The Moving picture world (December 1920)

December 11, 1920 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 709 Charles Urban Buys Valuable Property for Home of His Two Screen Industries CHARLES URBAN has announced the purchase of a magnificent piece of property at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, where the future home of the Urban Motion Picture Industries, Inc., and the Kineto Company of America, Inc., will be. The transfer of the property to the Urban interests has just been completed. Architects and engineers are already at work, and when their plans are completed and carried out, the new home of the Urban products will be one of the show places of the motion picture world. Six months will probably see it through. There is a superb basis to work on. The building as it stands is one of the finest •pieces of commercial architecture to be seen in America. It was built originally for the Cosmopolitan Magazine and was conceived and designed throughout by Stanford White, one of the finest architects America ever produced. Built by John B. Walker Inquiry was made of McKim, Mead and White, the architectural firm of which Stanford White was a member, as to why so much beauty was put into a commercial project and the reason, it was learned, was that John Brisben Walker, who had the building constructed, "wanted to dignify printing." That phrase also describes Mr. Urban's attitude towards the motion picture. For more than twenty years, here and abroad, he has worked to raise the standard of the motion picture, and now that motion pictures are finally being accepted on a large scale in educational institutions as well as in theatres, he wants a home for his projects that is worthy of their quality. In Urban Institute he will have such a home, for that will be the name of the buildings at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, which will house the Urban Motion Picture Industries, Inc., and the Kineto Company of America, Inc. The former is the parent body of all the organizations in which he is interested. It will have to do with the manufacturing and marketing of the Spirograph projectors and discs; also the Kinekrom, which is the name of the new Urban-Joy color process, the successor to the old Kinemacolor. The Educational Pictures The Kineto Company of America is the publishing organization of Mr. Urban's educational pictures, the Movie Chats, the Kineto Review, the Science Series, the World Travel Series and all the other series of one-reel pictures which will eventually form "The Living Book of Knowledge," a world encyclopedia in motion picture form. The theatre world is already familiar with Mr. Urban's Movie Chats and his Science Series, because these have obtained a wide distribution in the higher-class theatres. They are to be seen regularly in such theatres as the Rivoli and Rialto in New York and in theatres of similar standard throughout the country. The Kineto Review will be placed in general distribution shortly and so with the other releases as fast as they can be edited. The Spirograph The projects that are included under the Urban Motion Picture Industries have needed a great deal more preparation than the Kineto projects and in them is to be found the reason for this expansion. These include principally the Spirograph, which is the home and school projector, and the Kinekrom, which is the color process. The Spirograph is an eleven pound projecting machine, in principle the same as any large projecting apparatus such as is to be found in theatres, and a picture record, much like any talking machine record. The film is flat, ten and one-half inches in diameter, has its pictures arranged in spiral shape and is the equivalent of 104 feet of film. It is entirely free of any fire-danger; the light may remain Exhibitors of Missouri to Convene in January Second annual convention and business meeting of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Missouri will be held in St. Louis, January 11 and 12. The organization was formed at the convention held in Moberly in August at which fifty-five exhibitors were present. Nearly 200 exhibitors are now enrolled, and it is expected the 300 mark will be passed at the coming convention. The organization earnestly requests that every motion picture owner and manager in Missouri attend, saying that business of first importance to them all will be transacted. on the film indefinitely even though the film is not in motion. The device is meant for the home, the school room, the industrial plant, the traveling salesman and for all fields of commercial pursuit. It is designed for use everywhere except in the theatre. It solves once and for all the problem of distributing industrial pictures. Color Process The Kinekrom is the color process. A good many critics and directors have seen these color pictures and all of them have said "perfect." One of the critics of a nationally circulated trade paper said they were the only color pictures ever shown that "stood the close-up of a man's face." The flesh color is absolutely true to life. The result is obtained from a filtering of colors when the negative is obtained and again in the projection of the positive print. Both the Spirograph and the Kinekrom have been waiting for a permanent home for the Urban organization. Now that one has been obtained, it is likely that both these processes will be in production within six months. The chances are that the Spirograph machines will be available in quantity within that time and that great feature pictures will be filmed in natural colors and available for theatres not long thereafter. Corinthian Motif The new building which will be the basis of Urban Institute is on the high bank of the Hudson River a few hundred yards away from the New York Central Station at Irvington-on-the-Hudson. It is built in classical style, entirely of limestone, with the Corithian motif throughout. It is topped by a massive dome. New Yorkers can easily visualize it by calling to mind the Hall of Fame building of New York University. It is very much like that. It is almost ecclesiastical in its general lines. The setting is wonderful. It faces the Hudson and the broad expanse of that lovely river and the lofty Palisades across add immensely to its individual beauty. In the rear it reaches into the fine wooded estates of that region, well known to all who have motored or hiked through Westchester County. Mecca for Educators Mr. Urban intends to make Urban Institute a Mecca for educators all over the world. Visual education is already a great big force, but it is only beginning despite its existing bigness. Urban Institute is going to be a home for all the educators and the artists of the motion picture world; it will be a place to bring ideas and also to get them. Everything that has to do with extending the utility and the beauty of the motion picture will be found there — — the appliances, the subjects, the experts and all. Mr. Urban claims the best educational library in the world — more than 2,000,000 leet, and this is but a nucleus. It is growing all the time. Scientists and teachers of every branch of learning will find there a way to reduce their problems to the silver screen. As for the theatre itself, there* will be the constantly growing series of Kineto releases, and still more important, the manufacture and distribution of the products of the superb color films. Feature pictures in natural colors within a very short time should be available for all theatres. THE NEW CHARLES URBAN HOME This magnificent building is in Irvington-on-the-Hudson, N. Y.