Exhibitors Herald (1927)

6 STUDIO SECTION OF March 26, 1927 IN CONFERENCE (The Low Down in Hollywood) « ^ ■ ~ By Bob Early ^ MY COLYUM — ■ By Al Boasberg Anne Nichols wanted a cool million for the screen rights to “Abie’s Irish Rose” and when “The Cohens and Kellys” made their debut, she sued Universal for a hot three million. Now she has sold the celluloidal rights to “Abie” for a warm three hundred thousand against a fifty-fifty split on the profits. Famous Players-Lasky will produce it and everybody “on the boulevard” has an idea of some sort about the outcome. The pessimistic ones say that the deluge of Hebe-Mick pictures has skimmed the cream from the market; the optimists believe that “Abie” will duplicate on the screen its enormous success on the stage. Mebbe so. The only argument I can think of against the optimistic angle is that Anne has stipulated in her contract that she is to okay and supervise everything from treatment to titles. Can you visualize Ernst Lubitsch allowing Anne to tell him how “Abie” or anything else is to be megaphoned? * ^ Meantime, Universal is planning a follow up on C. & K. which will bear the intriguing title of “The Cohens and Kellys in Paris” ; First National is to do two more of the same brand with Sidney and Murray; M.-G.-M. is to follow up “Frisco Sally Levy” with another vehicle for its new Hebrew character man, Tenen Holtz; and F. B. O. is coming out with a successor to “Kosher Kitty Kelly.” * * * The champ wisecrack of the month is credited to Douglas Furber of Chariot’s Revue fame, now employed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to wit : “A supervisor is a man who just knows what he wants — but can’t spell it.” * * Al Cohn, the scenario writer, tells another good one. He went to “What Price Glory?” at the Carthay Circle theatre with Sam Blythe, the noted Satevepost author. Just as the picture went on, a big walloper of a bird, about six foot six and almost as broad, came in and settled down right in front of Blythe. “Just my rotten luck,” moaned Sam, “I never drew a hunchback in my life.” ^ ig di: Laurence Stallings, who is credited with “What Price Glory,” “The Big Parade” and “Old Ironsides,” a trio of fairly well spoken-of cinemas, is back in Hollywood to write an epic or something based on the Panama Canal for M.-G.-M. A delegation of scenario writers and directors bearing poison oak wreaths were at the station to meet him. Larry was very tactless upon his return to New York from Hollywood last year. He said mean things about the writers and nasty things about the directors. And he said them in print, too. A former New York newspaperman, commenting on Stallings’ favorite topic of conversation — the limb he left in France — pulled this one: “I don’t wish Larry any hard luck, but I wish that leg of his would grow on again.” * * Ray Griffith is going to ask for his release from his Lasky contract, according to the boulevard dishers. Failing in that he will ask to be allowed to make his own pictures hke Harold Lloyd and Douglas MacLean do. Ray claims that his recent pictures haven’t been so good because none of the lads in authority at the F. P.-L. studio knows anything about comedy. * Sjf * Looks like Carl Laemmle, Sr., is going to do a little personal managing at Universal City. He is taking quite an interest in things generally and nearly every day General Manager Henigson learns that Director So-and-So or Scenarist This-’n-That has been put on the salary roll by el presidente himself. Paul Kohner, who was high in Laemmle favor for two years and publicized somewhat as “another Thalberg,” recently fell into disfavo" ■ wording to the Lankershim Boulevard gossips and is now a “heavy” with Uncle Carl. The big row occurred when C. L. decided that Conrad Veidt, one of his German imports, should play the rabbi in “Lea Lyon,” since rechristened ‘“ITie Crimson Hour” ; and that Mary Philbin should be replaced by Lya de Putti. Uncle Carl also blamed young Kohner for the DuPont fiasco and a good time was had by all. Finally, however. Miss Philbin went back into the leading role and the rabbi part went to Nigel de Brulier. Ted Sloman is now directing the picture. » * * Fanny Brice isn’t to grace the silversheet with her glittering presence, after all. It was all set for Fanny to go to