Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1914)

98 THE :^IOMXG PICTL'RE WORLD moving picture show by Manager George Spaeth, of the Majestic Theater. The pictures of the dedication of the Michigan BuildiBg at the Panama Exposition were shown at the Wenonah Theater in Bay City. Every Monday night has been made prize night at the Lyric Theater in Marquette. Manager Kerredge. of the Kerredge Theater, of Calumet, has discontinued feature pictures at his house and closed it until some time in September. Charnas & Sons, of Altoona. Pa., have purchased the Orpheum Theater at Benton Harbor. A. L. Sawyer, of Menominee, chairman of the upper peninsula committee of the Michigan State Historical Society, has begun a research for all characteristics, songs and legends of the Indians to be preserved by the use of moving pictures and phonograph records. The Commercial Club, of Jackson, sent its boosting film to Lansing where it was viewed by the Chamber of Commerce. The Paragon Feature Film Company, of Omaha. Neb., has been trying to interest the Lansing business men in a similar project. Among the novel methods for increasing the advertising value of the Jackson film were a guessing contest on the length of the film, a tlcket-«elling contest by the Boy Scouts of the city and sending free tickets to the theater to all delegates to a convention, which was held in the city. MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICE. IOWA THE Elite Moving Picture Theater which was operated on West Second Street, between Harrison and Ripley Streets, in Davenport, by Olaf Klintz has been closed. G. W. Curtis is remodeling a building in Redfield for use as a moving picture theater. L. C. Burwell has purchased an interest in the Ipase on the opera house at Marathon from Elmer Floren and Enoch Richeson. Edward Neiman has sold his moving picture theater at Wellman. The Photoplay Theater at Manson is being enlarged to a length of one hundred feet and otherwise improved. P. J. Grace & Sons, who operate a moving picture show in Adair, have succeeded I. J. Swarzman in the management of the Adair Opera House. The Palace Theater at Cedar Rapids has installed a $7,000 pipe organ. C. W. Dibbem has purchased the Crystal Theater at 328 Harrison Street, in Davenport, from John F. Scherer. It Is reported the site in Sioux City, knovm as the Grain Exchange Building corner, is being sought for theater purposes. R. Butterfield has opened his airdome moving picture show at Aurelia. Exhibitors in Des Moines have agreed to raise their admission prices from five to ten cents for all persons over twelve years of age and to increase the shows from three to four reels. MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICE. WISCONSIN. THE Society for the Suppression of Commercialized Vice ought to favor the bill for the federal censorship of moving pictures, according to Senator Howard Teasdale, chairman of the Wisconsin State Vice Commission. He told the meeting in Milwaukee little more than that there were some bad films and that there was no necessity for a board of censorship in every state. Lieutenant Governor Barrat O'Hara, of Illinois, a vice crusader who is a great endorser of anything likely to use his endorsement in print, was at a Milwaukee meeting and saw "Traffic in Souls" at the Davidson Theater. Fred M. Rehfuss has sold the Star Theater on Main Street in La Crosse to William L. Johnson. Thomas Sase. of the Orpheum Theater in Milwaukee, was host to the members of the Rotary Club and their wives and mejub^rs of the city club at a presentation of "Les Miserables." Most of the houses in Madison had special war pictures on their programs when the Grand Army of the Republic held its annual state encampment in that city. H. Zillhart has sold the fixtures of the Pastime Theater at Delavan to George Kulke. of Bowers. The Majestic Theater at Milwaukee has gone into pictures at ten cents for a while. R. J. Wakeman with the Majestic orchestra and a pipe organ are furnishing the music. Attendance has been stimulated by an arrangement with the Free Press which has been publishing free admission tickets in its columns. Seido & Bruhn have purchased the Badger Theater at Neillsville from Thomas Gosling. B. F. Newman and his wife, formerly Myra Dietz, recently were at Chippewa Falls, arranging for a series of pictures of that city and its beauties. Newman was also at Rice Lake for the Dietz-Newman Motion Picture Company, where he took a number of pictures to be used by the commercial club for advertising purposes. The Park Theater on Mitchell Street In Milwaukee will be remodeled at a cost of SS.OOO. That the multiple-reel features are self advertising is evidenced by the demand in Two Rivers for "The Lion and the Mouse." The Opera House found a return engagement profitable. The Bijou Theater at Appleton used a nine-^iece orchestra in connection with its presentation of "Ben Bolt." Mrs. Harry Jones is now manager of the Park TUeater at Waukesha, retaining the