The Moving picture world (January 1924-February 1924)

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January 12, 1924 MOVING PICTURE WORLD 97 Will Celebrate 40th Anniversary of Laemmle's Arrival in America AN anniversary celebration of unusual interest will be held in February by Universal. It will be the fortieth anniversary of the arrival in this country of Carl Laemmle, then a poor immigrant boy, 17 years old. Today, Laemmle is at the head of an organization which has offices in every part of the globe and does one of the greatest volumes of business in the amusement world. One of the features of the Laemmle Anniversary will be a sales drive. February will be Laemmle Month in all Universal exchanges. The Universal sales force, headed by Al Lichtman, will make the month outstanding in the history of Universal pictures, as a testimonial to Laemmle's progress. Exhibitors from coast to coast have volunteered to get behind the anniversary drive in appreciation of what the Universal chief has done for the motion picture theatre owner. The Laemmle Month idea actually originated with an exhibitor, who is one of the best known theatre men in the United States and who has a complete understanding of Laemmle's fair-play attitude towards theatre owners. It was William Brandt, president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of the State of New York. He wrote the following letter to Mr. Laemmle recently: "One of the outstanding features in the film business at the present moment is the remarkable percentage of genuine successes which Universal has had, and is having this year. Such marvelous productions as 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' 'Merry-GoRound,' 'The Acquittal,' and 'A Lady of Quality' are jamming the exhibitors' theatres and breaking their box-office records. "Because you, as a producer, have always been keenly alive to the needs of the theatre owners and the public to whom they cater, and are always ready to take up the cudgels in their behalf, and because I have just learned this morning that February, 1924 will mark the fortieth anniversary of your arrival in this country, I am going to make a suggestion which I hope will meet with your approval. "Why don't you permit your selling organization to conduct a Laemmle Month? I am positive this would afford the exhibitors of the country an opportunity to show their appreciation of the wonderful productions that Universal has turned out this year." This letter, coming to the attention of R. H. Cochrane, vice-president of Universal, and Laemmle's co-worker and close confidant since his entry into the film game, resulted in plans being laid for just such a celebration at outlined by Brandt. Concerning the Laemmle Month anniversary, the Universal vice-president addresses the country's exhibitors as follows : "As a rule I am opposed to anniversaries, special 'weeks' and drives of all sorts, but there is an anniversary coming which I consider of vital significance to every moving picture man, women and child in the United States. I refer to the anniversary of Carl Laemmle's landing in the United States forty years ago next February. "As one who has been actively associated with Mr. Laemmle during the seventeen years he has been in the moving picture business, as a partner in his various moving picture enterprises, I know, probably better than anyone else, what he and his influence and his policies have meant to the industry. "I know, for example, that but for his indomitable fighting spirit, there would be no such thing as a free and open market today. On the contrary, the chances are the CARL LAEMMLE President Universal Film Corporation business would be controlled by a trust and every exhibitor would be paying tribute to that trust if permitted to have a theatre at all! "When Mr. Laemmle in the early years and without aid from any other producer, fought the proposed trust all the way to the United States Supreme Court and there gave them a complete and fearful licking, he knocked down the bars and permitted anyone and everyone to produce pictures and to exhibit them. "Every producer now in existence in this country, with only two exceptions (Vitagraph and Pathe) owes his very existence as a producer to the fact that Mr. Laemmle's winning fight cleared the way and gave them a legal right to transact business. Even the thousands of exhibitors who were threatened with domination by the trust were freed from paying tribute — and they have been free ever since. "Through all these years and up to the present day Mr. Laemmle's policy has never varied. It has been a policy of square dealing, frank and open fearlessness. He has exposed more of the evils of the industry than any other man and he has done more to correct them. He has never indulged in the star-stealing business, although stars have been stolen from him year after year. Not one of the wrongs of the business can be traced to him, directly or indirectly. "That, to my notion, is a rare record. It is the record of a man who landed here forty years ago next February as the greenest kind of a green immigrant. By absorbing American ideals and American customs and then applying them to this great business, he has been an outstanding influence for good and for prosperity." Carl Laemmle's career is a remarkable example for the inspiration of young Americans. His first job was as an errand boy in a First Avenue drug store in New York. He worked all day, and studied English at night. Then he went to work in a Chicago department store. The grain fields next attracted him and he became a farm hand in South Dakota, for $4 a month and board. After a year of this he became a clerk in a Chicago stockyard firm. Later he went to Oshkosh as cashier in a retail clothing house. In four years he was its manager. After twelve more years he commenced his motion picture career, starting modestly with a little theatre on Milwaukee avenue, Chicago. A few months later he started an exchange, and within a year had branches in Minneapolis, Omaha, Evansville, Memphis, Salt Lake City, Des Moines, Portland, Ore., Winnipeg and Montreal. Two years later saw the birth of the IMP company, a film producing organization, and the beginning of its fight against the General Film Company. The Motion Picture Sales Company followed, and finally in 1912, after the "Moving Picture Trust" had been routed, the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was formed. Universal City was built the same year and the Fort Lee studio plant soon afterwards. Many innovations stand to the credit of Carl Laemmle since he first guided the destinies of Universal. His was the first company to introduce stage stars to the screen — Ethel Barrymore, Nazimova, Blanche Ring, Billie Burke, Walker Whiteside and Eddie Foy are a few luminaries of the stage who have appeared under the Big U banner. It was Laemmle who made the first two reelers. He conceived the idea of feature films of five reels. He gave the public the first actual battle pictures — scenes filmed during the Balkan War. In his original company, IMP, Laemmle had such stars and directors as Mary Pickford, Owen Moore, King Baggot, George Loane Tucker and Thomas H. Ince. Virtually every screen star of today has at one time or another been in the employ of Universal. Many of them owe their career to Carl Laemmle's far-sightedness. Universal's record during the last twelve months is regarded as phenomenal in the film industry. It is a list of one big success after another, culminating in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Universal is building a 1924 release schedule of equal merit, beginning with "A Lady of Quality," which although playing in some key cities, actually will be released in January. Al Lichtman, Universal sales chief, promises that Laemmle Month will open the eyes of the film industry to the esteem and goodwill felt towards Carl Laemmle by the exhibitors of the country, especially the small exhibitor to whom fair play means a livelihood.