Exhibitors Herald World (Jan-Mar 1929)

26 EXHIBITORS HERALD-WORLD March ~>0, 1929 Fox Signs Stars for Sound Policy 15 Million Outlay Paves Way to New Production Plans (Continued from preceding page) a $500,000 Movietone laboratory and new sound reproduction rooms. "Present plans call for the filming of one complete feature length talking or musical production every week, including comedies, musical comedies, operettas, dramas, melodramas and spectacular dramas. "Many new personalities will be heard by motion picture audiences as a result of this radical departure in production. Negotiations which Mr. Sheehan was unwilling to discuss are now being conducted with many important stage, musical and literary personalities. Of those with whom contracts have already been signed the following were announced: "Will Rogers, America's best known comedy talker and home-spun philosopher, has signed a two-year contract to be heard and seen exclusively in talking films to be produced by Fox Film Corporation at Movietone City. Owen Davis, well-known dramatist, has completed the dramatization of Rogers' first screen talker. Strauss Completes Play "Oscar Strauss, distinguished Viennese composer, has completed the score and book for a musical play which Strauss has titled 'Married in Hollywood.' "Leo Fall's operetta 'The Dollar Princess' will be produced as a singing musical Movietone feature. "Four original musical comedies will be produced with words and music by DeSylva, Brown and Henderson, now at work at the Fox Studios. This trio is responsible for the current Broadway successes, 'Follow Through,' 'Good News' and 'Queen High.' "Dave Stamper, former composer of Ziegfeld musical shows, has completed a musical comedy for film production. " 'Fox Movietone Follies,' now in the editing stage, has been produced as the first of an annual series of musical revues. Words and music are by Con Conrad, Archie Gottler and Sidney Mitchell, with the book by Billy K. Wells and the direction by David Butler and Edward Royce. Jessel Starts in Month "George Jessel, musical comedy and vaudeville favorite, leaves for California next month to begin production of a musical play with an Italian background as his first picture on a 3 year contract. " 'The Passing of the Third Floor Back,' dramatic classic from the pen of Jerome K. Jerome will be produced as a talking film. " 'Cameo Kirby,' by Booth Tarkington and Harry Leon Wilson, is to go into production as a dialogue feature with Warner Baxter in the title role. "Earl Derr Biggers' mystery story, 'Behind That Curtain,' is also scheduled for immediate production with Irving Cummings directing. " 'The Cock-Eyed World,' will be directed by Raoul Walsh, as a vocal successor to 'What Price Glory,' with dialogue by Billy K. Wells, based on the original story by Laurence Stallings and Maxwell Anderson. Ford Making First Audien '"King of the Khyber Rifles' by Talbot Mundy is now being produced by John Ford as his first feature length all-talking film with Victor McLaglen, Myrna Loy, David Rollins, Lumsdcn Hare, Roy D'Arcy, Mitchell Lewis, David Torrence, Pat Somerset, Gregory Gay, Hollywood to Celebrate 21 Years as Film Capital (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, Mach 26.— Hollywood, probably the most famous small town in the world, will celebrate this summer the twenty-first anniversary of its era of fame as the capital of motion pictures. It was in 1908 that the first crank was turned. In the 1900's New York and Chicago were the dominant centers of picture making, but because of the weather conditions neither city could provide constant employment for the players. Consequently some of the more venturous began hunting for an all year climate. Today Hollywood throughout the world is as famous as the city of Los Angeles, of which it is a legal and geographical part. Claude King, taking their parts in a colorful story laid in the mountains of Afghanistan. " 'The Man Who Came Back,' dramatized by Jules Eckert Goodman from the short story by John Fleming Wilson, is scheduled for production beginning next month. "Other dialogue plays for which immediate production plans have been made include 'Conquistador,' 'The Mad Song' and 'Frozen Justice.' Stars Pass Movietone Tests "Among the film favorites whose Movietone tests have been successful and who will be heard in Fox Movietone features will be Janet Gaynor, Mary Duncan, Lois Moran, Sue Carol, Mary Astor, June Collyer, Louise