management of the Colonial as well. Otto L. Meister, who secured a site on Third Street, in Milwaukee, for the erection of a new moving picture and business building, will call the theater the White House. It will seat 2,000 persons. Meister is proprietor of the Vaudette Theater at 183 Third Street. The Crystal Theater in Milwaukee gave up vaudeville for a week to show the labor picture, "From Dusk to Dawn." The Milwaukee Leader, a paper popular with the laboring classes, shared in the profit. Manager Prion will give shows at the Auditorium in River Falls put four nights a week during the summer months. Moving pictures are not a detriment to the public. The judges said so after the question was debated by the Lincoln Dramatic Club in Milwaukee. Manager George Fischer, of the Alhambra Theater, of Milwaukee, planned to visit Boston. Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Detroit before returning from the convention at New York, seeking new ideas in the photoplay business. James Cochrane, manager of the Bell, North Avenue and Fourteenth Street, announced before his departure that he was planning a new $125,000 picture house on Third Street. MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICE. DETROIT THE National Theater announces that it will discontinue vaudeville, starting with June 29, and instead will run feature films. The National is at present a ten-cent house, but with the feature-film policy the prices are to be raised to 10 and 15 cents for the boxes. C. R. Hagedom. manager, states that if feature pictures prove a paying proposition during the warm-weather months, it is very likely that the directors will decide to continue them indefiMitely. Monroe Avenue, which is Detroit's "Gay White Way," has four legitimate ten-cent vaudeville houses, so that Mr. Hagedorn feels that there should be room for at least one high-class theater devoted exclusively to photoplays. A hold-over of the Indianapolis Speedway race pictures, and the George Kleine feature film, "Antony and Cleopatra." was the bill at the Washington Theater the week ending June 21. While this house had not done a big business for the first two weeks of pictures. Manager Faetkenhauer says every day is showing improvt-meot and that within another month he expects to build up a steady patronage. Matinee prices are ten cents, with 25 cents in the evening. The Esperanto Film Manufacturing Company has been organized in Detroit by Will Levington Comfort, the author: W. H. Pipp. formerly reporter on the Detroit News, and several others. The capital stock is $75,000, all of which is subscribed and paid in in cash. Mr. C^5mfort has written the scenario for the first production, and he will also assist in the making of it. Norman Hackett, well-known Detroit actor, will enact the leading male role. Work on the first picture is to start almost immediately. Most all of the outdoor scenes will be in and around Detroit. Belle Isle Park will be used considerably for that purpose. When George H. Wiley was in Detroit to attend the fourth annual convention of the Michigan State Exhibitors a point he brought out very forcibly in his talks was that members should read the Moving Picture World or any other trade journal for which they may be subscribing. "Every exhibitor should read his trade journal. Not only to take the paper and look through it hurriedly, but to read it and read it carefully," he said. "Every issue is worth five dollars to him if he will just take advantage of the opportunity. I don't know of a single thing that has uplifted the moving picture business as much as the trade journal, and such an excellent trade paper as the Moving Picture World is deserving of your very best support. The advertisements are just as instructive as the editorial pages. They keep you in touch with what the various film companies are turning out both in this country and in Europe. It will enable you to discuss the moving picture business intelligently." President Jeup, of the Detroit Motion Picture Exhibitors' League believes the day is coming when there will be fewer theaters. "The time is not far distant when the dirty, unsanitary and not-properly managed moving picture theater will be out of business. The man who is 'on to his job* and who knows the business from every angle will survive, but not the inexperienced chap who simply uses the moving picture business as a side line. The industry is getting down to a business basis and men of finance and brains are gradually getting in control. For that reason it should behoove every theater owner to be constantly in touch with every detail of the business and to watch his house thoroughly and cater to the likes and dislikes of his patrons."" F. R. Rumley, proprietor of the Warren Theater, is recovering from an attack of pneumonia which has confined him to his home for the past month. Morris Sazk is having a theater built at 341 Dix Avenue, which will seat 400 persons. It will be devoted to photoplays. George McArthur, Jr.. who is the operator at the Bell Theater. 