The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-23
MT. Marvin Wise, the New Owner and Manager of Alcazar Theatre, Outlines His Plans and Specificationsfor Future
Fly DOLLY DALRYMPLE

l llN the announcement of the plans | Jl and specifications for the future policy of the Alcazar theatre by
 the new owner and manager, MT. Mar win Wise, I felt tremendously inter ested, as this clever young man has
 made such pronounced success dur ing the past two and a half years with
 another popular moving picture house
 which he took charge of at that time
 "Nothing succeeds like success" is a
 motto which may we'll be hung across the portals of MT. Wise's door-his the atre door-because all those who know , him and who know how he took hold of the Odeon One theatre and put il on splendid commexcial basis as well as a basis for satisfactory entertain ment for his large clientele, realize that he has achieved success ana is amply qualified to achieve more.
 MT. Wise has ambitious plans for his pretty theatre, which include many i'm provements in the theatre itself as we'll as the pictures.
 Asked just what he considered the outlook as to the moving picture in- dustry at this time, and if the war had affected it to any serious extent. Mir. Wise said:
 T can answer that question by per sonal experience when I tell you have more than doubled the patronage at the Odeon One theatre this year as against this time last year. Rather than de- tracting from the picture industry the war has aided and abetted 1t, because people are not spending large sums of money for entertainment; they are giving most of their money to war ac- tivities; what they want is diversion and recreation at popular prices, and the pictures afford this.
 T have never been contented with mediocre things" MT. Wise continued. T want a crowd about me all the time; I want everything to look like it's humming and spinning along at successful rate, and in order to do this the management of theatre must cater to his patrons and give them what they want. Now, with the public, have found that two classes of pie lures make a distinct appeal: one is the picture that features well known and popular star-then it doesn't mat ter what the picture is particularly, because it is the star that people go to see; of course they like them bet ter if they have good picture as 8 vehicle, but it is not the picture that attracts the crowd, it is tho star him self; the other class of pictures which is popular, is the picture itself, which features no stars-for instance like The Whip which has been playing to enormous audiences all this week at the Alcazar. There are several stars included in the cast but no one is featured;' there's Alma Hanlon, June Elvidge, Irving Cummings, Warren Cook-some of whom have been fea- tured' in special pictures, but no one name is mentioned in The Whip in larger type than the others"
 Ranking. as it does, third on the list of great industries of the world to- day." MT. Wise said, ''the moving pie ture never had a brighter outlook, as I see it, than right now at the present time. In the first place, people have come to love moving pictures; they are educated up to them; scarcely child of 10 years can be found today who does not know Douglas Fairbanks, William s. Hart, William Farnum, Dus- tin Farnum, Bessie Barriscale, Mary Pickford and the big stars; grown ups know the minor actors almost as we'll as they do the stars; the way a picture is made nowadays is noticed critically by movie fans;' the scenario is noted with critical mind by the vast ma jority of movie fans everything counts now, in a picture, the story, the photography, the people. the sur roundings-and in consequence today better pictures are being made than have ever been put on the screen be- fore, hence more people attend the pictures and more people are pleased with this sort of entertainment. This bespeaks commercial success to the owners and managers of moving pic tare playhouses because pleased pub lie means a generous public in the mat ter of attendance and that means com mercial value to the operators of pie ture shows"
 '"The policy of the Alcazar theatre" MT. Wise said, lin the future will be to produce only the very biggest and best pictures 'obtainable. No mediocre or or dinary pictures will be shown-only the highest class from every point of view, and the patrons of the theatre