Variety (December 1907)

VARIETY 45 ■ SLIDE MAKERS ORGANIZING. With the film rental concerns of the country already organized into a national association and the film manufacturers starting to organize similarly, the makers of colored lantern slides for illustrated songs have started a movement to band themselves together for mutual protection against pirates. W. Lindsay Gordon, of the Elite Com- pany, is one of the prime factors in this movement. He said to a Variety repre- sentative this week: "Organization of the slide makers for self-protection has become a necessity. Pirates are rapidly taking our profits away in spite of our every effort to de- feat them. Why, if we sold all the col- ored slides of the songs we have illus- trated, a plant four times the size of this would not suffice to turn out the work. "No other business is so subjected to the abuse of theft as ours. We have copyrighted our slides, but the copyright markings are removed, and our original works reproduced and sold at a reduced price in wholesale lots. We are consider- ing a scheme of registering a trade-mark and making this an ineffaceable part of each slide. We anticipate some opposition from music publishers, who may consider the presence of the trade-mark, however small, a defect in the pictures, but if we, as an association, decide to take this course, this opposition will not amount to much. "To illustrate how serious our difficul- ties are I might mention a rather recent incident. I was commissioned to illus- trate an Indian song. I secured the ser- vices of the Indians in the Hippodrome show, together with an interpreter, and THE SIDONIAS "THE TRAMP AND THE GOLF GIRL »» THE LAUGH MAKERS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTS FOR MANUFACTURING LAUGHS. "THIEVES GET BUSY." TIME ALL FILLED. D. J. GRAUMAN. 1). J. <: r.'i it inn 11 Is the mannger of the Globe Theatre. Snn Frnnelseo, and heavily Interested In Miany amusement ventures on the l'aclflc Coast. He Is the originator of popular priced continuous vaudeville, now so universal throughout the Dotted States. This Innovation he Introduced some ten years ago, when opening the Inhpie on Frtaco** great highway. Mr. (iiniiimiiii nliwi ope n e d the Lyceum, which he afterward dis- posed of. I>. J. Graiuuan's career iu the theatrical world, extending a period of over 30 years, has been marked with success. sil) GBAUMAK. Sii| nrauiliau, who guides the destinies of the National Theatre, San Franclacb, in one nf tin* vnungeal ■• well as most popular manager* in the < oimtry. Entering the managerial arena al the age i»f fifteen, he lias managed successfully the Unique, San Francisco; rnhfue, Pin Jose; Family, Sew York; Family, Hcratitou, I'm lit- U also Interested In GIoIn enterprises on the const. Ills crowning sihmvm has which under Ms guidance has evolved from a lent oT ili.' relialiltiilatloii era to Frisco's most poptl lar show house, playing each week to over 40,0HI people. iind other houses. Frisco, and ae?er.tl iieen the National. took them nut of town for a day, hiring a I'limp outfit and fe e ding all those people as well a,s paying railroad fares. The in- itial cost of those two dozen nr so nega- tives amounted to $300 or more. "The slides were scarcely on the market when a pirate reproduced them and under- sold me. My price was $5'. His was $4 and less. You mav easily imagine where 1 came in. Not alone this, hut his repro- ductions were so bad that a number of consumers Who saw them and supposed they were the product of my factory re- ceived a false impression that might have done me serious injury. "In New York there are about half a dozen slide-makers who < 1«• original work. They have their own photographers, who pi we their own groups, take their own original negatives and create color schemes. Against this there are a do/.-n manufacturers who never see an original negative, and wouldn't know what to do with it if they did. These concerns are tin 1 pirate,*. They wait for a real manu- facturer to place a song series on the mar- ket and then reproduce it. sometimes tak- ing title slide ami all. "The original cost of these stolen pic- tures is about the cost of an amateur's photograph outfit, and the cost of coloring liy hand by the poorest paid daubers. No wonder they undersell us. "Hut when we shall have organized, we will systematize the business and arrange for distribution of goods in such a way that these method-, will no longer be tol- erated." William J. Vail, formerly advertising agent of the (Irand Opera House, Phila- delphia, has assumed the position of presi- dent and general manager of the Win. Perm l»ill Posting Company in the same city. Charles .Jacobs, a native of Buffalo and a member of the Sam Devero show, was married to Sadie Yorke, of Jamestown, on the .stage of Lafayette The.itie, Buf- falo, last week. BERT LEVEY. P.ert l.eve.v l< the general inaiiaircr ami buofcinu agent of the Alpha fireiili (California) nitd the sne<i>s in the formal ion "I thht i Main of houses, which h'v- promise uf becoming n l»l»j factor in the field <>i vaudeville i due ill grenl part to hh Individual effort!