V A R I E T Y IS

FILM FLASHES Henry Mayer, the N. T. Times cartoonist,

has Just staged a scenario of his own tor the Imp.

William Shay of the "Imp" party touring the continent, writing from Berlin, says the company will take In St. Petersburgh before coming home.

King Baggot and his Imp associates now in Louisville, Ky., filming are expected back in New York Oct. 10.

Charley CTreene of the Imp ia carrying around a badly bruised shoulder acquired act­ing as a mattress for Oeorge Loan Tucker, who fell from the roof of a 6-story Union Hill. N. J., tenement. Sept. 30 while taking an Imp picture, landing on Greene and Matt Moore, who was on a fire escape ten feet be­low.

Clara Kimball Young is the featured femi­nine of "The Test." a Vitagraph release listed tor Oct. 12. Harry Northrup is in the cast.

"Wild Beasts at Large" and "Two Aristo­cratic Penitents" are announced for early cir­culation as a General Film subject. Florence Dyer and Arthur Ashley are the principals of the last named.

"Protea" is the title of a new 5-reel fea­ture shown for the first time privately at the Eclair projection atudio Oct. 1. It will be re­leased immediately.

"The Two Spies," a Balkan war drama, will be released by the Gaumont Oct. 21.

The Essanay announce a new 2-reel melo­drama, "The Old Girl," for release Oct. 10.

The Klelne-Eclipse circulate. "The Last Minute," a new Arizona Bill feature in 2 parts. Oct 14.

Selig sends out "The Bridge of Shadows," a from-riches-to-poverty story Oct. 13. "The Abduction of Pinkie," a film dog tale, will be issued Oct. 16 on a reel with "The Golden Cloud," a stock market drama.

John D. Rockefeller has been forced to hire a special strong arm man to keep the movies from ketohing him.

Anna Laughlin, the Reliance's new ingenue, will be featured in picture releases Oct. 11, entitled "The Rebellious Pupil." "The Flirt." another Reliance, with Miss Laughlin and Charles Dickson, will be circulated beginning Oct. 15.

The Jack London suit to restrain the San Francisco Balboa Amusement Co. from re­producing effects from the London stories is calendared for a hearing Oct. 20.

Public clamor in Juarez against photo­graphing for the movies the forthcoming hanging of the rebel leader. Francisco Villa, promises to make the government promoters of the plan to back down.

"His Neighbor's Wire" is the title of the feature to be released Oct. 10, presenting Lily Langtry in the same part.

The suit of Texas to enjoin the Southern Feature Film Co. from operating on the ground it violates the Sherman Anti-trust law comes up for preliminary hearing this morning at 10.30, in Beaumont, Tex.

Elmer J. McGovern has succeeded to the publicity berth left vacant with the N. Y. Motion Picture Co., when Bert Ennis went over to Eclair.

The Film Releases of America company re­port sales to the Golden Gate Film Exchange of Los Angeles and San Francisco; North­western Film Exchange of Portland land Seattle; Famous Players Film Co. of Boston; Wieland Film Co. of Pittsburgh, and the Electric Theatre Supply Co. of Philadelphia.

Arthur Leslie now has 150 papers taking his special film trade news service.

"In the Watches of the Night" will be the initial feature in which Warners' Features will present Marion Leonard.

Lubin presents "The Taming of Rattle­snake Bill" Oct. 16, and "The Evil Eye" Oct. 23, both melodrama in 2 reels.

A. Bllnkhorn reports active inquiries for "David Copperfleld." a 7-reeler among the features he recently brought from abroad.

The Ruby Feature Film Co. advertise State Rights for "The Hound of the Underworld."

Fred Gunning has struck his old Eclair gait In his new Job as publicity generator for Warners' Features.

Wilfred North, Vitagraph director, is ex­pected back to work Oct. 10, when he will finish the 2-reeler, "Miss Tomboy." on which he was at work when injured by the pre­mature explosion of a yacht cannon.

A North Carolina mountain story planned by the Vitagraph will take away from here soon Ned Finley. James Morrison. Harry Northrup. Edith Storey. Arthur Ashley, Mrs. Storey, Mrs. B. F. Clinton, Temple Carr, Logan Paul, Florence Klotz and Jack Harvey.

The newly appointed Lubin studio at Jack­sonville now includes in its roster A. D. Hotaling, Mae Hotallng, Hazel Smith, Mar­garet and Francis McMoyer, Julia Calhoun, Jessie Milton, Leola May, Peggy Anderson,

Dorothy Bets, Jerry Hevener, Raymond Mc-Kee. Garry Hotaling, Frank Griffin, James Levering, William Bets. Walter Keires, Wil­liam Bowers, Neil Morton and Henry Bard. Every Monday is demonstration day for the World's Tower Building Gaumont annex, start­ing at 10 a. m.

Anthony Fiala, the explorer, will photograph the new jungle hunts of Theodore Roosevelt and party in South America, sailing to-mor­row.

