Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

46 Motion Picture N e zv s October 11, 19 3 0 npHE "It" girl, Clara Bow, takes a whirl at A a game of blackjack at Calneva, Nevada, and finds out how much she doesn't know about gambling. She "thinks" that she is playing with 50-cent chips and they turn out to be $100 ones. She gives the manager of the gambling resort checks bearing only her signature. "You fill them out!" she says. And whew! When the checks arrive at Clara's bank they call for $13,900. And, of course, Clara doesn't want to pay. It's costly experience if, eventually, she must part with that much money. With her at Calneva were Clara's secretary, Miss Devoe, Rex Bell and Will Rogers. Around Rogers, Clara and Bell is a lot of public illusion. They worked hard to create it. The public needs its illusions. That is the service actors and actresses do for the world — create illusions for humdrum lives. They ought to cherish the fictional characters they build in the public mind. And the public doesn't like to picture its idols around gambling tables. Actors and actresses lose something intangible when such stories become public property, even though they "break the bank," as one of the Dolly Sisters has done frequently at Monte Carlo. And illusion, after all, guarantees their boxoffice receipts.— A'. Y. Mirror. Tlieij saij Once they get an actor mixed up with a certain set of people in the movies, he is there for life. And so we have William Powell, than whom there is no better motion picture actor, in another story about "the law." After doing the Philo Vance series and that excellent film, "Street of Chance," we thought Paramount might let Bill associate with some honest people for a change, but "Shadow of the Law" finds him back among convicts and policemen. — Life. Gloria Swanson and her Marquis arc about to go to court after being married six years. It seems that Miss Swanson has been violating one of the rules of Hollywood, paying too much attention to pictures and not enough to divorce. — N. Y. Post. Among other photoplay anecdotes is the one that involves Arthur Caesar, formerly of the Hardened Artery, but now Hollywood's best professional insulter. An independent movie producer was worried about his first film, so he summoned Caesar for counsel. In the projection room, after the chin-ema had been run, he said: Nu? Wot have you got to suggest?" "You have a fortune in that movie," said Arthur without revealing any emotion. "How do you mean?" asked the man. "Cut it up," was the devastating retort, "and sell it for mandolin picks."— A'. )'. Mirror. Joke Cincinnati.— The Motion Picture News news hound, desiring to get both sides of the picture, was recently interviewing the operator of a pee wee golf course. Among other pertinent questions he asked, "How's business?" "Great," came the quick response from aforesaid purveyor of diminutive amusements. "You see miniature golf is really a necessity. People simplv must have their bread and nutter." All Greek to Them Tarpon Springs, Fla.— N. V. Darley, who has operated the Royal theatre here for the past two years, handed over the keys and all the equipment to the landlord this week in return for a release of his lease, and walked out. The population of Tarpon is about evenly divided between Americans and Greeks, the latter controling the big sponge industry here, and while the Americans demand the talking pictures, the Greeks prefer the silent, so the business is not sufficient to keep the house out of the red. A RECENT visitor to Hollywood severely states that the natives have but two topics of conversation — the movies and bootleggers. Clive Brook remarks defensively that he has heard Hollywood gatherings discuss other subjects, among them dandruff! But there is one topic of unfailing interest and charm, suitable to any place, any company, both sexes, ever fresh, ever thrilling — and that is "diet." There is probably no place in the world where so many diet experiments are tried. In Hollywood, if you take care of the pounds, the pence will take care of themselves. The camera has a way of exaggerating size without mercy. One potato, recklessly indulged in, may cost a contract. "If I eat a chocolate cream, it shows in my next picture," moaned a film flapper recently. Almost all studios include a "weight clause" in their contracts. If the player passes the prescribed poundage, the contract is void. — Motion Picture. The producer must not only construct the big thing but he must let the exhibitor, large and small, have it on terms and conditions that will give the latter a thing chance to survive. It is only through this answer to the vital need of the hour, unit the motion picture industry continue to progress and prosper. — M. P. Record, Seattle. THERE is one man in Hollywood who dares to be himself. And is. He leads his own life, in the way he likes to lead it, and lets the rest of the world go byebye. He doesn't care what people say, or think, or do, or do not do. He never does anything because it is "being done." He is himself in his personal — very personal ■ — life, and he is himself in the studio and on the screen. He doesn't give a rap for publicity of any kind, and has to be bound and gagged before he'll give an hour to it now and then. He's completely un-self-conscious about it all. He doesn't give his life or his habits of living any label or handle, and he doesn't thank anyone else for doing it for him.— M. P. Classic. 1 these two beautiful sisters whose faces grace the most important flickers. Their own domestic unions were of short duration and they have no qualms as to just whose home they invade with their charming ways. They have no scruples about their conquests, and one of them is rapidly getting a Hollywood reputation for being none too discriminating as to where she scatters her affections. However, one would think that even these two could be depended upon to keep hands off the husbands of their best friends. Not them I One of them is being talked about all over the film colony because of the frequency with which she is seen in the company of her dearest girl friend's husband. The two women knew each other and were so chummy long before either of them never went to Hollywood, but that's in the past now and there is open warfare. The sister of the intruder pulled another similar stunt last season. She had plenty of admirers, but she had to choose the man who was engaged to one of the girls in her little circle. The victim in this instance was in plenty of trouble at the time and needed all the help which a big, powerful prospective husband is supposed to extend on such an occasion. But he, too. became enamored of the enticing little thing and left his own girl friend. Subsequently he got the air from her, but too late to do anything about his own blasted romance. Count that cinema season lost when these sisters don't pull something on their camera friends. — N. Y. Graphic. * * * A well known writer has devised a means of beating the high cost of motion picture living. For a year he has been living in a house in Beverly Hills that rents for four hundred dollars a month without paying a cent for it. He has an invalid staying with him, and he claims that the owner can't evict him while there's a sick person in the family. So that's that. Other Hollywood film writers are planning to adopt invalids, it's rumored. — Talking Screen. * * * Those inscrutable ways of Providence ! Haven't we all been bewailing the pernicious influence of Broadway on the youthful and inexperienced talkie? Haven't we been deploring the latter's readiness to ape the ways and ' habits of the stage, while suppressing the promptings of its own cinematic nature? Today we have to admit that Broadway's influence has not been all for the bad. With the milk of Broadway dialogue Hollywood has been obliged to imbibe some of its intelligence as well. No doubt, in the perspective of even a few years Broadway successes are apt to lose a great deal of their glamour. But in one respect they are undeniably superior to Hollywood creations : they represent adult standards of intelligence if not always of artistic appreciation. Injection of intelligence into pictures by means of dialogue may not be an unmixed blessing from the point of view of future developments, but the future will take care of itself. For the present it is a relief to encounter pictures which are not made expressly for the juvenile mind.— The Nation.