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VARIETY 17 FILM VANDALS TAKEN IN HAND BY PRINCIP AL MAN UFACTURERS Snipping and Mutilation of Reels by Exhibitor! Must Stop, Say the Q. F. f Mutual and Universal. Loss of Half Million Yearly, Besides Criticism Passed Upon Vandalized Film. Helps Honest and Careful Exhibitors as Well. A holler you can hear from the Bronx to the Ghetto and then clear out to East New York set the film ex- hibitors of Greater New York by the ears Wednesday, when an order went forth from all the exchanges of the Mutual, Universal and General Film that the film producers had reached the limit of their patience with film vand- als. The yell came from exhibitors who have been making a practice of snip- ping parts of films from reels before turning the films back to the exchanges and from others who, by lack of over- sight of their operators and other em- ployes who handle films, do not see to ii that films are not mutilated before being returned. The order that precipitated the noise was tacitly agreed upon by the three big producing syndicates only after each had made up its books for the past year and discovered after a conference that over 10% of all the reels issued c«.me back unfit for the screen. A quiet investigation instituted by the companies among customers develop- ed the fact that some exhibitors had collected as many as several hundred feet of film of certain subjects and were using them as personal possessions for private exhibition. One Bronx exhibitor had 600 feet of cabaret subjects, pieced together for screening, and had actually shown the split several times himself, the picture being made up of film he had clipped from this picture and that before re- turning after use. This particular ex- hibitor had attempted to rent the split to friends at the commercial rate. With the combined companies cir- culating about 100 reels weekly at an average value of 10c per ft., the 10% loss on the output by deliberate and careless mutilation has been figured out to amount to more than half a million dollars yearly. A blacklist of persistent offenders is proposed by the companies to make the dishonest and careless exhibitors be- have. The manufacturers say they arc not influenced so much by the money they will save in attempting the new- est kink in reform as in preserving for each audience the integrity of their play subjects; that in many instances they, the manufacturers, have been crit- icized for presenting half-baked ideas in the films when the disjointed stories screened have been due to the cut-offs and cut-outs of covetous exhibitors or to the tearing of the film when winding or rewinding, or in handling before or after screening. film-and-cabbage-movie managers. The "country store" bait for laggard patrons has taken hold in Harlem. The Fox Star, at 107th street and Lenox ave- nue, and the new North Star Film The- atre, at 106th street and Fifth avenue, are fighting each other with the back- to-the-farm gifts for nickel attendants. The movie men combining to fight the gift film shows are said to have arranged reprisal measures in free film shows in grocery and other stores near the farm film shops. The opposition, said to have the support of the Motion Picture Exhibitors' Association of Greater New York, has threatened an invasion of the gift-film sections also with free trading-stamps as lures for the non-country-store film theatres. TOTTEN STARTS SUIT. A suit was started against Walter Rosenberg served upon him by Jacob WeisDerger, on behalf of Joseph Br> on Totton, asking that a restraining order be issued against Rosenberg exhibiting a "House of Bondage" moving picture at the Bijou. It is billed to be exhibited there next week. Totten says he has a copyright upon "The House of Bondage" and bases his action upon that. It was reported that the Shuberts are arranging to route several "Bond- age" reels as shows. WANT REGULATIONS. Pittsburgh, Jan. 13. The chief state inspector has been re- quested to issue a scries of drastic regu- lations against the moving picture houses of this city. MUTUAL GIRL AT B'WAY. The Mutual Girl, the weekly serial of the Mutual Film, will get its first public showing at the Broadway the- atre next Monday. New reels of the "Girl" will be shown at the same place weekly thereafter. CABBAGE AND FILMS HERE. The exhibitors who frown upon mak- ing movie houses annex grocery stores are said to be uniting to oppose the TWO HOUSES PANNED. Cincinnati, Jan. 14. The managements of the Grand and Lyric may protest to heads of news- papers regarding alleged unfair criti- cism. One paper in particular has been discriminating. It sends its two star critics, alternately, to the Grand and Lyric, and at the slightest provocation, they "pan" the .show. Reporters who are s£nt to Keith's boost the acts to the skies, and other houses come in for praise. Managers Aylward, of the Grand and Middleton, of the Lyric, want them to treat all alike. Ragtime on the Moller PIpe-OreheetrmT Sure! Snappiest you ever heard. Heavy stuff, too, If you like. Ordinary pianists fct food results quickly. Wonderful self player ap- plied If desired. C. S. Losta, N. Y. and Bkn. Tel. FOLKS LAUGHING YET. Alderman Ralph Folks is said to be still laughing over the merry wheeze that all unconsciously (?) slipped into the Folks' movie ordinance, making the new license cost $100 and renewals 50 per cent of the original fee. Most of the local exhibitors presumed that all licenses taken out before the Folks' act became legal entitled the owners to the old renewal rates of $12.50 per an- num, as stipulated in the agreements for which the licensees paid, in good faith. The Folks bill, however, as the ex- hibitors are only now discovering, wiped out all the city's former obliga- tions to the exhibitors, and to continue to do business they must fork over the $100, with $50 for renewals. The laugh in the measure will net the city about $50,000 extra pin money. PINCHED SCENARIO. Los Angeles, Jan. 14. Hampton Del Ruth, an actor and sce- nario reader, will be arraigned in this city March 25 for petit larceny, the Universal Film Co. charging Del Ruth submitted work of a Chicago writer as his own. The Universal says, according to A. M. Norton, its legal representative, that Marc Jones (Chicago) wrote "Hatred's Endless Chain," which later, they al- lege, was turned into the Kalem Co. by Del Ruth, using the name "G. G. Paul." CONFESS TO MURDER. San Francisco, Jan. 14. Paul Case and