Dresser, Sharon Lynn, Charles Farrell, Warner Baxter, Victor McLaglen, Edmund Lowe, Nick Stuart, David Rollins and Paul Muni. "Directors who during the past six months have been learning the new technique will now direct exclusively talking and musical films. These include Frank Borzage, Raoul Walsh, John Ford, F. W. Murnau, Irving Cummings, Allan Dwan, Benjamin Stoloff, David Butler, William K. Howard, Tohn Blystone, James Tinling, Alfred Werker, Berthold Viertel, Howard Hawks, George Seitz, Marcel Silver and Norman Taurog. Playwrights Listed "Additional directorial talent, recruited from the stage, includes A. H. Van Buren, Clark Silvernail, Edward Royce, Frank Merlin, Lester Lonergan, Frank Tasselt, Campbell Gullen, Seymour Felix and Bobby Connolly. "Broadway playwrights who are writing Touted Civic Theatre Closed; Lacked Support (Special to the Herald-World) KANSAS CITY, March 26.— There is an ironical significance in the closing of the Kansas City theatre, a civic dramatic organization, which was forced to close because of the lack of public support. The organization was formed in 1922 and has received at least triple the amount of free publicity of any theatrical or motion picture enterprise in town. Civic leaders who howled about the greatness of the theatre attractions did not support its box office to the extent that it could survive. Meanwhile other first run picture houses are doing the best business experienced in many months. dialogue at the Fox studios in Hollywood include Paul Gerard Smith, Harlan Thompson, Walter Weems, Billy K. Wells, Edwin Burke and Tom Barry. "Dialogue writers who are now in Hollywood working on Movietone features include George S. Brooks, S. K. Lauren, Zoe Akins, John Hunter Booth, Gilbert Emery, Clare Kummer, George Middleton and Elliott Lester. "Owen Davis and Willie Collier are still in New York but will soon desert Broadway to work at Fox Movietone City. "Indications are that further inroads will be made on Broadway's stage talent as production is expanded to meet requirements of additional theatres being equipped to show Movietone film in response to public demand for this new type of entertainment." All Directors Ordered to Learn to Make Audiens (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, March 26.— The Fox Corporations announcement yesterday that all pictures will be made with dialogue had extreme effects upon thousands of the personnel. The actors who have not trained speaking voices found themselves potentially jobless but an order from Sol Wurtzel's office declared that all directors under contract must report at once to learn to make dialogue pictures. A director who has made no dialogue pictures will sit in with members of an audien unit in order to study the new technique. Six silent pictures are in production. Another, "Chasing Through Europe," goes into production this week under Al Werker's direction. It is the last silent motion picture ever to be produced by Fox. The Fox actors who are jobless with this announcement are people who have had steady employment on the lot merely by picture to picture contracts. Others who are thrown out of work similarly are scenarists and titlers. Corinne Griffith Makes Most of "Divine Lady" Role (Special to the Herald-World) NEW YORK, March 26.— Under the bluewhite glare of the Klieg lights a first nigh; crowd filed into Warners theatre to see Corinne Griffith give a sympathetic portrayal of one of the most romantic characters in British history, the simple Emma Hart who became the divine Lady Hamilton, last Friday, in "The Divine Lady." They also came, these first nighters, to see the screening of one of the greatest naval engagements of all time, the battle of Trafalgar. The theatre was packed to overflowing with the well-dressed crowd that makes a habit of attending the premieres of the betterknown producers. That they were not disappointed in this picture was obvious from the applause they gave it. Miss Griffith was charming. Ian Keith as Greville, H. B. Warner as Lord Hamilton, and Victor Varconi as Lord Nelson, her lover, were excellent. And for a period picture, "The Divine Lady" was remarkable for the perfection of its detail in the pageantry of its scenes ashore and in the commission and complement of the ships of the line which battled at Trafalgar. A thoroughly entertaining picture, the audience decided, with lots of color, lots of human interest and plenty of dash and thunder in the battle scenes.