Jack Bonavita's jungle hunts for the Tampa Film Co. will be written by Jack Byrne, who will work in Tampa, having left the Universal scenario department.

20% farce comedy, 50% melodrama, and 30% news, history and educational items about sums the qualities of the current week's ag­gregate native film programs.

Alec. Lorimore, publicity dynamo for the Gaumont, ia installed in his new offices In the World's Tower building.

Courtenay Foote's present mail address Is Low's Exchange, New York. He will make a vacation tour of the country, beginning about Nov. 1.

Thomas Ince, general manager of the N. Y. Motion Picture Co. has engaged Walter Be-lasco. brother of David, fof future stage pro­ductions.

Variety is in receipt of a post card photo of Joe Brandt standing in the shadows of the Trafalgar Square monument, London, bearing a request to "Give my regards to all the boya."

Fred Mace of "One Round O'Brien" dis­covery has just turned out a film farce, "Ket->hem and Klllem."

"The Tomboys Race," a coming New Ma­jestic film has the recent Corona, California, auto road race for a background.

"Through the Sluice Gates" showing one of the players carried along by a race tide through a western waterway, is an announced novelty of the New Majestic. Phillip Lober-gan wrote it. "The Ice Man's Revenge," a film

11/» \\ I i l C , 114

jestic from the same author.

Kinemacolor's "Robin Hood" will have a black-and-white "Robin Hood" rival from the Thanhouser studios, released Oct. 15. Lloyd Lonergan is the adapter.

FIELDS' BIG OPENING.

Chicago, Oct. 1. The American Music Hall opened

Sunday night with Lew Fields and his big company in "All Aboard." The house was packed to the doors and the show was received with great enthu­siasm.

The American has been newly deco­rated and it presents a handsome ap­pearance. The ceiling has been bright­ened with huge banners and many more lights have been put in. Tables have been placed in the rear where food is served, and a dancing floor has been arranged in the balcony. A band is stationed there. After the show those who desire may dance.

These innovations appeared to please the audience Sunday night A large number remained after the show.

The opening was one of the biggest and most enthusiastic of any this sea­son with the exception of "The Whip" at the Auditorium.

Following the issuance of an injunc­tion in the United States Court Monday, Mr. Fields eliminated the moving picture scene from the piece, shortening the show by three minutes without damaging the effect.

The injunction was granted upon application of Charles Frohman, who alleged the bit was an infringement upon the foreign play, "The Girl on the Film," for which Frohman has the American rights.

The World Special Film Co. announce the opening of new offices in Boston and Detroit. Charles Stern, formerly of the Universal will be at the Hub headquarters, and A. Dicker-son, recently of the International Film in De­troit

The Progressive Motion Picture Co. of Los Angeles will handle the Sims of the World Special Co. in California, Oregon, Utah, Ne­vada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyom­ing and Montana beginning with "The Two Sergeants." The connection has been made to centralize deliveries.

W. A. Sherman will manage the Cleveland offices of the World Special Films. George Stockton will assist.

COMED1E FRANGAISE OPENS. {Sptiai Cable to VAJU*»TJ

Paris, Oct. 1. The Comedie Francaise reopened to­

night (Oct. 1) after the fixing of the new painted ceiling and other altera­tions upstairs (already detailed in these columns). It took the form of an of­ficial inauguration. The program con­sisted of Moliere's "Malade Imagi-naire," and a patriotic ceremony. The splendid soiree which will be long re­membered.

"The Fruits of Vengeance" is a new Vita­graph drama listed for mid-October delivery.

If yon don't advertise at all.

advertise In VARIETY, don't

POMPEII The movies are great levelers. "Vouse

wanta wait fer the oithquake!" exclaimed a patron of Wallack's on the opening night of the newly imported six-reel feature. "The Last Days of Pompeii," after the Bulwer Lytton novel. "You've seen the picture before?" the seat mate of the man of the argot asked. "Naw, but I read the book, an' besides the San Francisco t'ing an' the red fire, there ought t' be a smashin' scrap due about here between the hero an' a lion in the areena!" A woman in silks, wearing a Y-shaped back and a lorgnette, at this stage of the show turned a moment from the Pompeii pageantry to survey her erudite neighbor through her gold mounted lens. Then the reel clicked on.

The film fan of the Patricia O'Brien lingo expressed the expectancy of most folks pres­ent, perhaps, who had read the novel. The picture had reached its final climatic periods. and up to this point had been a beautiful and satisfying panorama of what the records tell us happened about 70 A. D. You had met the ancient notables of the story, had been to the amphitheatre, seen the chariot races, applauded by tiers on tiers of Grecian and Roman merrymakers, had followed with In­terest the duel of love between Its five prin­cipals, and were ready to sit back and gasp at the closing strokes of what you were free to admit up to this point had been a master­piece of selection and compression. But your dream didn't materialize. The end of the show fell down. There wa'nt no "oithquake." although there was a fair reproduction of a fire, with hurrying Egyptians and Athenians, rushing pell mell down long sweeps of marble stairways, on through changing labrynths or the arena. But it didn't satisfy you. You expected the fall and crash of riven temples, with fire and brimstone. What you got was a picture of a staged Vesuvius in eruption, the panic of flight from the temples and arena, and—finis.