396 Dix Avenue, owned by his father. George McArthur, Sr., was married on July 10. He will be away a total of four weeks on hi^ honeymoon. Plans have been completed for a S2.T.0O0 thpatcr to be erected on Woodward Avenue, npar Pasadpna Avenue, in Detroit's North district called "High land Park." The building, which is to be owned by Mrs. Mabel Wills, will have two large stores ou the ground floor, beside the theater. It will be two stories high and built of brick. According to the plans, it will be one of the finest playhouses in the northern suburbs. A feature of the "open house" at the Cass Technical High School recently was moving pictures illustrating the processes of manufacture in some of Detroit's leading plants. These pictures are used in the regular course of instruction. The purpose of the "open house" was to show the public what the students could do in the way of woodturning. printing, etc. Assistant Attorney General F. C. Martindale appeared before the Michigan Supreme Court on June 15 and argued in favor of the constitutionality of the motion picture theater law passed at the last session of the state legislature. The Jewell Theater in Detroit appealed the case, claiming the law under 5;hich the state fire marshal is given supervision over the motion picture houses to be unconstitutional. The Jewell was an upstairs theater and was fcrced to close a few months ago bv order from the State Fire Marshal. Phil Gleichman, vice-president of the World Film Corporation, who has for some years been residing in Detroit, gave up his residence June 13 and moved east. Mr. Gleichman and his family have taken a summer home at Far Rockaway. and during the winter will live in New Vonj City. In connection with the announcement that the Ford Motor Company, of Detroit, will put on the market (free to motion picture theaters) a FordDetroit Weekly. A. B. Jewett, who is manager of the motion picture department, states: "It is not Mr. Ford's idea to feature the Ford plant in the pictures. Of course, that industry, as one of the most widely known in the city, has a legitimate news value in the films, but we hope rather to make the films a record of significant events in Detroit." It is reported that A. J. Gillingham, of the General Film Company, and proprietor of the Empire, has closed negotiations with David Stott for the ground in the rear of the Arcadia Dance Hall at Woodward Avenue and Stimson Place, with a view toward the erection of a motion picture house. With Mr. Gillingham will be associated several eastern men. C. Howard Crane is preparing plans for the new structure which will cost $75,000 and will seat 1.500. with special attention to ventilation and roomy seating capacity. When seen t»y the Detroit correspondent of the Moving Picture World, Mr. Gillingham would not confirm the above story, but yet did not deny that negotiations were under way and that in all likelihood would materialize. Owing to the popularity of the pictures, "Neptune's Daughter" was held over for a fifth week, starting with June 28. SMITH. MONTREAL "DUD LEXXOX, formerly Ontario manager for the ■L' Famous Players Company, has been in charge of the Canadian Film Company pending a change of management. The management of the Tivoli has installed a new Peerless Projector. Mr. English, the manager, announces that he has poolsed "The Million Dollar Mystery." The Montreal office of the Famous Players Film Service of Canada is now situated at 198 St. Catherine Street. West. The new quarters are fully equipped in the most modem way for the convenience and comfort of their customers. Harrv A. Kaufman, formerly of the Canadian Film Exchange, is in charge. Louis B. Hecht is now managing the Scala. pending the decision of the courts. Sometime ago. the Mark-Brock Amusement Compan.v. of Buffalo, sublet the Scala to Lawande Bros. Owing to the nonpayment of rent, Mr. Hecht had the building seized during the Messrs. Lawande's absence. On their return, Mr. Hecht was brutally and cowardlv assaulted by the two brothers, and had it not been for the timely interference of the authorities. Mr. Hecht would have been sorely at a disadvantage to protect himself. One of Ih^ Lawandes harangued the audience, and there wou.J have been a riot but for the coolness and fairness or Mr. Hecht who explained everything to his patrons, and thus poured oil on the troubled waters. At the time of writing the case has not been flnished. but the popular opinion is that the Mark-Brock people will win out. Peter Gravel has just been appointed bv the Provincial government to the position of inspector of moving picture theaters for the province of Quebec. The office, which is a new one. was created at the last session of the Legislature, when the act governing the board of moving picture censors was considerably strengthened. For the first year the board had no means of enforcing its decisions, and had to rely on the police wh.. only occasionallv visited the