The Alaska daily empire., 1917-01-05

The following Interesting article is taken from the Moving Picture World of the Dec. &0th issue and pertains to two of the leading nov ing picture men of Alaska The ar ticie appears under a Seattle date ! line:
 The picture theatres of Northwest ern and Central Alaska have the best service of any on the conti- nent! We are used to hearing eN- hibitors boost their own shows in a mild sort of way, but that state ment did take away our breath, es- pcclally in view of the fact that we have heard so many rumors of the ] difficulty of getting film into those frozen towns of the North, and al- so considering that the speaker was a man who usually means exactly what he says. It was W. r. Code, ol the Alaska Dream theatre, Nome, AL aska. Hc went on Co prove his statement:
 "We have Paramount, Triangle, Fox. Metro, World, Pathc Bis Four. and Mutual Masterpieces; and we change every night" said Mir, Code, |" Civilization was put on in Fair banks, Alaska, before it was in SPo- 1 kane. Washington"
 But how can they do it?"
 "Why. on the last boat that left here for Northern Alaska I sent . 1000 reels, and they won't come back until next spring. You see, A.. ] R. Thornc, of A. F. Lathrop, and l 1 have formed a combine called the ! Alaska Feature Film Company. Mir. ] LathroD owns theatres in Anchor age, Seward, Valdez, and Cordoya. . Mir. Thornc owns the Thornc in . Fairbanks. We formed the film com pany for the primary purpose of get ting films for ourselves, but we do rent them 10 the few other houses in our territory. Now we get the ] films we want. If we cant rent them we buy them, but we seldom ever have to do that. The exchange manager who wouldn't begin to talk ! business with us when we wanted ! two or three features to take to Al aska for the winter finds his sub ] icct intensely interesting when he ! learns We are asking for twenty . five CT fifty features now. or ] course, we don't have 10 lay in such a supply in summer. We have reg . ular boat service then"
 But even with this arrangement, how can you make an cycry-night . change a paying proposition? Nome . is small town, isn't iL?
 Yes, there are only 2,500 people there in summer and less in win ter, but I have always gone iuto'thn advertising game like a circus man agrr. I've just pulled 'cm out ot . their homes and they've got che habit now. You could bet y0ur laa dollar on gt least fifty. perhaps siN- . ty, seats bciUg occupied by ,he same people every night.
 You see, ! haven't any compct- itors now. There used to be some, but I put them out of business with my change every night. Since then I've found that my little theatre with its 250 seats is not large enough, so I'm building a GOO ca- Dacity hoosc."
 "Wherc are some of the theatres located that don't belong to you or your partuers?"
 ] There's one here at St Michaels, % , he said. pointing out the town on i the map. "St. Michacls is an army post, and the picture show is at the 1 Post Exchange. Then there's an other at Candle, which is farther north than any other picture show in the world Candle is 2O4 miles northeast of Nome. and it is be- i tween the two towns that the tl- nous Alaska Sweepstakes are run 1 by dog teams. All ghc film carried to Candle in the winter goes by dog train. There arc just abOu. l5O people in iHe town and the show is run by some merchants who don't care whether they make any money on it OF uot. What they want is 8 picture show twice a week. ard they are -oiue to have io.
 "Thcy wanted Co run '~uic's Puncturcd Renamed this Christmas. and I wanted to send the picture to another town, so l put what l con sidcrcd a prOhibitivo price on it.; but they took it anyhow, and in or der not to lose money on it they are going to ask $2.5O and $5 a seat. And they'll get it, too. Once when they were running the same show for three consecutive nights . I asked them what their receipts were for the first night.
 "Seyenty-nine dollars and seventy five cents," answered the manager. And for the second night, I con tinued. The same amount And fOr fhp tbird Dight9' "Tbp. cornn