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The Reels

As best I can figure out, and I bet I’m right:

Reel 1	End of Reel 1
Reel 2	End of Reel 2
Reel 3	End of Reel 3
Reel 4	End of Reel 4
Reel 5	End of Reel 5
Reel 6	End of Reel 6
Reel 7	End of Reel 7
Reel 8	End of Reel 8

When you go through the publicity materials and the trade publications of 1926/1927, you will see that The General was everywhere announced as 7,500'. That was wrong. I do not know why nobody corrected that error. Even in modern sources, which should know better, the erroneous length of 7,500' still appears everywhere. The complete film, at 90'/min. (24fps), runs 1:18:42, and that comes to 7,083', but there are 22 frames (1'4½") missing from the negative at 0:47:19 (as Johnnie stops the locomotive just before he breaks the telegraph wires), apparently damaged and removed many moons ago. So, let’s add one foot to 7,083' to get 7,084'. The total, if measured on a film-measuring machine, could prove to be maybe a foot shorter or maybe a foot longer, depending on variables, but 7,084' is a good, reliable number, almost exactly the correct number. The jump in the action is a result of damage, which led to 22 frames lost from the OCN (Original Camera Negative). Interestingly, these frames are also missing from the 1979 Rohauer edition. Above is a little something I just found on YouTube, Charles Tarbox’s copy of a copy of a copy of the Harvard/MoMA print. In early 1927, when United Artists donated The General to Harvard, there had not yet been any damage to the original, and so there is no gap in the action. Here we have the Jay Ward reissue that was ready prior to April 1970. The previous shot is edited out. The shot of Johnnie stopping his train is shortened and picks up immediately after the 22-frame gap in the negative. Jay Ward’s edition was from a fine-grain that MGM had purchased from UA in 1947 or 1948. So now we know that the 22 frames went missing from UA’s camera negative no later than 1948. Here we have Paul Killiam’s edition of July 1970, semi-reconstituted from cans of trims and reassembled out of sequence. Since there was a 22-frame gap in his source material, a gap that would have revealed that he had, without permission, copied the MGM fine-grain, Paul deleted the beginning of this shot so that nobody would see a jump in the action.

The Original Music Cues

When Art Pierce of the Capitol Theatre in Rome (NY, not Italy) told me he had the original cue sheets for The General, I just died. When I got better, I asked for photocopies, and he said “Sure!” I was expecting sheerest brilliance, but what greeted my eyes was something else altogether. Buster was not in charge of the music, I am certain. He simply trusted orchestra conductors and organists and so forth to do their jobs.

If you do not see the document embedded below, please use a different browser or open the file here.

What do we make of this? First, James C. Bradford tossed together this set of cues without any finesse. It is obvious that he cared nothing for the movie. It is obvious also that he was not a creative thinker. He knew a few thousand tunes and he just grabbed whatever the tired old formula suggested: hurry music, storm music, dixie music, military music, and so forth, with not a thought to mood or purpose or theme or context. Few of the old standards and contemporary pop tunes that he recommended fit the film. Most of the cues flatly contradicted the film. Second, further to demonstrate the hastiness with which these cues were assembled, we can examine the lengths of each cue, for many of those lengths do not match the film, no matter what speed is used in the projection. We can suppose that a handful of cinemas followed these cues, but conductors at deluxe houses would have assembled their own scores, and cinemas with pit bands, organs, or pianos, would have improvised. I see that Dennis James disagrees with me: Sandra Barrera, “Buster Keaton’s ‘The General’ with Original Score to Be Performed Live at CSUN’s VPAC” Los Ángeles Daily News, 24 March 2017.

Ah. Take a look at the Library of Congress’s website. It posts a scan of this four-page cue sheet from the “Jack Butterworth collection of silent film cues 1917.–1929,” This is from an unidentified cinema that began its booking on Friday, 30 September 1927. My guess is that an organist accompanied, and it seems that this organist did not have all these pieces in inventory, or, more likely, it seems that the organist did not know all of Bradford’s suggested cues by heart. So, this organist revised some of the cues. Fascinating, yes?

By no means am I an expert on this topic, and I shall gladly defer to those who have studied cue sheets for silent films. Nonetheless, I can make a tentative guess. If Bradford’s work is in any way representative of cue sheets, then cue sheets were haphazard, just random bits commonly in the repertoire of cinemas’ music libraries, tunes that the musicians knew almost by heart and that could easily be used as a stopgap measure. There was probably no expectation that any musicians would even look at these cue sheets unless they were beset by emergencies and thus unable to cobble together their own scores.

Who is this James C. Bradford, anyway? Well, it turns out that he was not a hack after all. I bet he was under enormous pressure and resorted to hack techniques in order to get his work done. Here is his capsule bio from IMDb:

Born: June 13, 1885 in Rochester, New York, USA Died: May 11, 1941 in Neponsit, New York, USA Composer, author, pianist, teacher and conductor, educated in New York public schools. He studied with Tali Esen Morgan, and led his own orchestra, while also teaching piano in Asbury Park, New York. Joining ASCAP in 1928, his song compositions include “Triestesse,” “Gigue,” “Amour Discret,” “Valse Frivole,” “Magic Love,” “The Fearless Suitor,” “Marching Song of the Foreign Legion,” “Chanson Algerian,” “The Moorings,” and “Sarabande,”

Many moons ago, I grabbed my 1989 Kino “Collector’s Edition” VHS copy of the movie, transferred at 90'/min, with an organ score by Gaylord Carter, and I jotted down the counter times to check them against the cue sheets’ times. My results are below. As you will see, the timings are just ballpark figures, typed up in a rush, never double-checked. I think it was Rod Sauer who explained to me, in an email message many moons ago, that the timings in cue sheets are not to be taken literally. The cue sheets offer a basic guide for the sort of music suggested for each scene, not for the length of the scenes or the speed of projection.

In years past, I was helpless to hear the music cited, but the world has changed in many ways of late. Most of these tunes can now be heard online, and of the ones that are not available, some of the printed music can be downloaded. A few I cannot locate anywhere online, though several are available for order at sometimes hefty prices. I found most of the cues, though. Click on the links. I think you will agree that most of these pieces have no business accompanying The General.

	Cue	Tune	VCR Counter	Stated Length	Actual Length 90'/min
1	At screening	Dixie Queen March, 1900, Ellis L. Brooks	0:00:00	½	0:49
2	The Western and Atlantic Flyer	Alabamy Bound, 1924, m. Ray Henderson, l. Buddy DeSylva and Bud Green	0:00:49	1	1:08
3	There were two loves	I’ve Been Working on the Railroad, 1894, anonymous	0:01:57	1	1:15
4	Enters house	The Parlor Is a Pleasant Place, 1920, Frank Crumit	0:03:12	½	0:56
5	Fort Sumpter [sic] has been fired upon	Light Cavalry Overture, 1866, Franz von Suppé	0:04:16	1 ¼	1:29
6	Recruiting station	Fantasie Dixie, Emil Mollenhauer	0:05:50	3 ¼	3:40
7	Johnny back at locomotive	Dear Old Southland, 1921; m. Turner Layton; l. Henry Creamer	0:09:30	1 ¾	1:55
8	A year later	My Own United States, 1902, Julian Edwards	0:11:25	1 ½	1:41
9	Insert—Marietta	Maryland, My Maryland, 1861, after Melchior Franck (not Beyer)	0:13:06	¾	0:44
10	Train pulls out	The Mill, 1909, Adolf Jensen	0:13:50	¾	0:15
11	Passengers alight from train	Dramatic Tension, 1926, Charles Ancliffe	0:14:05	½	0:49
12	Yankees hop train—escape	Galop des Gendarmes, 1897, Marius Cairanne	0:14:54	2 ½	3:06
13	Those men stole my General	Comedy Galop, Philipp Fahrbach the Younger (1843–1894)	0:18:00	3 ½	3:56
14	Loads cannon again	Sawdust and Spangles, 1921, Richard E Hildreth	0:21:56	3	4:34
15	Johnny bounces ties from track	The Steeplechase, 1924, Irénée Marius Bergé	0:26:30	2 ¼	2:50
16	The Southern army	Old Folks at Home (Paraphrase), William P. Kretschmer	0:29:20	1	1:12
17	General Parker’s victorious army	Memories of the War 1861–1863, 1908, Louis-Philippe Laurendeau	0:30:32	1 ¾	2:13
18	Johnny leaves locomotive	Short Storm Scene, Fred Hoff	0:32:45	1	0:54
19	Johnny sneaks into house	Marche Burlesque, 1903, Érnest Gillet	0:33:39	2	3:30
20	Officers leave train [sic]	Ghost Scene, 1925, Walter Broy	0:37:09	3 ½	4:43
21	It was so brave of you	Pick Me Up and Lay Me Down [in Dear Old Dixieland], 1922, Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby	0:41:52	½	0:28
22	After a nice quiet, refreshing	Humpty Dumpty’s Funeral March, 1885, Frederick Brandeis	0:42:20	½	0:45
23	Activity at railroad	1863 Medley, 1904, E.C. Calvin	0:43:05	2 ¼	2:08
24	Johnny starts walking with bag	Marche Burlesque, 1903, Érnest Gillet	0:45:13	½	0:21
25	Johnny socks officer	Cosmopolite [Galop], 1898, Albert Labbé	0:45:34	2 ¾	4:28
26	We must pick up more wood	Thrills [Scherzo], 1925, Geo. H. Sanders	0:49:58	1 ¼	1:44
27	Engine approaching	The Plunger [Galop], 1917, Thomas Stephen Allen	0:51:42	2 ½	3:10
28	Get away from water tower	Skaters’ Galop, Philipp Fahrbach the Younger (1843–1894)	0:54:52	2 ¾	2:15
29	Pulls switch	Military Galop, 1925, Ch. Barthman	0:58:07	2 ¼	3:12
30	The Northern division	Around the Campfire, 1920, Julius S. Seredy	1:01:19	½	0:31
31	Pours kerosene oil on logs	Military Scene, 1918, William Christopher O’Hare	1:01:50	1 ½	1:59
32	Train pulls into station	Military Tactics, 1917, George “Rosey” Rosenberg	1:03:49	¾	1:13
33	Southern commander at head of troop	American Fantasie, 1918, Victor Herbert	1.05:02	1	1:32
34	Northern soldiers at switch	Military Tactics, 1917, George “Rosey” Rosenberg	1:06:34	2 ¼	2:30
35	Battle starts	Storm, Strife or Tempest, Charles Ancliffe	1:09:04	3 ¼	4:13
36	Heroes of the day	Dixie (from “An American Battle Scene”), 1898, Theo. Moses-Tobani	1:13:17	¾	1:00
37	Johnny sees officer on floor of engine	Army of the Gray (from “An American Battle Scene”), 1898, Theo. Moses-Tobani	1:14:17	1 ¼	1:30
38	Is that your uniform	Miracle of Love, 1917, McKee Trio	1:15:47	½	0:58
39	He puts on new uniform coat	Willie, We Have Missed You (from “Gems of Stephen Foster” compiled by Theo. Moses Tobani), 1862	1:16:45	¾	0:53
40	Sits on engine	Alabamy Bound, 1924, m. Ray Henderson, l. Buddy DeSylva and Bud Green	1:17:38	¾	1:02
	THE END		1:18:40
	TOTAL		1:18:40	61 ¾	78:40

Now let us take a look at what Daniel Moews pronounced Maze wrote in his book, Keaton: The Silent Features Close Up (Berkeley, Los Ángeles, London: University of California Press, 1977), pp. 324–326:

Though the musical accompaniment... would probably still work..., the drawback... is that too many of the musical selections are too popular. The sheets are the mass-produced compilations of skillful hacks, assembling pieces that an average musician could quickly handle; and since the selections are often so well-known, they insistently call attention to themselves, distracting attention from the film.... The original cue sheets, while a purist might enjoy using them, have too many limitations to ever become again the standard accompaniment for the films.... With The General in 1926, the cue sheet states the running times only for individual themes, which add up to a total of 61¾ minutes. Other sources, however, like the American Film Institute Catalog, generally give 7,500 feet as the film’s length, and assuming that this closely corresponds to its length at the time of its first release, one can compute an astonishing projection speed of 32.3 frames per second. That is one-third faster than sound projection speed today, a fact that might help explain the surprisingly unenthusiastic critical reception the film first received. A contemporary viewing of it might have been a painful exercise in keeping up with the super-fast motion of a mechanical dervish, allowing no time or opportunity to enjoy anything but the most obvious and protracted of the rapidly passing gags. For the present, then, twenty-four frames per second seems right. That works well and is closest to the original speeds. On the other hand, there is so much visual detail packed into the Keaton films, so many momentary and often subsidiary comic touches, that a naive audience unaccustomed to the attentiveness required by the films might feel more at ease, might even enjoy them more, if they were shown at the slower present-day silent speed. I can foresee the rise of purists, too, who will insist on watching The General at exactly 32.3 frames per second, no more, no less.

That passage, in an otherwise well-informed and well-reasoned book, is only to be expected. That was the state of knowledge in the late 1970’s, and it was a very poor state of knowledge. The timings for the individual cues should never be taken seriously. 1½ min. might really mean ¾ min. or it might really mean 2¼ min. The hurried secretaries just plopped numbers in to fill the spaces. The official length of 7,500 feet was a vague guesstimation by someone who had not seen or measured the film, but who had heard that it was more than seven but less than eight reels. That guesstimation got into the official listings in 1926 and nobody has ever been able to shake it. The correct length is 7,084' or perhaps 7,085', and that is all. The first two preview prints may have been up to 80 or 90 feet longer, but not more than that. The “surprisingly unenthusiastic critical reception” was a retroactive and intentionally malicious garbling of the data by one Tom Dardis, whose pseudobiography had not yet been published but whose fake research was already beginning to pollute the biosphere. I do not fault Moews for these statements, since, at the time, what else could he have known, what else could he have concluded? Yet, thanks to this passage, there remain to this day Busterphiles who are convinced that 32.3fps is the correct speed, whereas Buster explicitly demanded 24fps, no faster, no slower. So there.

