What Kind of a Fellow Is — Kessel? (1918) 🇺🇸
Being a glance at the real human side of the big men of the picture game caught in action
by William A. Johnston
A. Kessel, Jr., C. O. Bauman, Charles Kessel. These are the names on the door of an office in the Longacre building, New York — an office that has played a very considerable part in the affairs of motion pictures.
The uninitiated, passing by, might suppose that A. Kessel, Jr., was some smart young man who had taken his uncle Chas. Kessel and one C. O. Bauman into partnership with him and was trying to edge into the picture business.
But those who know anything at all about pictures know of Kessel and Bauman — of Kay-Bee and Keystone and 101–Bison and Triangle and New York motion picture fame, and that far from edging into the business they have had a very large edge in it for the past eleven years — ever since in fact, they came up one day from Sheepshead Bay and discovered it.
And A. Kessel, Jr., is not Charley’s nephew but his older brother; in fact Ad. is the older brother of all the Kessels, and an uncle to the film business. He’s the man who put the Kay in Kay-Bee and the K into Keystone and a lot of other big things we can’t mention here.
As we entered the office we spied a box marked “A. Kessel, Jr., Keeseville, N. Y.”
As a reporter we are something of a sleuth if we do say it, not even taking off our hat to the famous boy sleuth of the business; and right away we scented a big story.
“Aha!” we said.
Then, right on top of Ad’s desk almost as conspicuous as a copy of Motion Picture News we sleuthed a book entitled Modern Farming.
“Aha!” we said again.
And then the truth came out.
Ad. Kessel has gone to the cows and chickens! Yes-sir!
Filmer once but farmer now! He’s deep in it. You wouldn’t say that he has hayseed in his hair; it seems to be inside his head. He started talking farm and we thought he’d never get to film.
“Were you born in the country” we asked, “that you enjoy it so much?”
“No,” said Ad. honestly.” I was born in Brooklyn. But that’s not for publication.”
Ad. further admitted that he wasn’t strong for the real old-fashioned country stuff — the old water trough and chilblains and cottage cheese and other inconveniences.
His place on the shores of Lake Champlain is modernized — electric lights, modern plumbing, push buttons, hot and cold water, hot and cold rum, hot and cold anything you want. You can press a button and turn on a light in the cow pasture, get a fresh egg by trolley from the hen house or order anything from a cocktail to a cabaret.
Ad. goes up there in his yacht, takes a crowd of at least sixteen fellows along, turns them loose and then sails back to Times Square and films.
He says he’s mostly out of the film business (accounting thereby for his handsome estate and ability to maintain it). Perhaps we should say he’s safely out. He’ll never be wholly out.
But he’s stopped working eighteen hours a day and he doesn’t worry any more over stars’ salaries. And he’s done a lot of work and worrying of this kind.
Ad. Kessel, by the way, has been uncle to more stars than any other man in the business.
We started to count up the ones he brought into films.
“Well,” said Ad., “there’s Chaplin, Fairbanks [Charles Chaplin | Douglas Fairbanks Sr.] — each did his first picture for us — Arbuckle [Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle], Mabel Normand, William S. Hart —”
“Mary Pickford?” we suggested.
“Well, Mary came to us from Biograph — that’s when we owned the Reliance at 540 West 21st Street — Stanford White’s old studio. We started in there with Arthur Johnson, James Kirkwood, Tony Sullivan, Henry Walthall, Marion Leonard, Gertrude Robinson — Then Mack Sennett came along and proposed making comedies. And a little later Thomas H. Ince came up from Florida where he had made a picture for Carl Laemmle and ‘Doc’ Willatt — [Carl Alfred Willat]
“And — well I can’t count ‘em all.”
We referred to a call we once made on Mr. Kessel at which time we bumped into DeWolf Hopper in the elevator, stepped on Willie Collier’s corns in the hall and on entering the office saw Eddie Foy — hat on side of his head — whispering confidentially to Mr. Kessel, Weber and Fields cracking jokes — real ones, and over in one corner Raymond Hitchcock talking to his own wife, Flora Zabelle.
“It gives me a headache,” said Mr. Kessel, “to think of them. They cost all the way from $2,600 to $6,000 a week.”
We have spoken of A. Kessel, Jr., as uncle to many stars.
“Uncle” is right. He’s the man who paid the bills. And he has stood a tremendous bombardment.
“Honestly, Johnston,” said he, “I got so I couldn’t open a telegram. I’d hand it to Charley and say: ‘Here, read it. My heart is broken!’
“Why those fellows used to wire in: ‘Send me $40,000 for next week’s payroll.’ And then along would come another: ‘No, make it an even hundred thousand.’ You know — just like you’d ask for a dime.”
Kessel and Bauman have always been plungers. They plunged in pictures when others didn’t dare; and they plunged right — almost always — because they made it their business to make pictures the public was hankering for. They worked night and day and they knew their business.
One day Bauman wired Kessel: “Can hire Miller’s 101 Ranch for winter season at $2,100 a week.”
That was back in the days of small expenditures and struggling bank accounts. When A. Kessel, Jr., got the telegram he fell backward out of his chair. Then he wired back: “If you think it’s a good bet, take a chance.”
That sentence tells the story of Kessel and Bauman.
And we close with it — though we could write all day about Ad. Kessel and what he knows about the making of pictures that pay.
