Moving Picture World (Jan-Mar 1912)

26 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD of this house during the day. What a travesty on pictures I One would think he was going to a cheap carnival show at a country fair. An aluminum screen is also used at this house, and also bright lights on the side walls, without being shaded. This is another case where the police enforce the rule. The operator, H. E. Shaw, and the relief man conduct the booth in a satisfactory manner. I met Carl Duncan, a singer, who has been employed by Mr. Barton for twelve years. Mr. Duncan was looking after the interests of the house, out in front, when I saw him. He reported fair business. ^j,^ Manhattan. F. J. Rembusch owns the Manhattan Theater, an Independent house, at 136 W. Washington Street. The manager is H. H. Koch. The house seats 300 people. Three reels, changed daily, form the service. There is an orchestra of two pieces, except on Saturdays and Sundays, when it is increased to six pieces. Illustrated songs are used. Here there is another glass screen with slightly better projection than observed by me in other houses using the same kind of screen. The Manhattan has a very pleasant and comfortable interior. The side lights are set in green opal shades, and French plate mirrors are inset in marble frames along the side walls. The house impressed me by its neatness and by its good ventilation. Manager Koch informed me that business was very satisfactory and that it had picked up considerably during the three months that Mr. Rembusch has owned the house. An Acknowledgment. I wish to express my indebtedness to Frank Zepp, special traveling representative of one of the leading Indianapolis film exchanges, for his kindness in taking me the rounds among the theaters and other places of news interest during my brief stay in the Hoosier metropolis. It saved me a great deal of time and, besides, gained for me introductions to quite a number of people whom I otherwise would have missed. Mr. Zepp has had a wide and varied experience in the film business, being familiar both with the rental and exhibiting departments. I stepped in to see his old theater, the Vaudette, on S. Illinois Street, opened about six years ago, and the second oldest picture house in the city. There Mr. Zepp cleaned up over $15,000 the first year, offering one reel at a nickel a throw. And this veritable hole in the wall holds about 100 people! It is still cozy and well ventilated at that, and is doing a fair business. Mr. Zepp ran it three years, but the building of larger and more comfortable theaters attracted its patrons elsewhere. ■1 »'Vf/.i.Cl ^^^H p^m 1 Kleine to Release Cines Pictures. To Take the Place of the Gaumont Product— First Release on January 20. GEORGE KLEINE'S contract with the Gaumont Company having expired, his last release of Gaumont films will be made January 16, arrangements which have been pending with the Cines Company for some time having been consummated in a long-time contract between that company and George Kleine. There will be two (2) weekly releases of Cines films in place of the Gaumont under Mr. Kleine's license from the Motion Picture Patents Company; one every Tuesday and Saturday. The UrbanEclipse reel will continue as heretofore every Wednesday. The Cines Company has been extremely desirous of releasing its films as part of the Licensed product, and has never been affiliated with the Motion Picture Distributing & Sales Company. Mr. Kleine made the following statement Tuesday, December 26, when asked for the facts: ''Before closing a final contract with the Cines Company, I looked carefully into the merits of their product, with special reference to suitability for the American market, and concluded that no other European maker, excepting possibly Pathe, showed such efficiency as the Cines people. The demands of the London market are essentially the same as those in the United States, and in looking over the programs of the London theaters I found that the Cines product was represented in nearly every one of them. "The Cihes Company has a very large plant, with many producers, and a large staff of high-class performers, and I believe their organization to be most advanced and progressive. "The output of the Cines Company averages five (5) reels weekly from which our two (2) weekly releases will be selected. Of the many advance productions that I saw in their studio in Rome, fully 90 per cent, were subjects of such a nature as to make great successes in our market. "Our first Cines release will be made January 20, 1912. The subject is 'Brutus.' the film being an adaptation from Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar.' I am willing to stake the reputation of the Cines product upon this subject, which is very beautifully staged and superbly acted. It includes the death of Caesar. Mark Antony's speech, the flight of Brutus and his fellow conspirators from Rome, the appearance of Caesar's ghost to Brutus, his death upon the battle field, and the Battle of Philippi. "I am particularly pleased with many of the Cines comedies, 500 to 600 feet in length. They are of a refined character, without vulgarity, and they show g'enuine humor such as is appreciated by American audiences. "The staff responsible for the Cines product is of the highest intelligence, ambitious, capable, and very wide awake. "There are ready a number of films which were especially made with a view to the American market, and arrangements have been made by which there will be a continual output of subjects which will not only embody ideas that are attractive to our people, but which are staged with all the magnificence, the striking light effects and the perfect photography of the best European studio." GEM THEATER, JEFFERSON CITY, MO. We print herewith a reproduction of a photograph of the Gem Theater, High and Monroe streets, Jefferson City, Mo., of which Mr. A. E. Longenecker is the proprietor and manager. Our correspondent informs us that the theater is one of the best moving picture houses in central Missouri. It has a steel operating booth, measuring 7x9x7 feet high. Two machines with Gundlach lenses are employed, namely a. Power's No. 6 and an Edison B, and a Mercury Arc Rectifier, manufactured by the General Electric Company. The place opened last August and has been doing capacity business since that time. BIOGRAPH EN ROU'TE TO CALIFORNIA. On Thursday morning, December 28, 191 1, the Biograph company of players to the number of sixty persons, under the direction of Producer Grifiith, left New York via the D. L. & W. and Sante Fe railways for Los Angeles, Cal., where the regular winter campaign of picture making will be taken up. In the party, which filled two special overland coaches, was Mr. Lew Dougherty, the popular publicity man of the Biograph Company, and his wife and baby. Mr. Dougherty accompanies the players as scenario editor, and is looking forward to a very pleasant sojourn with his family in the land of perpetual sunshine. Bofinger and Field, managers of the Majestic Theater, Enid, Okla., have closed a three year lease on the entire building now occupied by the theater on South Grand Avenue, and announcement has been made that many extensive improvements will be made immediately. QUINCY, ILL., HOUSES IN CHURCH FAVOR. The Lyric Theater. 225 South 5th Street, Quincy, 111., has recently been the recipient of favorable editorial mention in "The Western Catholic," a church paper of some magnitude. The Lyric is a house seating 400 and is under the able management of Mr. H. T. Loper, who is also the priprietor. The Vaudette, also of Quincy. comes in for words of praise, both as to the conduct of the house and in recognition of its manager, Mr, vv'. W. Watts, as a benefit to the community. The Vaudette seats 500 and gives a high class entertainment.