Volume III: Biographies

ADLER, Bertram .

Publicity director (1909-1914)

Thanhouser Career Synopsis: As publicity director for Thanhouser during the early and most successful years of the firm, Bert Adler created advertising and newsletters, prepared publicity releases, conducted interviews, and otherwise contributed to the public image of the company.

Biographical Notes: Born in Brooklyn, New York on April 14, 1890 and educated in New York City, Bertram ("Bert") Adler was in the publishing business before joining the Thanhouser Company. He was with Thanhouser from the inception of the film enterprise in New Rochelle in 1909, and remained until he departed for Universal in autumn 1914, when after the death of Charles J. Hite conditions at Thanhouser were uncertain.

Serving as the chief advertising executive and publicity agent for Thanhouser, Adler was responsible for a stream of news releases, articles, and bulletins concerning the affairs of the firm. An intelligent man, well versed in the intricacies of the motion picture business, he also served as an assistant for various projects to Charles J. Hite, president of the Thanhouser Film Corporation. In January 1911, a detailed essay written by Bert Adler on the state of the motion picture business was published in The Billboard. In the autumn of the same year he contracted a serious case of typhoid fever, was hospitalized for several weeks and was near death, but subsequently he recovered fully.

Adler was founder (in 1910) and editor of The Thanhouser News, believed to be the first house organ issued by an Independent film company. He wrote the copy for Thanhouser advertisements and news releases from 1909 to autumn 1914, except for the period during his 1911 hospitalization for typhoid fever, when Leon J. Rubenstein did the work.

In March 1912 press notices, possibly whimsical fabrications issued by Adler himself, stated he married Ethel Kessel, daughter of Adam Kessel, of New York, one of America's most prominent motion picture entrepreneurs at the time. Upon learning of this, a writer for The Moving Picture News speculated that Adler "will likely become general manager for Mr. Kessel's moving picture interests. He'll make a dandy, all right." Bert Adler and his bride were alleged to have spent their honeymoon in Dayton attending the March 26-27, 1912 convention of the Ohio Moving Picture Exhibitors League, during which time Adler fed some fanciful yarns to the press about it.

A tongue-in-cheek article by Gordon Trent, in The Morning Telegraph, April 21, 1912, commented on the marriage: "If Bert Adler was married at Dayton, as per press reports, then the way he acted at the Thanhouser ball was scandalous. He brought four young ladies to the affair and then turned them over to the ushers while he went to 'take tickets' at 'the gate.' And then when half past eleven came he fled for the 11:40 New York train, deserting the young ladies simply because they wanted to 'go on with the dance.' They looked pathetic crying on his shoulder in front of the coatroom, while a lobby full of loungers witnessed and wept. If there is a Mrs. Adler I look to see four separate and individual co-respondents named. How about it, Bert?"

Scarcely a week passed without Bert Adler sending news items to the leading trade journals of the day, including The Moving Picture World, The Moving Picture News, Motography, The New York Dramatic Mirror, the New York Morning Telegraph, and others. It often fell to Adler to submit film plot synopses to the same periodicals.

Adler's social life was a subject for commentary in the trade press, often as a result of notices he submitted about himself. News of his travels, acquisition of a new automobile, attendance at trade shows, and other activities, often written in a satirical style or with a twist, reached print with regularity. The hoopla surrounding "Steve," also known as "Poison Fang," an otherwise innocuous snake which appeared in the 1914 serial, The Million Dollar Mystery, was typical of his humor, and, according to Adler, when this "dangerous" reptile got loose, all the citizens of New Rochelle and surrounding Westchester County bolted their doors. It was Adler who devised the nicknames, The Thanhouser Kid (for Marie Eline) and The Thanhouser Kidlet (for Helen Badgley), which became world-famous.

In early May 1914, Adler was named as special representative of the Thanhouser Film Corporation and its president, Charles J. Hite. "His duties will take him to all parts of the country as his presence is needed," observed The New Rochelle Pioneer in its May 9, 1914 issue. Jay Cairns succeeded Adler as publicity manager. In 1914, Adler served as booking agent for the Williamson undersea pictures project. He was also manager of Thanhouser's Princess Department, and in 1913 and 1914 was engaged in various other film enterprises in which Charles J. Hite was involved, including managing Apollo films for Majestic, in addition to being Majestic's publicity director. He had the title of Eastern Manager for the Majestic Company and was publicity manager for the Mutual distribution network.

In early October 1914, after Charles J. Hite's death, when the future of Thanhouser was uncertain, he went to Universal, becoming chief film editor, later manager, of the Coytesville (New Jersey) studio and assistant manager of the Universal Heights studio. In the autumn of 1915 a special ceremony was held at Universal to celebrate his first anniversary with the firm.

By July 1916 he had left Universal and was the general assistant to Herbert Blaché at the Greater Blaché Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. In January 1917 he joined the publicity staff of the Educational Films Corporation of America. Adler died on March 18, 1939 in New York City.

An unattributed New York City newspaper clipping, March 19, 1939, preserved by Edwin Thanhouser, gave Adler's obituary: "Bert Adler, secretary to the [New York City] Department of Public Works, and publicity man in the motion picture industry before he entered the city's service three years ago, died yesterday at Mount Sinai Hospital after a month's illness. He was 48 years old. Mr. Adler lived at 425 Riverside Drive. Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Sadie Adler, and three sons, Rodney, 22; Arthur, 17, and Lawrence, 15.

"Born and educated in Brooklyn, Mr. Adler went to work as a reporter for The Boston Herald when he was 17, and worked later as a reporter in Plainfield, New Jersey. His first job in the film industry was as press representative of the old Thanhouser Company. After leaving that company, Mr. Adler did exploitation work for Realart Pictures Corporation, and then opened his own publicity agency. Among the clients his agency served during its existence were Warner Brothers, United Artists, Fox, Fanchon & Marco, and Universal. He also did publicity work for Columbia Pictures Corporation.

"Mr. Adler served in many Red Cross drives in the motion picture section of the publicity division; as chairman of the Stars' Committee of the Hoover Central Europe Relief Fund and as publicity chairman, stage and screen division, of the Democratic National Committee in 1932. Funeral services will be held at 2:30 p.m. today in the Riverside Chapel, 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, Rochelle Park, New York."

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