Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1934)

MOTION PICTURE HERALD Vol. 117. No. 7 November 17, 1934 MR. RICE QUITS MR. ELMER RICE, 42 years of age, with some two decades with the stage and Broadway, one of the most able dramatists of the period, has decided to "retire from the Broadway theatre," and perhaps the theatre. He has said so in public, so there has been much discussing. The newspapers would not have been so excited about it, except for the fact that in a lecture up at Columbia University, Mr. Rice spent eight minutes of his hour on the drama, doing some considerable damning of the Broadway critics. The reporters developed their story out of the eight minutes, and so, says Mr. Rice in a piece in the New York Times of Sunday last, got the picture rather out of drawing. News is like that, as Mr. Rice knows so well. He should not vigorously object, however, because drama, seeking punch, even as newspapers do, is like that too. Real realism on page or stage would be as tedious as living in this tedious world. If you do not believe it read Theodore Dreiser. But we were talking about Mr. Rice, and because so much of what he has said and is said about him, pertains to the same audience and show world served by the motion picture. Mr. Rice, it seems, has arrived at his decision by reason of the fact that dramatic art is dominated by the show business. He has found what all men come to know, that a very little art goes a long way in business. He has been annoyed by the critics merely because they were working for the business instead of the art. He ought not to blame them for that. He might well realize that newspapers are enterprises for the sale of a product manufactured from spruce pulp and ink and that the hired hands can not do much about it. It is proper enough for Mr. Rice to quit Broadway if he v/ants to, and it is a lot more sensible of him to do that than to cry for the reformation of Broadway. He says: "Most of the mature people I know find it impossible to take the Broadway theatre seriously. . . ." The point we are getting to is: Who the hell said it was important to take Broadway or the drama seriously? If the public which supports Broadway wants balogney It is entitled to It, sliced any way it likes It. But there Is no point In expecting people to buy seats In which to grow wrinkles thinking. If they want to think, they need not pay an admission price for a place to do it In. Mr. Rice and all the amusement world should be happy that the race Is so dumb. If the public was Intelligent It would be very difficult to make a living. Thinking leads to pains in the neck. Let us leave uplifting, education and social movements to their specialists. This is the show business. AAA Our TrI-Ergon department does not appear this week owing to a lack of excitement. MESSAGES DELIVERED THE "What the Picture Did for Me" pages of Motion Picture Herald, written by exhibitors for exhibitors as a cooperative service, are also the pages that get the most thumb prints from Hollywood's players. Here and there among the players are persons who work at their work and study it. They will be found to be readers of "What the Picture Did for Me." In mind at the moment Is a woman character player of superior ability, who has steadily enhanced her earning power by her work before the camera. She has filed in her scrapbooks every opinion on the pictures in which she has played that has appeared In these pages for three years. She knows something about where pictures in general are tending and where she is going. Another, a producer, experienced In the ways of exploitation and exhibition, checks every comment on his product in "What the Picture Did for Me." In recognition of favorable mention he sends out a polite form letter. In recognition of unfavorable mention he sends out a much more polite letter which is not a form but an argument and a sales talk specially written for the occasion. The pleasing point is that the Herald does deliver the exhibitor's message — every week. AAA HANDBOOK --BUT WHOSE HAND? // K A OTION-PICTURE Study Groups— Handbook for the /\ /l Discussion Leader," by Elizabeth Watson Pollard, is ' V I just now published by the Bureau of Educational Research, Ohio State University, in cooperation with The Payne Fund. This document, as one might well anticipate from the title page, is a further fruiting of the labors of the Reverend William Harrison Short of the Motion Picture Research Council, an organization mainly famous for Its list of ex-presidents. Its pages reflect rather more of the Short version of the researches Involved than the reports of the researchers, and Its citations therefore lead one more to the pages of the popular, so to speak, report of reports written, to make Dr. Short's story stand up, by Mr. Henry James Forman. The advent of this little volume, neatly and appropriately bound In red, reminds one that the publicity endeavors of the motion picture Industry might well encompass more attention to creative and positive expressions. Some excellent work is done from time to time keeping the industry out of trouble and out of print on destructive texts, but too much of the ex parte expression anent the screen is being left to persons who are serving personal causes. There Is indicated an assignment for public relations counsellors. Some current research Is calculated besmirch. MOTION PICTURE HERALD MARTIN QUIGLEY. Edi+or-in-Chief and Publisher Incorporating Exhibitor's Herald, founded 1915; Motion Picture News, founded 1913; Moving Picture World, founded 1907; Motography, founded 1909 The Film Index founded 1906. Published every Thursday by Quigley Publishing Company, 1790 Broadway, New York City. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpiibco New York '' Martm Quigley, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; Colvin Brown, Vice-President and General Manager; Terry Ramsaye, Editor; Ernest A. Rovelstad Managing Ed'itor Chicago Bureau, 407 bouth Dearborn Street, Edwin S. Clifford, manager; Hollywood Bureau, Postal Union Life Building, Victor M. Shapiro, manager; London Bureau Remo House 310 Regent Street, London W I, Bruce Allan, cable Quigpubco London; Berlin Bureau. Berlin-Tempelhof, Kaiserin-Augustastrasse 28. Joachim K. Rutenberg, representative; Paris Bureau. 19. Rue de la Cour-des-Noues. Paris 20e, France, Pierre Autre, representative, cable Autre-Lacifral-20 Paris; Rome Bureau, Viale Gorizia. Rome, Italy. Vittorio Malpassuti. representative, Italcable, Malpassuti, Rome; Sydney Bureau, 600 George Street, Sydney. Australia. Cliff Holt, representative; Mexico City Bureau. Apartad'o 269. Mexico City! Mexico. James Lockhart representative. Member Audit Bureau of Circulations. All contents copyright 1934 by Quigley Publishing Company. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Better Theatres, devoted_ to the construction, equipment and operation of theatres, is published every fourth'week as section 2 of Motion Picture Herald. Other Quigley Publications; Motion Picture Daily. The Motion Picture Almanac, publish'-d annually, and the Chicago^n.