Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

136 MOVING PICTURE WORLD January 8, 1927 How a Chance Wisecrack Put Over Storin’s Feature Saved Qirls From Prince of Tempters Failing to borrow a real safe, the Capitol Theatre, Reading, Pa., made a compo board safe as its lobby display on “The Prince of Tempters.” It was guarded by an unusually pretty girl in the crimson dress of Mephisto, who served to get attention for the stunt. SAVING THE HEARTS The safe was lettered with the legend “Lock up your heart, girls. The Prince of Tempters, Ben Lyons, will steal it. 1,001 Loves; 1,001 Thrills.” The idea is decidedly good, but if you can borrow an old safe, leave the door open and hang it with the red cutout hearts you can buy from your stationer or make for yourself. Hang them so that the safe seems to be filled with hearts and let the girl keep opening and closing the door. Production Hints from Edward L. Hyman Managing Director, Mark Strand Theatre, Brooklyn The Christmas show ran 2 hours and 8 minutes with Richard Barthelmess in “The White Black Sheep” as the feature picture and with Irving Aaronson and his Commanders as the chief musical attraction. The Barthelmess feature ran 1 hour and 11 minutes and additional film subjects took up 14 minutes more. The musical presentations required 43 minutes altogether. A Christmas Fantasy opened each of the four deluxe performances of the day. The first scene was “in one,” showing the outside of a city mansion. There were two big windows in the drop and lights behind the curtains disclosed faintly the interior of the house. On the sdewalk stood a group of singers who first did “Come All Ye Faithful,” after which the bass-baritone sang “Nazareth.” “Joy to the World” was then sung by the choristers, after which the soprano sang “Angel’s Serenade.” “Jingle Bells” followed by the Ensemble who made their exit on this number, as a ragged newsboy came to peek through at windows as the party inside progressed. The lights faded out on this and the curtain was raised to show the interior. There were several children dancing around the Christmas tree and members' of the ballet were made up to represent various toys. From this point on the presentation was pantomime, showing first the “Children’s Frolic,” “The Arrival of Santa Claus,” the appearance of “Jack in the Box,” “Dance of the Toys,” and closing with a big dance finale. Lights : light blue foods on production stage ; 4 light blue borders ; bridges 1 and 2 light blue floods. Two spots on soloist singers. Two deep blue floods from dome. On the soprano number — ceiling stars blue, borders dimmed off, magenta dimmed up interior of house. Fifteen minutes for this presentation. Incident No. 2 was “The Barefoot Boy,” a color art classic, adapted from Whittier’s poem. At two appropriate places in the film a baritone solo was put in. The singer standing off stage singing first “Barefoot Trail” and “Boy of Mine” as the second number. Deep blue floods from bridges on orchestra. This short film subject required 6 minutes. Incident No. 3 was Harry Breuer, xylophone virtuoso of the famed Mark Strand Orchestra, who played “Russian Rag” from his customary place in the orchestra. Lights : Magenta flood on draw curtains and side from bridge No. 1 ; orange floods on draw curtains and side from bridge No. 2; amber spot on soloist from dome ; blue stage borders; steel blue stars in cove. Two minutes for Harry’s number. After the Topical Review, which required the customary 8 minutes, came Aaron and his commanders, who started off with an instrumental number, after which they dived in a routine which contained singing, dancing and mimicry. For versatility it is doubted if this' organization can be surpassed. The customers were still asking for more when their presentation had finished. Lights : 2 automatic color wheels working on mosaic Christmas trees ; blue borders ; light blue foots on production stage ; bridges — magenta floods; 2 light amber floods from dome. On their second number, a quartette, composed of musicians, sang “Mary Lou.” Bridge amber spots covered the singers; 2 blue floods from dome. “Valse Eureka” was played as a solo by first saxophone. Amber flood from the dome covered the soloist. This number required 26 minutes. A CANVAS FRONT FROM THE ROBB AND ROWLEY THEATRE This is in Hillsboro, Texas. The false front is very simply decorated with cutouts, yet it gives a striking effect, better in some ways than a more elaborate and confusing design. You know it’s football. A Chance Wisecrack Boomed Two Features Lately Farry F. Storin, of the Leroy theatre, Pawtucket, R. I., had a touring The Big Parade for opposition to his showing of Three Bad Men and he hit up the advertising a bit and did other things calculated to aid, but the big plum just fell into his lap. It just fell, but Storin was quick to realize that it was a plum. The first day one of his staff came back from lunch with a wise-crack supplied by the counterman. It ran to the effect that there would be no Pig Parade since Three Bad Men had stolen all the horses. Storin lost no time in relaying the joke to the rest of the staff with an urgent entreaty to pass it along, and that evening it was all over town. It was just a silly joke, but it did both shows more direct good than all the newspaper and poster advertising they had used so liberally. Storin writes that the roadshow seemed to help the Leroy because it got people thinking about pictures in general.