Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

April 4 . 19 3 1 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 33 ASIDES AND INTEI^EDDES Names of national political figures, who stand high in American busmess, are mentioned in connection witti a certain very interesting coup de politics in the picture business. . . . Fate, it seems, regarded Robert tdeson's last role, in Tiffany's "Aloha," as a rehearsal. . . . In the picture, Edeson died from heart failure, much in the same manner as finis was written to his long and colorful screen career. . . . Newspaper headline : . . . "Berlin Audience Cool to New Chaplin Film." . . . Well? ▲ ▲ A William ("Two-Gun Bill") Hart was one of the cat fanciers who exhibited at the recent Chicago feline show. . . . "Bill," kids' hero of silent days, planned a comeback last year (as few are aware) in a series of silent shorts, but none would make it sufficiently interesting, and "Bill" went back to the ranch. . . . Willie Meehan, a projectionist in a small Indiana town, is the same oldtime pugilist who won a decision over Jack Dempsey, 'way back when . . . Beatrice LiDe was born in a Toronto jail. . . . Her father was an official of the prison and the family lived there. . . . AAA Sam Goldwyn, in a cable to the Riviera, asked Eugene O'Neill for a ZO-word collect answer to a proposition for a screen ivriting job. . . . Goldwyn was somewhat surprised itfhen he read the following reply : . . . "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO N0_ NO." . . . Greta Garbo, et ah, are plenty interested in Pola Negri's decision to return to Hollywood and films. . . . Gary Cooper's new green and yellow Duesenberg car cost $16,00U. . . . It lias a radio and the speedometer can say 150. . . . Connie Bennett, in case you'd like to knoiv, collects Chinese snuff boxes as a hobby. . . . Our hobby is horses {hobby horses). AAA Exhibitors anticipating tieups on underworld films for which exploitation stresses names of the country's more prominent gangsters, should refrain from incorporating any reference to these lawless characters. . . . Deadly threats were received by one theatre owner recently when he ballyhooed the name of a prominent gangster in connection with the showing of an underworld flicker . . . which caused plenty of worry to the exhib, and started a long line of hardships. . . . When his wife visited the manager's office, she read one of the threatening letters, fainted and was rushed to a nearby hospital where the shock brought a premature stillbirth. . . . And the lad's mother, overburdened with worry over the threats, was stricken shortly afterward. The Ghost Meal! Chicago (QP) — A song writer, who trekked hopefully but vainly from Broadway to Hollywood, was applying for a job at a local music publisher's, and while waiting was suddenly afflicted with stomach rumblings. The switchboard operator exclaimed: "My goodness, man, are you haunted?" "Maybe," he replied apologetically. "It could be the ghost of the last meal I had before leaving New York." When It Hurts to Give Chicago (QP) — Film offices here are just beginning to squirm after "giving until it hurts." Within the past tew weeks solicitors for the following enterprises have made the rounds obtaining complimentary program ads: American Theatrical Hospital Assoc., Independent Theatre Owners national convention, Theatre Treasurers Assoc., Chicago M. P. Operators Local, National Vaudeville Artists, etc., etc. The next benefit, office managers state, is going to bemoan the lack of charity in the film business here. I N a recent issue of a New York trade paper appeared a streamer on Erpi's plan to rehabilitate 5,000 theatres. . . . Much black ink is given over to the fact that the story is "exclusive," and further on it is claimed that "first announcement of the plan came through a story published 'exclusively'," last week in that publication. . . . However, just to keep the records straight, Motion Picture Herald published initial details of the Erpi plan on January 24. . . . Just two months prior to its "exclusive" publication by our contemporary ! AAA 'The Pathfinder" calls Ruth Rowland and 3ebe Daniels the "Hetty Greens ' of the picture business. . . . Because they have cod.es of dough salted away. " . . . Ruth made hers in real estate. . . . And Eebe s "oodles" came from beach bungalows. . . . V/adace Beery is the only star of high note vvho permits his name to appear in the Hollywood phone directory. . . . Paul xiictha, British stage producer, describes our i-xtures in this manner: . . . 