Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

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Zjetting Called Names How Players Have (Or May) Become Popular Overnight [N Hollywood's civic cen By HERBERT ters of art and culture two cardinal principles stand like twin obelisks. Both are inviolable as the Vestal Virgins . . . who, leing human, may have slipped occasionally. One is olier even than II Duce Hays's prodigiously promulgated, ad much mooted, Code of Ethics. It is fundamentally »ciomatic. Not in so many words, of course. But then ou get the idea. Or do you.' The one of these commandments to which strictest dherence is essential may be set down as The Rule of light and Pursuit. Without its rigid observance no Epic lay hope to be a real Supreme Achievement of the Screen, iberally translated, Tne Rule of Flight and Pursuit leans that ya gotta have a chase. And ya gotta have a hase in every moom pitcher. Whether it's Lil Gish chasig through fields of daisies, or Laurel 'n' Hardy chasing Trough a Grandeur Screenful of custard pies and falling ■ousers. There has never been a Super-Special without a chase, lot in all that proud panoplied pageant from "The lirth of a Nation" to "The Patriot" — from "The ingin' Fool" to "The King of Kings," has there been an '.p\c without a chase. There never will be one. For if ne Bard himself arrived in Hollywood via the Styx & tratford Air Line, the first warnings of the Great Minds 'ould be: "Remember, Mister — er — Shakespeare, ya gotta have chase!" The Second Sacred Precept rHE fullest consummation of the second sacred precept is not yet attained, although devoutly to be wished, t is the re-christening of every star with one of those ndearing cognomens, like "Buddy." Without it no satelte may attain real stellar magnitude. As every picture lust have a chase — so every star must have a nickname. For this there is sound precedent. Whom the people )ve, they re-christen in popular fancy. Or, perhaps it's CRUIK SHANK truer t'other way 'round— who are re-named to meet popular approval become the darlings of the populace. Consider, for instance, "Honest Abe," "Big Six," "Silent Cal," "The Manassa Mauler," "America's Boy Friend," "Scarface Al." Look at it, for an instant, from an angle somewhat removed from pictures and players. Concentrate upon the case of the good Signor, Alphonse Capone. Under his natal name he could never have made his daily doings the subject of breakfast, luncheon and dinner talk. There are those who easily equal him in his own sphere of activity — Mr. Frank McErlane and Mr. Edward O'Donnell, just to mention two of the Cook County hunting set. But these sportsmen fail to figure in the press because their names lack the popular appeal of Mr. Capone's "Scarface Al" and "The Big Feller." Mr. McErlane is doubtless familiar to the cognoscenti. But he cannot vie for public interest in cornpetition with more picturesquely titled contemporaries. That is, they are contemporaries at the moment. Perhaps by publ cation time it will be ethical to prefix "the late" to the names of Mr. "Mojjs" Volpa, Mr. "Three-Fingered" White and Mr. "Fur ' Sammons. Underworld-Wide Fame QNLY one of Mr. Capone's little world has shown real showmanship in the matter of names. This is Mr. Demore. Mr. Demore's press notices wouldn't have filled an extra-girl's scrapbook before he made his bid for a place in the popular consciousness. But when he became inspired to alter his cognomen to "Machine-Gun Jack McGurn," his clippings eclipsed those of "Big Bill, the Builder." Bill should really engage Jack's Counsel of Public Relations. So, you see, there's plenty in a name, after all. What fame equals that of "Two-Gun Bill" Hart.'' Who can estimate the enthusiasm aroused for young Mr. Rogers {Continued on page lo^) 41