Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

Record Details:

Title:
Moving Picture World
Date:
Jan-Feb 1927
Publisher:
New York, Chalmers Publishing Company
Volume:
Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)
Leaf #:
000179
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System and Early Cinema
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Sponsor:
Media History Digital Library
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:
Moving Picture World, founded in 1907 by J.P. Chalmers, was one of the motion picture industry's first trade papers. Published on a weekly basis in New York City, Moving Picture World informed exhibitors about films available for rental and editorialized on behalf of the growing industry (improving the quality of movies through higher filmmaking standards, not government censorship, was a frequent topic). The paper reached its height in the mid-to-late-1910s--a fact reflected in the circulation figures and the huge amount of advertising that filled every issue during the period. In the 1920s, Moving Picture World lost ground to other competing weekly trade papers -- including Variety, Exhibitor's Herald, and Motion Picture News. In 1927, Moving Picture World ceased publication when it was acquired by Martin Quigley's Exhibitor's Herald. Across the 20 year run of Moving Picture World, readers can watch the transition from short film programs to feature films and witness the transition from the dominance of Edison's Trust to the rise of the "Independent" film companies that ultimately became the Hollywood studios. Silent film historians have utilized and cited Moving Picture World more frequently than any other trade paper, and the publication still has many insights left to offer. -- Eric Hoyt, 2012/2013
Date Added:
September 21, 2023
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

January 8, 1927 Travelle, Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. HIS SECRETARY. (6,125 feet). Star, Norma Shearer. Good production. Tone, appeal good, Sunday yes, special no. Mrs. J. B. Travelle, Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. HIS SECRETARY. (6,123 feet). Star, Norma Shearer. Very good story, acting and photography. Tone, appeal good. Sunday yes, special no. Draw farm, town class, "town, 1,650 Widely scattered. Mrs. J. B. Travelle. Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. HIS SECRETARY. (6,423 feet). Star, Norma Shearer. A good comedy drama with Lew Cody and Willard Louis sharing honors with the star. Pleased the rather small •crowd that came to see it. Paper had no appeal. Tone O. K. Appeal 60 per cent. Sunday yes, special no. Draw townspeople, farmers, town 850. Admission 10-25. Guy G ‘Sawyer, Town Hall (26!) seats), Chester, Vermont. LA IIOHEME. (8,530 feet). Stars, John Gilbert, Lillian Gish. Did a fair business. This was not the special Metro-Goldwyn claims it to be, here. Ranked here as an average picture. Draw working class. Admission 15. Mitchell Concry, Columbia Theatre, Renssalaer, New York. LOVEY MARY. (6,167 feet). Star, Bessie Love. Good little picture. Nothing big but all right for program show. Tone good, appeal fair. Sunday yes, special no. Drawl town, farm class, town 600. Admission 1030. H. W Batchelder, Galt Theatre (175 seats), Galt, California. OLD CLOTHES. (5,915 feet). Star, Jackie Coogan. Played this as a benefit show for a local organization. Drew a capacity crowd and it pleased young and old alike. Tone good, appeal 90 per cent. Sunday yes, special no. Draw townspeople and farmers, town 850. Admission usually 10-25. Guy C. Sawyer, Town Hall (250 seats), Chester, Vermont. PARIS. (5,536 feet). Star, Charles Ray. Here, rotten is all that we can say for this one. Small town draw. A. Mitchell, Dixie Theatre, Russellville, Kentucky. ROAD TO MANDALAY. (6,583 feet). Star, Lon Chaney. Think Chaney has made better pictures than this. Someway they don’t draw for us: too horrible and morbid. Tone not so good, appeal poor. Sunday, special no. Draw town, rural, town 896. Admission 10-25. Mrs. S. J. Brown & Son, Phoenix Theatre (200 seats), Neola, Iowa. SLAVE! OF FASHION. (5,906 