The Moving picture world (November 1922-December 1922)

318 MOVING PICTURE WORLD November 25, 1922 Howard Left Show to Pitch Movie Tent in Wilmington Sentiment vs. Publicity EXACTLY three years before John Karzin stopped slinging hash long enough to go out and start an argtiment with Harry Miller which resulted in their partnership in the first permanent picture theatre in St. Louis, Mo., another pioneer in this budding field of "pictures that move" gave St. Louis possibly its first view of motion pictures. Karzin started in 1905, according to the best authenticated historical data; this other Daddy of the Cinema presented a full-fledged motion picture show in Lynch Park, St. Louis, in the fall of 1902, appearing as one of the sideshows with the Gaskell-Mondy Shows, a tented carnival attraction— and at this time this pioneer had been in the picture game already two years ! Gentlemen, we nominate James Howard, secretary-treasurer of the HowardWells Amusement Company and president of the Bijou Amusement Company, which two corporations control the destinies of all the theatres in the hustling North Carolina metropolis of Wilmington, for a position, at least, among the Daddies of Them All ! And as a side remark it might be interpolated right here in the beginning that he's still young in the game and expects to remain active until his two-year-old son is old enough to take his place ! To get this story in chronological order we must start in at the beginning, which was in the early fall of 1900 when Mr. Howard took out a print of "Sappho," a Pathe Freres production, as a side attraction with the Mondy Carnival Company, opening in West Superior, Wisconsin. M. J. Morley, known to every old-line showman, was promoter of this travelling organization. After a country-wide tour, which brought him to St. Louis and on down South by the year 1902, he joined, at the beginning of the 1904 "road season." the Hatch-.\dams shows, opening in Little Washington, Indiana, and closing in Tarboro, North Carolina, Howard later taking his show to the Raleigh state fair and then on a tour through Florida. At this time the reigning sensations of the film world were "The Bold Bank Robbery," an Edison production, and "The Great Train Robbery," and Howard usually ran the show in connection with either an illusion act or a serpentine dancing act, the films being rather short in those days and not available to make up a complete show alone. The season of 1905 Mr. Howard joined up with the Jones-Adams Carnival Company. This season film became more plentiful and he added to his repertoire Edison's "Personal." Pop Lubin's "Mrs. Murph and Baby" and Colonel Selig's "Traced By Bloodhounds." By way of parenthesis it might be inserted that he and "Bill" Selig had been cronies in Chicago ten j-ears before this time, when the latter was employed by the Western Railroad to make photo graphic views of their railroad scenic route to the West Coast, from which Selig gradually drifted into the "movies." They both ran "photograph galleries" away back in the nineties in Chicago. In 1906, still with the Hatch shows, ''The Life of an American Cowboy" and pictures of the San Francisco Earthquake" were added to the show, and all down the line the natives fell over themselves getting in and the moving pictures were the best graft on the whole lot. Howard stuck to his little projection machine and bag of wornout film until the company reached Wilmington in the early fall of 1906, The town looked ripe to him and he had accumulated a whole vault full of film — at least t welve reels ! So he dropped off the show train in Wilmington, pitched his tent right on the main street, built an imposing front that looked like a million dollars to hide the tent, covered the floor with sawdust and installed 200 folding camp stools therein, dubbed it the "Bijou" and commenced to gather in the nickels that later bought control of all the theatres in that thricing seaport city of today. Percy W. Wells, who had been with the Hatch shows several seasons, stopped off with him and they pooled their capital, started as partners and have been fifty-fifty ever since that day. This new Wilmington enterprise started by putting on one reel for a complete show, running this show three days and charig ing program. Thus the This may read at first like publicity, but it isn't. If you need proof, ask the people of Niles, Ohio, if it was the need for publicity that brought Warner Brothers' big advertising float to the town. And if you are still in doubt, ask Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Warner, who manage the Warner Theatre there. Here's the story, briefly. In 1921 Harry M. Warner built the Warner Theatre in Niles for his parents. It wasn't a commercial venture on his part, but a tangible expression of his affection for his parents and the "old home town," a recognition of what he owes to them and to Niles. So it wasn't publicity at all when the float showed up the other week in that small town, but sentiment pure and simple. And recognizing that, all the city officials and the police turned out as escorts, and Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Warner had a great time playing host and hostess at the theatre. Here's congratulating them on having a son like Harry M. Warner. — S. S. its ruins, in less than six weeks, arose the Bijou Theatre of today, a Wilmington institution which mothers, fathers and children swear by to this day. It has never gotten away from the "goose that laid the golden egg" — the short reel program, having through all the later years of big features stuck to the serial, western and slapstick comedy type of program, and it has never gotten above 10 cents admission — on top of which it has always, and does today, make more cash profit each and every year than any other theatre in Wilmington — even the largest house charging as high as a half dollar and playing the super-special productions. It was one of the last theatres in the country to forsake the old "nickelodeon" price, the admission price finally being raised to 10 cents. Finally the Royal was built, a commodious feature house. Five years ago the Grand and Victoria, the only two, out of possibly twenty-five opposition theatrei that the Bijou outlived, to survive, were purchased. These four theatres, which they now operate, control the field in Wilmington. First Atlanta Film Theatre Opened by Murray in 1912 reels of pictures they owned fur nished their program for six weeks— and capacity business every day! Booking arrangements were then made with Miles Brothers, New York, to furnish them two reels a week. The old tent survived for several years and made a lot of money, but one winter night a heavy snowfall crushed it to the ground, and upon BIJOU FAMILY THEATRE .^mong the men who are entitled to honors as the "Oldest Exhibitor," the name of Manager W. T. Murray, of the Alamo No. twelve 2 Theatre, Atlanta, must be men tioned. Mr. Murray has been in the exhibiting game for more than ten years, actively engaged, all that time, as an exhibitor. His first house was the Alamo No. 1, and this was in 1912. At that time, .Atlanta had a brace of "shot-gun" movies, but of them all the Alamo No. 1 was the most popular. It was the first theatre to be built in Atlanta, with a THE ORIGINAL BIJOU THEATRE, WILMINGTON, N. C. The front is wood, but only a tent stood behind, with folding camp stools and long benches promiscuously set in a floor of sawdust. James Howard, the pioneer, is standing with hands on the dog. Second from him, on his left, is Percy W. Wells. In the center, the tall man leaning on the box office is Harry T. Coolen, operator at that time and now. Note the crease in the photograph — even that's old. screen that had its back against the box-office, so that, as one entered the theatre, one looked towards the projectionist, instead of at the screen, and, at the time, it was a startling innovation and created a great deal of comment — both pro and con. With the building of the Criterion Theatre, of which he was third owner, he sold out his interest in the Alamo No. 2. and concentrated on the Criterion — which was a failure from its opening day, for several months — in fact, until just before the entrance of .America into the World War brought revised conditions to Atlanta. Mr. Murray has been associated with Adolph Samuels, well-known .\tlanta capitalist, whose movie interests are quite heavy, practically continuously since the days of the Alamo No. 1, and when the late George Schmidt left the .Mamo No. 2 to assume the managerial desk at the Strand, Mr. Murray came back to the .\lamo No. 2. A man who can pack a house seating between 700 and 900 people at an hour of the afternoon when nine houses out of ten are "playing to the seats," with a picture two years old, and a fifth or sixth-run, deserves credit. Manager Murray is such a man, the Alamo No. 2 is such a theatre, and the picture was Mary Pickford's "Suds." Come on, you oldtime exhibitors, let'.'^ have your histories ; we're out to find "The Daddy of Them All."