The Film Daily (1929)

THE Monday, November 18, 1929 s%fr* DAILY Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion — o— (Propaganda In Films Is Seen as Dangerous PROPAGANDA is a dangerous enough weapon, but its use in entertainment is near to fatality. It used to be an unwritten law of the showman that there were two factors which should never be allowed to appear in the amusements of the people — religion and politics. Of recent years new blood, not always from a showman's point of view, blue, has entered the cinema business, and old slogans have gone by the board. There is a tendency to allow to creep through a crevice in the show business, films of a religious, antireligious or at least a controversial character. Such a tendency is deplorable. "To-day's Cinema," London says Education Makes For Smaller Movie Audiences FEED people as you will with _ sappy movies, stuff them with bad fiction, the public schools, State colleges, prosperity and travel will eventually build up their minds and ruin them as a movie public. Hollywood has undertaken bigger problems — it has staged the Creation, the Flood and the World War. It has battled with foreign competition and foreign language barriers. If it discovers that our increasing mental activities are eating away its audiences, why should it not appoint a commission to eliminate education? Creighton Peet in "The New York Evening Post" TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN . J3S'K|f85Ji-! &m&* L. J. Selznick to start releasing ! through Republic Distributing Corp. in about a week. Twenty-one franchise holder declared lined up for Second National I Exhibitor Circuit. Metro purchases "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" by Blasco Ibanez. Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly, Jr. QAM WARSHAWSKY, finding that there is no more novelty *^ in holding special free nights for "twins," "old couples," "lefthanded soup eaters" and the like, announces that Radio Pictures will play host to centenarians at the Earl Carroll tonight in honor of the 100th performance of "Rio Rita" Gustave Froham, active in motion pictures during their early days and known as the manager who developed Mary Miles M inter from $6 a day to a four-figure salary, is still around town, hale and hearty. The talkers have reawakened his interest in the films Luther Reed, who directed the talker version of "Rio Rita," will be pretty well qualified to tackle musical comedy staging after he completes his present duties of directing the Radio Pictures production of "Hit the Deck," which contains no less than 17 songs, Negro spirituals, two full orchestras and a navy brass band Bruce Gallup points with pride to the flattering newspaper notices and trade paper okays on Gloria Swanson in "The Trespasser" and Ronald Colman in "Condemned" Now that Alice Terry and Rex Ingram are en route to Paris tor picture work, David Greenstein, their attorney, claims he can have a few "spare" moments to himself — howya doing, Dave? "A Hollvwonrl Star" Mack Sennett talker comedy, after by Ernest warwooa; Superior — Strand, sold to Ted McKinnon by F. E. Simons. iters, New York and Brooklyn, NEBRASKA k's run Mike Cleary and tig Changes in Ownership Bassett — Sutherland, sold to Henry Vienker by J. M. Sutherland ; Gordon — Empress, sold to Clyie W. Pace by James W. Pace; Newport — Sutherland, sold to Henry Vienker by J. M. Sutherland; Omaha — Avenue & Benson, sold to Epstein Bros, by World Realty Co. ; Stuart — Sutherland, sold to Henry Vienker hv T M c..*i— ■- • ig team, are spending a month's 95 NUMBER 95 Industry Statistics By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Statistical Editor, The Film Daily JESSE LASKY is credited with presenting the first revue in America, at a typical French Music Hall formerly located on the site of the Fulton theater in New York. One hundred thousand people, scattered throughout the four comers of the globe, own stock in the leading U. S. producer-distributor companies. Attendance at film houses in 1929 is increasing at the rate of nearly 1,000,000 monthly. MANY HAPPY RETURNS November 18 Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who today are celebrating their birthday : Eugenia Gilbert Hugh Hoffman Margaret Seddon AND THAT'S THAT By PHIL M. DALY TpXTRAS have almost become a *-* recognized part of the industry in Hollywood. They keep hanging on like the proverbial leech, and try as hard as they will to discourage them, a few score can always be found haunting the gates of the studios any morning. It has got to be such a habit with some of them that automatically they turn up at a studio gate on Christmas morn — and even New Year's. Such faithfulness to a trust should be rewarded. Maybe it will. Some day a third assistant director will call 'em in on the set and say: "His Majesty the Director told me to tell you guys that he appreciates the reception you give him every morning as he drives up to the gate in his Isotta Fraschini, but for the love of Pete don't crowd so close to the car. One o' you bozos called some tears and stained the enamel on the mud guard." * * * Funny what interesting ideas you can find in the dictionary, which is a large book compiled by a feller named Webster listing just a lotta words. There is no story to the darn thing. Just one word printed after the other alphabetically. So, turning to "E" we found the word "Extra." The first definition of the word is: "Being over and above what is required." * * * And that, gents, was lent ten before there were any such thing as motion pictures and extras. That guy Webster sure was a prophet. * * * Another definition that is also to the point, says: "Outside; beyond." Sure. Extras are outside the studio gates and the money. They are also beyond hope, because they have so much hope. If Webster was alive he would change the word "extra" to "extraordinary." But what would the director do without a mob of extras watching him hungrily as he leaves his bungalow in the morn, another gang at the studio gate ,and a few hundred trailing him along the boulevard? If they don't let Extras inside the Pearly Gates, there's only one choice of location for directors when they die. THEIR FIRST JOBS A. J. KARSCH farming