The Moving picture world (November 1920)

November 13, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 175 Burleson Admonishes Postal Employes to Use More Care in Handling Films POSTMASTERS and postal employes are being admonished by Postmaster General Burleson to use greater care in the handling of films in order to eliminate as much as possible the misrouting of shipments by parcel post. The employes of the postal service have had their attention called to the fact that information has reached the department that a considerable number of shipments of films in individual packages are missent, causing delay and serious inconvenience to both shippers and addressees. "It will be understood that as a general rule these films are moving on a schedule from place to place for exhibition and display on previously arranged dates, and a failure to arrive at destination on time not only seriously inconveniences the addresses but entails a consequential loss upon the shipper because the films are exhibited upon a rental basis," the department points out. "Postmasters and all post office employes are therefore requested to give special attention to this condition and to exercise greater care in distinguishing the address of destination and address of the shipper with a view of reducing to a minimum the mis-sending and delay of these shipments. "Postmasters are requested further to advise exhibitors of the fact that parcels of films when remailed must bear legible addresses, and that if the old labels are not removed the new label or address should be so placed as to completely obscure or obliterate the original address. "With this co-operation on the part of the exhibitors and more care on the part of postmasters in reading the addresses, the mis-sending of film parcels should be reduced to a minimum." One of the main complaints made by exchange managers has been that films THE Allied Amusement Industries of California, recently organized at San Francisco, has taken over the premises at 100 Golden Gate avenue, formerly occupied by the United Artists, has transformed this into headquarters of exceptional attractiveness and is now engaging in the work for which it was formed. Several attempts have been made in the past to organize the amusement industry, but most of the organizations formed proved too weak to accomplish their aims and purposes. The awakening came "when the activities of certain reformers became known and it was shown that a determined effort would be made to pass a Sunday closing law at the coming session of the legislature. This, coupled with certain municipal and state legislation, as well as federal movements having for their object the curtailment of the amusement industry, spurred theatre owners in general to call a meet working on a circuit have been returned to the exchange before the circuit has been completed, due to the fact that the postal employes failed to distinguish between the address of the original shipper and that of the theatre to which the show was scheduled. At the same time the exchangemen have found that the exhibitors do not always co-operate to the fullest extent in properly marking the shipments and in obliterating previous addresses. ing, with the result that the Allied Amusement Industries of California was formed. The membership includes all the local houses devoted to the spoken drama, all the vaudeville houses, a large percentage of pictures houses of large capacity and the leading film exchanges. While headquarters have just been established, city, state and federal officials have already expressed a desire to cooperate with the organization and the various unions affiliated with theatrical interests have also given their approval of the movement. Miss Frances E. Magill, who has had wide experience in organization work, has been appointed secretary and Judge I. M. Golden has been made general counsel. The officers of the organization are composed of fourteen members embracing the spoken drama, vaudeville, moving picture and film exchange branches of the industry, these constituting the board of directors. They select their chairman and each branch in turn selects its chairman, these four forming the executive advisory board. Irving Ackerman of the Loew-Ackerman & Harris interests is chairman and the executive advisory board is made up of Eugene H. Roth of the California Theatre Company, Col. C. E. Bray of the Orpheum, Ben F. Simpson of Realart and Ralph Pincus of the Columbia. The members composing the general executive board are Homer Cu rran, Ralph Pincus and E. D. Price, representing the spoken drama; Irving Ackerman, Col. Bray and Roy Stephenson, representing the vaudeville theatres; Eugene H. Roth, Louis R. Greenfield, M. L. Markowitz, L. R. Crooks and Nathan Herzog, representing the picture theatres, and Ben F. Simpson, H. G. Rosebaum and Sam Y. Edwards, representing the film exchange interests. The membership includes four houses devoted to spoken drama, five vaudeville houses, twenty-six picture theatres and twenty film exchanges. Hippard to Aid William DeMille George R. Hippard has been appointed by William DeMille to act as his assistant director during the filming of "What Every Woman Knows" which he is now producing for Paramount, and subsequent William DeMille production. Mr. Hippard fills the vacancy left by Julius Eschrich. Mr. DeMille's former assistant, when Mr.' Eschrich left the employ of the company to go North and develop a large tract of California land which had been turned over to him by his relatives. Appreciation That Counts THEATRE OWNERS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Hotel Astor Times Square, New York Mr. Arthur James, Moving Picture World, 516 Fifth Avenue, New York City. Dear Sir: May I not extend to you my sincere appreciation of your recent editorial on the motion picture industry, with its relation to the newspapers? It is a sad commentary that the newspapers will devote whole pages to baseball and kindred sports while they neglect our industry. This, despite the fact that the motion picture fan outnumbers the baseball fan, thousands to one. It is a well-known fact that our audiences are made up of 75 per cent, of women who are the purchasers of practically everything in the household, in addition to clothes, food and other daily requirements. It is this class of purchasers whom the national advertiser is extremely desirous of interesting in his product, and yet for no reason that I can understand, the newspapers have seen fit to exclude this matter in their columns, which this great mass of our audience is sincerely interested in. I believe, eventually, this short-sighted policy on the part of some of these editors will gradually wane and they will see the light the same as a great many other opposing factions have seen since the inception of our industry. In the meantime, your editorial goes a great way towards awakening that spirit. Cordially yours, THEATRE OWNERS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, William Brandt, President. Work for Good of Industry Is Begun in Earnest by California Association