Moving Picture World (Jul-Sep 1912)

ii6o THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD Doings at Los Angeles Many Extensive Improvements Being Made in Picture Studios — Regulating Operators. EXTENSIVE improvements are in progress at three of the motion picture studios in this city. A large force of workmen is now engaged in erecting the new buildings at the plant of the Brand Advanced Motion Picture Co., located on a 40-acre tract in the San Fernando valley near the town of Burbank. The Universal people are spending a great deal of money on their new outdoor studio at Oak Crest near Los Angeles, where they have bought and leased a tract consisting in all of about 20,000 acres and are planning to build the largest motion picture plant in the world. James Young Deer, director of the Pathe Western company, has practically concluded the negotiations for the purchase of 35 acres of land at Edendale and architects are now at work on the plants for his studio, which if it will not be the largest in the world will be one of the most modern and one of the best equipped. Preparations are also being made at Edendale for radical changes and extensions of the old Bison plant of the New York Motion Picture Co. Charles O. Baumann and A. Kessel are here from New York for a personal inspection of the plant and Mack Sennet, the director of the new Keystone company, preceded them by a couple of days. Sennet, with the assistance of Mabel Normand, Henry Lehrmann and Ford Sterling, who came from New York with him, and Fred Mace, former director of Imp comedies, is already at work at the Edendale plant making comedies for future release. The balance of the company was employed here, being recruited from the ranks of other companies on the ground. Fred Balshofer has announced that there are to be two Western releases a week by Ince and Ford, two split reel comedies, one by Sennet and the other by Mace, and one dramatic by a director who is coming on in a few days, but whose identity is not to be revealed at this time. It is reported that Baumann and Kessel, before they return to New York, may have other important revelations to make. Regulating Operators. The city regulations affecting motion picture operators employed in the theaters of this city are occupying the attention of the city authorities at the present time and there is a possibility that the existing ordinance may be amended in a manner that will set a precedent for other cities of the United States. The duty of examining applicants for licenses to operate projecting machines in the local theaters has devolved upon R. H. Manahan, the city electrician, who has come to the conclusion that there is something radically wrong with the present system, but hasn't quite made up his mind about what is needed to improve it. The existing ordinance is a slipshod measure which merely provides that operators shall be required to take out licenses before being employed in picture houses and that such licenses shall be granted only to those who are competent. The practice is for the applicants to appear before the city electrician, who puts them through a simple verbal examination and issues the license if he is satisfied. The percentage of those who are rejected is small and the fellow who is turned down usually has so little knowledge of his business that he doesn't dare make an issue of his rejection. Manahan tells me he is looking for a better and more scientific method and incidentally is trying to persuade the purchasing department to authorize him to obtain instruments and apparatus necessary for a serious examination. He is also advocating an ordinance fixing 21 years as the minimum age for operators. * * * A recently published statement which emanated presumably from the headquarters of the Universal company, to the effect that Frank Montgomery, one of the Universal directors at the present time, is the man who made Bison films what they are to-day, has provoked a loud roar from Fred J. Balshofer, vice-president and general manager of the New York Motion Picture Company. Mr. Balshofer wants a chance to tell the people who are in the motion picture industry that, without casting any reflection on the ability of Mr. Montgomery or the veracity of the officials of the Universal Film Company, most of the credit is due to Tom Ince and Mr. Ford. Mr. Montgomery was only with the Bison company for a short time, Mr. Balshofer says, and did not join until the quality of Bison films had been pretty well established. Montgomery is now with the Universal people and is engaged in directing the pictures which are being released by the Universal company under the brand "Bison," formerly controlled by the New York Motion Picture Company. Harry Revier, director of the Revier Laboratories, has gone to San Francisco on some mysterious mission . >co.nr nected with motion pictures, and also, in some way, conr nected with the Universal company's plans, , according ; to report. It was. said .when he left that his business might' take him to Oregon before his return and that he may establish a permanent company somewhere in the Northern lakes, . streams and pine woods. * * * . Mae Marsh, formerly leading woman with the Biograph company and later leading woman with the Kalem Glendale company, has gone to New York to rejoin the Biograph forces. She will work in Director Griffith's company. Miss Loveridge, who was also with the Biograph players for a time, went with tier. POWELL. DEATH OF BAXTER MORTON. We learn with deep regret of the passing of Baxter Morton, who died on Tuesday, September 3, 1912, aged 3y years. Mr. Morton became severely ill last November; since then he has not been active in business. His death occurred at the home of his family at Falls Church, Va. To those whose daily labors brought them in close contact with this man, his passing brings a desolation which only the loss of a friend can cause. Genial and modest in dispo The Late Baxter Morton. sition, with a courtesy that Northern environments never blunted, sympathetic to a degree and with a patience which stood all trials, it may indeed be said of him that "His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the World, 'This was a man.'" There are many who, like the writer, can speak of the cheery smile, the kindly word and the helping hand which was extended in the hour of need; and for whom the journey of life lias been rendered less hard because Baxter Morton lived. The deceased was a patent attorney by profession and was connected with the Nicholas Power Company. NEW PICTURE HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, MASS. Mr. A. F. Smith, proprietor of the Edisonia, at Springfield, Mass., opened on August 31 a new moving picture theater called the Mirror, in Winchester Square, Springfield, Mr. A. W. Atkins, Mr. Smith's manager at the Mirror, says that he is turning away large crowds nightly. Both of Mr. Smith's houses are equipped witli the Mirror Screen.