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Denver Acclaims Hodkinson
Exhibitors covering big territory in several states are “tied in” in new distribution plan — Hodkinson on Coast
After an absence of several years, W. W. Hodkinson arrived in Denver the other day for the purpose of entering into negotiations with the exhibitors there to effect the “tie-in” which is an important part of Mr. Hodkinson’s new method of distribution.
He was met at the station by a number of exhibitors and was escorted to the Brown Palace hotel. There a banquet had been arranged in his honor, during the course of which Mr. Hodkinson was toasted as the man who had made the motion picture industry possible. Back in 1912, while connected with the General Film Company, Mr. Hodkinson brought about a complete change in exhibiting conditions in Denver. He increased the runs to two and three days where formerly the old daily change had prevailed. He also caused the admission prices to be increased from five to ten cents. It was only after a bitter fight that Mr. Hodkinson won his battle, however. At first the exhibitors failed to agree with him and fought him tooth and nail. In fact, so bitter became the fight that legal counsel was employed by the exhibitors to drive Mr. Hodkinson out of their territory, as they thought his ideas would mean their financial ruin. After a long struggle, he forced the exhibitors to accept his policies and then turned his attention to assisting and building up theatres that were losing money, into paying propositions. It was not until after Mr. Hodkinson had left Denver that what he had accomplished was appreciated, however, and then the exhibitors sent a petition to the New York office of the General Film Company asking that he be sent back to Denver. Today the exhibitors in the Denver territory swear by him.
Mr. Hodkinson spent only about twenty-four hours in Denver and during that time he closed the first “tie-in” of those he expects to effect all over the country. The territory affected by this arrangement includes all of Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah, which will be known as zone fifteen. After consummating these arrangements in Denver, Mr. Hodkinson left for San Francisco where preliminary work has been done through the mail and it is expected that Mr. Hodkinson will have a portentous message for the trade within a few days.
Mr. Hodkinson expects to visit several exchange cities on his return East after his visit in California.
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St. Louis Looks for Big Spring Drive
A number of happy developments last week combined to lend a new impetus to the motion picture business in St. Louis. In the first place, the strike of 3,000 carmen was ended, thus enabling residents to get down to the big houses. Then the Fuel Board lifted the ban on all closing hours, and set aside all lighting orders save the Garfield lightless Thursday and Sunday proviso. The thermometer added a new joy when it broke the Winter snap that has lasted since two weeks before Christmas, and with balmy air, the snow, which had kept a good many movie fans indoors for eight weeks without a single break disappeared.
President Mogler of the St. Louis Exhibitors’ League declares that the prospects for the early Spring are the most favorable in years. Frank R. Tate, head of the CellaTate Syndicate, controlling a string of the largest theatres, says that the prosperity of the film now anticipated will probably break all records since the Spring of 1915.
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Camp Sherman Men Not to Lose Sunday Shows
Camp Sherman, the National Army cantonment at Chillicothe, Ohio, will continue to enjoy motion picture shows on Sundays, as the latest effort to suppress these shows has been frowned upon by Mayor Story, preachers, the military police and merchants of the city. This good news has been approved by the 20,000 soldiers now at Camp Sherman.
Rev. H. A. Straub of Ada, Ohio, tried to have the shows closed on Sundays. The Ministerial Association, in a report endorsed the Sunday movies.
The Scioto Gazette, in commenting upon the decision, said: “As long as the merchants and citizens of Chillicothe are of the opinion the shows should remain open on Sunday, Lieutenant Flora says they will be allowed to operate, unless the case is decided in court.”
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Sterling Corp’n Secures “The Natural Law”
The Sterling Picture Corporation, with offices in the Godfrey building, has secured through Arthur Beck, president of the corporation, the six-reel feature film owned by the France Films, Inc., titled The Natural Law. Marguerite Courtot, Howard Hall and George Larkin are among the featured members of the cast.
The Natural Law is a screen version of the play of that title originally produced by John Cort at the Republic theatre, New York. It prospered there for eight months during which over three hundred thousand theatregoers were thrilled by its story. It has also played in the majority of first-class theatres throughout the United States and Canada.
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Educators see “Alice in Wonderland”
One of the topics scheduled to be discussed during the convention of the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association during the week of February 25 at Atlantic City, is the adaptation of motion pictures for the use of public schools. As a fitting subject to represent the discussion the Atlantic City Daily Press has selected “Alice in Wonderland.” The editor, A. J. Feyl, has invited the educators to review this attraction at the Virginia theatre on Wednesday, February 25.
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Appeal to Shipbuilders Through “U” Films
Edwin N. Hurley, chairman of the United States Shipping Board and president of the Emergency Fleet Corporation, made a flying trip to New York early last week, for the express purpose of conferring with the heads of the Universal Film Manufacturing Company relative to the part that organization is to play in helping the government obtain volunteers for shipbuilding.
Mr. Hurley’s request for moving picture co-operation came as the result of his discovery of the assistance which Universal is now rendering the Fuel Service Commission, the Red Cross, Bureau of Public Information and other government departmental organizations.
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Illustration by: Harry Palmer (Harry Samuel Palmer) (1882–1955)
Collection: Motion Picture News, March 1918
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Adam Kessel, Jr.
Founder New York Motion Picture Co.
Remarkable Product of a Great Industry
Collection: The Theatre of Science, 1914