Moving Picture World (Mar 1919)

March 29, 1919 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD 1767 NUTMEG SENATE VOTES FOR SUNDAYS Measure Giving Sabbath Opening Power to Local Authorities Sweeps Body in a Rousing Victory WITH only three dissenting votes the Connecticut Senate on March 19 passed a bill giving local authorities the right to decide for themselves whether or not motion pictures may be exhibited in their respective communities on Sunday evenings. The bill now goes to the house. Sacred concerts and lectures are included under the provisions of the bill, according to an amendment offered by Senator George W. Klett, chairman of the judiciary committee, whose hearty support of the Sunday bill was largely responsible for its passage. He made an extended speech on the Sunday question, pointing out that the bill was intended to legalize the exhibitions now being given without the consent of the law. According to the bill, Sunday showings are auihorized with the consent of local authorities between the hours of 7 and 10.30 p. m. Violations shall be met with a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500. Senator Klett informed the Senate that between 10,000 and 12,000 persons were accommodated every Sunday night in Hartford theatres. Senator DeLaney volunteered the information that from. 20,000 to 25,000 saw the movies every Sunday night in Bridgeport. One of the most interesting factors in the support of the measure was a letter to Senator William C. Fox, of New London, from the Groton Iron Works urging the passage of Sunday legislation for the benefit of the 4,000 employes of that company, a canvass of the factory having indicated an unmistakable sentiment for Sunday movies. This is proof that industry recognizes the fact that when its workers frequent the moving pictures on Sunday night they are likely to appear at their tasks Monday morning entirely fit. The final vote, a rising one, had only three dissenters. Rubbernecked Deadhead Lands in Juvenile Court AN infant hopeful aged nine years and bearing the name Charles Sevrinski has broken all records as the champion deadhead of picture theatres. Chicago claims him, not because she is proud of his record, but because she can't help it. The other day he met his Waterloo, when Superintendent of Compulsory Education W. L. Bodine brought him before Judge Arnold in the Juvenile Court. This is how Superintendent Bodine described the youngster's system of seeing moving pictures for nothing: "He'd wait until a show was out, mix with the crowd, twist his head round and seem to be coming out, but in reality would be walking in." Judge Arnold ordered him sent to the parental school where, it is hoped, his neck as well as his morals may be stiffened. McQ. the feature with his attending cardinals and other members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. "Thais" is a first year Goldwyn release, and the first screen play in which the illustrious Mary Garden ever appeared. Through Goldwyn's representative in Rome, Anthony Interrante, whose brother, Austin Interrante, is connected with the sales force of Goldwyn's New York Exchange, the showing of "Thais" has been arranged for. Goldwyn's "Thais" To Be Shown to Pope Benedict WORD has reached America that the fame of Goldwyn has penetrated the precincts of the Vatican in Rome, and that Pope Benedict has expressed a desire to see a presentation of Mary Garden's vivid portrayal of Thais. This Goldwyn production is the first, so far as is known, ever to be shown in the Vatican. The presentation will take place in the Sala Pia some time in April, and the Pope will view New Mexico Is Now Prosperous. Dallas film exchanges are looking up exhibitors in New Mexico following the breaking of the drought in certain parts of that state and the coming of a period of record-breaking prosperity. The eastern part of the state is considered as in Dallas trade territory. R. D. Bauer, who came to the Dallas Pathe branch from Cincinnati, has just returned from a trip along the New Mexico line. He reports that business is good, and he has been making bookings. Gentry Sues Educational, Alleging Contract Breach THE Gentry Film Company has filed a suit in the United States District Court against the Educational Films Company of America to recover damages amounting to $45,000 for alleged breach of contract for failure to exhibit an educational film entitled "The Story of Coal." _ The plaintiff company claims to have made arrangements with the coal oper ators of West Virginia to produce and release a screen history of the coal industry and to have written a scenario for a photoplay portraying the mining and distribution of coal to be exhibited by the defendant company. The failure to exhibit the film is said to have been due to fear that the exhibition of the picture might interfere with the prosecution of the war, and it is understood that the Government officials requested that it be not exhibited publicly during hostilities. Association Men Attend Hearing in Harrisburg A LARGE number of the officials of the producing and distributing companies planned to attend a hearing to be held before Governor Sproul, of Pennsylvania, at the State Capitol, Harrisburg, on March 20, in regard to the proposal for moving the headquarters of the State Board of Motion Picture Censors from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Arrangements are being made by Gabriel L. Hess, chairman of the Censorship Committee, for the party to leave on the 6:04 train Wednesday afternoon over the Pennsylvania, arriving in Harrisburg about midnight. Accommodations have been reserved at the PennHarris Hotel. Chairman Hess has requested that at least one official of each important producing and distributing company should attend the hearing. The arguments on behalf of the industry will be presented by President William A. Brady, Chairman Hess and other members of the party from the National Association. Says Mexico Will Soon Be an Attractive Film Field SENOR D'ALARCON, owner of many Mexican theatres in El Paso and in the interior of Mexico, reports that with the stabilizing of conditions in Mexico many American film men are planning to enter that territory. Most of them will handle special feature films, with the titles altered to Spanish. So far as he could learn none of the big film companies are planning to enter the Mexican field as yet. Mexicans like battle pictures for the most part, or else wild west, "sixshooter stuff." The smaller Mexican theatres in El Paso play nothing else but hard riding, hard shooting and hard drinking films to the delight of the hombre from across the border. There are a number of quite respectable moving picture theatres in Mexico which were spared by the revolution, Senor D'Alarcon says. Most of them are dark for months at a time. A feature film will in almost every instance clean up at a peso a head admittance.