Universal Weekly (1925-1933)

32 Universal Weekly June 13, 1925 Cleveland Spot Light JAMES PLATT, merchant of extraordinary screen entertainment at the thriving young city of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, has so faithfully demonstrated his interest in his community that customers mob his box office nightly and leave all their gold and wordly goods there. This embarrasses Mr. Piatt. But he manages to look at it in the right way and suffers the predicament as a strong man should. A little while ago the customers organized a real Chamber of Commerce in Mt. Vernon and they put a fast one over and elected Jim president. He is also several other things in the community. So it seems they not only give him money but honor and all those things. Which makes it nice. Even if it is embarrasing. DOC. BRODY of the famous Brody chain of theatres in Cleveland known as "The Broadway Circuit" claims he has captured the original "hot dam" in exploitation men. The same is no other than our old friend Milt Korack who has come out from behind his disguise and is now doing his stuff in the open. He's simply knocking 'em cold out at the new Broadway. Last week he put on a whale of a fashion show for "Fifth Avenue Models." He had six models. After looking at said models we elected Milt to the hall of fame with Flo Ziegfeld. "Where'd you get 'em?" said we. "Ah," said Milt and walked away. Wonderful talkative fellow this Milt. CHRISTY DEIBEL of the Liberty theatre, Youngstown, O., is very sad at the terrible blow up for the Bungle .illuminated golf bawl company. He though old Colonel Bungle had a great idea there and expected to invest in a barrel or two at least. So the dissolution of the firm hit Mr. Deibel very hard. "The trouble with golf," said Mr. Deibel, "is the blamed summer days are no way long enough." DURING the Chicago Universal convention at the Drake hotel, Bill Raynor, manager of Reade's Cleveland Hippodrome, was found standing sadly beside the $50,000 fountain in the $1,000,000 (not movie figures) Drake lobby. There were tears in his eves. Asked what about it. Bill said it always made him sad to see water running around like that. Why not look the other way then, a kipd soul suggested. "That's hard on the eyes too," , said Bill. And upon looking around we said yes. And_ we concluded the running water was just about as safe a place for Bill to look as anywhere else even if it did make him sad. 'S funny how many pretty ladies pick on the Drake lobby for a sit-around. NOW that his costly radio broadcasting station is operating smoothly (through which he reaches nightly 3,000,000 (estimated) people (count 'em) ), Allen Simmons, the erstwhile champion and wholesale purchaser of the Lincoln automobile company's product, and incidentally, owner of the Allen Theatre, Akron, Ohio, is now contemplating hitching his publicity cart to a star. He's one of these fellows that works from the ground up. He started with autos, then radio and now expects to soar into the clouds soon with an aeroplane. Not satisfied with selling his show to the folks on earth he's probably going to stir things up a little on Mars or some nearby planet. HERE'S a great publicity stunt for Denny's coming picture "Where Was I?." Have theatre owners and managers answer that question and have the question asked in each case by a film salesman. For instance, ask Frank Gross of the Grand, Cleveland, where he was on March 16 at 2:30 A. M.; or Howard Reif of the Lucier Theatre where he was at or about midnight on May 5, Inst.; Raymond Wallace of the Ohio at Alliance, where he was on the morning of May 20th ; or Tim Roberts of the Park, Mansfield, what happened to him on April 16th. It would make a good contest even if they couldn't answer. AND, by the way, Tim Roberts of Mansfield is the first man in the Cleveland territory to sign up 100 per cent on Carl Laemmle's Second White List. So, maybe, we better eliminate Tim from the "Where Was I" contest. "Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty stream And the fish is dead that slumbers — Holy Mackerel, What a Dream!" The above alleged poetry was achieved after careful and thoughtful metering by A. H. Abrams of the Mozart theatre, Canton, after his return from a fishing trip to parts unknown but by many suspected. It seems that Mr. Abrams caught a likely looking bass. When pulled into the boat it appeared the said bass was dead. So he was detached from the hooks and laid on deck the boat whe_r,e a post-mortem was held as to whether the fish should be kept or thrown away. No one knew how long it may have been dead. As it seems Mr. Abrams had been asleep for quite a while prior to taking up his line and finding the alleged dead fish thereon. The fish settled the question by coming too and jumping back into the lake. SHOWMEN WIN PRIZES WITH SERIALS (Continued from Page 23) Mystery' 'for the same week. Then there was the problem of getting the children to come to the theatre instead of going to the circus. Manager Woodward of the Park solved this very satisfactorily. He dressed his lobby with cut-outs of lions, tigers, elephants and other wild animals and bought 1000 balloons to give away to the children the opening day. He also had two wagons built with half-inch bars of golden blend and bright red body frame. In the cage, lying on the sawdust-strewn floor were cut-out animals, and on the side was this card: "Kiddies, Here's Your Chance to Get This Wagon Free. Come and See How on Sat. May 9." These were parked outside the theatre. All the children coming to the opening episode of the serial received a card on which to write their names and addresses. These were then dropped in a box which was placed in the lobby. During the following week everyone who attended the theatre was given a similar card and asked to write in their favorite kiddie's name. On the next Saturday afternoon, when the second episode was being shown, the boxed filled with names was placed on the stage. A child from the audience came up on the stage and amid an expectant silence drew out two cards. The children whose names were written thereon went home with the gorgeous circus wagons. 'T^HE Bigio brothers at Steubens\ ville. retailers of tobacco and cigars of highest quality, also cigarettes that "taste different — they're burnt" (not an advertisement) seem to be very happy in their new adventure. They opened a magnificient picture palace in their home town the other day. It's the Grand and cost — (insert your own figure) plenty. IN CADIZ, Long & Son also opened a new house. The Long. Father and son were the best lumber men in Cadiz (excerpt from Cadiz newspaper) and, we assume, still are. There wasn't enough excitement in the lumber business. But they've plenty now. Cadiz is a long way from the main stems and it's not at all impossible that there might be a missout or any one of the two or three things that make the picture business exciting. AND Jim Velos has motored over from Wheeling and opened a new house at Bellaire. It's the Capitol. "The Finest House in America," the Bellaire paper says. No question about it. Congratulations to Mr. Velos. He still runs a theatre in Wheeling. — A. J. Sharick,