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Show ' TWO-REEL PLAY SUPPLANTED BY ' "FEATURE" FILM (One of First to Acclaim the Multiple Pictures Is For- 1 mer Ogden Resident. Resi-dent. laving developed two-reel motion pictures to a poirjt where, apparently, nothing more can be done to improve them artistically, 'the experts of the i 6tudios and the releasing companies be- thought themselves of giving more pretentious pre-tentious plays at greater length and enlisting famous dramatic stars to enact the leading roles. ' Thus the "feature" picture was born. It was born three seasons ago, yet it did not come into its own until within the last vear. Its development has been the big feature of the year in the realm of motion pictures. A year ago the two-reeler was the standard picture shown at most of the theaters. Today the so-called, "fea-. "fea-. ture" picture is the standard picture, and most of the houses show them. Only the smaller houses still cling exclusively exclusive-ly to picture .plays of two reels each. " The "feature' picture ii anything of four reels and up to productions of twelve reels, like D. W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation." Only very extra special features run to the last-mentioned length, however. The popular, regularly released features are from four to six reels, and with a one or t't'o-reel comedy and news or educational educa-tional .reels male up the average theater's the-ater's programme. Countless Changes. Every year of the moving picture business has seen countless changes and many improvements. The past year has been no exception. The coming year is, not likely to be. 'What developments are to come, it is hard to say. Some wiseacres of the film say that the multiple-reel feature will continue the dominance it has maintained the last few months. Others say that while there will always be special features in multiple reels,' 'the regular productions will go back to two or three reels. These forecasters would not detract anything from artistic production, but insist thai r(e average feature is padded and the public will demand more concise picture plays. Time will tell. At. the present writing -the precedence of the multiple-reel feature is unquestioned. unques-tioned. Tho -big men of the motion picture pic-ture businessbelieve in it. One of the first to acclaim them was a Utah man, by the way. His name is W. W. Hod-kinson, Hod-kinson, and ,ne is president and general manager of the Paramount Pictures cor-p cor-p ratiou. Mr. Hodkinson began his movie career as an exchange man and exhibitor in Ogdeu. Kleine Is Pioneer. i Mry Hodkinson and the producing companies which make up his corporation corpora-tion were pioneers in America in the tuking of multiple reel pictures for regular reg-ular release. The companies Famous Pluyers, Lasky, Oliver Morosco and Bos-worth, Bos-worth, Inc., now Pallas Pictures hammered ham-mered away at the idea that the four, five and six-act play was the thing. Another An-other pioneer was ' George Kleine. Gradually other companies took it- up "World Film. William Fox and others. New distributing companies were formed to handle the multiple-reel output of new studios. Finally the producers of the so-called . ""regular programmes," otherwise the makers of the then standard stand-ard one and two-reelers, awoke to the now order of things and began releasing features in:' addition to their regular output. out-put. ( The pnb'.Sc subscribed enthusiastically to the longer films and they became the thing. This departure in the movie game wreulied the many changes of the year in the make-up and personnel of the business. Picture magnates made new; ; alliances and new arrangements to keeq.paco with the demand for multiple-reel multiple-reel productions. . .Oldest in the picture game are the companies which release their regular pictures through the General Film company, com-pany, a distributing concern. They used to be "called the "licensed companies," and at. one time had the whip hand. Straggling concerns outside the fold were referred to as "independents" and were regarded as inferior. The General Film company '.ould not hold the picture business to 'itself for many years. It was destined to be too big and broau. The "independents' organized or-ganized and finally became as important and as resourceful and prolific as the licensed companies. . Last to Acknowledge. The older companies were the' last to acknowledge the preference for niui-tipie-reel pJacs. One of the important moves in the film world the past year was the formation of an alliance by Vi-tagraph, Vi-tagraph, beiig, liubin and Essanay to produce feature pictures outside of their contributions to the Ueneral Film company com-pany 's programme. This was but one of the new alliances alli-ances anrj business changes the industry of motion pictures ha-s witnessed in the last twelve months. A new releasing company. "Metro Pictures5 was born-Harry born-Harry E. Aitkin, D. W. Griffith and Kessel & Baumau, owners of the Kay-, Kay-, Bee and Keystone brands, together with 1 their big directors, Thomas H. Ince and Mack Sennett, withdrew from the Mutual Mu-tual Film corporation, one of the largest of the picture distributing concerns, and formed the Triangle Film company. This made a new "feature programme pro-gramme in the field. The Universal company decided to add multiple-reel features to their regular output of short-reelers short-reelers and serials. The Mutual corporation cor-poration turned to multiples they called "Mutual Masterpictures,M and just recently re-cently it has announced Mutual Mas terpictures de Luxe. The Mutual corporation filled in its producing ranks made vacant by the withdrawal of Griffith, Ince and Sennett and their principals by the addition of the David Horsley companies and the Gaumont company. Local Conditions. Salt Lake City, to get flown to local condi tionsj is regarded as one of the important motion picture centers of the country. With two or three exceptions every one of the large distributing and releasing companies have large agencies here, employing large "forces of salesmen, sales-men, film experts and office workers. Among the big exchanges in Salt Lake is the Notable Feature Film company, com-pany, a local concern which has a branch in Denver. L. Marcus is the head of the company, which distributes Paramount pictures to this and all the surrounding states. Other local exchanges serve Utah, Idaho, Montana and sections of Wvo-ming Wvo-ming and Nevada. The Mutual Fflm corporation has a large office and exchange ex-change here. So has the Universal company, Pathe, World Film corporation, corpora-tion, the General Film company, V-S-L-E, Inc., and others. Salt Lake is also notable as a picture pic-ture center for having the finest motion mo-tion picture theater in America, with the possible exception of the Strand in Now York City. The American theater the-ater of Salt Lake is known around the world. Every film man knows of it. Thousands of visitors in the past year visited it and went back home 'to sing praises of the magnificent houe, its famous orchestra, headed by Professor J. J. McClellan and its pictures. A big deal of the year was the ac-q ac-q uii; t ion of the American theater and its little bister, the LibertVj by W. H. Swanson, the .well-known picture magnate mag-nate and owner of the Hex theater. The American and Liberty were sold by the cowcrof t interests of Ogden to Mr. Swanson and the transaction, involving several ,-hundred thousand dollars, was one of the biggest of the year in this city. Lender One Management. The American, Liberty and Rex are now operated by bne management and comprise the Swanson circuit. H. A. Simp, who directed the American and Liberty during the ownership of the Si'oworofts, joined Mr. Swanson when the latter purchased the houses and is j general maunder of the three theaters. Here Salt Lake people see the fin-I fin-I em pictures the uew Triangle plavs, j the Paramount releases and the choice ; ofierings of other big picture pro-i pro-i duccrs. j The Broadway and Mchesy are also ! important down-town picture theaters, land each has a large clientele. At the ! Brnadwav may be seen the latest film ! masterpieces .if the World, Equitable and Metro companies, while at. the Me-I Me-I hesy flourish hits from the Mutual corporation cor-poration 's extensive programme. There are a dozen or so smaller houses in the down-town district and in the more populous suburbs. |