Moving Picture World (Dec 1917) - Learn About Movie Posters

1790 THE MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 22, 1917
Associated Theatres to Meet
First Meeting of Stockholders of Exhibitors' Booking and
Exchange Organization of the Northwest.
Tlil"
first big meeting of stockholders of Associated
Theaters Incorporated will take place at the West
Hotel in Minneapolis Monday, December 17, to elect
a board of five directors and adopt the franchise and information
blanks after discussion, and also make any cortions
decided upon.
This is the organization of exhibitors which incorporated
October 1(> for $100,000 under Minnesota laws to operate
booking offices and film exchanges in the following cities
of our states: Minneapolis, Duluth, Milwaukee, La Crosse,
Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Fargo and Minot. Six hundred
theaters was the goal to be reached before starting actual
operations, and according to General Manager Hamlin, in a
statement issued December 1, the five hundred mark had just
been passed.
The present officers are: President, H. L. Hartman, Mandan,
i\. D. ; vice-president, W. S. Smith, Menominee, Wis.;
chairman, C. W. Gates, Aberdeen, S. D. ; treasurer, H. P.
Greene, Minneapolis, Minn.; secretary and general manager,
T. H. Hamlin, Minneapolis, Minn.
"Although our plan is a radical departure from the present
expensive methods of marketing and distributing film,
supplies and equipment we do not expect to revolutionize
the motion picture industry in a single day," declared Mr.
Hamlin. "At the start we will not be able to serve all our
members all of the time, but we can start serving part of
our members all the time and all of our members part of
the time.
"In the meantime they will continue dealing with the individual
exchanges direct as under the present system.
When we have the film that each member desires for every
day in the week at a price which he feels he can individually
afford to pay, then and only then will we be able to serve
the entire membership every show. While this evolution is
going on the members have no dues or assessments to pay,
so there can be no dissatisfaction. We do not expect to
play grand stand politics to retain the loyalty of our immense
membership. No, indeed. There is only one thorough
method of completely satisfying such a large organization
and that is to actually save each member money
every week and render him service, with courtesy and
rapidity.
"Our sole aim is to eliminate the middleman's enormous
expenses. We want each producer and parent distributing
company to realize more net profit on these four States
and our members under our plan of distributing will be
able to obtain better film at a lower film rental.
"Our weekly sales sheet eliminates the expenses of traveling
salesmen and saves approximately seven thousand dollars
a week in these four States.
"The seven inspection points to be established in the
different localities will save our members express charges
to the same amount weekly because of the shorter hauls.
"It is just eleven hundred miles across our zone from
Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to Beach North, Dakota, and it is a
losing territory for the producers and distributors.
"We will either play film on a percentage or buy exclusive
rights and pay for our own prints. Associated Theaters,
Inc., is not in the business to make a cent of profit
from anybody. It is here to give the best service to its
members at the very lowest cost.
"If there is very little film handled at the start our overhead
expenses will be correspondingly low as they can be
made very slight," concluded Mr. Hamlin.
PRINCE GHOSH AFTER PATHE, BY GOSH!
Prince Sarath Ghosh, author and dramatist, has filed an
action in the United States District Court against Pathe
Exchange, Inc., alleging that his rights have been invaded
upon through the production of "The Iron Claw."
The plaintiff asserts that previous to the production of
the Pathe serial he adapted a similar serial from a series
of short stories written by him and published in Pearson's
Magazine. The author's serial was christened "1001 Amer-
Nights" and he alleges the Pathe serial is a modified
adaptation of the Ghosh product.
The short stories upon which Ghosh based his serial were
"The Rajah's Knight's Move," "Slowly Hanged," "The Avenger
of the Gods," "The Rajah's Dungeon," "The Garland of
the Goddess," and "The Playful Way of the Rajah," which
the author asserts were especially well adapted for presentation
on the screen and written with that object in view.
The author asks injunctive relief and an accounting of the
profits which have accrued to the producers.
Artcraft Wins Wm. S. Hart Case
Judge Goff Denies the Application of the New York Motion
Picture Company for an Injunction.
JUDGE GOFF in a lengthy decision handed down yesterday
denied the application of the New York Motion
Picture Company for an injunction pendente lite restraining
Artcraft Pictures Corporation from distributing
the first Wm. S. Hart production, entitled "The Narrow
Trail," and vacated the temporary stay granted pending
the argument of the injunction.
Judge Goff at the close of an elaborate and painstaking
review of the affidavits submitted on both sides said: "Upon
an examination of all the papers submitted upon this motion,
and the extensive briefs and arguments of counsel for
both sides, I am of the opinion that there is not such certainty
or even probability of the plaintiff succeeding upon
the trial of this action as would warrant the granting of the
relief sought herein. Nor is there any such preponderance
of creditable evidence as would justify the plaintiff's assertion
of ownership of the scenario of the picture "The
Narrow Trail," or even its assertion that its rival producing
corporation induced the employees of plaintiff to leave its
employment. The defendant served in this action, Artcraft
Pictures Corporation, is not reasonably chargeable with any
act of the William S. Hart Production, Inc., so far as appears
by the evidence before me to justify the restraint
sought for before the determination of the issues in the
action. The claim of ownership by the plaintiff is sufficiently
refuted and upon his claim alone there appears
to be no reasonable ground for granting the relief sought
herein. The unique and extraordinary services alleged by
the plaintiff are as I have heretofore indicated not such as
would justify the granting of a restraining order. Upon
these considerations 1 am constrained to deny the motion
for an injunction pendente lite and to order the temporary
stay granted in the order to show cause vacated."
Giebler to Write Scenarios
St. Louis Member of the World Staff Has Moved to Los
Angeles and Will Give More Time to
Imaginative Writing.
READERS of this paper have remarked the unusually
interesting human quality of the Giebler stories of
trade happenings in St. Louis. There is a touch of
homely humor in him and on several occasions his comment
on men and facts in his district has made a column the
equal of any special column in the country. We have known
that there was a literary side to Giebler and though sorry,
we were not surprised when he reached a point where he
could devote a large part of his time to imaginative writing
pure and simple. He has sold enough stories to magazines
and enough scripts to the film companies to make it a
safe move now, and so he is off to the Coast to be near
the studios and in touch with the needs of the different
companies. He won't need to depend entirely on the film
script market, though he is awake to the possibilities of
the screen and he may eventually come to specialize on
that alone. Mr. Giebler has not entirely severed his newspaper
associations. The staff of the Moving Picture World
wishes the best of success to him and we feel sure that
he will make a hit.
Leopold D. Wharton in Harness
Senior Member of Well-Known Firm of Producers Returns
from Battle Creek to Assist in Direction of
Chief Flynn's Serial.
LEOPOLD
D. WHARTON arrived in New York last
week from the Battle Creek Sanitarium where he had
been for three weeks, resting up, at the advice of his
physicians. He came east at this time in order that he
might assist his brother, Theodore, in the direction of the
first episodes of "The Eagle's Eye," the Whartons' new
serial, written by William J. Flynn, Chief of the United
States Secret Service.
Mr. Wharton was met in New York City by his brother,
who has been in charge of the preliminary New York scenes,
and with the principal characters in the production, they
left for the Wharton Studios at Ithaca, New York.
Leopold Wharton was author and co-director of "The
Great White Trail," a five-reel feature which the M. H.
Hoffman, Inc., Foursquare Exchanges rate as one of their
best distributing assets. This same company will have
charge of the distribution of "The Eagle's Eye."