The Moving picture world (November 1926-December 1926)

434 MOVING PICTURE WORLD December 11, 1926 Cubist Mountain Was a Strong Lobby Attr actor Two Conventions Approve Frontier Des Aloines is a great town for coincntions. If you've ever been to a convention in that friendly city, you know why. It's one of the most spontaneously cordial towns in the country. Anyhow the Spanish American War Veterans were in convention assembled when C. T. Charak blew in to help Jess Day, of the Strand Theatre, put over The Flaming Frontier. One of the first things they did was to stage a special showing for the vets. And just for that they were given permission to parade two titles in the official parade, the only intrusion allowed. Cutout letters, about four feet high, were tacked to poles and carried by boy scouts. Each word was wide enough to go two thirds of the vtay across a wide street, and it made a display that no one could overlook as they came down the street. And the next week the Custer Battlefield Hiway Association met, and of course they had to see it, since the Custer fight forms the climax of the play, and the plain, ordinary citizen felt he simply had to see it too, so he did. Just as a by-product the Capital distributed 25,500 rotos in its Sunday edition, which covers all that section of the state. Production Hints from Edward L. Hyman Managing Director, Mark Strand Theatre, Brooklyn Qood Novelty E. R. Rogers, of the Tivoli Tlieatre, Chattanooga, used an ace of hearts, with Menjou's head for his throwaway on The Ace of Cads, and he made them stick around by printing on blotters that were of a nice size for the check book or memorandum. They were not thrown down as ordinary cards would have been. Billy Jones and Ernest Hare, the well known Happiness Boys, were lifought back as the chief stage feature on a show which had Milton Sills in "The Silent Lover" as the screen attraction. The full running time of this program was 1 hour and 53 minutes, of which time ihe Sills production required 1 hour and 8 minutes. The musical incidents, including the Happiness Boys, took up 37 minutes. The orchestra started things ofT in the right direction with the overture "Zampa," by Harold, Willy Stahl handling the baton. The overture ran 8 minutes. Following the topical review came a group of divertissements made up of 4 episodes, opening with a conventional waltz by Easter and Hazelton, late of the Follies, who appeared in "three," backed up by purple-spangled draw curtains. The music for the waltz was from "The Waltz Dream." Upon exit, Charlotte Bergh, coloratura soprano, made her appearance center stage from behind the draw curtains and sang the "Mad Scene" from Donizetti's "Lucia." Following her, the Mark Strand Ballet of 8 girls did a classic dance called "Autumn Leaves," their costumes being covered with artificial leaves of brown. The big number of the divertissements then followed, this being "Love's Destiny," by Easter and Hazelton. A neutral black fabric served as a backdrop, a round opening in this drop, 8 feet off the floor, disclosing a silver tree lighted from the sides by spots. At the opening Easter and Hazelton were discovered on a platform, 7 feet high, immediately in front of the opening of the drop. A set of steps led from this platform to the stage and the male dancer made his way to the stage, the female dancer then leaped from the platform into his arms. The entire incident ran 15 minutes. In order to get the Happiness Boys as close to their audience as possible, Billy Jones and Ernest Hare tried out a stunt of seating themselves in the lirst front row just in time for the first cue, then when the act opened they were spotted by lights from the dome when they sang their well known introductory melody, "How Do You Do Everybody, How Do You Do." From his position they ascended to the apron of the orchestra stage and Dave Kaplan, their accompanist, sat at the piano used in the orchestra. An entirely new group of songs was used. They took 14 minutes. Skied the Sun Painting a 9 by 20 foot sun on the side of his theatre chimney was the way H. C. Farley put over The Midnight Sun at the Empire Theatre, Montgomery, Ala. At night a spot was thrown on the sign, enabling it lo be seen at a considerable distance. Cubist Mountain Was Variety Sales Agent Walter League used an odd ballvlioo for X'ariety when he played the imported attraction at the Victory Theatre, Denver. From compo board scraps he built a hollow pyramid large enough to contain twopersons and a wood crash. Each carried a megaphone and shouted at each other while they took turns working the crash. The result was a terrific din and a heated, I)ut not clearly distinguishable row, so the curious went inside to find out what it was all about. Probably they figured 't must represent Jannings arguing with Warwick Warde, but really it didn't mean anything: but the sale of additional tickets. Novel Frames T. W. Erwin used life preservers as frames for his window stills on Mare Nostrum at the Majestic Theatre, Austin, Texas. Circular cards were painted to represent the cork rings, with real rope lashings. The centres were painted black and carried the lettered announcements and one still each. They got into windows where the straight cards would have been refused. FELIX THE CAT HIMSELF IN PERSON IS A HELP Felix is here shown in front of the Wilson Theatre, Brooklyn, but he has been heloine manv exhibitors in local territory to put over the Pat SulU/an cartoons. The stunt is handed by Educational for its exhibitors. Worked for Schade (icorge Schade, of Sandusky, got a lot out of the accessory bar bell provided by First National on The Strong Man. With a natural comedian for a perambulator, he cleaned up the crowd with little effort.