Universal Weekly (1914-1915)

THE UNIVERSAL WEEKLY Complete Harmony Prevailed At The Universal Election Carl Laemmle elected President again, R. H. Cochrane, \ VicePresident and P. A. Powers, Treasurer HE annual stockholders" meeting of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company was held on Thursday, December 31, 1914. The following directors were elected : Carl Laemmle, R. H. Cochrane, P. A. Powers, J. A. McKinney. and John B. Stanchfield. The new directors immediately met and elected the following officers for the ensuing year: Carl Laemmle, President; R. H. Cochrane, Vice-president ; P. A. Powers, Treasurer: Geo. E. Kann, Assistant Secretary ; Joe Brandt, Manager of the Home Office. Complete harmony prevailed in both meetings; all the litigation which has been hampering the company's affairs, was disposed of and all indications point to the greatest year the Universal's big organization has ever enjoyed. This is a sample account of a very important meeting which is of interest to some ten millions of people, and this is the account which you read, if you read at all. It will be mighty good news to the thousands of Universal exhibitors throughout the world, for it means that the Universal Family is cemented closer than ever ; it means that the policies and the brains which have made the Universal what it is today, will continue to make it bigger and greater in the year to come ; it means that all the wonderful plans and projects which have been the dream of the past year will be the accomplishment of the present one. What a nice little text that "complete harmony prevailed" would make! There were some. people who had so little faith" in the Universal and its destiny that they imagined that this annual meeting would be a fine little fight. It was a love feast. So many people "bought" control of the Universal last year that it makes you dizzy to think of the millions which must have been expended. If all the people who wanted it had bought the stock, which was so often reported as purchased, this annual meeting would have been a merry party, indeed. But. as a matter of fact, no new interest at all has come into the directorate. Annual meetings are usually interesting affairs. Sometimes they are cut and dried. That is one way of saying that complete harmony prevailed. As far a> the Universal directors were concerned, they were very much more interested in bearing of the strong condition of the company and of the plans whereby it is going to grow, than about who was to control it. They knew that all the time. So the election itself was cut and dried. What the stockholders did listen to with "complete harmony" were the vari ous reports of the producing companies, the reports on the progress of Universal City, and the reports on the building of the largest glass enclosed studio and factory building in the United States, which is now being erected at Leonia, New Jersey. These and the formation of two new brands on the Universal Program, both of which have already met with unusual success, the L-Ko and the Big U, were matters which could make any meeting a completely harmonious one. As for the future, the outlook was never more bright. While the Universal is always facing problems, as every grow ing company is. there is no problem now on the horizon with which it does not feel itself perfectly able to cape. Not having been forced to retrench during the war excitement, when so many moving picture companies went down and so many others kept themselves above water with the greatest of difficulty, the Universal is not at all worried about what 1915 has in store. It is just getting ready to cash in on the boom which it confidently expects the return of conliderce will bring. ANIMATED FILMS SUBWAY DISASTER The worst disaster in the history of the New York subway occurred on Wednesday, January »!. and the forms of the Universal Weekly were held to permit this story to appear. The Animated Weckhj scored another beat, for Cameraman Whipple wTas on the job as soon as the firemen and the ambulances. Jack Cohn was coming down in the subway and got down as far as Fifty -ninth street, when there was a complete block. As he started to walk down toward the office he saw a tremendous crowd about the grating at Fifty-fifth street and smoke and Barnes coming out of the grating. Of course, be at once called up the studio for a cameraman, but Whipple had gone out on the first alarm, and in a few moments Mr. Cohn found him busily at work taking pictures of the police and < Co'il i nurd on Vnqe 28.) Joe Brandt li. H. Cochrane Carl Laemmle P. A. Powers THE GUIDING MINDS OF THE UNIVERSAL. Geo. E. Kann