Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World (Oct-Dec 1928)

2r EXHIBITORS HERALD and MOVING PICTURE WORLD October 6, 1928 Birthday WILLIAM FOX lighted a tenth candle on the Fox News birthday cake this week. And quite a few things have happened and been recorded since that day in 1919 when this energetic youngster entered the field with a lusty cry and a burst of activity. Let's see what was happening in 1919 to catch the lens of the wide-awake new newsreel. "Trans-continental Air Race! Eighty Birdmen Hop Off in Great Coast-to-Coast Race !" was the first item, while the drummer-boy in the orchestra made a noise like wind and tapped the drum for engine noises. Then there was "Archangel Menaced by Bolsheviks" and a smiling little item entitled "Better Babies." "Who's Who in America" showed the late Hudson Maxim and there was the old familiar "Capital and Labor in Conference." Something for the ladies? Ah, a neat little bit, Edythe Hudson, by name, with the caption "Fencing as an Aid to Beauty." Then we had the King and Queen of Belgium laying wreaths or otherwise making whoopee in Toledo, Ohio. Hosiery from Paris at a mere $300 a pair ; you can get 'em on the Main Stem almost as good for $1.65 to-day. And the last number on the program, ladies and gentlemen, was "William Penn Statue. Steeplejack Dares Death to Give Father Bill's Gold Coat a Washing." Soft music, Emil, please. * * * IVinfield Sheehan, whose name may be faintly familiar, started the Fox News when he got through setting Mr. Fox's European house in order. A newspaperman with a wealth of experience, to say nothing of a tremendous reputation gained with the New York World, he was the right man in the right job. Herbert Hancock was the first editor of Fox News. He was succeeded by Ed Hill, who in time gave way to another New York newspaperman of wide experience, Truman H. Talley, a tall, elongated, bright and amusing chap who has done so well with Fox as to win himself the title of "Director-in-Chief" to say nothing of new right-hand duties and responsibilities. * * * Talley is blessed with a capable staff, which is reason why Fox News has become highly successful as Fox Movietonews, all in sound, now to come out twice a week. James E. Darst is the associate director and the others deserve mention too: John J. Spurgeon, foreign editor; Edmund Reek, news editor; Daniel Doherty, assistant news editor ; Joel Swenson and John Miley, make-up editors; Harry Lawrenson, European editor. The boys know their onions. * * « The latest trick of Fox Movietonews is to come out with a Western edition. This is to be issued from Los Angeles under the capable direction of Blaine Walker. Which ought to make it apparent that, all in all, things are going well enough. * ♦ * Sound vs. Film JOHN E. OTTERSON, head of the vast Electrical Research Products organization that is the outlet for synchronized equipment made by the Western Electric systems, opened wide the door for controversy when he said, buried deep in his talk last week, that he considered sound not merely a means to the end of better pictures but "a new art." PETER VISCHER. On the Rising Tide of Sound T^HE success of synchronization, changing motion picture history, perhaps permanently, constitutes a tribute Co the faith and acumen of the Warner Brothers, who persisted in the development of Vitaphone so long before the present popularity of synchronization arrived. Naturally, Vitaphone is now playing a major part in the making of Warner Brothers product, a glimpse of which may be had below. Above : Robert McW ade, who will have the part he played on the stage, in the Vitaphone production, "The Home Towners." Right: Al JoLum, star of "The Singing Fool," on the Olympic, Europebound. Above: Richard Bennett, star of "The Home Towners." Below: Arriving for the premiere of "The Singing Fool" at the Winter Garden, N. Y.— Albert, Harry M., Jack Warner and Harry's son, Lewis.