Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

118 Advertising Section CHELSEA HOUSE Popular Copyrights Hollywood High Lights ■ Continued from page 104 to leave the cast. She has resumed work in a Warner picture. In the film she has her first important chance to speak dialogue for the Vitaphone. It is a revival of "The Hottentot," starring Edward Everett Horton. Voice Not Everything. Duller and duller is the outlook, as we see it, for the stage players who have been drawn into the vortex of talking pictures. The few that we have glimpsed thus far do not make a striking impression. In fact, one or two that we have watched have photographed terribly. Their voices do not record as well as those of the average film player. This is readily understandable, because of the great difference in the two mediums. Talkies are much more like the radio than the stage. They need a rather subdued utterance. The stage player is used to projecting his voice to an audience. It's curious what madness obsesses the colony when any new development occurs. Here just a few months ago there was the wildest effort made to sign up somebodies and nobodies from the footlight realm. Probably in the not-far-distant future many of those lured studio-wards by dreams of new fame and money will be trekking homeward, muttering curses under their breath about the movies. The Grand Old Man. Almost like the sweeping away of a landmark was the death of Theodore Roberts. Certainly no character actor was more prominent in the heyday of his success. Those who recall the earlier Paramount and DeMille pictures especially realize this. There was hardly a single one to which he did not lend a certain zestful humor, with his inevitable cigar and his flair for comedy business. In "Male and Female," "Old Wives for New," "The Affairs of Anatol," and "The Ten Commandments," DeMille productions, he was an im portant figure. Perhaps his finest and most serious acting was as Moses in the last-named spectacle. It was shortly after that picture, too, that he suffered his first breakdown. Roberts hadn't been active on the screen for three or four years, though he made several vaudeville tours. He was seen once, though, not long ago in John Gilbert's "Masks of the Devil," and the cigar was still intact and fuming. He would have been in "Dynamite," which Cecil DeMille is now making, but death took him before the camera clicked. Roberts will always remain a symbol of grateful and pleasant memories. Flirts with Melpomene. The "far field looks greener" to Bebe Daniels. She announces her desire to play in drama rather than comedy, to which her career has been dedicated of late. At that, Bebe may be right. Her career in features began with dramatic roles under DeMille's guidance, and she progressed steadily under the sway of Melpomene, or whatever muse it is that presides over serious films. Her comedy heritage, however, dates back to the days when she was in short-reelers with Harold Lloyd. More Filmland Politics. Politics must be alluring to actors. We learn, for example, that Richard Arlen has been elected mayor of Toluca Lake. Not long ago Will Rogers was doing considerable glorying in a similar official position in Beverlv Hills. Lest Toluca Lake sound vague as a name and place, it would be well to mention that it is a small, residential suburb north of Hollywood. We expect soon to hail Arlen to an accounting of his stewardship, and if it isn't all it should be, we shall certainly get out a recall petition. We didn't know Toluca Lake rated a mayor, so maybe there's something phoney about that, too. Over the Teacups Continued from page 29 Tales of the West, of Love and Mystery and Adventures on sea and land — you can have them now, fresh from the pens of your favorite authors. They are real books, too — no reprints of oldtimers but new books bound in cloth, with handsome stamping and jackets and all for 75 cents. Ask your bookseller to show you some of the books listed below — The Brand of Good Books THE QUICK-DRAW KID George Gilbert THE "GOLDEN DOLPHIN" Joseph Montague "LOOKOUT" LARAMIE Paul Bailey THE TUNNEL TO DOOM Roy W. Hinds THE VALLEY OF THE M0N0.U1S Arthur Preston THE BLACK SANDER Loring Brent GUN GENTLEMEN David Manning BLUNDELL'S LAST GUEST Albert Payson Terhune THORNTON THE WOLFER George Gilbert THE COASTS OF ADVENTURE James Graham OL' JIM BRIDGER Joseph Montague THE SLEEPING COP Isabel Ostrander and Christopher D. Booth THE BAYOU SHRINE Perley Poore Sheehan THE SILVER SKULL George C. Shedd THE TRAP AT COMANCHE BEND David Manning HIDDEN OUT Howard Fielding YOUNG LIGHTNING Charles Wesley Sanders THE GLORIOUS PIRATE James Graham "I'm afraid that silent pictures have overdeveloped our eyes and underdeveloped our ears," Fanny admitted sadly. "People's looks mean a lot more to me than their voices. But I'm willing to be converted. In fact," she added with growing enthusiasm, "I've already picked the production that I am positive will convert me whole-heartedly to sound films. It's the one King Vidor is making — 'Hallelujah' — with an all-negro cast. When I was down at the Metro-Goldwyn studio the other day, I heard just a little of a spiritual they were singing, and it was gorgeous. The only answer to that is, "Amen." That will leave me alone, clinging to the memories of the nice, quiet films of yesterday. SCHEMED AT SANDY BAR George Gilbert THE HOUSE OF DISAPPEARANCES Chester K. Steele ISLAND RANCH Thomas K. Holmes STRANGE TIMBER Joseph Montague THE FLYING COYOTES Raymond S. Spears THE THUNDERBOLT'S JEST Johnston McCulley THE MUSTANG HERDER David Manning MUTINY Frederick R. Bechdolt HOSEA HOUSE 79-89 SEVENTH AVE*.V^^' NfcW YORK CITY 75c 75c