The evening world., 1916-07-29
SCARE fOvERnACUE
SHUTS24O MOVIES;
5OPER Cent. Loss
Small Houses Suffer the Most
Under Ban PLACED by Board
of Health.
FILM CONCERNS AID.
Eshlhitors' League Plea 10
Health Authorities Has
Had No Effect.
FILM CONCERNS AID

The stringent regulations which the
Board of Health has imposed on mo-
tsoa picture housss In ossstsr New
vesh because Of ths infaatils passiy.
Gle scare hes ht tho sshibitors %
hssd that the other branches Of the
busonsse have hsA 10 take Nasty
msasurss of relief In order 70 keep
many houses from going out of bust.
ssss. u 70 estimated that fully sSo
motion picture houses have closed IN
the past five weets. either because Of
POOR business or By direct order OF
the health officers.
businsss In the entire city has
fallen on from forty -nvo TO f,fty-nve
per cent, on an average. the smaller
houses bsins hit hardest and the
largest scarcely affected at all. Some
OF the small houses which stiil remain
open are doing but ten per cent. Of the
business they did prior to the cpl
dsmic.
In order TO keep the owners Of these
places from bankruptcy and preserve
them A. customers. a majority Of the
distributing agencies and manufac-
turcrs have made big reductions on
the weekly rentals which they get f0r
their fiims under normal conditions.
Tho World Film Corporation. whose
exhibitors are all under contract ~
play q certain number Of tha. com.
pany's hlms. has nullined all such
contracts for the time being. permit
ting those exhibitors who cann0t pay
their overhead expenses 10 closn down
until business picks up. Othor con-
Germs are expected to take similar
steps toward giving their exhibitors
an extension Of time on their obliga-
tions.
The Ave cent and ten cent movie
houses have been hardest hit by the
epidemic. Their patronage contains
such a largo percentage OF children
that their revenues since children wsre
barred from attending moving picture
shows has fallen away to almost moth
ING. The adults who used TO bring the
children to SEQ the pictures are not
attending themselves any more. partly
because II was the children who fur
nished the incentive for their going at
all and rartly because they are afraid
OF carrying poasible contagion away
from the theatre. Many parents. sec-
ing the children barred from tho movie
houses but not from other places, have
conceived the idea that infAntils par
alysis originates In the film theatres.
1t 10 this discrimination against the
motion picture houses which has led
the exhibitors to protest against the
Board OF Health's ruling. The Motion
Picture Exhibitors League OF
America takes the stand that 80 long
- children are not barred from street
cars. from Coney Island. from play
grounds. and other places where they
come In contact with each other.
they should not be kept from attend
INK the movies The exhibitors say
that they take pains to keep their
houses a. sanitary az any Of the
places from which children are not
barred. Furthermore they point out
that children under sixteen must have
= guardian when they attend the mo-
tion picture houses, as provided by
law. and that the guardians can see
that their charges do not mingls with
other children.
A committee from the Exhibitors
League looked up the health records
and found only twonty-cight cases
OF infantile paralysis In Manhattan,
north OF Fourteenth Street and west
OF sixth Avenue, They found but
nfty-thrce cases In the Bronx. On
these records they based u request
"a License Commissioner Hell that
the strict ruling Of tho board Of
Health be rescinded In districts whore
thers 10 no Infection. Health Com
missioner Emerson declined to sanc-
tion any deviation from the rule laid