Moving Picture News (Jul-Oct 1913)

THE MOVING PICTURE NEWS 45 WEBER & FIELDS AND KINEMACOLOR A new feature film-producing company has just been formed. Under the name of the Weber & Fields Kinemacolor Producing Company, New York, a five hundred thousand dollar company has been organized for the purpose of exploiting popular German comedians in a series of feature films. It comprises amongst its directors Messrs. Weber & Fields, William Klein, Morris Ely, A. P. Barnard and A. H. Sawyer. The Kinemacolor studios will be utilized, and the first series, consisting of a full evening's entertainment, will be commenced immediately. Roy McCardell, the World's humorist, has written the first libretto, entitled "Mike and Meyer Around the World." It opens with a scene where these familiar characters sell out to the Delicatessen Trust, and start on a globe-trotting tour. Among the scenes may be mentioned their jump into the bay from the deck of the Imperator, and subsequent adventures at the bottom of the sea — these latter scenes being rendered realistic by the Kinemacolor submarine pictures, taken with real fish and aquatic animals. Mr. McCardell is at present in Panama, and it is probable that he is arranging to send "Mike and Meyer" on a trip through the Canal. This is only the first of a series of comical adventures of the famous comedians which will be filmed in natural colors by the Weber & Fields Kinemacolor Company. THE HEART OF A PRINCESS Warner's Features Director H. C. Matthews, who made the Warner's feature for "The Heart of a Princess," is to be congratulated upon his selection of the theme and his treatment of it. He has gone to our old friend, the Arabian Nights entertainment, and has taken a story which I think I read a long time ago in which there are three competitors for the hand of a beautiful princess. These competitors hope to win her heart by finding the most wonderful thing in the world — one finds a telescope, the other found a magic carpet, the other an apple. There are archery contests in this pretty story, which is a series of what we might imagine pretty pictures of Oriental life in the time of the great caliph, Haroun-AlRaschid. Have you ever seen a Drury Lane pantomime? This is the great Christmas spectacle in the oldest theatre in London. It is generally built around fairies, genii, wonderful adventures and the like. You get Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sindbad the Sailor, and similar subjects put up in spectacular form. This film reminds me of these entertainments. It is gorgeous. Oriental and pretty to the eye. I suppose the picture was made out in Los Angeles. Wherever it was made, it is a wonderfully good thing. It will delight the eye and interest the people in virtue of its pretty story, for the Princess and successful wooer live happy forever aferwards and steal away in a very pretty barge. If Warner's features can give us many pretty subjects like this, the new venture is sure of success. T B. "ON THE ROAD" (Continued from page 30) The third floor, also 38x120, is divided into several departments: The Poster Mounting, Sign Painting, The Title and Manufacturing, etc. Mr. George W. Bradenburgh is well located and has spared no expense to have a most modern and well-equipped exchange. The move was made necessary as the old place on Eighth street was getting too small to accommodate the constantly increasing business. It is correct to state that Mr. Bradenburgh is not only a strong believer in printer's ink, but he composes some very clever advertising cartoons, as can be judged from the accompanying cut: In many cases the name given to a theatre is not appropriate to either the location nor to the style of construction. We often find a theatre called the "Grand," when it is in fact the smallest in the town. The word "Colonial" on a construction of pure Moorish style. "Bon-Ton" to designate a theatre given to the roughest element of the town, etc. "The Leader," I am pleased to tell, is an appropriate name for the handsome theatre on Lancaster avenue and Forty-first street. It is a leader in everything, in architecture, in decorations, in lighting, in excellent pictures, in a fine projection, in appropriate music and in a most polite and courteous service. After leaving the Leader visit the Colonial Amusement Palace, also on Lancaster avenue, and you will agree with me that the Leader is the refined theatre of the neighborhood. The Colonial is doing a good business, but it is an entirely different patronage. J. M. B.