The Moving picture world (November 1921)

December 3, 1921 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 567 News in Brief from Everywhere St. Louis The New Orpheum Theatre, Jerseyville, 111., is scheduled to open its doors soon. S. E. Pertle, who controls a string of show houses in Central Illinois, is the owner. The Orpheum seats 800 persons. * * * The Ma and Pa Theatre, Cobden, 111., will also open at an early date. Theodore Kaufman is the owner and proprietor. This house seats 300. It is equipped with two Powers machines. The Orpheum has Simplex and G. E. Argus Mazda equipment. * * * It is reported that the Gem Theatre, Sixth street, near Market street, may be re-opened shortly. The plans are to conduct a strictly picture house without music. The Gem has been dark for several years. * * * The Melvan Theatre, 2912 Chippewa street, has been closed. * * * John Gorick is the new assistant booker for Pathe. He formerly was with Enterprise. * * * Jimmy Guest has returned from a trip to Chicago. He reports conditions in the Windy City picking up nicely, with all the houses in the Loop District playing to good crowds at all performances. * * * J. C. Norwein, of the Norwein Amusement Company, Bonne Terre, Mo., was a caller. * * * Angelo Fironrino, Pershing, Duquoin, 111., called at the offices of Peacock Pictures and the Independent Film Company. * * * Another caller was George Luttrell of the Majestic, Jacksonville, 111. * * * S. E. Pertle, of Jerseyville, 111., was seen speeding along Picture Row in his bright red Buick. Some boat. * * * Tom Reed, of Duquoin, 111., was a caller. * * * Charles Stemple, Grand St. Charles, Mo., came in for some snappy comedies. * * * Other callers were Charles Goodnight, Jefferson, De Soto, Mo.; Henry Sanders, Cape Girardeau, and Charles Newsome, of Mount Vernon. * * * The formation of Price Theatres, Inc., with a capitalization of $240,000, has been announced by John B. Price, long prominent in Hannibal, Mo., amusement circles. The company, of which Price is the president, will take over the Star and Broadway and the New Orpheum on Fifth street, Hannibal, now in course of construction. The Orpheum, which will cost $150,000, will be opened the latter part of this month. * * * The Opera House at Shipman, 111., was destroyed in a sweeping fire which also consumed the town's two restaurants Friday. Shipman is about forty miles north of St. Louis. It has no fire department. The total loss was $30,000. The Opera House, which showed pictures and occasional vaudeville and dramatic acts, was operated by Maurice Skaggs. The loss was covered by insurance. * * * One of the heaviest rains ever recorded in St. Louis fell Friday night. Picture shows and theatres were practically deserted, but a very small proportion of the usual crowds attending. Between noon Friday and 5 a. m. Saturday, 3.06 inches of rain fell. The normal amount of rainfall for November, based on records for eighty-four years, is 2.47 inches, or less than that which fell Friday night. * * * Gus Kerasotas, of the Strand, Springfield, 111., was a visitor to Universal headquarters. He departed with contracts for Priscilla Dean in "The Conflict" and Harry Carey in "The Fox." * * * The Bijou Theatre, Cairo, 111., has been taken over by the McFarland & Rodgers organization. Maurice Horwitz was the former owner. * * * Barney Rosenthal, Universal manager, has just returned from a trip to Springfield, Jacksonville, Decatur and vicinity. He reports good results and states that indications are the theatres in that district will enjoy good winter business. * * * Jack Weil, Goldwyn boss, got in from a tour of Southern Illinois Friday. He was not singing the Blues and says conditions in those parts do not warrent anyone wearing other than a smile. * * * The Reed-Yenn Interests will open their new Grand Theatre at Marion, 111., within the next few weeks. The house will seat 1,500. * * * The stork has been fluttering around the Fox Exchange recently. Claud McKean, assistant manager, is the proud daddy of a baby girl that arrived at the McKean home November 8. A. H. Klein, booker, reported the arrival of a girl Friday. McKean's daughter will be named Patricia, while Miss Klein will be Miss Helen Klein when she grows up. * * * W. A. Donaldson has purchased the Lyric Theatre at Salem, Mo., from Sankey Bros. He takes charge on November 29. * * * Romaine Fielding has assumed the position of studio director for the National Film Publicity Company here. city. Mr. Galster, besides his theatre holdings, has many other interests in that resort city. He is a member of the Michigan department of conservation and has held many public offices in the