Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1915)

504 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD Fulv 17, 1915 V-L-S-E Classification Approved Big Four Plan of Grading Features and Rental Prices Gives Satisfaction. SINCE the recent joint announcement by Walter W. Irwin, general manager of the V-L-S-E, and A. E. Smith, of the Vitagraph Company, to the effect that the "Big Four" subject, "Hearts and the Highway." was placed as a class B subject by comparison with "The Juggernaut," and "The Island of Regeneration," and would not be offered to exhibitors at rental charges in excess of $50, untold comment and discussion has arisen in feature film and exhibiting circles. At the time of making this announcement, it was distinctly stated that the rental set on the subject in question was not to be construed as a cut in prices, but had been set because exhibitors, owing to the great success of the two preceding blue ribbon features, would be inclined to pay an equal amount for this subject, and the Vitagraph Company did not wish their salesmen to use two regular releases as the basis of charge for this added subject. Hundreds of letters, however, from exhibitors have been re1 at the general office and by the V-L-S-E branch managers, and the thoughts expressed in all of these letters are identical. With the exceptions of minor differences in phraseology they might all have been run off on a multigraphing machine. One of them from a prominent exhibitor in the South will serve as an illustration of the consensus of exhibitors' opinion on the V-L-S-E policy. This exhibitor writing to W. C. Brandon, manager of the Atlanta branch, says: We want to congratulate you and the V-L-S-E in the matter of grading their features. We refer especially to the method of handling the Vitagraph release, "Hearts and the Highway." Some feature exchanges would not have hesitated in juggling this in with their regular feature program and insisted upon the same amount of rental therefor. The fact of the matter is "Hearts and the Highway" is much better than many feature producers could possibly turn out, and it would have been heralded with much praise on some programs. Now, although most exhibitors are considered "minus" to a great big extent by producers and some exchanges. I am sure there is not one exhibitor who does not appreciate consideration of this kind. It is commendable if for no other reason than that you have proved yourself to be honest toward the exhibitor. I do not remember having received a letter of the sort that was sent out in conjunction with the release announcement of "Hearts and the Highway" from any other feature exchange, and I expect to use this feature when we get far enough along in our program to do so. The tenor of this letter is identical with thousands now in the files at the executive offices of the V-L-S-E and Mr. Irwin. speaking on the subject, said: "The company is gratified that its efforts to work in close harmony with the exhibitor are so well understood and appreciated." "Lincoln Cycle" Creates Interest Innovation Presented by the Charter Features Corporation and Benjamin Chapin Opens New Fields for Exhibitors. ANNOUNCEMENT in last week's Motion Picture World of the comprehensive motion picture, "The Cycle of Lincoln Plays" to be released by the Charter Features Corporation, has brought forth a surprising response from all over the country and a great number of inquiries from exhibitors for further details. The Advertising Department of the Charter Features Corporation makes this statement: "We have in preparation a book that outlines in detail many of the activities planned for exhibitors who carry Charter Features' 'Cycle.' It embodies the various sidelights to the general scheme and presents the extensive forces that are at work to back up the pictures ■wherever shown. "Plans for educational, religious and political alliances are covered in this book and an outline is made of the new type of advertising that is to be done for the Lincoln Cycle. "Having planned to spend a goodly amount of money in acquainting the entire exhibitor public with all of the facts through the trade press, it is intended that all moneys spent in reaching the general public shall be done on behalf of and in the name of the exhibitors showing the pictures. In other words, instead of nationally addressing motion picture goers, each theater will be made a pivotal point of all promotion activities so that none of the results shall be lost for the theater." Alice Brady in Role of "Circe" Interprets the Part of the Goddess of Sensuality in Remarkable Knickerbocker Production. THE beautiful, "winsome Alice Brady, a favorite Broadway star and one who has proven by the quality of her work that she is worthy of the enviable name she has won, appears in the next release of Knickerbocker Star Features, a three-part drama, "The Cup of Chance," written expressly for her by the Rev. Clarence J. Harris — a story which represents an entirely new line of work by this author. Miss Brady has added new lustre to an already brilliant career as she interprets with such remarkable skill the life of a girl who has never ha-d a chance in life. Her role as Hope is one of great difficulty which involves an interplay of all kinds of emotion from simple, innocent childlikeness to the extreme of waywardness. During the filming of this drama Miss Brady won the esteem and good will of all connected with the studio; she was called there a "Jolly-good-fellow," and she was rightly named, for she ftiade everyone happy as she worked, from the little child in the drama, and visiting children, to fellow artists and director. In the range of emotion which Miss Brady is obliged to ln Alice Brady in "The Cup of Chance" (Knickerbocker). terpret in "The Cup of Chance," we see her a young girl whose home influence has always been the worst, a home in which motherhood was unknown, and where liberty and license reigned. Here we see innocence in the environment of wrong doing, the girl so raised that the wrong looked right to her. Hope's sale to a whiteslaver, which results in immeaiate retribution to the slaver, leads 'to her accepting a position in an opera, "Circe," while the tragic death of her mother gives her a chance in life for which she is utterly unfitted. In the role of "Circe," Miss Brady interprets the enchanting spirit of Circe from the Odyssey, the famous epic poem of Homer. Interpreted by Mathew Arnold and others, Circe is looked upon as a goddess of sensuality, and according to Homer, she gathered admiring men about her, only to turn them into swine at her pleasure. Until the arrival of Ulysses, she plays well her part. While acting the part of Circe in the Opera, Hope, impersonated by Miss Brady, lives the part off of the stage. At last, however, Hope pays the price for her folly, collapses and flees from society and the stage, only to meet and marry a rich bachelor. Here she meets her first great chane& in life, but is unable to grasp it and the marriage ends in tragedy. The story is not a preachment; however, it has for its basic principle the fact that on account of the degraded motherhood in many instances, children are reared with false standards of morality degrading ideals and weakened constitutions, all of which must end in wreckage of character. More than this, untrue motherhood, not only blasts the destiny of the child, it has far-reaching influence in the lives of others, for no one falls by himself. Miss Brady has outdone herself in her work, she holds one to the last flash of the picture and handles the delicate subject with great genius and skill. SOLAR SCREEN IN SOUTH AMERICA. After trying for several years to induce the South American exhibitor to install daylight screens, it fell to the lot of the Simpson Solar Screen Company to fill the first orders for that country. This week four Solar screens will be shipped to Brazil and Venezuela. MARGARET WYCHERLY IN A NEW ROLE. Miu-f!;irt-t Wycherly. the star of the World Film Corporation photoplay, "The Fight," appears in a new role, quite in keeping with the part which she took in that very successful film. She has been chosen to impersonate the goddess of liberty and readthe Woman's Appeal for Liberty at the Independence Day demonstration of the Empire State Equal Suffrage Party. It will be remembered that in the photoplay, "The Fight." Miss Wycherly was the woman mayor of a city, Jane Thomas, who set out to clean up the vice resorts. She encountered great opposition but was successful in the end.