F. B. O. following her Hollywood Music Box engagement. A test was made which proved satisfactory and everything looked great. Then Fanny delivered an ultimatum that she greatly desired to play an historical character like Cleopatra or Josephine^ — anything dramatic, in fact — but no comedy nor Irish-Jewish pictures. The F. B. O. folks had been getting ready a scenario called “A Kosher Colleen” in which it was planned to let Fanny do her stuff, but when she ultimated otherwise the whole deal was called off. !): * * At the Metropolitan studio, the “wrecking crew” is using the pulmotor on “No Control,” a picture recently finished there and shot back from New York for repairs and a general overhauling. The picture was based on a pippin of a Satevepost story by Frank Condon yclept “By Remote Control,” wherein a race horse is equipped with earphones so that the roar of a lion would frighten him to victory. Anyhow, the M.-G.-M. studio has no monopoly on retakes now. Universal tried to put new glands into “Love Me and the World Is Mine,” which Herr DuPont made for Llncle Carl at a cost of over $300,000, but they finally decided to fix up what film there is and put it out as just a “movie.” * * * Warner Brothers have changed the title of Alan Crosland’s recently completed opus to “Old San Francisco” and the title of “A Million Bid” has been tacked onto another story, which will be made by Michael Curtiz. “Old San Francisco” has a very realistic sequence showing the big shake of ’06, which ought to make a big hit at the Golden Gate, where they only refer to that little terrestrial shimmy as “the fire.” ♦ ♦ * Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is to take another flyer at “The Mysterious Island,” which (Continued on page 33) Director just here from Germany says the trip was so rough that the radio messages were received in broken English. * Hi * Jack Ruben, I. W. W. (I write Westerns) says ‘his girl wore so much makeup that when she died they didn’t bury her, they just sent her back to the drug store. * * * "$10,000 Offered for Synopsis of Movie” J. Parkerhouse Rolls of Boston recently returned home from a little party to be accosted by his wife, who asked him where he had been. He replied “to a picture.” His wife ask him what the picture was about and it was then Mr. Rolls made his generous offer to the public as outlined above * * * Prominent cinema executive wires home to wife; “I’ll be home the merger after next.” * ♦ 545 Charge this story to Mervyn LeRoy, the “wizard of Burbank”: A man got a job with a circus because he claimed he could sit in a cage for a year and not eat. After six months he called the circus boss and asked him how much his salary would be. The boss told him that he couldn’t afford to pay him any salary, but as long as he was on the job his meals would be paid for. ♦ * * Limerick Contest Write a last line for this limerick and send it in — the best one received will be torn up. There once was a boy from Chicago, In love with a girl from Milwaukee He was crazy about reading. And she hated tomatoes * * * Somebody told a director that the only way he could successfully make pictures was to read all the trade papers and keep posted. So he subscribed to all the papers and spent so much time reading them that he had no time to make pictures— now he owns a clipping bureau and is doing well. * * * Consistency note — out here they pray for three months for sunshine and then when it comes, they all put on smoked glasses so they can’t see it. * * * How to Get Into Pictures The best way to get into pictures is — • backwards — so when you are kicked out you have a good start. * * * Exploitation Pays Exhibitors, exploit your pictures! Here’s an exploitation stunt that can’t miss. It is called “Hiding the boxoffice.” Simply detach your box-office from the theatre and hide it in the woods. Offer a free pass to anybody locating it. Salvador Nosenbloom of Mumps, Montana, writes in — “Tried your box-office hiding gag and it’s a wonder. Nobody found the box-office — I couldn’t even find it myself — so I took out my seats and made a billiard room of the theatre and have done very well ever since. Give us more like this.” * * * Movie executive pays $5,000 to trace back his family history — now he pays weekly blackmail to keep it quiet.