feet). Star, Norma Shearer. Very good story with a moral. Tone, appeal good, Sunday yes, special no. Mrs. J. B. Travelle, Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. THERE YOU ARE. Star, Conrad Nagel. Was a little disappointed in this one after reading several good reviews on it. I thought it was too foolish in spots and can’t figure out even now, how the title applies to the picture. Tone O. K. Fair appeal. Sunday yes, special no. Draw all classes, town 3,000. Admission 25-35. T. L. Barnett, Finn’s Theatre (560 seats), Jewett City, Connecticut. TOWER OF LIES. (6,849 feet). Star, Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer. It is a shame to crucify these two good stars in such a picture. Nothing pretty about it — all ugly. Story vague, slow and really trying to look at. Seastrom should have secured passage across t’he sea after this effort. The public doesn’t want this stuff and the exhibitor feels like hiding when they come out. Tone O. K. Appeal 25 per cent. Sunday yes, special no. Draw general class, town 3,600. Admission 10-20. Wm. A. Clark, Sr., Castle Theatre (400 seats), Havana, Illinois. WALTZ DREAM. Foreign cast. This was not a bad picture, but our patronage will not come out to foreign stuff. If M.-G. doesn’t improve, the big parade will be headed by two old soldiers, one with a drum and the other with a fife. Their management is wrong, some way. Wm. A. Clark, Sr„ Castle Theatre (400 seats), Havana, Illinois. WALTZ DREAM. Star cast. A very pleasing program picture run on a bad, rainy night. Picture pleased those who saw it. Tone, Sunday O. K. No as special. Draw mixed class, town 3,000. Admission 10-20. MOVING PICTURE WORLD A picture that pulled a packed house on a rainy night ! A comedy that saved the show when the feature turned out flat. A picture that drew against a carnival. Where can you learn about those assets to your program? From the tips that generous exhibitors contribute to Straight from the Shoulder. Such tips have already appeared. Do your part to help others. Send tips early and often! J. R. Long, Opera House (300 seats), Fort Payne, Alabama. WAR PAINT. (6 reels). Star, Tim McCoy. A new one again to work up. This did not draw for some certain reason. Sorry, as it’s a good program picture. Not so long ago I ran WET Paint — and now WAR Paint. Maybe that hurt. Not much appeal. Sunday yes. R. A. Preuss, Arvada Theatre, Arvada, Colorado. Paramount GREAT GATSBY. Star, Warner Baxter. Not thought of so much here; the possibilities seemed to be in the Story but, according to general opinion, they lost out in filming it. It is well produced, and it has a good cast but if you buy picture to picture, I wouldn’t go too high on this for from my experience if duplicated, if you do you’d go into the “red” proper. Poor attendance. Dave Seymour, Pontiac Theatre, Saranac Lake, New York. KID BOOTS. (5,650 feet). Star, Eddie Cantor. A good comedy but a poor bet for small towns, as Cantor is unknown. Played it two days but didn’t do anything with it. Tone O. K. Fair appeal. Sunday yes, special no. Draw all classes, town 3,000. Admission 25-35. T. L. Barnett, Finn’s Theatre (560 seats), Jewett City, Connecticut. KID BOOTS. (5,650 feet). Star, Eddie Cantor. Rental too high, raised admission — should have run at popular prices; picture is not worth raised admission. Outside of that, very good production. Should be played at popular prices as it is not a superspecial— but just a special. Tone, appeal good. Sunday yes. Draw farm, merchant class, town 1,650, widely scattered. Mrs. J. B. Travelle, Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. MOANA. (6,133 feet). Not good for Saturday night. Too eductional for the masses. Not a small town show. Fine stuff for the highbrows. Tone good, appeal fair. Not special. Draw better class, town 4,500. Admission 10-20. C. A. Anglemire, “Y” Theatre (400 seats), Nazareth, Pennsylvania. NELL GWYN. Star, Dorothy Gish. Miss Gish gives a wonderful performance and I had ‘that artiste’s popularity, locally, to help us; but the picture fell far short of expectations. They are not keen for that type of picture here anyway. Attendance poor. Dave Seymour, Pontiac Theatre, Saranac Lake, New York. PADLOCKED. (7 reels). Star, Lois Moran. A dandy program picture that pleased. Tone good. Appeal 80 per cent. Sunday O. K., special no. Draw mixed class, town 3,000. Admission 10-20. J. R. Long, Opera House (300 seats), Fort Payne, Alabama. PALM BEACH GIRL. (6,918 feet). Star, Bebe Daniels. The" best thing from Paramount in some time. This is far superior to Brewster’s Millions. Lawrence Grey is as good as Daniels. Tone O. K. Appeal 75 per cent. Sunday yes, special no. Draw farm class, town 1,200. Admission 10-25. 