The Ronan pioneer., 1917-08-24
MONTANA AND THE
MOTION PICTURE
FIRST THEATER OF THIS KIND
WAS OPENED in BUTTE
IL YEARS AGO.

Frank Bailey, Who Had Capital of
$500, Opened Second House; Has
Made Fortune; How Phil Levy
Took Advantage of an Opportun-
ity; Some Others.
The revenue of all the motion pic
ture theaters in Montana amounts
to millions of dollars annually in the
aggregate, and many Montanans have
made handsome fortunes out Of this
popular amusement business. Its
start in the state was humble and
dates back about IL years, when an
amusement adventurer, whose name
is forgotten, opened the first motion
picture house in Butte and Montana.
He secured small store building, on
Park street, remodeled it, put in an
inclined floor and tin front and
made bid for the big Butte busi
ness. He could seat only 800 people,
but in a week he was on the road to
wealth. He flourished for couple
of years in Butte, sold out and moved
on to pioneer in some other place.
In the meantime, Frank Bailey,
since one of the Pacific coast mag
mates in the motion picture game,
came to Butte. He knew something
about the business, then in it's infan-
cy. He secured a location on Main
street, in a small building adjoining
the old Combination gambling house.
Walker had less than $400 as his cap
ital. He had to have help and opened
wide the door of opportunity to a
number of Butte individuals before
he found one who would venture with
him. From this little theater has
grown several large and beautiful
motion picture palaces in Butte and
in larger towns of the coast. Bailey
is now at the head of strong syndi-
cate controlling these houses and is
said to be very wealthy man.
Many Lost Money.
After Bailey came the deluge. Ev-
eryone in Butte who had a little mon
ey to spare, went into the motion pic
ture business. Among others who
lost money were the late Charles
Schatzlein, Levi Wild, and numerous
individuals who were associated with
them in the meantime the film COM
panies had increased and multiplied
and there was an abundance of good
service. Competition became sharp
and every house in Butte was losing
money.
This gave Phil Levy his opportun-
ity. Levy was a barber, controlling
several shops and had amassed &c.
600. He conceived the idea of buy
ing up as many of the theaters as he
could, making combination with
some of the others, including the
Bailey interest, boosting the prices,
and handling the amusement indus
try on a business basis. He had to
have more money. So he went to Jo-
seph Oppenheimer, who financed
him. Levy bought up the competing
houses, closed some of them up, made
two or three of them especially at
tractive, concluded an agreement
with the Bailey syndicate whereby
all houses were to charge Is cents ad-
mission instead of 10 cents and elm
mated all costly competition. The
result of this organization was that
the motion picture business of he
town was put on a profitable basis,
almost instantly, and Levy is the man
who is given credit for doing it. He
has since developed in to the first
theatrical magnate of the state, has
gone into vaudeville also, and con-
trolls, besides his string of motion pic
ture houses in Butte, vaudeville
theaters in Butte, Anaconda, Helena
strongly backed by such men as Op-
penheimer, Jack Cohen, head of the
Symons Dry Goods company, George
~
pany, and a group of men associated
with them.
Harry McMillian's Venture.
Among others who went into the
business in the early days was Harry
Mcmillan, a Butte neWspaperman,
who opened small house in Helena.
Mcmillan went broke, and this sent
him to Nevada, where he made for
tune in Goldfield. He has made and
lost several fortunes since.
Twelve years ago Dee G. Scott was
employed as a web pressman on the
Anaconda Standard. He had charge
of the big perfecting press Of the
Anaconda newspaper. AS his work
only required two or three hours of
labor every day, and that between the
hours of 3 and a. m, he decided to
go into the motion picture business.
So he opened up the Reel theater in
a modest way. He learned to oper-
ate the projectiscope himself and his
wife sold the tickets. He prospered of
course, and in the course of few
years, made a fortune.
Now every little town Of 300 peo-
pie has it's motion picture theater,
and some of them several houses. The
business has grown to enormous pro-
portions in few years.
WHEAT RAISED ON 100