Moving Picture World (Sep - Oct 1918)

September 21, 1918 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1717 Edna Goodrich in "Treason," Mutual Film's Production. duction predict for him a brilliant future before the camera. He has signed a two-year contract with Mr. Keeney. In resuming activities after a brief summer lull Mr. Keeney says he will continue to produce only high-class pictures, artistic and complete in every detail. He intends to surround his stars with strong casts and to put them out in scenarios by leading authors. He believes in pictures which tell human interest stories, with enough thrills to give them pep and also with plenty of humor of the right sort. "In times like this, when the public mind is on the anxious seat, we are especially in need of entertainment which, possessing the saving grace of humor, will shake us out of the doldrums," says Mr. Keeney. "A good laugh is wholesome medicine at any time, but especially at a time when the mind is apt to be a prey of suspense and sadness." GOLDWYN SALESMEN OUT FOR RECORDS Fay of Cincinnati, Bloom of St. Louis and Russell of Kansas City Make Large Claims TYPHOOON FAN COMPANY MOVES. So rapidly has the Typhoon Fan Company grown that it has found it necessary to move its old quarters at 1544 Broadway to 281 Lexington Avenue. Here the company is occupying one of the finest buildings in that section, within easy reach of the theatrical district as well as the transportation and terminal facilities of the city. The Typhoon Fan Company was at the Broadway address for ten years, and has grown from a one-man concern to a business employing a half hundred men and women. With the Lexington Avenue force and its branch office in New Orleans, employing a force of twenty, it is better equipped than ever to cool the United States. MISS OGDEN JOINS WORLD FILM. Miss M. L. Ogden, who has had a wide experience in commercial advertising work, having been with the National Cloak and Suit Company and with the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency, has accepted a position in the advertising department of the World Film Corporation. Miss Ogden has charge of ad layouts and other commercial art work for the World. SALESMEN of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation throughout the country are engaged in a spirited free-forall contest to establish speed records in closing contracts under the company's new Star Series booking arrangement. Charles R. Fay, a salesman in the Cincinnati exchange, tossed his hat into the ring several weeks ago by announcing that he had closed a Star Series contract and obtained a deposit check in just three minutes. The account of this incident was published in the form of a challenge in the Goldwyn GoldWinner, the weekly house organ of the company. Mr. Fay appointed himself the king of the speed merchants and defied all other Goldwyn salesmen to dethrone him. In the September 14 issue of the GoldWinner, large space is devoted to answers to Mr. Fay's challenge and numerous "come-backs" are printed, among which are two from salesmen in the St. Louis and Kansas City offices. Salesmen Joe Bloom of St. Louis declares he is the rightful speed monarch and recounts several of his recent experiences in closing contracts to prove his claim. Salesman W. C. Russell of the Kansas City exchange pokes fun at the challenge of his brother salesmen. Russell records that while motoring through a town of 500 population he ran across a motion pictures theatre, promptly drove to the entrance, tooted his horn, induced the exhibitor to take a ride around the block with him and, during the brief course of the spin, obtained a contract for Goldwyn's entire output of Star Series productions. Russell emphasizes the fact that he was not even obliged to leave his steering wheel and that the contract was obtained and deposit check written in the few minutes it required to drive one of Henry Ford's performers around the village block. This is "going some," according to the Goldwyn salesman, and beat's Fay's record by — well, he failed to carry a split-second watch, so he can not state the exact number of seconds, but he does know that he closed the deal in less than three minutes. Salesman Bloom puts in his claims for the honors on the common law of averages. Percentage, too, is taken into consideration and Bloom feels sure that he is the real, honest-to-goodness Goldwyn hurry-up man. Bloom's claims for recognition are supported by the following records : Visited an exhibitor in a town in Missouri and within 27 minutes booked the exhibitor for Goldwyn's entire 1917 output of pictures, monopolizing his screen for thirteen vveeks of Goldwyn productions exclusively. En route to another town. Bloom saw a motion picture theatre in the course of construction, so he hopped off the train at the nearest station, drove back in an automobile, a distance of four miles, and booked the new theatre for twenty-seven Goldwyn pictures. In addition, Bloom named the theatre for the exhibitor, calling it the New Liberty. The contract and deposit check were received and Bloom was out on the next train within the brief period of twenty minutes. Bloom refuses to stop with these records; he goes Fay one better, and records another lightning experience. During a visit in a Kentucky town. Bloom booked one of Kentucky's leading exhibitors for Goldwyn's entire 1917 output and supplemented this solid booking with contracts for "Smiling Bill" Parsons' Capital Comedies, released through Goldwyn, and for Goldwyn's entire series of specials. Bloom received these contracts between trains. At the time he got them, train service was able to sit up and take nourishment, and "between trains" meant minutes, and not hours. Other members of Goldwyn's selling organization have donned the war togs, and if the battle-royal continues in its' present strenuous fashion, Goldwyn may have to call in a referee.