By the by, who is Daniel Donald Moews? (Or was his name Donald Daniel Moews?) Is he still amongst us? According to the inside flap, “Daniel Moews (pronounced ‘Maze’) has taught literature and film (including what he takes to be the first college course entirely devoted to the works of Buster Keaton — a man who, ‘sensibly enough, had only one day of formal schooling’). He now lives in California and is working on a book about silent-screen sentimentality, centering on Griffith, Chaplin, and Pickford.” Be that as it may, I can learn little else about him. He was born in La Jolla on 28 May 1936. By 1954 he was attending high school in Wilmington, Illinois. In 1956 he was a student at Joliet Junior College, and resided at 1215 S 4th St in Champaign. In August 1963, he began teaching at the University of Wisconsin in Racine, as he was completing a Ph.D. thesis, which won him a doctorate on about 1 November 1963: Humanism and Ideology: A Study of Matthew Arnold’s Ideas on Man and Society. On page vii of his Keaton book, Moews states: “One center of the current rediscovery is the National Film Theatre in London, and at a retrospective staged there in the summer of 1966, I first saw most of Keaton’s films.” There was a retrospective in the summer of 1966????? Methinks he was confused. The first Busterfest at the National Film Theatre was in January 1968. Moews is the author of an article entitled “The ‘Prologue’ to ‘In Memoriam’: A Commentary on Lines 5, 17, and 32” in Victorian Poetry vol. 6, July 1968, p. 185. By the summer of 1969 he had transferred to the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and resided at 425 S Monroe Ave. I can find no other writings under his name. After his Buster book, he seems to have vanished into a puff of smoke. There is no further record about him anywhere.

A Few Posters

One-sheet poster, also by Hap Hadley. Glass slide. Another poster by Hap Hadley. I do not know the original size. Window card. Half-sheet, 22"×28". Half-sheet, 22"×28". Lobby title. Netherlands, January 1927. Poster by Dolly Rudeman. The Belgian première? Théâtre Tokio, 20-22, Rue Verlat. I think this was in Antwerp. I can find no information on the Théâtre Tokio. France, 24 February 1927? Sweden, 28 February 1927? Så går det till i krig (That’s How It’s Done in War) Spain, teaser poster? 21 March 1927? Germany, teaser poster? 4 April 1927

I cannot find any posters, but The General was released in Finland on 27 March 1927, under the title Krig og kærlighed (War and Love). On 7 April 1927, it opened in Hong Kong. On 11 February 1929, it finally made its way to Portugal, under the title A Glória de Pamplinas. It would be most interesting to collect info on all export releases, together with posters and any other documentation.

Why can I never find the poster for the original Italian release? An Italian colleague explained to me the most likely reason: There was no poster. For Italian movies of the time, each cinema set its own broadsides. There were no illustrated advertisements in the newspapers. My colleague did work out that The General opened in Turin on 19 October 1927, but its opening dates in other Italian cities remain a mystery. Ooooo. Ooooo. Ooooo. Ooooo. Ooooo. I just found some info on an eBay listing. The vendor, the soothingly named deportivolacargna, was vending a 1973 locandina for Our Hospitality (La legge dell’ ospitalità), eBay item number 283674054758, and in the item description wrote: “LOCANDINA ORIGINALE DA CINEMA. 70X33 CM CIRCA. Bellissimo disegno! 1'Edizione Italiana stampata nel 1973. (Il film prima del 1973 era uscito in Italia solo nel 1925 e non erano state stampate locandine!) Conservazione molto buona. Molto rara!” So there! There was never an Italian poster until decades later. My Italian colleague was right!

The Release

From Tom Dardis’s so-called biography, Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn’t Lie Down (NY: Scribner, 1979), p. 144:

It was NOT shown publicly in Los Ángeles on 22 December 1926. That was the date when the movie was copyrighted. The general release did NOT begin in February 1927, but on 11 December 1926. The earliest version was probably only 30 or 60 seconds longer than the one shown today. The early version(s) did NOT contain Snitz Edwards, who was in an abandoned scene that seems never to have been completed. The running time of the final film was NOT 82 minutes, but 79 minutes, assuming Buster’s preferred speed, which, beginning in late 1921, had become the most common speed in the US, namely, 90'/min. It’s not only movie scholarship that is conducted so shoddily. Pretty much all history is reconstructed at least this badly.

MORE OF THE ACCEPTED WISDOM. The accepted wisdom is that The General had its official world première on 31 December 1926, at “two small theaters” in Tokyo, either for the reason that Buster wanted “to gauge audience reactions before screening it in the United States,” or for the reason that “Since United Artists was initially leery of offending viewers for whom the Civil War was still a fresh and wounding memory, The General opened first in two theaters in Tokyo, Japan, under the title Keaton, Shogun.” The accepted wisdom is that The General was not released in the US until Saturday, 5 February 1927, when it premièred at the Loew’s Capitol in Manhattan, NY. Accepted wisdom is that the original edition of the movie was three reels longer than it is now. Accepted wisdom bores me. The San Bernardino and San José preview screenings were essentially the film as we now have it, and the Glendale preview screening was almost exactly the edition that has come down to us, the only difference being the omission of a copyright credit. Movie historians tend not to be technicians, which is why a reel count trips them up. They think eleven reels is longer than eight reels. Seems logical, right? But two reels of 400 feet each last no longer on screen than one reel of 800 feet. The reel count isn’t the critical factor. The footage count is critical. Reel divisions are not set until after the final edit is complete.

Yes, as we shall learn below, the title was Kīton Shōgun when it opened in Tokyo. Why do the commonly wise who spout their common wisdom neglect to point out that Kīton Shōgun was also released elsewhere in Japan at the same time? Yes, it opened on the last day of 1926. The two cinemas in Tokyo were small????? Really? Small? Small compared to what, the Grand Canyon? The two Tokyo cinemas no longer exist, but the name of one of them was adopted by a dinky little 100-seat cinema, and apparently modern researchers assume the two buildings are the same building. They are not, not by any means. The enormous movie palace called the Meguro Kinema (1923–1945) is NOT the same as the modern 100-seat Meguro Cinema. I do not know how long the Japanese cinemas ran The General, nor do I know how many tickets they sold, nor do I know how that compared to average ticket sales or expected ticket sales, nor do I know what the contractual stipulations were, nor do I know what the rental was, or what the nut was, or what the profit was, or what the percentages were, or what all the newspaper ads looked like, or what the press releases stated, or what the reviews said, or where it played afterwards, or for how long. Why was the movie issued in Japan before it was issued in Manhattan? Well, let’s see. The booking in Manhattan was originally contracted for 1 January 1927, and the booking in Tokyo was only one day prior to that, 31 December 1926. That’s effectively no difference at all: New Year’s Eve as opposed to New Year’s Day. Such a momentary lead would hardly have given Buster the opportunity “to gauge audience reactions” — which he had already gauged three times over in California, anyway. As we all know by now, the NYC opening was delayed over a month due to circumstances beyond anybody’s control. Remember: The movie had already officially premièred on 11 December 1926 in Columbus, Ohio, after which it quickly spread, as we’ll see just below. What was so suspicious about spreading it to Japan three weeks after its US première? Listen closely. I need to whisper so that nobody will overhear our little secret. Here’s what happened: The UA office in Los Ángeles shipped some prints to the subsidiary in Tokyo, and the Tokyo subsidiary office then put the movie on the market, and exhibitors booked it. Wow. Who’d a thunk? It would be nice to find those first Japanese prints, but I doubt they exist anymore.

Not all newspapers are online, not all search queries work properly, and it would take many months of full-time labor to find every possible listing. We also need to remember that not all bookings were advertised in the newspapers. Back in those days, in many localities, the marquee and the poster windows were more than enough advertisement. So, the bookings listed below are the ones that can be discovered with online searches; they constitute only a small sampling of the total bookings.

The stills are all coded K27. The K, of course, is for Keaton Productions. The 27 is the number of the production. Three Ages was KN20. Our Hospitality was K21. Sherlock Jr. was K22. The Navigator was K23. Seven Chances was K24. Go West was K25. Battling Butler was K26. And so The General was K27. Simple.

The General — Some Bookings That Pre-Date the NYC Première

Sat 11 Dec 1926	Columbus, OH	James’ Grand	7 days
Publicity.
“J. J.” was a staff reviewer at the Columbus Dispatch, but the full name is unknown. This reads exactly like a press release, but it is, in fact, a review!
Wed 13 Dec 1926	Carnegie, OK	Liberty	2 days
Three weeks? More like nine weeks. Must have been a delay.
Fri 24 Dec 1926	Denton, TX	Palace	2 days
Sat 25 Dec 1926	El Paso, TX	Palace	4 days
Exhibitors Herald vol. 28 no. 2, Saturday, 25 December 1926, p. 7 :
Sun 26 Dec 1926	Bridgeport, CT	Majestic	7 days
Miss Any Train but This.
Mon 27 Dec 1926	Sumter, SC	Lyric	2 days
An ad and two press releases:
From Derbyshire, England, a press release I have not seen elsewhere. The tale it tells seems apocryphal:
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Tokyo, Japan	Imperial Pavilion	?????
Images of the Imperial Pavilion, or Imperial Palace, or Imperial Theatre, or whatever its exact name was: This was completely gutted and rebuilt for Cinerama, and then it was demolished altogether. So Japan is no different from the US, huh?
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Tokyo, Japan	Meguro Kinema	?????
Unfortunately, I cannot find any illustrations of the Meguro Kinema. The Meguro Kinema in the Ōsaki section of Tokyo was a major movie palace that opened in 1923. It was operated by a Mr. Masuda and featured accompaniment by a full orchestra. It was destroyed in an air raid in 1945. Please do not be like modern researchers and confuse it with the current 100-seat Meguro Cinema. They are not the same at all.
A Japanese eBay vendor led me to a couple of Japanese blogs, and those Japanese blogs contained wondrous information. Above is an advertisement published in Kinema Junpo, Japan’s oldest movie magazine. I have Englished it below, as best as I could hammer out courtesy of Google Translator:
According to the blog where this is reproduced, this is an advertisement placed by the Imperial Pavilion and the Meguro Cinema. Whether this was printed in a newspaper or in a magazine or on a flyer, I don’t know. Since I’m illiterate, I broke this down section by section and ran each bit through Google Translator to arrive at some sort of knowledge of what is on this piece of paper. One line of text contains a single character that is too blotchy and thus defies Google Translator’s every attempt to read it. If you are Japanese and can make out what it says, please don’t keep secrets. Thanks! Several films are here advertised. We have The Great Grandma, or perhaps Grandma the Great, which is known in the US as Ella Cinders. There’s also something called Detective Agency and something else called Feeling Confused, and perhaps yet another, Queen of Smiles, though that latter may just be a tagline for Feeling Confused — or vice versa. The title of The General is wrongly rendered as 「キートン将軍」, or Kīton Shōgun, which I suppose translates General Keaton, which, of course, misses the point. An English version is also supplied, and it is somewhat more accurate: Keaton’s General. Isn’t this outrageous? The advertisement falsely claims that this is the world première, when we know full well that it is anything but. If we are to give the advertisers the benefit of the doubt, perhaps there was a misunderstanding due to a less-than-satisfactory translation. This did indeed pre-date the scheduled NYC première, but only by a day. Yet it pre-dated the actual NYC première by more than a month, but the NYC delays were entirely unforeseen, due to circumstances beyond the distributor’s control. Nonetheless, the film had already been playing far and wide for three weeks in the US, and so the Tokyo screenings were far from world premières.
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Kobe, Japan	Kinema Club	?????
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Kyoto, Japan	Shochikuza	2 days?
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Nagoya, Japan	Takada Sekaikan	?????
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Tulsa, OK	Rialto	11:30pm	sneak preview
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Paris, TX	Plaza	2 days
Fri 31 Dec 1926	San Diego, CA	Balboa	1 show	special 11:30pm show
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Portland, OR	Majestic	1 show	midnight preview
Fri 31 Dec 1926	Seattle, WA	5th Avenue	7 days
Sat 01 Jan 1927	Kobe, Japan	Shochikuza	?????
Sun 02 Jan 1927	Rochester, NY	Eastman	6 days	Sun–Wed, Fri–Sat
Mon 03 Jan 1927	Pecos, TX	Rialto	2 days
Mon 03 Jan 1927	Corvallis, OR	Whiteside	3 days	comment
This is a press release, but the final sentence is a review:
Fri 06 Jan 1927	Osaka, Japan	Shochikuza	?????
Fri 06 Jan 1927?	Amsterdam, NL	Film-Praat (Luxor)	?????
Fri 07 Jan 1927	Delta, UT	Delta	2 days
Fri 07 Jan 1927	Idabel, OK	Lyric	2 days
Sat 08 Jan 1927	Portland, OR	Majestic	21 days	promo
I do not know how to read the above box-office report. I require an expert to talk me through this data, but, in the meantime, let’s take a crack at it anyway. The Majestic had paid its “rental” to get the rights to show this movie. How much was the rental? I don’t know. Coulda been fifty bucks. Coulda been ten grand. I really don’t know, but I would hazard a guess that the rental would have been many thousands. The Majestic’s ticket prices are 35¢ matinées and 50¢ evenings, and I suppose the 25¢ tickets are for kids. We get the total lump sum, without breakdowns. The lump sum, by the way, is total ticket sales. The General opened on 8 January, and this report is submitted 10 days later, on 18 January, but since this is a weekly report, it probably refers only to Variety’s past fiscal week, 10–17 January. Probably. It might refer to the Majestic’s first fiscal week, 8–14 January. I don’t know. For this 1,000-seat house, $6,500 total ticket sales for the week is considered strong business. That’s more than 13,000 individual tickets. Now, there were no curtain times. The Majestic, like so many cinemas back in those days, was a “grind house.” The projectors’ gears began grinding around noon, then the doors opened, then passersby bought tickets and walked in whenever they felt like it. They would enter in mid-show and remain seated until they recognized something familiar from earlier. “This is where we came in.” The projectors’ gears would not stop grinding until around midnight, when the few stragglers were shooed out. So, how many times was The General shown each day? My guess is six times each day (noon, two, four, six, eight, ten), but I could very well be wrong about that. For the sake of argument, let us say that there were six shows a day. Six shows times 1,000 seats is 6,000 available seats each workday. Opening night was capacity business. The later nights were far from capacity business, but still pretty darned strong. The Majestic would deduct its operating expenses (its “nut”) and shoot over a percentage of the profit, probably 50%, but who knows? The distributor, United Artists, would accept that 50% or whatever, pay out its own costs, and divvy the remainder up with the producers and investors. What was the nut? What was the percentage? What were the costs? How exactly was the money divvied up? We may never find out.
Please note that $6,500/week was considered strong, $3,000/week was considered “fair” but “holding up,” but $5,000/week was “slipping.” You figure it out. I give up.
Top image certainly by Melbourne Spurr, Hollywood. Bottom image: K27-6.
Sat 08 Jan 1927	Tacoma, WA	Rialto	7 days
Thu 13 Jan 1927	Abilene, TX	Majestic	1 day?
Thu 13 Jan 1927	Altus, OK	Wigwam	2 days
Sat 15 Jan 1927	Chicago, IL	Warner’s Orpheum	10 days	review
Mae Tinée? Obviously a pseudonym. She was Frances Peck Grover (1886–1961), whose career at that paper lasted from 1911 through 1945. When she retired, Anna Nangle and later Clifford Terry adopted that sobriquet.
The unsigned review is by Carl Sandburg, noted biographer of Abraham Lincoln. The only reason we know that he is the author is because of a collection of his movie reviews in Arnie Bernstein, ed., “The Movies Are”: Carl Sandburg’s Film Reviews and Essays, 1920–1928 (Lake Claremont Press, 2000).
First week, $9,000. Second week, not-so-good $6,100. I don’t understand. The first week was seven days. The second week was only three days. On a day-by-day basis, it did better the second week. Yes?
Her followup review was kinder than her first.
Sat 15 Jan 1927	Kansas City, MO	Liberty	7 days
Sat 15 Jan 1927	Spokane, WA	Liberty	7 days
Sun 16 Jan 1927	Junction City, OR	Rialto	3 days
Sun 16 Jan 1927	Roseburg, OR	Liberty	4 days	ad
Mon 17 Jan 1927	London, England	New Gallery	14 days	press release
Fri 21 Jan 1927	Little Rock, AR	Palace	2 days
Sat 22 Jan 1927	Newark, NJ	Mosque	7 days
Sat 22 Jan 1927	Denver, CO	America	8 days
Sat 22 Jan 1927	Salem, OR	Elsinore	3 days
Mon 24 Jan 1927	Fairfield, CT	Community	2 days
Tue 25 Jan 1927	Dermott, AR	Allied	1 day	subrun
Tue 25 Jan 1927	Cottage Grove, OR	Arcade	7 days	Elbert Bede, editor of the Cottage Grove Sentinel, was he in the film?
Thu 27 Jan 1927	Medford, OR	Hunt’s Craterian	3 days
Sat 29 Jan 1927	Tulsa, OK	Rialto	1 show	children’s matinée
Sat 29 Jan 1927	Toledo, OH	Loew’s Valentine	7 days
Sun 30Jan 1927	Patchogue, NY	Glynne’s Patchogue	3 days
Sun 30 Jan 1927	Chattanooga, TN	Tivoli	1 show	private screening
Sun 30 Jan 1927	Lincoln, NE	Orpheum	7 days
Mon 31 Jan 1927	Reading, PA	Loew’s Colonial	7 days
Reads like a review, but it’s actually a press release:
Mon 31 Jan 1927	Columbia, SC	Broadway	4 days
Tue 01 Feb 1927	Tulsa, OK	Rialto	2 days
Thu 03 Feb 1927	Chattanooga, TN	Tivoli	2 days?
Thu 03 Feb 1927	Detroit, MI	Broadway Strand	1 show	private screening
Thu 03 Feb 1927	Lima, OH	Lyric	5 days
Thu 03 Feb 1927	Lebanon, OR	Kuhn	3 days