Thomas Green, the movie actors who were alleged to have robbed a bank in Blythe, Cal., of $5,- 000 Dec. 2 last, pleaded guilty in River- side, this state, to the murder of the cashier of the bank. Today is sentence day for the twain. Before committing the crimes Case and Green acted bandit roles in film plays. POWERS-LAEMMLE SUIT. Morgan J. O'Brien will referee the next P. A. Powers vs. Carl Laemmle encounter for supremacy of the Uni- versal. The hearing is listed for ten days hence. David Horsley's legal ownership of stock in the company is the crux of the case. Powers is in St. Luke's Hospital, un- dergoing a slight operation, is expected out before the end of the week. WALTER HAST'S IMPORTATIONS. Walter Hast has returned to New York, with some plays in his trunk, a company to interpret "The Change" on the water, and many contracts from well known foreign actors to appear over here under his direction. Martin Harvey, who is going through Canada (opening there Jan. 19) will come to New York and play for eight weeks under Mr Hast's management. The , Princess Bariatinsky is coming over next fall at Mr. Hast's sugges- tion. She will appear in a rep. of Ibsen, Tolstoi and other plays. A vaudeville turn Hast has under engagement is Walter Lambert. He is a ventriloquist who plays a sketch called "Nutty Jones." "The Change" show for which Mr. Hast has the American rights will open Feb. 2, probably at the Booth theatre. THE THREE MUSKETEERS The breathless pace at which In other days we galloped through the quivering pages of the Dumas' tale of strange adventure, swash buckling Intrigue and courtly cunning. "The Three Guardsmen," has been captured with singular consistency In the new six-reel fea- ture film of the subject made by the Film Attractions Go. The native adaptation was shown at the New York theatre for the first time isst Fri- day morning, and whatever the merits of the alien product the domestlo filmed produo- tlon may he relied upon to enthusiastically herald Its own acclaim. In all the essences of the original atmosphere, audacity, daring and Insouciance, the domestlo made play may conservatively be set down as an aitlstlo, vividly dramatlo transcript of the salient ele- ments of the stirring tale of the country boy, D'Artagnan's descent upon Paris and the Frenoh and the conquest of fame, friendship and fortune amid the Idolatrous favor of the men and women of the merry band of soldiers, royal entitles. Intriguantes and crafty politi- cal statesmen, with whom he lster com- mingled. If, like me, you saw the story start with the color and speed of a bit of half mediae- val court life In France In the reign of Louis XIII, and you marveled as 1 did at the exhilarating play of sunlight and out- door nature in the al fresco effects as well as at the verslmllltude of the antique In- teriors, architecture, decorations and cos- tumes In the film counterfeits, your first ques- tions, perhaps, would be, as were mine, who staged It 7 Where was it produced T where did they get their models for the exteriors, interiors, for the gowns, swords, boots, spurs, old taverns, and where, also, the players who so splendidly visualise the brilliant romance? The replies all fetch up at one door that of Charles V. Henkel, the presiding genius of the Film Attractions Co., former counselor, guide and friend of Carl Laemmle and P. A. fowers, a ttlm pioneer who came over the rough roads of primitive nlmdom, a former photographer who struggled first with this problem of the movie art, then with that; who built, painted, wrote, staged, acted and mar- keted the first of the industry's products; who became immersed in the art problems of the field when his contentporarles were Jug- gling with its politics anu ttnances, and to whose primary propulsion Powers and Laemmle may be fairly said to owe their first successes in Screenville, and to whom $26,1)00 is still due from the Laemmle interests or some one as Indemnity for the Universal col- lateral which Henkel last year held and vol- untarily unloaded. >" Henkel may Justly be as proud of this evi- dence of his real genius for his calling as Powers or Laemmle may be of their place In Bradstreet's. In Coytesvllle, N. J„ the producer of this Dumas film has recreated the old dusty highways leading from Calais to Paris, made live again the lovable D'Artagnan and the spavined old nag with which he rides to town from his father's country town, glvee us in the flesh with their varied, fssclnatlng characteristics Athos, Porthos and Aramls; gives us peeps into the court of Louis XIII, whets our lust for gossip with pictured amours, including that of Louis' wife. Anne, for Buckingham, and the wily Richelieu's machavellian efforts to turn the romance to account for the queen's undoing; shows us the successive Incidents in the evolution of the lout D'Artagnan, easy of mien, free with his sword, happy, careless, loving a fight for its own sake, a champion of all women, and a lover of one, until the rustle fetches up a gay beplumed blade in Anne's service; now when Buckingham fled through the secret door after his all but fatal interview with the queen, Richelieu started his relentless decoy. Lady DeWlnter, after him to lure him back, and then, falling this plans the state ball so the king shall miss the Jewels the queen gave to her admirer: how at the same time D*Ar- tagnan, through his sweetheart. Constance, maid of the luckless Anne, Is impressed to cast his valor and Intrepidity Into the breach to circumvent the plot, and how he eventu- ally does so at the eleventh hour by arriv- ing In Paris after a hundred hairbreadth 'scapes in flood and field, bearing the Jewels, and through the subsequent unmasking of the decoy utterly routing the wily old cardinal. It's good, stout stuff, every frame of It, and if it doesn't send you hotfoot for another wild race through the Dumas' stories, it's be- cause you're not as young as you used to be. Corb. C. b\ N. WRITKB ANOTHER. Pittsburgh, Jan. 14. Charles Frederick Nirdlinger, broth- er of Samuel F. Nixon and author of "The First Lady of the Land," has written a new play which will be among the original offerings William Moore Patch will stage in his stock theatre, the Pitt. No name has been selected for the drama, but it deals with the subject of international mar- riages and is based to some extent on the romance of Katherine Elkins and the Duke d'Abruzzi. The play is scheduled for February and Nirdlinger will be present at the premiere.