Moving Picture World (Apr-Jun 1917)

April 21, 1917 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 399 THE FILM INDEX EXHIBITORS GUID& Entered at the General Post Office, New York City, as Second Class Matter 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. CHICAGO OFFICE— Suite 917-919 Schiller Building, 64 West Randolph St., Chicago, 111. Telephone, Central 5099. PACIFIC COAST OFFICE-Haas Building, Seventh St. and Broadway, Los Angeles, Cal. Telephone, Broadway 4549. 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 Changes of address should give both old and new addresses in full and be clearly written. Two weeks' time may be required to effect the alteration. ADVERTISING RATES. Classified Advektising — One dollar for twenty words or lest; •Ter twenty words, five cents per word. Display Advertising Rates made known on application. NOTE— Address all correspondence, remittances and subscriptions to MOVING PICTURE WORLD. P. O. Box 226, Madison Square Station, New York, and not to individuals. (Index to this issue will be found on page 498.) "CINE-MUNDIAL." the monthly Spanish edition of the Moving Picture World, is published at 17 Madison Avenue by the Chalmers Publishing Company. It reaches the South American market. Yearly subscription, $1.50. Advertising rates on application. Saturday, April 21, 1917 Facts and Comments WHAT rank nonsense is the advice of those who suggest the expediency of accepting any sort of censorship of films, either Federal or State, in the hope that it will eliminate local annoyance. It is reported that a lawyer claiming to represent some film club actually argued in favor of State censorship at the recent hearing at Chicago on the ground that it was preferable to and would do away with local boards. Film men, beware the advice of one who either does not know what he is talking about or is a Judas. Away with expediency ! * * * KEEP the pictures clean and keep them out of politics is our old, oft repeated slogan. Those who are working hardest for censorship are those of our own household, the producers and distributors and exhibitors of vile films. They are the real enemies of the whole industry. Our reviewing staff have had to be more than ever on the alert lately and our advertising pages have been considerably fewer, because of several films that we will give no publicity to at any price. Let others boast of the number of pages they accept of this sort of business; we want none of it. Keeping the pictures clean is the duty of those in the industry, not of faddists and grafting outsiders, but if the industry does not cure this growing evil, the outside public certainly will. * * * SPEAKING of quantity of advertising we might remark again that we could carry many more pages weekly if we accepted all the vile stuff that is offered and if we were willing to accept copy on credit from every firm attempting to do business on a shoe-string. New companies that are unknown and are unable to pay as they go are usually the ones who fail to give our subscribers and readers a square business deal. Advertising of all the worth while films and all the responsible firms are found in our columns weekly; if not, investigate carefully — there's usually a reason. * * * OUICK and forceful action is demanded of the exhibitors of the State of Illinois if state censorship is to be avoided in that state. It would be a great calamity if the proposed legislation should become law and it is only by determined and united action that such an event can be effectually stopped. Though the proposed bill has been under consideration for several weeks we are told that very little effort has been made to prevent its passage. Something must be wrong with the Illinois exhibitors if they are unable to foresee the annoyance and expense that will come to the industry through the enactment of such a law. Illinois exhibitors should wake up and at least make a showing at the hearing presently to be held at Springfield. Get out and make a protest. * * * WE print in this issue a summary of the proposed bill to license and tax the moving picture industry of the state of New York. This measure is an outgrowth of the work of the Wheeler Investigating Committee of the New York legislature and its sponsors predict that it will yield a revenue of $1,000,000 to the state. There will be a wide difference of opinion as to its utility as a revenue producer and it certainly will be opposed by picture men on the provisions for licensing and taxing the various branches of the business. It is hardly possible to adequately review the measure until it has been put in shape for official presentation, but from the synopsis provided by our correspondent we would venture the observation that the surest thing it will accomplish, in the event that it is placed upon the statute books, will be to drive the entire film manufacturing and distributing business to Jersey, or to some other safe and sane abode. Then what a soft thing the Commissioner will have with $6,000 a year and all he can spend ! It may be that Mr. Wheeler and his friends can get this measure passed, but it is blood-raw. * # * THE Moving Picture World must again commend to its readers the efforts of the editor of its Projection Department, F. H. Richardson, who is making a tour of the United States in the interest of better picture projection. In this issue is reproduced photographs of several gatherings of managers and operators who have assembled to hear his lecture. These pictures prove the growing popularity of Mr. Richardson's tour and the interest picture folk are taking in the subject of projection. The enthusiastic receptions accorded him are of the most flattering nature.