Moving Picture World (Sep - Oct 1918)

fi 1708 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD ■• ■ p ■■^^■^iW. ■ » ^ _J» September 21. 1918 ~^ News of Los Angeles and Vicinity ; By A. H. GIEBLER COAST PLAYERS ALL SET FOR DRIVE DtliniU IMaiis Laid Tli Making Quota ol $:),0(HJ PLAN'S and arrangements for making the fourth Liberty Loan Campaign in the West Coast him industry a success have been completed. Committees have been named and details have been worked out that will injure the film people making their five-milliondollar quota with ease. A big open-air stage, designed by Wilfred Buckland, head of the art department of the Lasky Studios, will be erected in Central Park. A realistic production of a gigantic tank will occupy a large space on the stage. The tank will be headquarters for all Liberty Loan activities for all three branches of the industry — producers, distributors and exhibitors. An especially built platform will accommodate a big orchestra and there will be room on the tank and lower platforia for one hundred persons. All around the tank will be sales counters with elevated platforms to insure prospective bond purchasers the chaoce of reaching the buying platform. Elevated runways five feet wide will extend far out into the space where the audiences will assemble. There will be ten speaking platforms in addition to the tank rostrum on the edge of the open air amphi-theatre, and it will be possible to hold eleven meetings all at the same time. The various propaganda films mad? by the film stars will be shown on a gigantic screen that will drop in front of the stage, and the J. Slipper Company will erect a complete and fully equipped projection booth for this purpose. The tank in Central Park will be unveiled and dedicated on the night of September 28. D W. Griffith, president of the Motion Picture War Service Association, is slated to release the curtain that will bring the tank to view, and Lois Weber will christen the tank "Victory." The first meeting at the tank will be under the auspices of the Motion Picture Directors' Association. Seventvfivc directors and many stars of the film world will be present. Victor Hermann, former Sennett director, but now in the Naval Reserve, has arranged for the forty-piece Submarine Band to be on hand to furnish the music. The receipt for the first Bond subscription taken at the tank meetings will be indorsed by President Wilson, Secretary McAdoo, Governor Lynch. Twelfth Federal Reserve Bank, and practically every star of filmdom. This receipt, which will be a work of art, will be incorporated into a handsomely bound book containing the autographed it Will Insure Studios ,000 loi Liberty Loans photographs of all the stars signing the receipt. The receipt will go to the subscriber who buvs the greatest number of bonds, and bids will be received at the first meeting, or may be sent in letters or telegrams accompanied by 5 per cent of the amount subscribed. Bids for the first subscription, which must be bona fide whether they are for the largest amount or not, should be addressed to J. C. Jessen. 429 South Figueroa street, Los Angeles. The tank meetings in Central Park, which were originated during the last Little Thrills ol the Week I i.i\<i.il i'M\ in Ixiin; Mrul'l"'! uiij polli>ht-d uii<i shined. the ttmua IB Ix-liiK cut oil the iMwns In front . . ,, building, the ill) t'lephalit IX ,it of furnuurr pollah. and other ■nlmala In the *u>> nr^ t««>(n(r vsooumed; teveral new ipeared uround tli< .luae Carl l^aeniin,.' ; .;.. ■ aHt III about '«■■ wr«ka. The latent murrlaK' rumoi hiil..'< the Hume of Mae Murray and itcil> ■ ' ' -• ■ .ther In the Kuldi-ii If the Be ruilluiM them are g:olni{ !■• lead lo matriinuny one of theae day* A writer ••nt Heaaue Hayak^iw.i .. ■ceiiarlo laat week ac<i>inpanlod wl(h theHe kind wordp: "I simply offer thi»utJKeatlon Should you like it I nhould be extremely glad to have you use It without payment." Here'H the thrill! I'pon reading the scrir'It wuB found tluil the story w;i.a new. clever, original, interesting and entirely suited to the star's needs. two weeks of the third Liberty Loan drive, resulted in $582,000 worth of bonds being sold. This amount did not include more than a million and a half dollars sold in the studios. Bond selling committees have been appointed by Charles H. Christie and J. C. Jessen, in charge of the campaign, for every studio on the West Coast, as well as committees to operate among the theatres and exchanges. Arrangements have been made to have the sales made by these various committees turned in at the tank meetings designated for each studio or other branch of the industry. In this manner all bonds sold to the people of the picture industry will pass through the auditors of the tank meetings, and figures of the « sales to the entire industry will be under i one head. Kach studio will have a night at tiic tank, and all the famous stars will vie with one another and compete for the honor of the biggest night. The women of the M. P. W. S. A. will have concessions for the sale of refreshments during the drive, the proceeds to lie devoted to the various war activities carried on by the association. The committees appointed in the various studios will be instructed in a schoci of bond salesmanship. Stage Mechanics Strike. MeciiaiiiL':> and ^tage carpenters of the tilm industry, members of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employes on the West Coast, went out on a strike on August 28, demanding luglier wages and time and a half for civertiiiie and recognition of the union. Practically every studio in Los Angeles was atTectcd by the walk-out. A number of the studios acceded to the demands of the strikers, while other plants did not. At several of the studios celebrated stars got out and hustled props and did the work usually taken care of by the technical and mechanical departments. .\t a meeting of producers, held at the Lasky plant lo discuss the situation, it was stated the trouble grew out of a controversy between the I. A. T. S. E. and the United Brotherhood, both of which unions are claiming jurisdiction of the motion picture industry. The consensus of opinion at the meeting of the producers was that the policy of the open shop, heretofore in operation at the studios, should be continued. As to "time and a half" for overtime it was said the peculiar nature of the industry renders a demand of this kind unjustifiable. In the matter of the wage scale it is claimed by tiic producers that the studios have previously granted the scale demanded by the mechanics — that is. $^1 for an eight-hour day. Eltinge Begins Production. Julian Eltinge has begun work on his first feature under his contract with Fred Balshofer at the old Metro studio on Gordon street. The story, which was written by Balshofer, is entitled "Over the Rhine," and deals with a young American college man's experience when he is caught in Germany at the outbreak of the war. Eltinge has the opportunity to wear several changes of stunning feminine apparel during a portion of the picture. Warren to Make Pictures. Herbert Warren, for some time past director and producer for Roscoe Arbnckle at the Balboa studio in Long Beach, has left the Arbuckle comedy organization and will in the future make