Moving Picture World (April-June 1915)

May 22, 1915 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1231 THE FlI/M INDEX BXHTOITOBS' eUIDB J. P. Chalmers, Founder. Published Weekly by the CHALMERS PUBLISHING COMPANY 17 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY. (Telephone, 3510 Madison Square) J. P. Chalmers, Sr President J. F. Chalmers Vice-President E. J. Chalmers Secretary and Treasurer John Wylie General Manager The office of the company is the address of the officers. Western Office— Suite 917-919 Schiller Building, 64 West Randolph St., Chicago, 111. Telephone, Central 5099. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. United States, Mexico, Hawaii, Porto Rico and Philippine Islands $3.00 per year Canada 3.50 per year Foreign Countries (Postpaid) 4.00 per year ADVERTISING RATES. Classified Advertising — no display — three cents per word; minimum charge, SOc. Display Advertising Rates made known on application. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. All changes of address should give both old and new addresses in full and clearly written. NOTE. — Address all correspondence, remittances and subscriptions to Moving Picture World, P. O. Box 226, Madison Square Station, New York, and not to individuals. (The Index for this issue ivill be found on page 1344.) Entered at the General Post Office, New York City, as Second Class Matter Saturday, May 22, 1915. Facts and Comments THE legislature of Ohio has passed two important amendments to the present censor law both of which are objectionable. It seems a moral certainty that the amended bill will be signed by the governor. One of the amendments makes the exchange man equally liable with the exhibitor for the showing of any uncensored film. The other provision allows the Censor Board to designate practically as many assistants as the\' feel they ought to have. E\erybody must have known from the beginning that three individuals could not intelligently examine all the films that were offered for exhibition in Ohio. There was some honest effort on the part of the then governor to select competent citizens of the state. Under the new dispensation the office boys and the messengers and the stenographer^ may be ap pointed as censors and no test of qualification is exacted or even suggested. The inherent absurdities of censorship are bound to crop out no matter which way the censors turn. * * * THE decision of the Federal Court for the District of New Jersey denying the prayer for an injunction against the collector of the port of Newark was foreshadowed in The Movini; Picture World of last week. The injunction was asked for to prevent the collector from interfering with the importation of the prize fight films. It looks at the present writing as if the men who are anxious to get these films into this country and who have invoked the law for this purpose must wait until their complaint against the collector will be argued and tried before the courts in the regular order of procedure. Judge Haight did not pass absolutely upon the issues presented. His decision merely means that no case for an injunction was made out. The writ of injunction is really a legal ])rivilege, for the granting of which an extraordinarily strong case must be presented. The Court in handing down its adverse decision heeded the plea for urgency in the case by allowing an immediate appeal to the Circuit Court of Ajipeals which sits in Philadelphia. According to our news information, this appeal has already been argued and a decision by the Appellate Court w^ill probably he made within the next week or so. Upon the decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals depends not only the fate of these prize fight films but probably the fate of all federal censorship schemes. l|( TJC % THE word "educational" as applied to many films thus labeled is a misnomer. With the market more open than ever before in the history of motion pictures the exhibitor will do well to revise his old and somewhat unfavorable opinion about "educationals." He is now in a position to choose and there is no branch of all the wide field of kinematography where the exercise of good judgment will more surely bring its reward. In the balancing of the modern motion picture entertainment the genuine educational picture with a strong entertainment value is as important as the multiple reel feature. There is a small stock of finely entertaining films which are educational incidentally rather than purposely. There are a few that are finely colored. Some of them are quite old, but that ought to be no objection if the reels are in good physical condition. We speak more particularly of the supply whicli Pathe, Gaumont and George Kleine have on hand. A little effort to get the best they and others have in that line will make your program look different and better than that of vour competitor. A good "educational" well assembled with a little of the dramatic or picturesque element will often turn the balance in your favor. * :■: * A MEMBER of the staff of Tjie Moving Picture W^ORLD had occasion the other day to see a series of re-issues of old Biographs. It was an impressive lesson. These single reels and others dating from that period challenge comparison with the inultiple reel feature. There was no padding. The aim of the director was brevity and condensation. Space was precious and no scene was prolonged for a second beyond actual necessity. We were always sure of the packed sss-^nce and directorial skill abhorred dilution. As a whole, the industrv has advanced marvelouslv and left the days of 1908 and 1909 far behind, but the art of condensation shown in many of the old single reels has never been surr)a.ssed. .At its best the old school of "singles" accounted in sood measiire for the early popuhTrity of the motion picture.