Do you notice something a little bit odd about that list above? Films normally opened in deluxe houses in the largest downtowns first (including Broadway, Boston, Philly, Chicago, Detroit, and, a bit later, SF and LÁ), and then in the neighborhood cinemas and the suburbs, and then in smaller cities, and finally in rural villages. The list above (which is based only on newspaper archives easily available online, and nothing more) demonstrates that the release of The General was somewhat haphazard. Why? I do not know, but we need to remember that United Artists had not yet built up a major cinema chain. It had to negotiate with rivals in order to get its films shown, and that likely was a major factor in this unusual distribution pattern.

Let’s take a break for a moment, because it was probably right around this time that a book was published.

The Novelization

Yes, there was a novelization by a Joseph Warren, published in 1927 by Grosset & Dunlap. These novelizations were the closest movie fans could get to VHS or DVD. They kept the memories a little bit alive. I purchased a copy from Hammond’s Antiques sometime around 1998 or 1999 for the whopping price of $16. I purchased it partly out of curiosity and partly in the hope that it might solve the mystery of some of those stills that correspond to nothing in the film as we know it. Alas, it solves none of those mysteries. I attempted to read it, but was unable to get more than a few pages into it. A visual story should not be converted to a verbal story, just as a ballet should not be told as a limerick. It cannot work, and it does not work, and the book is far too painful for me to read. Who was this Joseph Warren? Does anybody know? Here is the dust jacket as posted on WorthPoint:

K27-158

NYC

The General — The Manhattan Opening, Saturday, 5 February 1927 For reasons unknown to me, despite the above promise, The General did not open at Loew’s Capitol on New Year’s Day. Instead, an MGM picture called A Little Journey, with William Haines, opened on that day. That film seems no longer to exist, by the way. Then, the following week, on 8 January 1927, The General was bumped yet again, to make way for yet another MGM picture, this one called Flesh and the Devil. I guess that Loew’s, which owned MGM, decided that MGM movies can bump movies from such upstart organizations as United Artists. Remember, when Loew’s booked MGM movies, money was effectively being moved from one pocket to the other. When Loew’s booked movies from other distributors, some of the profit left the home company and migrated elsewhere, which was a bit of a disincentive to book outside product. Flesh and the Devil was a slick but corny soap opera about shallow selfish toxic people doing shallow selfish toxic things for two agonizingly long hours, and so it was expected to do exceptional business. That is why it was booked for a two-week run. It did much better business than expected, and so it was held for yet another two weeks, which was extremely unusual. It was still doing enough business to justify a fifth week, but the bosses decided, at long last, to honor the contract with United Artists and bring in The General, which ran the usual one week. This tiny article is really hard to find, as it appeared only in the Home Edition and the Wall Street Edition of that day’s newspaper. Making it even more confusing, the online archive indexes this not under The Brooklyn Daily Times, but under Times Union.

On Broadway in Manhattan, The General opened at the Loew’s Capitol, which at the time was the world’s largest cinema, with 5,450 seats. Two months later, it would be outdone by the 6,214-seat Roxy. Despite the luxury, it appears that the Capitol was a grind house with continuous performances. That was so horribly typical back then. As we shall discover below, the program, which included The General, some short films, musical interludes, and a stage attraction, ran just a few minutes shy of two hours. I do not know what time the doors opened in the day, nor do I know what time the audience was chased away at night, but a reasonable guess is a noon opening and a midnight closing. With a continuous show just under two hours long, we can assume six shows a day: noon, two, four, six, eight, ten, give or take a few minutes here and there. Six times 5,450 seats is a potential of 32,700 tickets available each day. Multiply that by seven days, and that is a maximum potential of 228,900 tickets available each week. No cinema could possibly sell that many tickets in a week. The reason cinemas were so large was simply to get more favorable treatment from studios and distributors. This is why cinemas were usually built into skyscrapers or into larger complexes: The rentals from the other units subsidized the cinemas, which otherwise would be unaffordable. It was a symbiotic relationship. The businesses in the other units were happy to subsidize the cinemas, because the cinemas brought more customers to the area. That was nothing new. Over the previous century, stage theatres had operated under that same principle. What sort of business did the Capitol normally do? For December 1926, only a single figure is available free online:

To get the figures for the rest of that month would require a trip to the library. We can see here that there were two ticket prices, 50¢ either for matinées or kiddies or both, and $1.65 for grownups at the evening performances. The Flaming Forest is not a kiddie flick, and so most tickets were probably to grownups. We don’t have a proper breakdown, but let’s try this anyway, let’s divide $59,751.75 by $1.65 and see what happens: About 36,213 tickets sold, and it was surely a bit more than that, if only we could factor in the 50¢ tickets. Out of a potential 228,900 tickets, a bit more than 36,213 were sold. Do you begin to see the problem that enormous cinemas pose?

I got to the library.

Oops. The others didn’t download properly. Need to go back to the library.

The next freely available info is from January, and you now know enough to perform the arithmetic, if that tickles your fancy:

All right. Now you have some context. You never had a context before. Now you have a context. The final week of Flesh and the Devil had $56,031 in ticket sales, almost all to grownups, since no kiddies anywhere would have the slightest interest, which proves that kiddies are sometimes far more emotionally mature than their mommies and daddies. The Loew’s Capitol management concluded that it would have been better to keep Flesh and the Devil for a fifth week rather than to ship it out and replace it with The General, which, as we shall discover shortly, drew $50,992 in its only week, with probably half of the tickets sold to kiddies at the reduced moppet rate. Now you REALLY have a context. It’s not a perfect context, it’s not a complete context, but it’s a CONTEXT, and with that context you can pretty much figure out what was happening. The number of tickets sold during the sole week of The General was certainly higher than the number of tickets sold during the fourth-and-final week of Flesh and the Devil, though the revenues were slightly less because of kiddie prices. Ticket sales and box-office were comparable to those of a normal week, upper range of normal. What we do not know are the costs. It is certain that the Flesh and the Devil contract had more favorable terms, because, after all, it was an in-house production. What were the contractual terms for The General? I don’t know. Do you?

David Mendoza compiled the score for The General for that week. He surely conducted the orchestra during a few of the shows, too. His score was certainly disassembled immediately after the final show of the week, and each part of each piece was filed away for re-use later. If you know more, please let me know. Thanks!

If this does not display, download it. You can read the full magazine at https://archive.org/details/PMR_1_3/page/n11/mode/2up?q=Axt&view=theater.

As you learn from the above, on the evening of Sunday, 6 February 1927, Major Bowes would have introduced David Mendoza conducting the Capitol Grand Orchestra in its performance of that night’s short subjects and musical prologues, but, alas, not of the feature picture!

Okay. We got that out of the way. Now let’s look at a trade review, a description of the overall show, and a little more data. The trade review by Freddie Schader (Variety sig: “Fred.”) was thoroughly negative, downright hostile, which is okay. What the heck? It’s an opinion. People have opinions. Big deal. Freddie just did not like Buster at all, in any way, found nothing about his movies funny or worthwhile. See his hostile review of Sherlock Jr., in which we can see that Buster just wasn’t his cup of tea. Freddie’s problem was that he was convinced that if he didn’t like Buster, then it logically followed that NOBODY did. What bothers me about Freddie’s review of The General is that it contained a lie. You are now in a position to spot the lie. (Note the running time: 77 minutes; if that was clocked accurately, then the projectionist turned up the speed the tiniest little tad, to about 92'/min rather than the usual 90'/min. Next time a scholar tells you that The General in its original release was overspeeded to run a mere 62 minutes, slap him in the face with Freddie’s review.)

The issue is dated the 12th, one day after The General completed its run at Loew’s Capitol. My guess is that The New Yorker was on newsstands several days prior to the cover date. Nice to learn a bit more about the newsreel ahead of the feature.

