The Moving picture world (February 1920-March 1920)

1102 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD February 14, 1920 Some Views Illustrating the Beauty and Utility in the New Mark Strfuid Theatre, Brooklyn. Lef. is a sec'.oin of the orchestra and balcony; center is a look at the front; right, is the grand lobby. Must Inject Personality Into Your Theatre To Be Really Successful By Edward L. Hyman AN operating room minus machinelike precision irritates ) our patron, gives you nervous dyspepsia and often eventually ends in the theatre being remodelled into a garage. You've got to have it! But when you turn the job of managing your house into a cut and dried Jjroposition and lock out individuality and personality you are going to hit the down grade so fast that efficiency can't avert the smash-up. Brown of the X.... Theatre said to me : "Ed, I've got my work systematized so that I can leave my house at eight o'clock every night and things will skate along fine. You kill the job, living at the place day and night." Now Brown may be right, and understand that I am not trying to create the impression that I work harder than any other exhibitor. Yet, I do think that I study my theatre, patrons and the market more closely than hundreds of exhibitors who are wondering why they don't move up. Why Theatres Run Down. Machine-iTiade amusement has been the cause of ninety per cent, of the failures among exhibitors. And, the best machine in the world won't run along long with the engineer away. Seeing that the house opens on time and closes O. K. with a few hours given now and then for booking, isn't going to keep the public agog over the original things you don't spring in the way of picture and musical novelties. The physician and surgeon nowadays who heads up his profession is the one who doesn't bank entirely on his past experience — but is he who studies and studies and never lets up. A theatre manager is the doctor who prescribes the amusement for minds that are wearied and sick with the crash and grind of work and worry. When b ceases studying his patient he loses his ability to prescribe correctly. Must Develop Personality. In addition to that, it is the doctor with the personality who often makes you feel better. The atmosphere he creates when he comes into the sick room generally does more to speed you along to health than the pills he doles out. The same thing applies to the film theatre manager. If you haven't the ability to inject some warmth, some originality into your house and your program the show you oflfer can't be nearly half so effective. Machine-made amusement as a rule won't cure blues and a grouch. The fellow who gives his job superficial attention just can't put it over Passing the buck on those elemental things of showmanship to assistants rarely meets with success although 1 decry the one-man organization. Human Nature Same All Over. The basic principles of human nature, it seems to me from observation, are the same in every section of the country. J do not presume to be a know-all authority, but am merely citing my views as they accrue from my experience with the public as manager of theatres and groups of theatres in the south, north, east and west. As I stated, the human element must be paramount in theatre entertainment, especially in houses featuring films and music. When I took an appointment to a magnificent house with extremely large orchestra, fellow managers assured me that I would have easy sailing for the reason that the new large house would draw the crowds. I disagreed with them and found that hadn't I rooted out the machine-like method of providing shows, that had been previously inaugurated I would have died there. The fashionable audiences able to pay a high adtnission fee wanted just as much of the homelike, personal contact atmosphere as did my patrons in the neighborhood house that I once managed. Of course in a house like the Strand metropolitan ideas and metropolitan scope must be ever expressed. But the personality that is injected into the life of the Brooklyn Strand by its policy, its pictures, its music, its owners and to some extent perhaps by me, will go toward keeping it a leader among playhouses. Trade Papers Give Idea*. No theatre in the world is too magnificent or too large to be able to bar out the human element which has as its foundation your originality, personality, showmanship, as well as that of your colleagues. And your staff won't carry the enthusiasm needed unless you yourself live it and exude it. Many of the ideas that I have been given credit for by my patrons can be attributed to the trade paper from which I gleaned it. .^nd the man who reads them won't have a machine-made plan of administration. Universal Lists Mayo's "The Peddler of Lies" UNIVERS.'XL announces the release of another Frank Mayo picture for March 1. "The Peddler of Lies" will be the title for his latest photoplay, in which he co-stars with Ora Carew. Special interest is attached to the production, which was directed by William C. Dowlan, as it is a screen version of Henry C. Rowland's story "The Pedlar," with which millions of readers became acquainted through the Saturday Evening Post. The original story is followed closely and all the atmosphere of the printed novel is retained in the film. The plot centers about the theft of a great jewel. In the role of Clamp, the peddler, Frank Mayo gives one of his clean cut characterizations, carrying out the illusion of the itinerant merchant with his quaint manner and jovial humor. Ora Carew, who shares the stellar honors, in the role of Diana Kirkland, first likes him, then despises him, and when the truth is revealed, learns to love him. .An exceptionallj' able cast, including Bonnie HjU, Harold Miller, Truman Van Dyke, James Barrow, Dagmar Godowsky, Ora Devereaux, Flora Hollister, William Brown and Ray Ripley, make for an unusually interesting and entertaining production. Picking Cast for "Determination." The United States Photoplay Corporation on January 30 closed a contract with William H. Turner, one of America's foremost character actors, to be cast in "Determination" in the part of Hicks, the family butler. The author, Capt. F. F. Stoll, has had over 100 applications for this particular part. Turner has been screened in 150 different releases. He is a member of New York's famous Green Room Club and in Hicks, the family butler, has one of the most important parts in the cast. The actual casting for this photoplay is now uiider way. The name of the director will be announced soon.