The Moving picture world (October 1920)

October 9, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 821 Two Harry Levey Companies Show Speed in Makifng Industrials and Big Dramas HAVING achieved the unusual feat of filling two separate theatres on the same night with a premiere showing of his "Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge," Harry Levey continues to prove that the man who said that "you can't do two things at the same time and do them well" was wrong occasionally. Under Mr. Levey's guidance, both the Harry Levey Service Corporation, the company which was formed for the production of industrial-educational motion pictures, exclusively, and the Harry Levey Productions, which plans to produce each year eight feature dramatic photoplays "with a purpose," are making rapid strides in the matter of production and distribution. "The White Bottle," the second of the Harry Levey Productions features, is being completed rapidly under the direction of Harry Fraser. This is said to be a message to mothers. All interior scenes were completed last week and the company, which is headed by Lillian Bonnie, the Ziegfeld beauty, Leslie Hull, and the Carr Kiddies, has been making exteriors in Connecticut. Third of the Harry Levey Productions will be a picturization of "Man to Man," the story by John Leitch. This, too, will follow Mr. Levey's policy of producing features with a big central idea, in that it deals with the labor problem. Story of Electricity Mr. Levey has also secured the screen rights to "Tim Talks," the series of sketches on life written by Tim Thrift, that have been syndicated to newspapers and magazines. Three of them, "The Silent Partner," "There Was a Time" and "The Doff Deserving," will be placed in production soon, and a fourth, "The Forgotten Child," will be ready for release at Christmas-tide, it is announced by Ben Blake, production manager. An educational feature is to show the entire story of electricity. This is to be released in the form of ten one-reel pictures, at the rate of one a month, each one complete in itself, but tying up with the others in such a way as to form a complete series. Another important educational-industrial feature is "The Porcelain Lamp," in which is to be shown the entire evolution of travel. Harry Levey also is making a film for the National Consumptives Hospital of Denver which is to be used to convince people of the need for funds to carry on a crusade against the tuberculous. An industrial film is to be built around the industry and enterprise of the State of Georgia, _a,s part of the coming "Advertise Georgia" enterprise. Congratulations Are in Order A new and lusty supporter of the Moving Picture World has arrived at the home of Nat Bregstein, circulation man of this trade paper, in the person of Jerome Julius Bregstein. Jerome weighed ten and onehalf pounds a few minutes after he began ballyhooing for the World. Both mother and son are doing well. Mr. and Mrs. Bregstein have a daughter seven years old. Billie Burke First to W ork in New Studio The distinction, of being the first woman star of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation to start work in the $2,500,000 new studio at Long Island City, just opened, falls to Billie Burke. The picture Miss Burke will make is "The Education of Elizabeth." Personal Touch (Continued from page 803) has taken over the Dixie Theatre at Goldwaite, Texas. * • * * A. E. Smith, president of the Vitagraph Company, it is rumored about, will move with his family to California this winter to make his permanent residence there. * * * Joe Kelly, formerly of the Hallmark publicity department, is now engaged in general exploitation work with the Eastern Film Corporation in the Candler Building, New York. * * * Guy L. Wonders, of the Rivoli Theatre of Baltimore, formerly the Wilson, and Filea lula, musical director of the Rivoli, were in New York, September 28, to brighten up their "attics" and absorb any new idea hereabouts. * * * Harry Ascher, formerly district manager for Paramount in New England, is now the owner and manager of the Boston Motion Picture Supply Company, handling the Simplex machines. * * * "Speedy" Molder is putting up a new house, seating 1,200, at Sapulpa, Okla. * * * C. A. Fiezer recently opened The Leader Theatre in the suburbs of Cumberland, Md. * * * H. A. Friese has opened suburban house at