147 James B. Trout, Liberty Theatre (250 seats), Leonard, Texas. QUARTERBACK. (7,114 feet). .Star, Richard Dix. This is some show, one that will please all classes and stand up for all the publicity that you want to give it; will stand raise in admission without any kicks. If you. have not yet played it step on the gas. If there ever was a two-day picture for small towns this is the one. No business here — but no fault of the picture: business is dead in the dark belt tobacco district in all lines. A. Mitchell, Dixie Theatre, Russellville, Kentucky. QUARTERBACK. (7,114 feet). Star, Richard Dix. This is by far the best attraction for box office Dix has given us to date. Tie football game is the real thing. It seems real, yet it is very thrilling. The whole picture is jammed with entertainment. Give us some more as good. Tone O. K. Appeal good. Sunday O. K. Special yes. Draw all classes, town 3,000. Admission 10-30. M. W. Larmour, National Theatre (430 seats), Graham, Texas. QUARTERBACK. (7,114 feet). Star, Richard Dix. Good football story. Should go anywhere. Plenty of action. Tone, appeal good. Sunday, special, yes. Mrs. J. B. Travelle, Elite Theatre, Plaeerville, California. QUARTERBACK. (7,114 feet). Star, Richard Dix. Oh, Boy! This can be summed up in one big word — Great! Best picture we have ever run. Book it and boost it. It’s bound to please. Tone, Sunday O. K. Appeal 100 per cent. Special yes. Draw mixed class, town 3,000. Admission 10-20. J. R. Long, Opera House (300 seats), Fort Payne, Alabama. RAINMAKER. (6,025 feet). Here showed up just about as rotten as one could be made. A. Mitchell, Dixie Theatre, Russellville, Kentucky. VARIETY. Star, Emil Jannings. A finely acted, finely produced picture. It should go well everywhere except in the very small towns. How they will accept it is, to my mind, problematical. Where you get the proper type of audiences they will eat it up — and come to see it a-plenty. Did nicely here with it, and the rental was reasonable — -as it should be in the medium sized town. Patronage very good. Dave Seymour, Pontiac Theatre, Saranac Lake, New York. WANDERER. Star cast. A wonderful picture but not a good drawing card for us. Had very small crowds to see this. Watch your step on this. Tone good, appeal fair. Not special here. Draw better class, town 4,500. Admission 10-20. C A. Anglemire, “Y” Theatre (400 seats), Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Pathe SEVENTH BANDIT. Star, Harry Carey. Liked by some but not by all. Picture was somewhat stirring in places. Tone yes, apappeal fair. Could be used Sunday, hardly special. Town 570. Admission 10-25. J. W. Ryder, Jewel Theatre, Verndale, Minnesota. Producers Dist. Corp. BRAVEHEART. (7,336 feet). Star, Rod LaRocque. Adapted from the story, Strongheart, has much human interest. Rod LaRosque as an Indian brave certainly gets away with the part wonderfully. An excellent football game, staged near the end, helps to put it across with the audience. Many favorable comments. Drew well. Tone fair, appeal 80 per cent. Sunday, special yes. Draw all classes, town 2,900. Admission 10-25, 15-30. A. E. Andrews, Opera House (480 seats). Emporium, Pennsylvania. VOLIGA BOATMAN. (2 reels). Star cast. Any time that a feature starts off with this on the first reel — “Directed by Cecil B. De Mille” — it’s a knockout. Have run every picture directed by him except Road to Yesterday, and they have always been extra good ones. Paramount lot a good bet get away from them when Cecil DeMille left them. The Volga Boatman is some show.