Moving Picture World (Aug 1919)

836 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD August 9, 1919 ZUKOR ELECTED A STANLEY DIRECTOR Famous Players President Is Added to Board of Philadelphia Theatre Operating Company AT the first meeting of the Stanley Company of America, which recently v/as incorporated for $15,000,000, with Jules E. Mastbaum as president, Mr. Mastbaum announced that all details had been perfected for the smooth working and the resultant expansion of the enterprises contemplated. A new member has been added to the board of directors in the election of Adolph Zukor, president of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Therefore his connection with the Stanley Company will bring to that organization the strength of his many affiliations. The Stanley Company, Mr. Mastbaum said, proposes to extend its business by buying existing houses and leasing or building new ones wherever there is an unsatisfied demand for first class photoplay entertainment. Plans are being considered which assure quick service for each theatre. That is to say, that as quickly as films are released they will be shown in the theatres under the control of the new corporation. This will be an innovation in many instances, where films have not reached the location for many weeks after their original showing and insures patrons the latest and best in the motion picture field. Mr. Mastbaum said that ground immediately will be broken for the new Stanley Theatre at Nineteenth and Market streets, Philadelphia, which, as already announced, will be one of the most imposing structures in the country with a seating capacity of 4,000 and containing every mod-em improvement. In addition to this house everything is in readiness for the beginning of work on a theatre at Fifty-second and Chestnut streets in the same city, and another in Logan, both of which, it is said, will be revelations in their particular sections of the city. These are not all of the new houses contemplated. As a matter of fact the company has in prospect the construction of houses in other localities, and will also rebuild and likewise improve several theatres which are now enjoying remunerative patronage. The third man, who has returned to the motion picture game after an abse of a year, in which time he served with Uncle Sam, is Isador M. Stern, who is handling the "stunts" for the organization— his best bit of work being the arrest at Coney Island of the bathing girls. "The Hall Room Boys" May Go to State Rights JACK AND HARRY COHN, who are handling the distribution of the Hall Room Boys comedies, although they have had some tempting offers from several distribution organizations, are considering seriously the advisabil Tour of Sennett Bathing Girls Was Unprecedented WHEN Sol Lesser decided to undertake a transcontinental tour of Mack Sennett's famous bathing beauties, and broached his venture to the veteran motion picture powers on the Coast, they all threw up their hands in fear and said, "It can't be done." "Yankee Doodle in Berlin," with the personal appearance of the girls has proved such a drawing card that the scheduled one-week engagement at Moss Broadway Theatre, New York, has now run into five weeks. B. S. Moss, at whose theater the picture is being shown, co-operated with Mr. Lesser in the matter of publicity, by allowing Arthur Mac Hugh, the head of the Moss publicity staff, to handle Mr. Lesser's publicity for the New York dailies. H. C. McCourt was chosen to head the exploitation department that is, to handle the photos, programs, Sennett songs and the booklet, "Queens of the Sea," containing thirty-four pictures of the Sennett Bathing Beauties. ity of placing the productions on the state rights market. Since the showing of the first two of the series at the Strand Theatre, New York, inquiries have come in from exhibitors anxious to show the comedies and in addition many bids from state rights buyers have been received. One advantage accruing to the exhibitor who shows "The Hall Room Boys" series, twenty-six of which will be released during the year, lies in the fact that nearly one hundred newspapers throughout the country are daily advertising the boys. The two featured comedians, Flanagan and Edwards, have appeared in the vaudeville houses of the Keith and Orpheum Circuits, for several years, as headliners. Their comedy is known to be clean-cut and sure fire. Jack and Harry Cohn desire to give all state rights buyers an equal opportunity before concluding distribution arrangements. Mayflower Sues to Recover $5,200 from Harley Knoles T HE Mayflower Photoplay Corporation has filed an action in the United States Court against Harley Knoles, who was engaged by the film company as director of "The Red Republic" adapted from "The Comrades" by Thomas Dixon, to recover $5,200 which the defendant is alleged to have extorted from the company. The complaint filed by House, Grossman & Vorhaus, counsel for the film company, sets forth that Knoles was engaged as director in September, 1918, and commenced work on the production at the Norma Talmadge Studio on October 31, completing the interior scenes early in December when the casts was transported to Florida to take the exterior scenes. Did Not Use Scenario. After the interior scenes were completed at periodical intervals until the completion of the photoplay, the company charges, the defendant made demands upon the company for amounts in excess of his salary of $800 weekly under the contract which is alleged to have been paid under duress and protest. Knoles completed the production without the aid of a scenario, making it impossible for the film company to engage another director to complete the production at the time he made his alleged demands upon the company for additional sums, and as the company had invested upward of $60,000 in the production it had no alternative it is alleged but to comply with his demands. Through his attorneys, Lewis & Schaap, the defendant denies the allegations contained in the complaint that he extorted the sum mentioned from the company and asserts that he was entitled to the money which he received, amounting to $1,000, under the terms of the contract. being peculiarly White's talents. adapted to Pearl Although work on this film has not been started, material for other Pearl White pictures^ is already under consideration. Barriscale Feature Lends Itself to Window Displays BESSIE BARRISCALE'S recent production, "The Woman Michael Married," released by RobertsonCole through Exhibitors Mutual, is an example of a modern style production. Several exhibitors have linked the advertising of the picture in the newspapers with the advertising of local merchants and have also arranged Barriscale windows. Photographs of the star in her many beautiful gowns were used as models of what might be accomplished with materials which were displayed in the windows. It is being more generally recognized by merchants eve/ywhere that motion pictures are a dominating influence in the creation and spread of fashions and the value of co-operation with exhibitors is daily becoming more apparent to them. In the latest Barriscale picture not alone evening gowns, but bathing costumes and street dresses of the latest mode were used. In fact, so many costumes were worn that a small window of photographs, each one of the star in a different gown, was possible. Exhibitors everywhere have reported that women leaving the theatre after a striking society play talk about little else but the appearance and costuming of the women, and invariably stop in the lobby to closely regard the photographs. "Tiger Cub" Is Pearl White Film. "Tiger Cub," announced as the vehicle for Miss White's debut as a William Fox star, will be the first of a group of big productions which Mr. Fox has planned for her. Scores of novels and scenarios were rejected before the choice finally fell upon the story as Levey Returns from Trip. Harry Levey, general manager of the Universal Educational and Industrial Departments, returned this week from the Middle West, during which time he visited business acquaintances. Incidentally he announces that he has brought back to New York the largest contract for the distribution of educational pictures in the history of the industry.