Post-NYC

The General — Some Bookings That Post-Date the NYC Première

Sat 05 Feb 1927	Detroit, MI	Broadway Strand	7 days	Herbert Brenon
Sun 06 Feb 1927	Buffalo, NY	Lafayette	7 days
There ya go! High overhead. Zo, The General was overpriced and preventing cinemas from getting returns on their investments. Very interesting.
(Sun 06 Feb 1927)	(Ithaca, NY)	(Strand)	3 days	(double bill with Just Another Blonde, but The General was canceled and replaced with Battling Butler.)
Sun 06 Feb 1927	Dayton, OH	State	7 days
As you can see, this item consists of a few random, unconnected lines of an earlier NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association) syndicated press release, which you can see above, at 11 January. I want to know more about this Confederate General R. de T. Lawrence, biographer of his dear friend, a slave named Bill Yopp.
Mon 07 Feb 1927	Boston, MA	Loew’s State	7 days
Not a review, but it might as well be one:
Mon 07 Feb 1927	Albany, NY	Mark-Strand	7 days
ca. 07 Feb 1927	Bethlehem, PA	Colonial	?????
Mon 07 Feb 1927	Harrisburg, PA	Loew’s Regent	7 days
Mon 07 Feb 1927	Eugene, OR	McDonald	4 days	press release
Tue 08 Feb 1927	Havana, Cuba	Teatro Prado	2 days
Tue 08 Feb 1927	Havana, Cuba	Teatro Rialto	2 days
Tue 08 Feb 1927	North Adams, MA	Empire	2 days
Wed 09 Feb 1927	La Crosse, WI	Cooper’s New Bijou	4 days
Not a review, but a press release, once again:
Fri 11 Feb 1927	Rochester, NY	Strand	2 days	second run
K27-206
The New Yorker, 12 February 1927 Buster Keaton is at the Capitol in a quiet and unassuming comedy entitled THE GENERAL. There is nothing raucus about it, and, let us light a candle, there is no pathos, and it is altogether a pleasant relaxation. What is even more to its credit, a new type of heroine makes herself evident, and a new treatment of the lady is indulged in. She is terribly inefficient, and her attempts to be of service during emergencies are all dismal failures. That is something, of course, but on top of that departure from the standard, the girl is subjected to a mass of indignities. She is tied in a sack and put where stevedores throw barrels and packing cases on top of her. The hero chokes her after one of her little blunders, and when she perpetrates an act of considerable stupidity he hurls a log of wood at her. That may not be an inspiring light for American womanhood to be placed in, but it is certainly a novel one. Marian Mack takes the part and she does so with great good humor and willingness and I hope she has completely recovered from any bruises she may have suffered during the taking of the picture. Such things are all part of a gentle kidding of the Civil War story. Keaton is a locomotive engineer who tries to be the first to enlist, but the Confederacy won’t have him. Later the Federal troops steal his engine and he pursues in another, rescues his girl, and is chased back to where he started. He recovers his locomotive, saves the army, is accepted in the service and reaps romance. Most of the action takes place on the engines, and it is laid out with more wit than wisecracking.
Sat 12 Feb 1927	Springfield, OR	Bell	4 days
Sat 12 Feb 1927	Vancouver, WA	U.S.A.	3 days
Fri 11 Feb 1927	Atlanta, GA	Confederate Soldiers’ Home	1 show	special screening
Sun 13 Feb 1927	Pittsburgh, PA	Loew’s Aldine	7 days
Mon 14 Feb 1927	Norfolk, VA	Loew’s State	7 days
Sun 13 Feb 1927	Atlanta, GA	Loew’s Grand	7 days
Says Sara Zittel: “long line to see Buster Keaton in The General”
Mon 14 Feb 1927	Fitchburg, MA	Shea’s	3 days
Mon 14 Feb 1927	Pittsfield, MA	Palace	3 days	PR
Mon 14 Feb 1927	Pittsburgh, PA	Loew’s Aldine	5 days
Mon 14 Feb 1927	Memphis, TN	Loew’s State	7 days
Tue 15 Feb 1927	West Palm Beach, FL	Beaux Arts	2 days
K27-66 K27-97 Haven’t yet figured out where this was.
Fri 18 Feb 1927	Miami, FL	Community	2 days
Sat 19 Feb 1927	Oklahoma City, OK	Capitol	4 days
Sat 19 Feb 1927	Salt Lake, UT	Paramount Empress	7 days
Sun 20 Feb 1927	Cleveland, OH	Allen	7 days
K27-206
Sun 20 Feb 1927	Miami, FL	Coconut Grove	2 days	move-over
Sun 20 Feb 1927	Gunnison, CO	Unique	2 days
Sun 20 Feb 1927	Heppner, OR	Star	2 days
Sun 20 Feb 1927	Montréal, QC	Loew’s	7 days
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Boston, MA	Loew’s Orpheum	7 days	second run
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Manhattan, NY	Metropolitan	7 days	second run
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Manhattan, NY	Loew’s State	7 days	second run
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Boston, MA	Loew’s Orpheum	7 days
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Dover, NJ	Baker	3 days
No, not all critics agreed. That’s one huge strike against this press release. It did not play to capacity audiences at each performance at the Capitol. If it had, it would have been held over, and that would have been a world record.
Mon 21 Feb 1927	State College, PA	Cauthaum	1 day	subrun
Mon 21 Feb 1927	State College, PA	Nittany	1 day	subrun
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Nashville, TN	Loew’s Vendome	6 days
Mon 21 Feb 1927	South Bend, IN	Blackstone	7 days
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Springfield, MO	Gillioz	4 days	subrun
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Manhattan, KS	Miller	3 days	subrun
Mon 21 Feb 1927	Norman, OK	University	2 days
Thu 24 Feb 1927	Canonsburg, PA	Beedle’s Alhambra	2 days	subrun
Thu 24 Feb 1927	Knoxville, TN	Riviera	3 days	review, review
Sat 26 Feb 1927	Atlantic City, NJ	Stanley	4 days	1st run, review
Sat 26 Feb 1927	Syracuse, NY	Strand	7 days
Despite the byline, this review was written by an “F.C.,” whose identity is a mystery to me.
Sat 26 Feb 1927	Houston, TX	Capitol	7 days
Mon 28 Feb 1927	Indiana, PA	Ritz	3 days	subrun
Mon 28 Feb 1927	Birmingham, AL	Loew’s Temple	7 days	1st run
Mon 28 Feb 1927	Huntsville,AL	Lyric	2 days	subrun
Mon 28 Feb 1927	Neosho, MO	Orpheum	2 days	subrun
Tue 01 Mar 1927	West Palm Beach, FL	Stanley	2 days	second run
Fri 04 Mar 1927	Manhattan, NY	Loew’s 116th St.	3 days	second run
Fri 04 Mar 1927	Reedsburg, WI	Majestic	2 days	subrun
Fri 04 Mar 1927	Las Vegas, NV	Majestic	2 days
The quote from the Commercial Appeal is from a local press release, not from a review. The other quote, about Loew’s Grand in Atlanta, I cannot find that anywhere, and I suspect it was just made up for this advertisement.
Sun 06 Mar 1927	New Port Richey, FL	Meighan	2 days	subrun
Sun 06 Mar 1927	Huntington, IN	Huntington	4 days	1st run
Sun 06 Mar 1927	Bozeman, MT	Rialto	3 days	subrun
Sun 06 Mar 1927	Salem, OR	Williamson’s Hollywood	2 days	second run (opening program)
Mon 07 Mar 1927	Freehold, NJ	Reade’s Strand	2 days	subrun
Mon 07 Mar 1927	Bridgeport, CT	Rialto	2 days	second run
Mon 07 Mar 1927	Bradenton, FL	Wallace	2 days
Mon 07 Mar 1927	Seminole, OK	State	1 show	State grand opening
Mon 07 Mar 1927	Calgary, AB	Palace	6 days
ca. 08 Mar 1927?	Newcastle upon Tyne, UK	Élite	???	1st run
Tue 08 Mar 1927	Brattleboro, VT	Princess	2 days	subrun
Wed 09 Mar 1927	Fairhope, AL	Playhouse	2 days	subrun
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Alpine	2 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Bay Ridge	4 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Bedford	4 days
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Bijou	2 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Boro Park	2 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Brevoort	2 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Broadway	2 days	3rd run/font>
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Gates	4 days
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Jamaica, NY	Loew’s Hillside	3 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Premier	3 days
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Woodhaven, NY	Loew’s Willard	4 days	3rd run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Pittsburgh, PA	Garden	3 days	second run
ca 10 Mar 1927	Galion, OH	Royal	???
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Madrid	3 days	second run
Thu 10 Mar 1927	Lafayette, IN	Luna	3 days	subrun
Fri 11 Mar 1927	Brewster, NY	Cameo	2 days	subrun
Fri 11 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Apollo	2 days	second run
Fri 11 Mar 1927	Warrenton, MO	New Warrenton	2 days	subrun
Fri 11 Mar 1928	Seward, NE	Rivoli	2 days	subrun
Fri 11 Mar 1927	Aline, OK	Community	2 days	subrun
ca. 11 Mar 1927	Boise, ID	Pinney	1 show	preview
Fri 11 Mar 1927	Los Ángeles, CA	Metropolitan (Publix)	7 days	review, review
Ah. I see that Jim Curtis (p. 319) has something I don’t have, namely, the review published in The Los Ángeles Evening Herald, 12 March 1927. Since I don’t have the clipping — yet — I’ll cheat by quoting from Jim: The venue was Sid Grauman’s 3,600-seat Metropolitan, the largest movie palace in the city, and the opening was set for Friday, March 11, with more than fifty picture personalities in attendance, headed by a contingent of United Artists stars that included Keaton and Marion Mack, Norma and Constance Talmadge, Estelle Taylor, and John Barrymore. Heralded by sun arcs and banks of Klieg lights illuminating the theater’s Sixth Street entrance, as well as a performance by the 160th Infantry Band of the California National Guard, the film packed the theater “to within an inch from the roof.” According to the Los Ángeles Evening Herald, “uproarious applause” greeted every appearance Keaton made on-screen, and “torrents of laughter” flowed without interruption. “Buster was in the audience last night along with a number of other film celebrities and he received an ovation that must certainly have inspired one of those rare smiles that optimistic fans have as yet failed to see.”
Sat 12 Mar 1927	St. Louis, MO	Loew’s State	7 days	review, review
Sat 12 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Coney Island	1 day	3rd run
Sat 12 Mar 1927	Lawton, OK	Rialto	4 days
Sun 13 Mar 1927	Mount Vernon, NY	Loew’s Mt. Vernon	3 days
Sun 13 Mar 1927	New Rochelle, NY	Loew’s Main St.	3 days
Sun 13 Mar 1927	Gillespie, IL	New Pert	1 day	subrun
Mon 14 Mar 1927	Pottsville, PA	Capitol	2 days	subrun
Mon 14 Mar 1927	Baltimore, MD	Loew’s Century	6 days	review
Mon 14 Mar 1927	Charleston, WV	Kearse	3 days
Wed 16 Mar 1927	Pleasantville, NJ	Carlton	3 days	subrun
Wed 16 Mar 1927	Albany, NY	Colonial	1 day	second run
Thu 17 Mar 1927	White Plains, NY	State	3 days
Thu 17 Mar 1927	Charlotte, NC	Imperial	3 days
Thu 17 Mar 1927	Rockford, IL	Midway	3 days
Fri 18 Mar 1927	Buffalo, NY	Shea’s North Park (Publix)	2 days	second run, Thu show canceled
Fri 18 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Linwood	2 days	second run
Sat 19 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Loew’s Kameo	3 days	3rd run
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Bronx, NY	Kameo	2 days	second run
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY	Albemarle	5 days	3rd run
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Miami, FL	Hippodrome	3 days	second run
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Detroit, MI	Regent	7 days	second run
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Chehalis, WA	St. Helens	2 days	subrun
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Helena, MT	Marlow	2 days	subrun
Mon 21 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Carlton	3 days	3rd run
Mon 21 Mar 1927	Harlem, Manhattan, NY	Lafayette	7 days
Sun 20 Mar 1927	Hempstead, NY	Hempstead	4 days	subrun
Mon 21 Mar 1927	Daytona Beach, FL	Vivian	2 days
Mon 21 Mar 1927	Frederick, OK	A-Mus-U	1 day	subrun
Mon 21 Mar 1927	Holdenville, OK	Dixie	3 days
Tue 22 Mar 1927	Mineola, NY	Mineola	1 day	subrun
Wed 23 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	College	1 day	3rd run
Wed 23 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Marcy	5 days	3rd run
Wed 23 Mar 1927	Yonkers, NY	Strand	3 days
Is this for-reals? Buster was there? In person? All three days? Really? Why do I have my doubts? It was just somebody on the radio saying he was Buster, I’m sure. Well, at least we now know who provided the music. I just wish we knew what music they provided.
Wed 23 Mar 1927	Pittsburgh, PA	Triangle	2 days	third run
Thu 24 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Park	3 days	3rd run
Thu 24 Mar 1927	Freeport, NY	Grove	3 days
Thu 24 Mar 1927	Glendale, NY	Belvedere	3 days	second run
Thu 24 Mar 1927	Jamaica, NY	Rialto	2 days	second run