'Slick, facile, V. ell-finished, but they are devoid of good tasre, intelligence, culture — and always will be. ' . . . Paul, apparently, has not seen any of the British flickers. . . . AAA Anita Page thinks plastic surgery has to do with those little white statues they put on mantles! . . . Yesterday's prop boy may be today's star, and today's director may be toniorroiv's gateman. . . . It has happened. . . . Have yon noticed that practically none of the cussing which zvas spoken in the stage version of "Front Page" appears in the picture? . . . Kip Rhinelander seen in and out of the Hollyiuood places jrequented by picture folk. AAA Karl K. Kitchen herewith hazards a few opinions as to what he believes wrong v.'ith the movies : . . . "Too much tragedy in the comedies and too much comedy in the tragedies. . . . Their unpardonable sin is that they don't make me forget that they are movies. . . . They are always hitting the high spots and overlooking the highlights of life. . . . The spelling in the art titles. . . . They never take their foot off the loud pedal of the emotions, and, as a natural consequence, leave me quite unmoved. . . . They are too conservative in the matter of originality. . . They are honeycombed with bunk. . . . And noisy with dialogue. . . . Theatres are too warm in winter and too cool in summer. . . . Features are too long. . . . Organ selections are too hackneyed. . . . And too many people crawl in over rne before I crawl out over them." . . . Anything else ! . . . The editorial page of a certain fan publication vehemently flays anti-industry forces for unnecessarily taxing admissions as a "luxury." . . . The screen is everything but a luxury, states the writer. . . . Yet, under another caption, and on the same page, this genius of the pen states : . . . "Now I know why pictures cost millions of dollars ! . . . On my recent trip to Hollywood I made the rounds of all studios. . . . In every case I went on sets. . . . And in each instance, except one, I saw what, to me, seemed like GROSS EXTRAVAGANCE!" . . . Ironically enough, our friend's editorial page is captioned : "Maybe I'm Wrong !" AAA Wall Street wiseys expect to see a hitherto unlooked for rise in Pathe Exchange stock, luhen the fob of liquidating the old-line company gets actively under way. . , . Some "hidden assets" may be found, they say! . . . The reason why Halsey, Stuart will not be found in the group taking the $75,000,000 Fox issue is miglity interesting. . . . Screen stars go unmentioned in the list of "America's 12 greatest ivonien," currently compiled by Good Housekeeping Magazine. . . . Fidl-time broadcasters will operate not less than 12 hours daily, beginning May 1, Federal Radio Commission will decree. AAA The E. W. (Educational president) Hammonses are $28,000 poorer, thanks (?) to a jewel thief . . . Who stole Mrs. Hammons' sparklers. . . . Winchell would have you believe that "Vigorous denials vnll follow the report that Raskob has bought and paid for Warners." . . . Watch the RKOWarner merger rumors fly! . . . John Wayne, recently booked by Fox as one of the season's great stellar finds, apparently isn't. . . . Fox will overlook Wayne's contract option, which falls due soon. . . . And RKO Pathe may succeed in its present negotiations with John. . . . AAA Will Hays penned the forezvord for John Drinkwater's biography of Carl Laemmle, data for zvhich was collected by Dave Bader, Laemmle aide. . . . Albert Gran, actor, said he gave azuay all of his earnings to needy friends in pleading bankruptcy in a Los Angeles court. AAA "I've always given the public what it wanted." says a certain big-name director. . . . But Life thinks a better plan is to give the public what it zvants! . . . Dora Maughan, Joe Cook's lead in "Rain or Shine," and now in vaude, was playing the Cincy Albee the other day. . . . When the gallery gods voiced the old "razzberry" along with a couple of "Bronx cheers," "You're rats !" shouted Dora, as she ordered the house lights turned on so "she could show (Continued on page 40) Only an Extra! Hollywood — Being an extra for very long seems to produce something like an inferiority complex. Eddie Buzzell, at Columbia, was interviewing several girls for a small part in one of his comedies. It went this way: "Do you do bits?" he asked. "No." "Character?" "I haven't any character. I'm only an extra girl."