Sheourgan, Wis. * * * A new theatre, seating 1,100, has been started at Milford, Conn., to be. run by two Hartford merchants. * * * * The Stratford Theatre, seating 700, will be opened about November 1, at Stratford, Conn., to be run by B. Feldman of Brooklyn. * * * John W. Rankin, who was connected with the Vitagraph Company's publicity department four or five years ago, is now with the Goldwyn Distributing Corporation at Los Angeles. * * * Merle Johnson, one of the youngest directors in the business, has formed his own company. With Doris Kenyon as his leading woman, he has taken his cast of thirteen players to Knoxville, Tenn., where exteriors of "Footsteps," as the play has been named, will be filmed. * * * James W. Morrison has finished "When We Were Twenty-One," in which he played "The Imp," and is returning to the East. * * * Irene Boyle, who played opposite George Walsh in "The Dead-Line," is now playing the leading feminine role in "The Rider of the King Log," which Edgar Jones is making in Augusta, Me. Edna May Sperl has ended her month's vacation and will soon begin work on the second of the series of five reel dramas which Edgar Jones is producing in Maine. Miss Sperl earned her vacation, for she worked steadily for a year in the Northwoods series of two-reelers at Augusta. * * * Using the Capitol, the White House and the other Government buildings as his locale, David G. Fischer will soon begin work on "In the Shadow of the Dome," a photoplay of life in Washington. Mr. Fischer heads the new Fox-Fischer Masterplays, Inc. He will be remembered as an actor in many popular successes on the stage, particularly as Julia Marlowe's leading man. * * * Leo Fox and G. S. Abbott have organized the Hudson Film Corporation, with offices in the Leavitt Building, New York, to handle state and world right pictures. * * * Frank Gerston has taken over the Frances Edmunde production, "The Unfortunate Sex," to handle on a state rights basis. * * * Rumor has it that the Diorio Theatre at Waterbury, Conn., is about to change hands to parties unknown. * * * Paul Grey is handling "Shipwrecked Among Cannibals," exploiting and booking it on percentage basis. * * * Miller's 101 Ranch Company, it is reported, is producing Western dramas in Arizona. Chauncey Alcott, we are told, is producing at Astoria, L. I. * * * The Family Theatre, 2139 Fifth avenue, Pittsburgh, has changed hands. Paul Radocha is the new owner, having purchased the house from Wm. Flamm. The house has 250 seats. nmmii iiiimimn inn 11 iitimiiiiimmiiiu Photoplay Magazine November, 1 920 \ TRUMPET ISLAND— Vitagraph ""TRUMPET ISLAND" will be one of the 1 talked about pictures of the fall and winter. It is easy to believe that Tom Terriss and his cast spent months and <ndured all manner of hardships that this might be a super-feature in fact as well as in the advertising. The "air stuff." as the climaN of which an airplane is sent hurtling throuch an electric storm and ends with a crash in the trcetops of a lonely island, however it may have been obtained, is much the most realistic of any similar scenes to which have been witness. The story is a GouvcH neur Morris romance, which is sufficient to stamp it Witl) a certain originality and. charm, and the scenario and titles arc by Mr/ and Mrs. George Randolph Chester, which' is something of a guarantee of quality. A young girl, convent reared, falls in love with a soldier boy back from the wars. Her father decrees, however, that she shall marry one of those withered roues of the drama who can bring her wealth but no love. The soldier boy acquires sudden wealth and loses his head, and then seeks to recover his equilibrium by going to live on that good o.d abandoned island of the movie seas. The girl, dutifully agreeing to marry the roue on promise of being taken in an airplane on her wedding tour, from which she expects to dash herself to death, is eventually dropped at the boy's feet on "Trumpet Island," her memory gone but her sweet self miraculously preserved. Together the youngsters live through several happy weeks, and then thcyj are found and threatened with a scparaj^ tion that you very well know never take place. A big picture in the true sense, anc an Interesting picture, rich in adventure, notl too extravagantly illogical and pictorially arresting. Marguerite dc la Mottc is an attractive heroine, Wallace MacDonald a plausable and likable hero.