Thu 24 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Benton	2 days	second run
Thu 24 Mar 1927	San Bernardino, CA	West Coast	3 days
Fri 25 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Gem	3 days	3rd run
Fri 25 Mar 1927	Omaha, NE	Sun	7 days	review, birthday promo
K27-206
Fri 25 Mar 1927	Henryetta, OK	Blaine	2 days	subrun
Sat 26 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Terminal	2 days	3rd run
Sat 26 Mar 1927	San Diego, CA	Balboa	2 days
Sun 27 Mar 1927	Middle Village, NY	Arion	2 days	3rd run
Sun 27 Mar 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Fox	7 days
Sun 27 Mar 1927	Lawrenceburg, IN	Walnut	3 days
Sun 27 Mar 1927	Milwaukee, WI	Alhambra	6 days
Sun 27 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Tivoli	2 days	second run
Mon 28 Mar 1927	Boston, MA	Allston	2 days	second run
Mon 28 Mar 1927	Cocoa, FL	Aladdin	1 day
Mon 28 Mar 1927	Pomona, CA	California	3 days
Mon 28 Mar 1927	San Pedro, CA	Cabrillo	7 days	promo
Wed 30 Mar 1927	Atlantic City, NJ	Colonial	3 days	second run
Wed 30 Mar 1927	Butte, MT	American	3 days	subrun
Wed 30 Mar 1927	Kansas City, MO	Neptune	2 days	second run
Wed 30 Mar 1927	Olympia, WA	Liberty (Pac. NW)	3 days
Thu 31 Mar 1927	St. Albans, VT	Empire	2 days	subrun
Thu 31 Mar 1927	Brooklyn, NY	Alhambra	2 days	3rd run
Thu 31 Mar 1927	Kenmore, NY	Shea’s Kenmore (Publix)	2 days	second run
Thu 31 Mar 1927	Wichita Falls, TX	Olympic	3 days	subrun
Fri 01 Apr 1927	Minneapolis, MN	Garrick	7 days	PR
Fri 01 Apr 1927	El Centro, CA	West Coast Valley	2 days	subrun
Sat 02 Apr 1927	Montréal, QC	Westmount	1 day	second run
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Washington, DC	Loew’s Palace	7 days
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Louisville, KY	Kentucky	4 days	doubled with The Masked Woman
Sun 03 Apr 1927	North Kansas City, MO	Capitol	2 days	second run
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Lewiston, ID	Liberty	3 days
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Los Ángeles, CA	Sunbeam	2 days	second run
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Pasadena, CA	Florence	4 days	held over for 5th day
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Circle	2 days
Sun 03 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Hudson’s Colonial	2 days
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Germany	Berliner Capitol and numerous others throughout the country	?????
Can any Germans help with this? Parts of it are too blurred for me to decipher. It looks like an extremely favorable review (“One of the funniest pieces from the American film industry”), from what little I can make out.
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Montréal, QC	Regent	3 days
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Lynbrook, NY	Lynbrook	4 days	subrun
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Valley Stream, NY	Valley Stream	2 days	subrun
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Chattanooga, TN	American	2 days	subrun
Mon 04 Apr 1927	Guymon, OK	Royal	2 days	subrun
Wed 06 Apr 1927	North Adams, MA	Photoplay	3 days	subrun
Wed 06 Apr 1927	Lynbrook, NY	Lynbrook	2 days	return
Thu 07 Apr 1927	Portland, ME	Strand	3 days
Thu 07 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Oak Park	2 days	second run
Thu 07 Apr 1927	Denver, CO	Ogden	2 days	second run
Fri 08 Apr 1927	Portland, ME	Strand	2 days	second run
Fri 08 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Egyptian	1 day	second run
Sun 10 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Venetian	2 days	second run
Sat 09 Apr 1927	Scarsdale, NY	Scarsdale	1 day
Sun 10 Apr 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Victoria	7 days	second run, PR
Sun 10 Apr 1927	Denver, CO	Alpine	2 days	second run
Sun 10 Apr 1927	Boise, ID	Strand	4 days
Mon 11 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Belmont	1 day	second run
Mon 11 Apr 1927	Wynnewood, OK	Deal	2 days	subrun
Wed 13 Apr 1927	Coshocton, OH	Chocos Bros. Pastime	3 days
Wed 13 Apr 1927	Austin, TX	Hancock Opera House	4 days	kiddie matinée
Thu 14 Apr 1927	Scarsdale, NY	Scenic	2 days	subrun
Thu 14 Apr 1927	Sioux Falls, SD	State	3 days	subrun
Thu 14 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Prospect	2 days	second run
Thu 14 Apr 1927	Waco, TX	Hippodrome	3 days	subrun
Thu 14 Apr 1927	Boise, ID	Majestic	4 day	move-over
Fri 15 Apr 1927(?)	Dewey, OK	Liberty	2 days	subrun
Fri 15 Apr 1927	Beaumont, TX	Tivoli	2 days	subrun
Sat 16 Apr 1927	Bartlesville, OK	Liberty	1 day	subrun
Sun 17 Apr 1927	Coral Gables, FL	Coral Gables	1 day
Sun 17 Apr 1927	New Orleans, LA	Loew’s State	7 days
Sun 17 Apr 1927	Denver, CO	Queen (D&R)	3 days	second run
Sun 17 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Bagdad	2 days	second run
Sun 17 Apr 1927	Redondo, CA	Capitol	3 days	subrun
Sun 17 Apr 1927	Montréal, QC	Amherst	3 days	second run
Mon 18 Apr 1927	Baltimore, MD	Ideal	1 day	second run
Mon 18 Apr 1927	Baltimore, MD	Rialto	1 day	second run
Mon 18 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Baltis	1 day	second run
Mon 18 Apr 1927	Waxahachie, TX	Dixie	2 days	subrun
Tue 19 Apr 1927	Greenfield, MA	Lawler	2 days	2nd to Fashions for Women
Tue 19 Apr 1927	Middlebury, VT	Middlebury Opera House	1 day	subrun
Wed 20 Apr 1927	St. Petersburg, FL	Florida	2 days
Wed 20 Apr 1927	Los Ángeles, CA	Manchester	3 days	second run
Wed 20 Apr 1927	Tacoma, WA	K Street	2 days	second run
Thu 21 Apr 1927	Baltimore, MD	Broadway	2 days	second run
Thu 21 Apr 1927	Monroe, LA	Saenger	1 day	subrun
Thu 21 Apr 1927	Wolf Point, MT	Liberty	2 days	subrun
Thu 21 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	New Centre	1 day	second run
Sat 23 Apr 1927	Chester, PA	Washington (Stanley)	1 day	subrun
Sat 23 Apr 1927	Baltimore, MD	Columbia	1 day	second run
Sat 23 Apr 1927	Sydney NSW	Haymarket	6 days
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Miami, FL	Rosetta	1 day	third run
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Eau Claire, WI	Wisconsin	3 days	subrun
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Beaufort	2 days	second run
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Kansas City, MO	Colonial	2 days	second run
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Burbank, CA	Victory	2 days	subrun
Sun 24 Apr 1927	Portland, OR	Chaldean	2 days	second run
Tue 26 Apr 1927	Tacoma, WA	Sunset	3 days	second run
Wed 27 Apr 1927	Johnson City, TN	Majestic	1 day	subrun
Thu 28 Apr 1927	Montréal, QC	Papineau	2 days	second run, double bill
Thu 28 Apr 1927	Buffalo, NY	Rivoli	2 days	second run
Thu 28 Apr 1927	Medina, NY	Allen	3 days	subrun
Thu 28 Apr 1927	Brainerd, MN	Lyceum	2 days	subrun
Fri 29 Apr 1927	Fitchburg, MA	Grand	2 days	second run
Fri 29 Apr 1927	Pelham, NY	Pelham Picture House	2 days	subrun
Fri 29 Apr 1927	Lathrop, MO	Lathrop	2 days	subrun
ca 30 Apr 1927	Quincy, IL	Orpheum	?????
ca 30 Apr 1927	Quincy, IL	Washington	?????
Sat 30 Apr 1927	Bellingham, WA	Avalon	4 days
Sun 01 May 1927	St. Louis, MO	Union	1 day	second run
Sun 01 May 1927	Phoenix, AZ	Columbia	7 days
Sun 01 May 1927	Portland, OR	State	2 days	second run
Mon 02 May 1927	Hannibal, MO	Orpheum (Quincy)	3 days	subrun
Tue 03 May 1927	Chandler, AZ	Rowena	1 day
Tue 03 May 1927	Denver, CO	Isis	2 days	second run
Wed 04 May 1927	Jackson, MS	Istrione	1 day	subrun
Wed 04 May 1927	South Bend, IN	Tivoli	2 days	second run
Thu 05 May 1927	Lancaster, PA	Capitol	7 days
Fri 06 May 1927	Tempe, AZ	Menhennett	1 day	subrun
Fri 06 May 1927	Montréal, QC	Corona	2 days	second run, double bill
Sat 07 May 1927	Jasper, MO	Liberty	1 day	subrun
Sat 07 May 1927	Kansas City, MO	Bonaventure	1 day	second run
Sat 07 May 1927	Denver, CO	Bluebird	1 day	second run
Mon 09 May 1927	Mount Rainier, MD	Cameo	2 days	subrun
Mon 09 May 1927	Auckland, NZ	West End	2 days
Tue 10 May 1927	Tacoma, WA	Liberty	3 days	second run
Wed 11 May 1927	Montréal, QC	Maisonneuve Theatre 2677 Ontario St E	3 days?	third run
Thu 12 May 1927	Boston, MA	University	3 days	second run
Thu 12 May 1927	Baltimore, MD	Capitol	2 days	second run
Fri 13 May 1927	Gaithersburg, MD	Lyric	2 days	subrun, Grand Opening
Fri 13 May 1927	St. Louis, MO	Kings	1 day	second run
Sun 15 May 1927	Tulsa, OK	Main Street	3 days	second run
Sun 15 May 1927	Casa Grande, AZ	Oasis	2 days	subrun
Sun 19 May 1927	Tucson, AZ	Rialto	3 days
Mon 16 May 1927	Harrisburg, PA	Broad	3 days	second run
Mon 16 May 1927	York, PA	Hippodrome	7 days	subrun
Mon 16 May 1927	Portsmouth, VA	Tivoli	3 days	subrun
Tue 17 May 1927	Hudson Falls, NY	Strand	1 day
Wed 18 May 1927	Waterville, ME	Opera House	1½ days
Wed 18 May 1927	Baltimore, MD	Avalon	2 days	third run
Wed 18 May 1927	Chickasha, OK	Rialto	1 day	subrun
Thu 19 May 1927	Philadelphia, PA	333 Market	3 days	third run
Thu 19 May 1927	Santa Fé, NM	Paris	2 days	subrun
Thu 20 May 1927	Buffalo, NY	Shea’s Elmwood (Publix)	2 days	second run
Fri 20 May 1927	Hagerstown, MD	Maryland	2 days	subrun
Fri 20 May 1927	Minneapolis, MN	Loring	2 days	second run
Sat 21 May 1927	Los Ángeles, CA	Hollyway	1 day	second run
Sun 22 May 1927	Allentown, PA	State	7 days
Sun 22 May 1927	Winona, MN	Winona	2 days	subrun
Sun 22 May 1927	Kansas City, MO	Diana	2 days	second run
Sun 22 May 1927	El Reno, OK	Criterion	3 days	subrun
Sun 22 May 1927	Portland, OR	Irvington	2 days	second run
Mon 23 May 1927	Rutland, VT	Strand	2 days	subrun
Mon 23 May 1927	Akron, NY	Akron High School Auditorium	1 show	special
Mon 23 May 1927	Kansas City, MO	Powhatan	1 day	doubled with Stella Dallas
Tue 24 May 1927	Minneapolis, MN	Rialto	3 days	second run
Tue 24 May 1927	Kansas City, MO	Murray	1 day	second run
Wed 25 May 1927	Poughkeepsie, NY	Liberty	2 days
Thu 26 May 1927	Pittsburgh, PA	Colonial	2 days	third run
Thu 26 May 1927	St. Louis, MO	Congress	3 days	second run
Fri 27 May 1927	Augusta, ME	Colonial	2 days
Fri 27 May 1927	Pensacola, FL	Saenger	1 day
Fri 27 May 1927	Mesa, AZ	Niles	1 day
Sat 28 May 1927	St. Louis, MO	Woodland	1 day	second run
Sat 28 May 1927	San Pedro, CA	Strand	1 day	second run
Sun 29 May 1927	Casper, WY	America	3 days	subrun
Sun 29 May 1927	Lents, OR	Yeager	2 days	subrun
Mon 30 May 1927	Hull, Eng	Cecil	6 days
Mon 30 May 1927	Syracuse, NY	Palace	2 days	second run
Mon 30 May 1927	Baltimore, MD	Ritz	1 day	third run
Mon 30 May 1927	Chippewa Falls, WI	Rex	2 days	subrun
Mon 30 May 1927	Victoria, BC	Coliseum, 1609 Government St nr Johnson St	7 days
Wed 01 Jun 1927	Baltimore, MD	Red Wing	2 days	third run
Wed 01 Jun 1927	Sheboygan, WI	Rex	4 days	subrun
Thu 02 Jun 1927	Buffalo, NY	Victoria (Indep.)	2 days	third run
Thu 02 Jun 1927	Minneapolis, MN	Lyndale	2 days	second run
Thu 02 Jun 1927	Windsor, ON	Walkerville	3 days	subrun
Fri 03 Jun 1927	St. Louis, MO	Kingsland	1 day	third run
Fri 03 Jun 1927	Sapulpa, OK	Victorian	2 days	subrun
Sat 04 Jun 1927	Southampton, NY	Garden	1 day	third run
Sat 04 Jun 1927	Altoona, PA	State	7 days	2nd to The Night Bride
Sat 04 Jun 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Colonial	1 day	third run
Sat 04 Jun 1927	Kansas City, MO	South Troost	1 day	third run
Sun 05 Jun 1927	Kansas City, MO	Waldo	2 days	third run
Sun 05 Jun 1927	Okmulgee, OK	Yale	2 days	subrun
Mon 06 Jun 1927	L’Anse, MI	New Mazda	2 days	subrun
Tue 07 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Crandall’s Avenue Grand	2 days	second run
Tue 07 Jun 1927	Miami, FL	Paramount	2 days	third run
Thu 09 Jun 1927	Lewiston, ME	Empire	3 days	subrun
Thu 09 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Tivoli	2 days	second run
Fri 10 Jun 1927	Buffalo, NY	Regent (Indep.)	2 days	third run
Fri 10 Jun 1927	St. Louis, MO	Pageant	1 day	third run
Fri 10 Jun 1927	St. Louis, MO	Tivoli	1 day	third run
Fri 10 Jun 1927	Ogden, UT	Paramount	2 days	subrun
Sat 11 Jun 1927	Indianapolis, IN	Colonial	7 days
Mon 13 Jun 1927	Holyoke, MA	Strand	7 days	subrun
Tue 14 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Crandall’s Apollo	2 days	second run
Wed 15 Jun 1927	Warsaw, NY	O-At-Ka	2 days	second run
Wed 15 Jun 1927	Knoxville, TN	Queen	2 days	second run
Wed 15 Jun 1927	Reno, NV	Majestic	4 days
Thu 16 Jun 1927	Bangor, ME	Opera House	3 days	subrun
Thu 16 Jun 1927	Chambersburg, PA	Capitol	2 days	subrun
Thu 16 Jun 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Keystone	3 days	third run
Thu 16 Jun 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Logan	3 days	third run
Thu 16 Jun 1927	Muncie, IN	Columbia	3 days	subrun
Fri 17 Jun 1927	Allentown, PA	Lyric	2 days	second run