past. * * * H. A. Ross, division manager of Paramount, who makes his headquarters in Detroit, is in New York attending the conference of Paramount district managers. * * * Harry S. Lorch, who has been connected with W. S. Butterfield interests and with Detroit exchanges, has gone to Omaha, where he will be manager of the territorial exchange for Goldwyn. * * * George Walsh is making a personal appearance this week at the Detroit Colonial Theatre. Several novelty publicity stunts are being used to exploit him. * * * H. S. Gallup, of Marquette, announces that the new theatre, known as the Delft, which he has been building in Iron River, is now nearly completed. It will seat 735. * * * Universal exchange in Detroit will hold another "get together" week the period beginning January 16, during which time all Michigan exhibitors are invited to come to Detroit at the expense of the exchange. * * * Announcement has been made of the resignation of George Sampson as manager of the Pathe Exchange in Detroit. No successor has yet been announced. Michigan John A. Galster, of Petoskey, who operates two picture theatres, has just been elected Mayor of that Canada Arthur O'Hara, formerly with the Pantages Theatres in Toronto and Hamilton, has been appointed treasurer of the new Capitol Theatre in • Winnipeg, Manitoba, in succession to Miss Lolo Sampson, who has been very ill. * * * W. Knight Wilson, conductor of the Central Theatre orchestra, Ottawa, Ontario, has been appointed director of the violin department of the Conservatory of Music, London, Ontario. Mr. Wilson, who assumed his new duties on November 21, had a very capable organization in the Centre orchestra, while he, himself, was one of the most talented musicians in Ottawa. * * * Milton Blackstone, of Toronto, formerly conductor of the Strand Theatre orchestra, the Capitol of Montreal and other houses of the Famous Players Canadian Corporation, has become violin instructor of the Canadian Academy of Music, Toronto. * * * Manager Miller, of the Toronto Pantages Theatre, struck a popular chord on November 19 when he announced that he would give a double pass, good for any performance at the theatre, to every person bringing a suit of clothes, an overcoat or a pair of shoes in fair condition to the theatre, the wearing apparel to be turned over to the Great War Veterans' Association for distribution among the local unemployed. The response was immediate. * * * At the annual meeting of the executive of the National Council of Women, held at Woodstock, Ontario, November 17, Miss Joan Arnoldi, of Toronto, made a special plea for public support for Britishmade moving pictures. * * * An interesting development in connection with the disappearance of Ambrose J. Small, the Toronto theatre magnate who vanished in December, 1919, is the action of Thomas Flynn, one of Small's local associates, against the trustees of the estate to recover $52,500, as his alleged share of the sale of Small's theatre holdings. Flynn has made a statement of claim in which he declares that Small offered him a share of the proceeds of the sale of theatres at Toronto, London, Hamilton and Kingston, and of Small's interest in a circuit of theatres throughout Ontario. These were sold to Trans-Canada Theatres, Ltd., Montreal, a Canadian-English Syndicate, for $1,750,000. Flynn asks for i per cent, of the sale price. Small mysteriously disappeared immediately after he had closed the transaction and had received a milliondollar payment. Indiana Edward Sourbier, one of the officials of the Central Amusement Company, which operates four Indianapolis moving picture theatres, a theatre in Toledo and has another in course of construction in Indianapolis, has been selected by Samuel Lewis Shank, Mayor-elect, as his choice as one of the Republican members of the board of public safety. Mr. Sourbier has been active in Republican politics in Indianapolis for a number of years. * * * Word was received in Madison this week of the death in Brady, Texas, of James Taylor, one of the pioneer moving picture exhibitors of Madison. Mr. Taylor operated a theatre in the Patrick Wade building at Madison for a number of years and then went to Frankfort, Ky., where he operated a larger theatre. In later years he managed several other theatres in the Blue Grass State. * * * The Wonderland Theatre, at Clinton, and the two-story brick building it occupies, have been sold by William and Paul Shew to J. B. Stine, of Chicago. Mr. Stine, besides owning and operating the Gem, another moving picture theatre in Clinton, has theatres in Twelve Points and Terre Haute, two in Paris, 111., and one in Jasonville. The Shews plan to go west because of ill health.