eventually gained access to the files of the Detective Bureau, for authentic plots. The Prisons Department of the State of New York co-operated, offering entree into the penal mstitutions in the State so that the Ruby Features will not need to fake prison scenes. The first release from date will be "The Hounds of the Underworld," in which Ruby treats of a species of criminal strange to all save the professional detective; this is the "stool-pigeon," the man who is cornered in crime and forced to aid the police; he turns informer on his cronies to save his neck, and as soon as he makes a false step the deferred sentence is passed on him. The cast is the Ruby stock company, including Henry Sharp, Robert Gemp, Christine Mayo, Will Cowper and Fred Nichols. ADOLPH ZUKOR REPORTS EUROPEAN SUCCESS Adolph Zukor. president of the Famous Players Film Company, who has been making a two-months' tour of Europe in the interests of his company, reports from abroad that foreign conditions are favorable to •Vmcrican films of the higher standard. Mr. Zukor has established oflices in London, Paris and Berlin.