Fri 17 Jun 1927	Corsicana, TX	Palace	2 days	subrun
Sat 18 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Crandall’s Ambassador	1 day	second run
Sat 18 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Crandall’s Home	1 day	second run
Sat 18 Jun 1927	Chattanooga, TN	Rivoli	1 day	second run
Sat 18 Jun 1927	Mansfield, OH	Ritz	3 days	subrun
Sat 18 Jun 1927	Greenwood, IN	Community	1 day
Sun 19 Jun 1927	Racine, WI	Rialto	1 day	subrun
Wed 22 Jun 1927	Lake Placid, NY	Palace	1 day	subrun
Wed 22 Jun 1927	El Dorado Springs, MO	Opera House	2 days	subrun
Thu 23 Jun 1927	White River Junction, VT	Lyric	1 day	subrun
Thu 23 Jun 1927	Franklin, PA	Park	2 days	subrun
Thu 23 Jun 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Broadway	3 days	third run
Thu 23 Jun 1927	Baltimore, MD	Walbrook	1 day	third run
Fri 24 Jun 1927	Barre, VT	Park	2 days	subrun
Fri 24 Jun 1927	Caldwell, ID	American	2 day	subrun
Fri 24 Jun 1927	Kennewick, WA	Liberty	2 days	subrun
Sat 25 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	York	1 day	second run
Sat 25 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Chevy Chase	1 day	second run
Sun 26 Jun 1927	Washington, DC	Crandall’s Colony	2 days	second run
Sun 26 Jun 1927	Cincinnati, OH	Walnut	7 days	locomotive sex appeal, locomotive sex appeal
Sun 26 Jun 1927	Chilton, WI	Princess	2 days
Mon 27 Jun 1927	Connellsville, PA	Arcade	3 days	subrun
Mon 27 Jun 1927	Atlanta, GA	Ponce de Leon	2 days	second run
Mon 27 Jun 1927	Evansville, IN	American	7 days	subrun
Tue 28 Jun 1927	Flagstaff, AZ	Orpheum	1 show	benefit
Thu 30 Jun 1927	Harrisburg, PA	Russell	1 day	subrun
Thu 30 Jun 1927	Hilo, HI	Empire	3 days
Fri 01 Jul 1927	Derry, PA	Gem	1 day	subrun
Fri 01 Jul 1927	Frederick, MD	Tivoli (Stanley-Crandall)	1 day	subrun
Fri 01 Jul 1927	Ashland, AL	Ingram’s	1 day
Fri 01 Jul 1927	Minneapolis, MN	Lagoon	2 days	second run
Sat 02 Jul 1927	Allentown, PA	Lotus	1 day	second run
Sat 02 Jul 1927	Washington, DC	Carolina	1 day	second run
Sun 03 Jul 1927	Upper Darby, PA	69th Street	4 days	subrun
Sun 03 Jul 1927	Sayre, OK	Princess	2 days	subrun
Mon 04 Jul 1927	St. Johnsbury, VT	Tegu’s Palace	1 day	subrun
Mon 04 Jul 1927	Ogdensburg, NY	Strand	2 days	subrun
Mon 04 Jul 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Ambassador	3 days	third run
Mon 04 Jul 1927	Sedalia, MO	Sedalia	2 days	subrun
Mon 04 Jul 1927	Wilburton, OK	American	2 days	subrun
Tue 05 Jul 1927	Tampa, FL	Strand	3 days
Wed 06 Jul 1927	Hilo, HI	Empire	1 more	encore
Fri 08 Jul 1927	Biddeford, ME	City	2 days	subrun
Sat 02 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Prytania	1 day	second run
Fri 08 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Washington	1 day	second run
Mon 11 Jul 1927	Bristol, PA	Riverside	2 days	subrun
Mon 11 Jul 1927	Lansdowne Borough, PA	Lansdowne	2 days	subrun
Tue 12 Jul 1927	Benton Harbor, MI	Liberty	2 days	subrun
Tue 12 Jul 1927	Oklahoma City, OK	Folly	2 days	second run
Wed 13 Jul 1927	Knoxville, TN	Green	2 days	second run
Thu 14 Jul 1927	Portland, ME	Loew’s Portland	3 days	second run
Fri 15 Jul 1927	Huntington, NY	Palace	1 day	subrun
Thu 15 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Capitol	1 day	second run
Fri 15 Jul 1927	Auckland, NZ	Strand	5 days?	doubled with Valencia
Fri 16 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Tivoli	1 day	second run
Sat 16 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Fine Arts	1 day	second run
Sun 17 Jul 1927	Honolulu, HI	Kaimuki	2 days
Mon 18 Jul 1927	Waterbury, VT	Rialto	2 days	subrun
Mon 18 Jul 1927	Tunkhannock, PA	Savoy	1 day	subrun
Mon 18 Jul 1927	Okemah, OK	Crystal	2 days	subrun
Wed 20 Jul 1927	Greenville, SC	Carolina	2 days	subrun
Thu 21 Jul 1927	Marshfield, WI	Adler	3 days	subrun
Fri 22 Jul 1927	Miami, FL	Fotosho	1 day	third run
Fri 22 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Carrollton	1 day	second run
Fri 22 Jul 1927	Provo, UT	Paramount	2 days	subrun
Sat 23 Jul 1927	Selma, AL	Academy	1 day	subrun
Sat 23 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Escorial	1 day	second run
Sun 24 Jul 1927	Honolulu, HI	Kaimuki	2 days	encore
Sun 24 Jul 1927	Philadelphia, PA	Leader	4 days	third run
Tue 26 Jul 1927	Auburn, NY	Strand	2 days	subrun, PR
Wed 27 Jul 1927	Manchester, VT	Arcade	2 days	subrun
Thu 28 Jul 1927	New Britain, CT	Lyceum	3 days	2nd to Wandering Footsteps
Thu 28 Jul 1927	Haskell, OK	Orpheum	2 days	subrun
Thu 28 Jul 1927	Fort Collins, CO	America	2 days	subrun
Fri 29 Jul 1927	Adair, OK	Joy	2 days	subrun
Sat 30 Jul 1927	Milton, PA	Legionaire	1 day	subrun
Sat 30 Jul 1927	New Orleans, LA	Granada	1 day	second run
Sat 30 Jul 1927	Denver, CO	Washington Park	1 day	second run
Sun 31 Jul 1927	Tampa, FL	Seminole	1 day	second run
Sun 31 Jul 1927	Fort Lauderdale, FL	Garden Court 404 Las Olas Blvd	1 night	subrun
Sun 31 Jul 1927	Battle Creek, MI	Bijou Arcade	4 days
Sun 31 Jul 1927	Port Huron, MI	Desmond	4 days
Sun 31 Jul 1927	Madison, WI	Orpheum	4 days
Mon 01 Aug 1927	Massena, NY	Strand	2 days	subrun
Wed 03 Aug 1927	Burlington, VT	Majestic	2 days	subrun
Wed 03 Aug 1927	Cobleskill, NY	Park	1 day	subrun
Mon 05 Aug 1927	St. Louis, MO	Knickerbocker	1 day	third run
Tue 06 Aug 1927	Amsterdam, NL	Edison	?????	doubled with Battling Butler
Sat 06 Aug 1927	Colton, CA	Colton	1 day	subrun
Mon 08 Aug 1927	Gardiner, ME	Johnson Opera House	1 day	subrun
Mon 08 Aug 1927	Rock Hill, SC	Omar	2 days	subrun
Thu 11 Aug 1927	Shamokin, PA	Victoria	2 days	subrun
Thu 11 Aug 1927	Nashville, TN	Hillsboro	3 days	second run
Thu 11 Aug 1927	Lead, SD	Homestake Opera House	2 days	subrun
Sun 14 Aug 1927	Brownsville, TX	Dittman	3 days	subrun
Sun 14 Aug 1927	Bismarck, ND	Eltinge	2 days	subrun
Mon 15 Aug 1927	Smyrna, DE	Dover Opera House	2 days	subrun
Mon 15 Aug 1927	Little Rock, AR	Gem	3 days	second run
Mon 15 Aug 1927	Whakatane, NZ	Town Hall	2 days	subrun
Tue 16 Aug 1971	Ogden, UT	Colonial	2 days	second run
Sat 20 Aug 1971	Warren, PA	Library (Columbia Amsmt)	1 day	second run
Sat 20 Aug 1927	New Orleans, LA	Mecca	1 day	second run
Sun 21 Aug 1927	Muskegon, MI	Rialto	4 days
Mon 22 Aug 1927	Vancouver, BC	Colonial	6 days
Tue 23 Aug 1927	Wisconsin Rapids, WI	Palace	2 days	subrun
Thu 25 Aug 1927	Carlisle, PA	Orpheum	2 days	subrun
Thu 25 Aug 1927	Muskegon Heights, MI	Strand	1 day	second run
Fri 26 Aug 1971	Salt Lake, UT	Rialto	2 days	second run
Sat 27 Aug 1927	Lamont, OK	Cozy	1 day	subrun
Mon 29 Aug 1927	Madera, CA	National	2 days	subrun
Sun 28 Aug 1927	Angola, NY	Angola	2 days	subrun
Thu 01 Sep 1927	Portland, ME	Colonial	3 days	subrun
I give up. You figure it out.
Fri 02 Sep 1927	Springfield, VT	Ideal	2 days	subrun
Fri 02 Sep 1927	Hazleton, PA	Capitol	2 days	subrun
Sat 03 Sep 1927	Newport, VT	Burns	1 day	subrun
Sat 03 Sep 1927	Tarrytown, NY	Music Hall	1 day	subrun
Sat 03 Sep 1927	Indianapolis, IN	Uptown	1 day	second run
Sun 04 Sep 1927	Erie, PA	Rialto	4 days	subrun
Sun 04 Sep 1927	Saxon, WI	Royal	2 days	subrun
Wed 07 Sep 1927	Mandan, ND	Palace	2 days	subrun
Thu 08 Sep 1927	Huddersfield, England	Savoy	2 days
Fri 09 Sep 1927	Newport News, VA	Scott	1 day
Fri 09 Sep 1927	Cameron, MO	Senate	1 day	subrun
Fri 09 Sep 1927	Sanger, CA	Sanger	2 days	subrun
Sat 10 Sep 1927	Newport News, VA	American	1 day
Sat 10 Sep 1927	Hull, IA	Davidson Opera House	1 day	subrun
Sat 10 Sep 1927	Adelaide, SA	The York	7 days	doubled with Orchids and Ermine
Mon 12 Sep 1927	Merthyr Tydfil, Wales	Palace	1 day
Mon 12 Sep 1927	Davis, OK	Strand	2 days	subrun
Tue 13 Sep 1927	Newport News, VA	Lyric	1 day
Thu 15 Sep 1927	Craig, MO	Wickiser	1 day	subrun
Fri 16 Sep 1927	Mount Vernon, NY	Bunny	2 days	second run
Sat 17 Sep 1927	Topeka, KS	Apex	1 day	subrun
Mon 19 Sep 1927	Mount Carmel, PA	Victoria	2 days	subrun
Wed 21 Sep 1927	Latrobe, PA	Olympic	2 days	doubled with Altars of Desire
Thu 22 Sep 1927	Fairport, NY	New Temple	2 days
Thu 22 Sep 1927	Mahanoy City, PA	Victoria	2 days	subrun
Fri 23 Sep 1927	Pittsfield, MA	Tyler	2 days	second run
Sun 25 Sep 1927	Lansing, MI	Strand	4 days
Mon 26 Sep 1927	Green Bay, WI	Orpheum	4 days
Thu 29 Sep 1927	Stevens Point, WI	Majestic	3 days
Tue 27 Sep 1927	Deadwood, SD	Deadwood	1 day	subrun
Wed 28 Sep 1927	Punxatawney, PA	Alpine	2 days	subrun
Thu 29 Sep 1927	Pulaski, NY	Temple	2 days
Thu 29 Sep 1927	Union Springs, AL	Rialto	2 days	subrun
Fri 30 Sep 1927	Durant, OK	Queen (R and R)	2 days	subrun
Sat, 30 Sep 1927	Sapulpa, OK	Iris	2 days	second run, Sat & Mon
Sat 01 Oct 1927	Rockville Centre, NY	Strand	1 day	subrun
Mon 03 Oct 1927	Elizabeth City, NC	Alkrama	2 days	subrun
Tue 04 Oct 1927	Fairlee, VT	Star	1 day	subrun
Thu 06 Oct 1927	Bassano, AB	Gem	2 days
Thu 06 Oct 1927	Florence, SC	Opera House	1 day	subrun
Fri 07 Oct 1927	Manitowoc, WI	Mikadow	2 days	subrun
Sun 09 Oct 1927	Elmira, NY	Capitol	4 days	subrun
Tue 11 Oct 1927	Kansas City, MO	Westport	1 day	third run
Thu 13 Oct 1927	Raleigh, NC	State	2 days	subrun
Fri 14 Oct 1927	Penn Yan, NY	Elmwood	2 days	subrun
Fri 14 Oct 1927	Greenville, SC	Egyptian	1 day	second run
Sat 15 Oct 1927	Allentown, PA	Southern	1 day	third run
ca 15 Oct 1927	Carmel, CA	Manzanita	1 day	subrun
Sun 16 Oct 1927	Mason, MI	Pastime	2 days	subrun
Mon 17 Oct 1927	Scranton, PA	Capitol	3 days	subrun
Thu 13 Oct 1927	Raleigh, NC	Palace	1 day	moveover
Mon 17 Oct 1927	Coventry, Eng.	La Scala	7 days
Thu 20 Oct 1927	Waco, TX	Victory	3 days	second run
Some Opinions from Smaller Markets:
Fri 21 Oct 1927	West Hampton Beach, NY	Hampton Star	2 days	subrun
Sat 22 Oct 1927	Chillicothe, MO	Strand	1 day	subrun
Sun 23 Oct 1927	Tooele, UT	Strand	2 days	subrun
ca Mon 24 Oct 1927	Vienna, Austria	Kino Wienzeite	?????
ca Mon 24 Oct 1927	Wilkes-Barre, PA	Capitol	3 days	subrun
ca Mon 24 Oct 1927	Gretna, LA	Hollywood	1 day	second run
ca Thu 25 Oct 1927	Vienna, Austria	Zirkus Busch-Kino	?????
Thu 27 Oct 1927	Rutland, VT	Ludlow	1 day	second run
Thu 27 Oct 1927	Brownsville, TX	Texas (Delta)	2 days	second run
Fri 28 Oct 1927	Franklin, PA	Venango (Delta)	2 days	second run
Sat 29 Oct 1927	Diller, NE	Diller Opera House	1 night	subrun
Mon 31 Oct 1927	Tuscumbia, AL	Strand	1 day	subrun
Tue 01 Nov 1927	Sheffield, AL	Palace	1 day	subrun
Thu 03 Nov 1927	Florence, AL	Princess	1 day	subrun
Thu 03 Nov 1927	Burnaby, BC	Regent	2 days	second run
Thu 03 Nov 1927	Clarence, MO	Culver	2 days	second run
Wed 09 Nov 1927	Custer City, OK	Rex	2 days	subrun
Thu 10 Nov 1927	Newark, NY	Capitol	2 days	subrun
Thu 10 Nov 1927	Olean, NY	Haven	3 days	subrun
Thu 10 Nov 1927	Bartlesville, OK	Odeon	1 day	second run
Thu 10 Nov 1927	Covina, CA	Covina	1 day	subrun
Fri 11 Nov 1927	Palmyra, NY	Park	2 days	subrun
Mon 14 Nov 1927	Poteau, OK	Victory	2 days	subrun
Thu 17 Nov 1927	Kansas City, MO	Indiana	1 day	third run
Wed 23 Nov 1927	Kansas City, MO	Aladdin	1 day	2nd to Slide, Kelly, Slide
Sat 26 Nov 1927	San Francisco, CA	Imperial	7 days
Sun 27 Nov 1927	South Miami, FL	Riviera	1 day	subrun
Tue 30 Nov 1927	Springfield, MO	Princess	2 days	subrun
ca 01 Dec 1927	Paris, AR	Strand	?????	subrun
Mon 05 Dec 1927	Gaffney, SC	Strand	2 days
Thu 08 Dec 1927	Cooperstown, NY	Smalley’s Cooperstown	1 day	subrun
Fri 09 Dec 1927?	Doetinchem, NL	Luxor	7 days
Tue 13 Dec 1927	Oklahoma City, OK	Rialto	2 days	second run
Wed 14 Dec 1927	Rising Sun, MD	Rising Sun Moving Picture House	1 day	subrun
Wed 14 Dec 1927	Kilmarnock, VA	Fairfax	1 day	subrun
Thu 15 Dec 1927	Antlers, OK	Erie	2 days	subrun
Fri 16 Dec 1927	Berwick, PA	Strand	2 days	subrun
Fri 17 Dec 1927	Akron, OH	Orpheum	7 days
Tue 20 Dec 1927	Austin, TX	Crescent	3 days	second run
Wed 21 Dec 1927	Binghamton, NY	Capitol	1 day	2nd bill after Lonesome Ladies
Fri 23 Dec 1927	Boston, MA	Boys’ Club	1 show	special
Fri 23 Dec 1927	Mexico, MO	Liberty	1 day	third run
Sun 25 Dec 1927	Syracuse, NY	Swan (formerly Happy Hour), 224 N Salina St	1 day	second run
Mon 26 Dec 1927	Gloucester, Eng.	Parkend Empire	3 days	subrun
Mon 26 Dec 1927	Coplay, PA	Pastime	1 day	subrun
Tue 27 Dec 1927	Sleepy Hollow, NY	Strand	1 day	subrun
ca 30 Dec 1927	Stapleton, NE	Paramount	?????	subrun
Sat 31 Dec 1927	Oakland, CA	Grand Lake	7 days
Sun 01 Jan 1928	Minneapolis, MN	New Arion	1 day	third run
Mon 02 Jan 1928	Redwood City, CA	Sequoia	2 days	subrun, press release, crowds
Tue 03 Jan 1928	Butte, MT	Ansonia	2 days	subrun
Fri 06 Jan 1928	Kansas City, MO	Diamond	1 day	third run
Fri 06 Jan 1928	Burlingame, CA	Varsity	2 days	second run
Tue 10 Jan 1928	Griswold, IA	Strand	2 days	subrun
Thu 12 Jan 1928	Oshkosh, WI	Rex	3 days	subrun
Thu 12 Jan 1928	Endicott, NY	Lyric	3 days	subrun