But if the bulk of the people present suf­fered disappointment in the failure of this

phase of the picture, they had no kick com­ing against the preceding reels. If ever the atmosphere of the old days of the Roman dandies was captured for the stage, this Pas-quali motography of an exhumed past seems to have caught i t The moving vista of the holiday arena is worth many times the price of admission. In no other film has the im­mense sweep of the old Athenian playgrounds been so impressively conveyed. You don't see merely a corner of what might be an arena. You see it all. The merrymakers, shouting, gesticulating, and waving, are in the thou­sands, or seem to be. The ring is a real one, massive in stone and marble pillars, boxes, runs, stairways, and all clearly a recon­structed original. You get glimpses of the licentiate stages of the period, with one par­ticularly amorous afternoon in a dandy's studio. The human drama of the Bulwer story, too, is preserved. Glaucus, the Athe­nian loves Ionia, "the most beautiful woman in Athens," madly. Arbaces, an Egyptian libertine, covets her. Julia, Ionia's rival for Glaucus' love, essays to win, administering a love potion. Nydta, the blind female slave maid of Ionia, also in love with Glaucus, seeks to win his love for herself by stealing the potion and herself administering It. Arbaces, to destroy bis rival, has a philtre for madness substituted for the love mixture. Nydla does the dosing. Glaucus goes mad, is accused of a murder that Arbaces commits, is offered the choice of valiant death in the arena, in combat with lions, the beasts are let loose, Glaucus stalks bravely forth, and -just when you're expecting something blood­curdling to happen—the fire Interrupts, and the play ends.

As the audience was filing out of Wallack's. the seat mate of Patricia O'Brien's brother asked: "How could you expect them to show you a whole city tumbling down, or a man and lion light?"

"Awl Didn't I see Bonavita put it all over 27 lions down at Bostock'B at Coney, an' don't I go to see the spektakle shows at the Hip!" the cultured one answered. Corb.

(PASQUALI-AM. CO.)

PARIS ALHAMBRA BILL. (Social Cable to Vajuwrr.)

Paris, Oct. 1. Annette Kellermann, billed as the

most perfect woman, opened with her diving act, assisted by Frank Parker, at the Alhambra, Oct. 1, and made good.

The present bill is the biggest this season, comprising La Pia (accom­panied by Percy Boggis, who has re­covered his health); Leslie Brothers, Oswald Wilson, Hartley Wonders, the Aeros, Leonard Gautier, etc. All the acts went splendidly. This is some­thing like a vaudeville program.

HERE, TOO! (Special Cable to VARiBrrr.)

Paris, Oct. I. The weather is wet after a beautiful

week. Business is excellent.

"DREAM MAIDEN*' DELAYED. After ten weeks of intermittent re­

hearsals "The Dream Maiden" com­pany was booked to open Monday in Syracuse. The cast were notified to be at the Grand Central depot, New York, to depart Sunday, which was afterward changed, on arrival at the station, to Monday. Tuesday they left town, minus the three principal male players, their trunks following on a later train, but with borrowed scenery. Joseph Physioc refusing to deliver his scenic equipment without being paid.

Syracuse, Oct. 1. "The Dream Maiden" opens here

tonight. Scenery and costumes ar­rived this morning, but no management is in evidence. Harry Gribben, Joseph Miron and Parent are out of the cast, their places being filled by choristers. Gribben impart author and has had some trouble with his collaborator, Allan Lowe, who also sponsored the enterprise.

NO OPERA IN MANHATTAN. Several stories were out during the

past week that Oscar Hammerstein intended playing grand opera in the Manhattan.

Arthur Hammerstein says that would be impossible, as a clause in the agree­ment made by his father and the Metropolitan Opera Co. especially pro­hibits the Manhattan from again enter­taining the divas.

"LOVE VALE" SPICY. Cincinnati, Oct. 1.

If Abe Erlanger is thinking seriously of putting on "Das Thai der Liebe" ("The Vale of Love"), a new Oscar Strauss operetta, he had better watch developments here. "The Vale of Love" will be given its American premiere at the Grand Opera House in this city dur­ing the latter part of next week. It is the common story of an old husband, a young wife and a youth, and spills the tobasco, say those who are in the know.

House Manager Aylward, of the Grand, has been notified that Erlanger will either come himself or send a rep­resentative to sec the operetta, which will be done by Otto Krnst Schmid's German players. The Teutons intro­duced "The Count of Luxembourg" to the American stage several year3 ago, and Klaw & Erlanger snapped it up.