Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1938)

July 16, 19 3 8 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 67 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Noting publication in this department the other week of a description of the "Crypt of Civilization" as dedicated by David Sarnoff at Oglethorpe University, Georgia, Dr. T. K. Peters, Director of Archives at the University, passes along an interesting tale behind the collection and sealing in the vault of the various motion pictures and documents which are supposed to be preserved for 6,000 years for posterity's study of a cross-section of our life today. Dr. Thomwell Jacobs, of the University, in the course of a discussion with Dr. Peters, wondered whether English would be spoken when the crypt is opened 6,000 years hence, adding that if it was no longer the language, all of the work and expense of preservation would be in vain. So Dr. Peters said he would make a machine to teach the English language. He set about the task and evolved a simple apparatus, merely combining an old Mutoscope, contributed by International Mutoscope Company, with a phonograph turn-table geared to the Mutoscope in such a way as to turn in synchronization when a crank is used. A person looking into the machine and turning the crank at the same time will see a man holding up an object, as for example, an apple. The man in the image will then pronounce the word, while the printed word will appear underneath the object. The machine was loaded with all of the necessary vocabulary to reconstruct the English language. The Mutoscope, therefore, with its phonograph and crank, might represent 6,000 years hence the key to forgotten English, if it is forgotten, much as the Rosetta Stone, discovered in Egypt in 1799, gave scholars the key to the forgotten hieroglyphics in which the ancient language of Egypt was written. All the knowledge of the Egyptians had been lost for thousands of years until the Rosetta Stone was painstakingly deciphered. The people of the future, then, might be saved all of the trouble of reconstructing the English language by a motion picture device invented by Coleman Sellers in 1861 and adapted for the purpose of reconstruction in the year 8113 A.D. V Tribute Note, from Hollywood : "Jeanette MacDonald received a gracious tribute from the cousin of the famous singer, Adelina Patti. The cousin sent Patti's snuff box to filmland's singing Jeanette." ^ "Time Marches On" marched off the air the other evening as one of its actors came to the climax of a scene depicting the Jersey political situation. He raised his arms in a triumphant gesture, and shouted, "I am Frank Hair the Mague of Jersey City." V Signs-of-the-Times Department, from a United Press Headline: "Joe E. Brown, Held Up, Yields $5." V Paris, heart of the Frenchmen's love for wagering, with its chemin de fer, roulette and betting on jumping-frogs, has taken on "Screeno," as practiced in our American motion picture theatres of Main Street and Broadzvay. Gay Paree now has a Master of Ceremonies, called "The Screeno Speaker!' who calls out "Jacques-Pot" at the Montreuil-Palace. Howard Hughes Of ''Heirs Angels" "THE climax to activities in aeronautics which ' have kept him from motion picture production since he made "Scarface," in 1932, was reached by Howard Hughes this week in his record-breaking world-girdling flight in his "World's Fair of 1939" flying laboratory. Heir to the many millions made by his father, Howard R., in the Hughes Tool Company, Texas, and in Texas oil fields, Mr. Hughes first turned attention to Hollywood, when only 22, making "Two Arabian Knights," in 1927. His most pretentious production, "Hell's Angels," steeped in planes — $4,000,000 worth — was nearly three years in the making. And he is reputed to have gotten back every nickel. "Hell's Angels" was the only production ever to have two big, gala, arc-light, top-hat-and-ermine premieres simultaneously, opening on the same night at the Criterion and the Globe, on Broadway, after Mr. Hughes had entertained the press and the trade at a 72-hour continuous-running cocktail party, taking a large section of the Hotel Astor for the purpose. That was in the old "speakeasy" days, and the young moneyman bought out three complete bars, lock, stock and barrel, in nearby Times Square, transferring the bars, beverages and fixtures to the party. His "Hell's Angels" was the beginning of Jean Harlow, and in his "Two Arabian Knights," Louis Wolheim first gained recognition as a character actor and Lewis Milestone as a director. "Hell's Angels" was in the making so long that the Hollywood players appearing therein began to demand release from their commitment, complaining that Hollywood would no longer remember them by the time the picture was finished. "Who's Who in America" lists Howard Robard Hughes as a capitalist, gives lengthy recognition to his standing in aeronautics and in Texas tool and oil fields, barely mentions his motion picture propensities, merely citing "Hell's Angels" in passing. Howard Hughes, holder of the world's land airplane speed record, for 352 miles per hour, is the nephew of Rupert Hughes, the writer. He was born on Christmas Eve, in 1904, in Houston, and like many a son of Texas, is a lank. Grover Whalen hasn't received any word as yet on what the motion picture chiefs are going to do to put something into his New York World's Fair to symbolize the screen, but this week Grover did sign up some other amusement concessions, 19 of them in fact, including a burlesque bull fight, an "infant incubator show," "with at least SO incubator babies" ; a "live monsters" concession, with a lot of snakes ; a "phantom ghost" show, and another for and in behalf of skinless frankfurters. Also — probably making Sam Goldwyn envious — Billy Rose is going to put on a spectacular musical extravaganza tableau, to cost $500,000, in a building costing $1,750,000 with 1,000 girls, on a stage 20O feet wide in a theatre seating IQ^OOO — twice the width of the Music Hall stage and almost twice its capacity. And now India assumes the position of the ofifended and joins in the foreign attack against our U. S. motion picture companies. Writing in Bombay, in Filmindia, Hindu trade publication, a gentleman of apparent high sensitivity, who signs his monthly articles, "Judas," says : "Some distributors of foreign pictures have yet to learn a lot of business methods and they must unlearn a lot. Some of these boobies do not yet know how to conduct press shows of their pictures. Indian producers can give them pointers in this department, as the press shows given by local producers are heavily sprinkled with courtesy. "I was invited to a press show by a local office of foreign films. But there was no one to receive the pressmen. The press people were left to the tender mercies of a couple of doorkeepers. The show was due to start at 12 noon. It actually began at 12 :40. The fans in the room were switched off and there was no one to whom an appeal could be made to switch them on. Even the theatre was not represented by anyone who was intelligent, and to add insult to injury, the wrong picture was shown. America distributors are just damn fools." Our New York friend, Peter Spilios Harrison, by the way, is some pumpkins as a regular contributor to Filmindia. They call him the "world known critic." V After an absence of two years Harold Lloyd returns to a Broadway screen this week in "Professor Beware," at the Paramount. Lloyd has made millions as a screen comedian. Time was when, working as an extra in "Samson and Delilah," at Universal City, some 20-odd years ago, he met Hal Roach, then a young man with an ambition to direct. Roach had just inherited $3,000 and plunged into production with Lloyd playing leads. "Just Nuts" was their first offering and from it came a contract with Pathe. That allowed Lloyd to make enough money to indulge his fancy for fancy striped silk shirts. V After scanning the whole of Hollywood's imposing male contingent, the vast army of extra players and the remainder of American manhood, and after microscopic examination of Hollywood's gorgeous galaxy of femininity, plus the beauties of countless chorines, stenographers and bathing beauties, phis the whole of American womanhood — After that long search for "hidden talent," David Oliver Selsnick staggers the nation with his discovery of the two leads for his "Gone With the Wind": Clark Gable and Norma Shearer. Where did he ever find them? V Press wires report that Sally (Fan dancer) Rand turned down Director George Cukor's ofifer of a part in Paramount's "Zaza," because it would require her to lead a troupe of girls in the "Can Can" dance that "scandalized our grandmothers." "There is an art in my bubble dance," chirped Sally. "The 'Can Can' has only physical appeal." V Did we hear someone say that the RinglingBarnum and Baily elephants are white elephants now?