Sat 14 Jan 1928	Hinton, WV	Masonic	1 day	subrun
Sat 14 Jan 1928	Sacramento, CA	Capitol	4 days
Mon 16 Jan 1928	Widnes, Cheshire	Century Picture Palace	3 days	subrun
Tue 17 Jan 1928	Endicott, NY	Elvin	1 day	subrun
Thu 19 Jan 1928	Napa, CA	Hippodrome	2 days	second bill to Partners Again
ca 20 Jan 1928	Lewellyn, NE	Hipp	?????	subrun
Fri 20 Jan 1928	Ardmore, OK	Ritz	2 days	subrun
Sat 21 Jan 1928	Minette, AL	Palm	1 day	subrun
Sat 21 Jan 1928	Mullen, NE	Senk	1 day	subrun
Sat 21 Jan 1928	Fresno, CA	Wilson	3 days	subrun
Sat 21 Jan 1928	Wood River, IL	Wood River	1 day	subrun
Sun 22 Jan 1928	Salinas, CA	California	1 day	subrun
Mon 23 Jan 1928	Calgary, AB	Variety	3 days	subrun
Wed 25 Jan 1928	Stockton, CA	State (Fox)	3 days	subrun
Fri 27 Jan 1928	Alton, IL	Gem	1 day	subrun
Sun 29 Jan 1928	Columbus, NE	Pawnee	3 days	subrun
Tue 31 Jan 1928	Sioux City, IA	Strand	3 days	second feature to Poor Girls
ca 01 Feb 1928	Crosby, MN	People’s	?????	subrun
Wed 01 Feb 1928	Syracuse, NE	Palace	1 day	subrun
Wed 01 Feb 1928	Colusa, CA	Gem	2 days	subrun
Thu 02 Feb 1928	Unadilla, NE	Palace	1 day	subrun, with King Felton magic show
Thu 02 Feb 1928	Oroville, CA	Rex	1 day	subrun
Fri 03 Feb 1928	Culver, IN	Home	2 days	subrun
Sat 043 Feb 1928	Saline, MI	Liberty	2 days	subrun
ca 05 Feb 1928	Buena Vista, VA	Globe	?????	subrun
Sun 05 Feb 1928	Sidney, NE	U. S. A.	1 day	subrun
Wed 08 Feb 1928	Burlington, VT	Orpheum	2 days	second run
Wed 08 Feb 1928	Lowville, NY	Bijou	1 day	subrun, PR
Wed 08 Feb 1928	Hanford, CA	Royal	2 days	subrun
Fri 10 Feb 1928	Emporia, KS	Odeon	2 days	subrun
Fri 10 Feb 1928	Oakland, CA	Chimes	2 days	subrun
Sun 12 Feb 1928	Brooklyn, NY	Imperial	1 day	third run
Sun 12 Feb 1928	Williams, AZ	Sultana	1 day	subrun
Wed 15 Feb 1928	Salamanca, NY	Andrews	1 day	subrun, PR
Wed 15 Feb 1928	Riverton, NE	New	1 day	subrun
Sat 18 Feb 1928	Freeland, PA	Refowich	1 day	subrun
Fri 24 Feb 1928	Monongahela, PA	Anton	2 days	subrun
Wed 29 Feb 1928	Reno, NV	Reno	2 days	subrun
Mon 05 Mar 1928	Belleville, IL	Rex	2 days	subrun, PR
Tue 06 Mar 1928	Kenosha, WI	Roosevelt	1 day	second run, PR
Wed 07 Mar 1928	Halifax, NS	Community	2 days	subrun, PR
Wed 07 Mar 1928	Boise, ID	Rialto	2 days	subrun, PR
Thu 08 Mar 1928	Derby, Derbys, Eng.	Normanton	3 days	subrun
Thu 08 Mar 1928	Iola, KS	Elite	2 days	subrun
Fri 09 Mar 1928	Albuquerque, NM	Pastime (Indep.)	2 days	subrun
Fri 09 Mar 1928	San Francisco, CA	Alexandria	2 days	third run, PR
Wed 14 Mar 1928	Winnipeg, MB	Rose (Allied)	2 days	subrun
Sun 11 Mar 1928	Vancouver, BC	Globe	4 days	subrun, 2nd after For Wives Only
Mon 12 Mar 1928	Togus, ME	National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers	1 day	special
Tue 13 Mar 1928	Kenosha, WI	Butterfly	3 days	subrun
Mon 19 Mar 1928	Oshkosh, WI	Star	2 days	subrun
Thu 22 Mar 1928	Rutland, VT	Brandon	1 day	second run
Thu 22 Mar 1928	Selma, CA	Selma	2 days	subrun
Thu 22 Mar 1928	Winnipeg, MB	Plaza	1 day	subrun
Fri 23 Mar 1928	Shelby, NE	Shelby	2 days	subrun
Fri 23 Mar 1928	Stanton, NE	Rialto	1 day	subrun
Sat 24 Mar 1928	Deming, NM	Princess	1 day	subrun
Sun 25 Mar 1928	Kimball, SD	Royal	1 day	subrun
Mon 26 Mar 1928	Weeping Water, NE	Liberty	2 days	subrun, PR
Tue 27 Mar 1928	Ironwood, MI	Ramsay Rex	2 days	subrun
Wed 28 Mar 1928	Bloomfield, NE	★	2 days	subrun
Fri 30 Mar 1928	Aurora, NE	Mazda	2 days	subrun
Sat 31 Mar 1928	Binghamton, NY	Empire	1 day	second run
Sun 02 Apr 1928	Decatur, NE	Goldlight	1 night	subrun
Mon 03 Apr 1928	Tampa, FL	Grand	1 day	second run
Thu 05 Apr 1928	Winnipeg, MB	Garden	2 days	subrun
Mon 09 Apr 1928	Uphall, Scotland	Cinema House	3 days	subrun
Wed 11 Apr 1928	Corpus Christi, TX	Melba	2 days	subrun
Thu 12 Apr 1928	Edenbridge, Kent, Eng.	Edenbridge Cinema	3 days	subrun
Thu 12 Apr 1928	Quincy, CA	Quincy?	1 day	subrun
Thu 12 Apr 1928	Oakland, CA	Broadway	2 days	third run, in conjunction with Pendleton Roundup
Sat 14 Apr 1928	Sacramento, CA	California	1 day	second run
Sun 15 Apr 1928	Oakland, CA	Century	2 days	third run, doubled with West of Broadway
Mon 16 Apr 1928	Bellingham, WA	Grand	1 day	subrun
Tue 24 Apr 1928	East Moline, IL	Strand	2 days	subrun
Thu 26 Apr 1928	Macon, GA	Rialto	1 show	special
May 1928	Translatlantic	S.S. Columbus	?????	special
Sat 05 May 1928	Miami, FL	Tivoli	1 day	third run
Wed 09 May 1928	Norman, OK	Billings	2 days	second run
Thu 10 May 1928	Brownsville, TX	Texas (Delta)	2 days	second run
Tue 15 May 1928	Plattsburg, MO	Opera House	1 day?	subrun
Tue 15 May 1928	Marysville, CA	Liberty	2 days	subrun
Fri 18 May 1928	Rutherford, NJ	Rivoli	2 days	2nd billed to The Love of Sunya
Sat 19 May 1928	Stockton, CA	Rialto	1 day	subrun
Mon 21 May 1928	Columbus, IN	Crump	2 days	subrun
Tue 22 May 1928	Circleville, OH	Grand	2 days	subrun
Wed 30 May 1928	Miami, FL	Seventh Avenue	2 days	third run, PR
Wed 30 May 1928	Council Grove, KS	Stella	1 day	subrun, PR
Thu 31 May 1928	Venice, CA	California (West Coast)	1 day	2nd billed to Hell Ship Bronson
Thu 31 May 1928	San Francisco, CA	Casino	2 days	double billed with The 13th Juror
Sun 03 Jun 1928	Grand Junction, CO	Majestic	3 days	subrun, PR
Sun 03 Jun 1928	Modesto, CA	Lyric	2 days	subrun
Sat 09 Jun 1928	Groton, VT	Henderson	1 day	subrun
Thu 14 Jun 1928	Franklin, KY	Victor	1 day	subrun
Fri 15 Jun 1928	Marksville, LA	Bailey	1 day	subrun
Sat 16 Jun 1928	Groton, VT	Henderson	1 day	subrun
Mon 18 Jun 1928	Hayward, CA	Hayward	1 day	subrun
Thu 21 Jun 1928	Sevenoaks, Eng.	Tubs Hill Cinema	3 days	third run
Sat 23 Jun 1928	Springville, UT	Rivoli	1 day	subrun
Thu 28 Jun 1928	Chester, Chesh, Eng.	Music Hall “THE” Cinema	3 days	subrun
Fri 29 Jun 1928	Trenton, NE	Gem	2 days	subrun
Fri 29 Jun 1928	Corpus Christi, TX	Ideal (R.&R.)	1 day	third run
Mon 02 Jul 1928	Natchitoches, LA	Amusu	1 day	subrun
Wed 04 Jul 1928	Mexico, NY	Town Hall Movies	1 day	subrun
Wed 04 Jul 1928	Mayfield, CA	Blanco’s California	1 day	doubled with The Wagon Show
Sun 15 Jul 1928	Minneapolis, MN	Bijou	1 day	third run
Mon 16 Jul 1928	Tampa, FL	Alcazar	2 days	subrun
Mon 16 Jul 1928	Portsmouth, OH	LaRoy	3 days?	subrun
Tue 24 Jul 1928	Boston, MA	Lancaster	1 day	subrun
Thu 26 Jul 1928	St. Joseph, MO	Empress	1 day	subrun
Sat 28 Jul 1928	St. Joseph, MO	Rivoli	1 day	subrun
Mon 30 Jul 1928	Beatrice, NE	Ritz	2 days	benefit, PR
Tue 31 Jul 1928	Omaha, NE	Minne Lusa (Neighborhood)	1 day	subrun
Wed 01 Aug 1928	Liverpool, Eng.	Casino	1 day	repertory
Thu 02 Aug 1928	Maryville, MO	College Auditorium	2 days	special
Tue 07 Aug 1928	Ealing, London, Eng.	Walpole Cinema	1 day	subrun
Tue 07 Aug 1928	Madisonville, KY	New Kentucky	1 day	subrun
Tue 14 Aug 1928	Bradford, VT	Colonial	1 day	subrun
Mon 13 Aug 1928	Marion, OH	Oakland	3 days	subrun
Sat 18 Aug 1928	Racine, WI	Crown	1 day	second run
Thu 23 Aug 1928	Greenville, MI	Silver Family	1 day	subrun
Mon 27 Aug 1928	Woodward, OK	Pastime	2 days	subrun
Fri 31 Aug 1928	Winnipeg, MB	Bijou	2 days	2nd billed to Tillie’s Punctured Romance
Fri 14 Sep 1928	Durham, NC	Savoy	1 day	subrun
Mon 24 Sep 1928	Covington, KY	Shirley	1 day	subrun
Mon 24 Sep 1928	Paducah, KY	Loop	4 days	subrun, PR, PR, PR
Mon 24 Sep 1928	Visalia, CA	Bijou	1 day	subrun
Thu 27 Sep 1928	Derby, Derbys, Eng.	Cosy	1 day	subrun, PR
Fri 28 Sep 1928	Covington, KY	Family	1 day	subrun
Fri 05 Oct 1928	Bethany, NE	Sun	2 days	subrun
Mon 08 Oct 1928	Painted Post, NY	Imperial, IOOF, S Hamilton St	2 days	subrun
Fri 12 Oct 1928	Lincoln, NE	Legion	2 days	subrun
Sat 13 Oct 1928	Tekamah, NE	Lyric	1 day	subrun
Sat 13 Oct 1928	Fort Worth, TX	Worth	midnight	benefit
Wed 24 Oct 1928	San António, TX	Rialto	3 days?	Unconfirmed. Originally booked for the Aztec, but never played. The Rialto did not advertise this show.
Fri 09 Nov 1928	Chester, Ches, Eng.	Village Institute for Llay	1 show	special, doubled with The Country Doctor
Sat 10 Nov 1928	Lancaster, PA	Hamilton	1 show	D.A.R. children’s matinée, PR
Sat 10 Nov 1928	Washington, DC	Takoma	1 day	doubled with The Leopard Lady
Mon 26 Nov 1928	Saffron Walden, Eng.	Cinema	1 day	subrun
Thu 29 Nov 1928	Bassett, NE	Bassett Auditorium	1 day	subrun
Fri 30 Nov 1928	Stuart, NE	Gem	1 day	subrun
Sat 01 Dec 1928	Bassett, NE	Bassett Auditorium	1 day	subrun
Mon 03 Dec 1928	Coventry, Eng.	Rialto	3 days	subrun, PR
Tue 04 Dec 1928	Vancouver, WA	Society	2 days	second run
Wed 05 Dec 1928	Hartford, CT	State	2 days	2nd after Three Ring Marriage, PR
Thu 06 Dec 1928	Bristow, NE	Bristow	3 days	subrun
Thu 06 Dec 1928	Reedley, CA	Star	2 days	subrun
Mon 10 Dec 1928	Claresholm, AB	Rex	2 days	second run
Mon 24 Dec 1928	McKinney, TX	Pope (R.&R.)	2 days	subrun
Thu 27 Dec 1928	Santa Rosa, CA	Rose	2 days	second run
Tue 01 Jan 1929	Dayton, OH	YMCA Auditorium	1 show	special
Tue 01 Jan 1929	Alton, IL	Princess	1 day	subrun
Thu 03 Jan 1929	Portland, ME	E.M. Loew’s Casco	1 day	subrun
Wed 09 Jan 1929	Muskegon, MI	Iris	1 day	third run
Fri 01 Feb 1929	Hamburg, NY	Palace	2 days	subrun; doubled with Driftin’ Sands
Mon 04 Feb 1929	Clarksville, TN	Capitol	2 days	subrun
Thu 07 Feb 1929	Juneau, AK	Coliseum	2 days	subrun
Sun 10 Feb 1929	Juneau, AK	Liberty	1 day	subrun
Fri 15 Feb 1929	St. Petersburg, FL	Cameo	2 days	subrun
Fri 08 Mar 1929	Frome, Somerset	Frome’s New Cinema	2 days	crowded houses are assured
Mon 01 Apr 1929	Orlando, FL	Grand	2 days	press release
Sat 13 Apr 1929	Landisburg, PA	Shadowland	1 show	subrun
Sat 13 Apr 1929	Seward, AK	Liberty	3 days	subrun, PR
Fri 19 Apr 1929	Geneva, NE	Sunbeam	2 days	subrun
Sat 20 Apr 1929	Menasha, WI	Orpheum (Fox-Midwesco)	1 day	subrun
Sat 27 Apr 1929	Elizabethtown, PA	Moose	1 day	subrun
ca 01 May 1929	Tombstone, AZ	Crystal	?????	subrun
Thu 02 May 1929	Crete, NE	Lyric	2 days	subrun
Sat 04 May 1929	Orlando, FL	Civic Auditorium	1 day	press release
Sun 05 May 1929	Farwell, NE	Sun	1 day	subrun
There are so many comments like this, that I at last decided to include one representative example: So there ya go! Too pricey and rude personnel. Not a good combo.
Thu 09 May 1929	Claresholm, AB	Rex	3 days	subrun, press release
Thu 09 May 1929	Bell, CA	Fox Alcazar	1 day	revival
Mon 20 May 1929	Retford, Eng.	Regent	7 days?
Tue 21 May 1929	St. Petersburg, FL	Cameo	2 days	2nd feature after Wild Orchids
Sat 25 May 1929	Fogelsville, PA	Lehigh Community Park & Playgrounds	1 day	nontheatrical condensed edition
Sat 29 Jun 1929	Pasadena, CA	Park	1 day	revival
Wed 11 Sep 1929	Camden, SC	Majestic	2 days	subrun
Fri 01 Nov 1929	York, NE	Dean	2 days	subrun
Mon 18 Nov 1929	Lancaster, PA	Martin Auditorium, YMCA	1 show	nontheatrical condensed edition
Sat 25 Jan 1930	Ridgewood, NJ	Play House	1 show	children’s matinée
Wed 19 Feb 1930	Rahway, NJ	Empire	1 show	presented by Raritan Preps Jr. A.C.
Sun 27 Apr 1930	London, Eng.	Coronet, Notting Hill Gate	1 night	doubled with Son of the Sheik
Sat 19 Apr 1930	Chippewa Falls, WI	Northern Wisconsin Colony and Training School	2 shows	nontheatrical condensed edition
Mon 28 Apr 1930	Uxbridge, Eng.	Savoy	1 day	2nd after The Hottentot
Fri 30 May 1930	Heflin, AL	Community	2 days	subrun
Sat 07 Jun 1930	Hartford, CT	Broadway Community Church	1 show	nontheatrical condensed edition
Sun 22 Jun 1930	Springfield, OH	Majestic	2 days	2nd bill after Two Arabian Nights
Mon 07 Jul 1930	Croydon, London, Eng.	Albany	6 days	doubled with The College Coquette
Mon 28 Jul 1930	Croydon, London, Eng.	Empire	3 days	second run
Tue 12 Aug 1930	Big Bear Lake, CA	Stillwell Country Club	2 days	nontheatrical condensed edition
Thu 11 Sep 1930	Dover, Kent, Eng.	Queen’s Hall	3 days	subrun
Sat 27 Sep 1930	Lincoln, NE	Stuart	1 show	children’s matinée
Thu 23 Oct 1930	Hammersmith, London, Eng.	Fulham Picture Palace	4 days	doubled with Seven Faces
Mon 15 Dec 1930	Acton, London, Eng.	Crown	7 days	2nd bill to Love Comes Along
Sun 11 Jan 1931	Fort Thomas, KY	Hiland	2 days	2nd bill to Doughboys
Thu 15 Jan 1931	Herts, Eng.	Sawbridgeworth Cinema	3 days	third run
Mon 26 Jan 1931	Bath, Eng.	Assembly Rooms	3 days	2nd bill to Sarah and Son
Mon 09 Feb 1931	Derby, Derbys, Eng.	Cosmo Cinema	3 days	2nd bill to The Three Kings, PR
Thu 12 Feb 1931	Dover, Eng.	Plaza Super Cinema	3 days	2nd bill to Sisters
Mon 23 Feb 1931	Croydon, London, Eng.	Gaiety	3 days	2nd bill to The Bad One
Thu 25 Feb 1931	Derby, Derbys, Eng.	Cosmo	3 days	doubled with Darling of Paris
Mon 15 Jun 1931	Hammersmith, London, Eng.	Forum	3 days	2nd bill to Birds of Prey
And that, I think, was it, until MoMA began exhibiting the film probably in the mid-1930’s, and circulating the film beginning probably in 1941 or maybe in 1942.

You noticed that several of the above listings were for the “nontheatrical condensed edition.” What does that mean? David Shepard, through his Film Preservation Associates, issued a VHS in 1998 called “Here Comes the General.” It consisted of three short subjects: Return of the General, a 1962 commemorative; Railroad Raiders of ’62, the surviving fragment of the 1911 Kalem telling of the tale; and The General, an abridgment. On the back cover, David explained: “The original producer prepared this intelligently abridged version for non-theatrical showing in the late 1920s, and we restored a few additional scenes too good to omit! It retains all the wonderful scenes of the locomotive chase, de-emphasizing only portions of the story which do not involve the trains.” The tape, unfortunately, did not include a transfer of the 16mm original, but simply edited a 35mm transfer to match. I need to study the original.

Movie historians, though, are concerned with none of the regular bookings. They are concerned only with the Manhattan opening. Why? I don’t know. But that’s all they care about. Meade, as far as I know, was the first to state that The General was originally scheduled for an “end of December” 1926 opening at Loew’s Capitol. Actually, as we witnessed above, it had been scheduled for an opening on New Year’s Day, 1927. That opening was delayed twice over, first to Saturday, 22 January 1927, and then to Saturday, 5 February. It played the usual one week at the Capitol, then it disappeared from NYC screens for a week, and then it was back, briefly, at a few neighborhood houses, and then it was gone. This was the standard pattern for a successful movie. An unsuccessful movie would not be likely to reappear after the downtown booking.

Much more to study, and I don’t think I’ll put much more of this info on this page. I’ll reserve that for a future project. In the meantime, my preliminary impressions are simple: The General did respectable business in urban markets. The rental price was probably considerably less than $10,000, but it was nonetheless too high, or so it seems, which cut into a cinema’s profits during first-run bookings. Curtis (p. 319) provided a single example: The Metropolitan in Los Ángeles, the largest cinema in the city, received The General for one week for a flat $5,000 rental. That sounds strange to me. Awfully strange. First-run deluxe bookings are rental versus percentage. Am I wrong about that? Flat rental is financial suicide for the investors. Yet Jim got that info from Variety, and so I suppose the report is correct, and that was a great deal for the Metropolitan, but why UA agreed is anybody’s guess. My guess is that someone’s head rolled within the week. Some of the ticket sales were considered relatively low, but, in some cases, relatively low was still profitable. For instance, Loew’s Capitol in Manhattan, NY, had a seemingly unimpressive ticket sales of $50,992, but that was the high end of normal for the Capitol, and, with a single exception, it was much higher than ticket sales for other cinemas in the area. That indicates something like over 60,000 tickets sold during the week, which I don’t think is so awful. Do you? Curtis (p. 319) reports that the Metropolitan in Los Ángeles had a “disappointing” gross of $25,000. Variety gave an estimate of $25,300. Tickets at the Metropolitan were 25¢ and 65¢, and so, if “gross” means “ticket sales” (does it?), $25,300 would indicate probably in the range of 56,000 tickets sold that week, give or take, or about 8,000 tickets a day, for an auditorium that sat about 3,600 people. Yes, the house had better weeks and it had worse weeks, and while $25,300 was not extraordinary for the Metropolitan, it was well within normal range. Besides, 56,000 sales in a week ain’t too bad no matter how you cut it. I just did a tiny bit of exploring. Here are some Variety reports for the Metropolitan:

VARIETY	TICKET SALES
Vol. 85 No. 12, Wed 05 Jan 1927, p. 6, The Canadian	$26,500
Vol. 85 No. 13, Wed 12 Jan 1927, p. 6, Blonde or Brunette	$31,000
Vol. 86 No. 01, Wed 19 Jan 1927, p. 7, Man of the Forest	$25,000
Vol. 86 No. 02, Wed 26 Jan 1927, p. 8, It	$35,000
Vol. 86 No. 03, Wed 02 Feb 1927, p. 6, New York	$38,000
Vol. 86 No. 04, Wed 09 Feb 1927, p. 6, Paradise for Two	$32,000
Vol. 86 No. 05, Wed 16 Feb 1927, p. 6, Hotel Imperial	$30,000
Vol. 86 No. 06, Wed 23 Feb 1927, p. 6, Let It Rain	$23,000
Vol. 86 No. 07, Wed 02 Mar 1927, p. 6, Love’s Greatest Mistake	$25,000
Vol. 86 No. 08, Wed 09 Mar 1927, p. 6, A Kiss in a Taxi	$22,000
Vol. 86 No. 09, Wed 16 Mar 1927, p. 7, Evening Clothes	$27,500
Vol. 86 No. 10, Wed 23 Mar 1927, p. 6, The General	$25,300

You see? It’s within the average range, and the average range was pretty darned good.

Localities with direct interest — Oregon, Tennessee, Georgia — did exceptional business for the first three days or so. I have not included reports from cow country, as that would take too long and would be too tedious. Nonetheless, I can conclude that, with but rare exceptions, cow country just didn’t like Buster at all and kept away. Buster’s features played to nearly empty cow-country houses and garnered gripes from irritated cow-country patrons. Cinema owners and managers in cow country hated it when Buster flicks landed on their doorsteps, because they knew they would go into deficit. Only a few reviews were negative, and the negative reviews voiced mostly one of two objections: It was not a laff riot; or, it was a travesty of the true Andrews Raid and would lead to children having a malformed concept of US history. Some of the positive reviews were tempered by a disappointment that the movie was not a laff riot. I also get the impression, the vague impression, that some cinemas simply gave poor presentations, and that those poor presentations almost exactly correlated with poor reviews and poor box office. Perhaps they provided inappropriate music, which can kill a movie dead. Or perhaps there was inadequate projection, which can kill a movie dead.

Oh. Laff riot. I should mention laff riot. In younger years, I would sit in an auditorium and watch a single movie two or three times over, matinée and evening performances, and I noticed that each audience reacted entirely differently. One example that I remember vividly is Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep. Wonderful movie. The matinée audience accepted it as a drama, but they did chuckle mildly two or three times at some of the witty dialogue. The nighttime audience laughed loudly almost from beginning to end, sometimes so raucously that they completely drowned out the best lines. That was not a one-off experience. That was not an unusual experience. That was typical. Different audiences react differently. One audience accepted Dr. Strangelove as a gripping drama. Another audience laughed joyously throughout. Wonderful movie that second time. There is a group dynamic, and each person in the auditorium feeds and feeds off of every other person in the auditorium.

We also need to take into account the musical accompaniment. A sensitive score that is attendant upon the needs of the narrative will bring the movie to life. An inappropriate score that imposes an interpretation upon the film or that contradicts the narrative will kill the movie dead. An inattentive score by a tired or lazy or demoralized musician will render the film unwatchable. Good accompaniment allows for laughter. Mediocre accompaniment might allow for a few chuckles, but nothing more. Poor accompaniment will leave the audience feeling miserable. Audiences will not attribute the entertainment quality, or lack thereof, to the musicians. They will attribute it to the film alone. Live accompaniment is one of the grand ingredients that makes silent cinema a unique delight, but it is a dangerous weapon when placed into the wrong hands.

In my personal opinion, The General is beyond any measure the funniest of all of Buster’s movies. Nothing else he did is as humorous or as brilliant. Of course, now that I’ve seen it probably a hundred times, I no longer laugh, but oh those first few times, it brought on convulsions. Sometimes it works that way for a whole audience. Other audiences watch The General and react with mild amusement. Yet other audiences don’t react at all. Group dynamic. Also, different people find different things funny. Some people find the Three Stooges funny. I don’t. Not at all. Some people find The Flintstones funny. I don’t. Not at all. Some people find Abbott & Costello funny. I find them repulsive. Some people don’t find From Soup to Nuts funny. Those are the people who can never be my friends. Because The General is played entirely straight, with no clowning at all, and because it is never played for laughs, it’s the funniest darned thing I’ve ever seen. The comedy derives from irony, from reaction, from the absurdism immanent in reality. Nothing can outdo it.

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