Showmen's Trade Review (Apr-Jun 1939)

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Page 24 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW April 8, 1939 Dealing realistically with the booking, advertising and exploitation of the newsreel, serial and short, and emphasizing their importance. IN THE Vitaphone The Technicolor 38-39 short subject and featuret program will be completed late in May with production of "Bill of Rights" and "Rose of Monterey", historical pictures. This will make a total of nine productions produced by Gordon Hollingshead's department during the season now ending. Toucey, a pair who execute some intricate dance steps on the steel blades, Eight Ice Manikins, and Alfred Trenkler, the skating comic of the recent Ice Show. The musical end of the film is ably held up by the Merry Macs, a quartet of swing singers who are at present one of the best known on the airwaves. RKO Television is the subject matter of a Pathe Reelism now in production. The short is tentatively slated for release April 17, two weeks before the first large-scale television broadcast. The short subject is being filmed partly in television research labs and partly in transmitting studios. The first featuret on the schedule for the 39-40 season will be "Monroe Doctrine", which goes before the cameras early in June. Like its predecessors, it will be in Technicolor. Crane Wilbur, who will direct "Bill of Rights," historical featuret dealing with the origin and development of the basic United States document, also will play a role in the picture. He will portray King John of England, whose Magna Carta was the first of such guarantees of freedom. Pathe cameramen have completed the sportscope centered around the Chicago Cubs in training. Veterans and neophytes alike will be shown 'handling the ball and bat, unlimbering the muscles that may push the Cubs on top this season. The reel features a study of the work of individual players and the duties and technique of covering each position. The fine points of pitching, hitting, fielding and sliding are covered. The short will be released this month so that it will be dated in theatres throughout the country at the time of the centenary of baseball. With the success of "Zero Girl", a tworeel musical extravaganza on ice, produced last year, Warner Bros. Vitaphone Studios in Brooklyn are currently filming a production with a similar background, but with a new cast of ice-skating specialties, titled "It's On Ice". Heading the cast are Snookie Smith, Babs Savage, and Adele Inge. In addition to these, Sam Sax has rounded out the cast with Peggy Fahy and Richard MGM One of the world's most famous dancing aggregations will finally be seen by the motion picture public. The Abbott Dancers, famous from coast to coast and currently appearing at the famed Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, went before the cameras as the featured entertainers in Louis Lewyn's latest miniature, "Love On Tap." The eight dancers will be seen in the one-reel musical with Truman Bradley, Mary Howard, and Garwood Van and his orchestra. George Sidney directed. . . NEWSREEL SYNOPSES . . (Released Saturday, April 8) PARAMOUNT (No. 71)— First pictures of fall of Madrid; Controversy over bridge or tunnel in New York; Fire at Sandusky, O.; Acrobatic lions; Navy reconditions destroyers ; Wasp plane carrier launched at Quincy, Mass.; Two planes crash near East Weymouth, Mass.; National and Olympic ski meet at Mt. Hood, Ore.; Kathryn Rawis trains in Stiver Springs, Fla. MOVIETONE (Vol. 21. No. 60)— Senate neutrality act hearing; Navy reconditions destroyers; Launch new air carrier. Wasp, at Ouincy, Mass.; Fashions in gowns and street clothes; Tennis doubles in Calif.; Kids auto races in Calif.; Man O' War celebrates 22nd birthday; Lew Lehr's mule rodeo; Lew Lehr tests new safety glass. PATHE (Vol. 10, No. 75) — Plane fleet holds Army Day prevues; Finger painting in N. Y.; Buddhists honor founder of faith in Calif. ; Frontier day celebration at Dodge City, Kan.; Coed No. 1 on U.C.L.A. polo team; Top dogs in Springfield trials; Junior midgets burn up tracks on Coast. UNIVERSAL (Vol. 11, No. 760)— Frontier Day celebration at Dodge City, Kan.; Navy flyers crash in Mass.; Navy reconditions destroyers; Senate neutrality hearing; Desert queen chosen at Palm Springs; Typical American boy chosen ; Most beautiful child chosen ; New safety glass tested ; Hats and hairnet fashions; Underwater kids; Auerbach sets motorboat record; National Olympic ski meet at Mr. Hood, Ore.; St. Louis Browns in training. (St. Louis only.) NEWS OF THE DAY (Vol. 10, No. 258)— Navy reconditions destroyers; Giant air carrier, Wasp, launched at Quincy, Mass.; Two planes crash near East Weymouth, Mass. ; Coast Guard on mercy flight; Roosevelt on vacation; New safety glass tested; Chicago reelects Mayor Kelly; Girls ride mules in Tennessee; Savate wins popularity in Paris; Midget auto racing in Calif. (Released Wednesday, April 5) PARAMOUNT (No. 70)— Daffodil Festival at Sumner, Wash.; Cherry Blossom fete in Washington. D. C. ; Gable and Lombard marry; Rainmaker at Frostproof, Fla.; Hitler's nephew arrives in U. S. ; 16 cars crash at Edwards, Miss.; Events in Poland on Anglo-French unity; England and France strengthen ties; Workman wins Grand National sweepstakes; Amateur boxing bout in Chicago; Rough Time wins inaugural handicap at Bowie, Md. NEWS OF THE DAY (Vol. 10, No. 257)— LeBrun hailed in London ; Italy's king urges peace ; Roosevelt hailed at Tuskegee; Police captain demonstrates prowess in gunplay; Gable and Lombard marry; Easter bonnets created from kitchen utensils; Workman wins Grand National sweepstakes. PATHE (Vol. 10, No. 74)— LeBrun hailed in London; Gable and Lombard marry; Hungarians reach Polish border; Italian king opens new council; Workman wins Grand National sweepstakes. MOVIETONE (Vol. 21, No. 59)— LeBrun hailed in London; Italian king opens new council; First of six ultra-modern submarines launched in California; Daffodil Festival at Sumner, Wash.; International Kennel Club holds dog show in Chicago; California Clipper makes first commercial flight across Pacific; Workman wins Grand National sweepstakes; Ralph Guldahl makes 280 to break golf tournament record; Surfboard riding off Australian coast; Lew Lehr raids mom's pantry for Easter headgear. UNIVERSAL (Vol. 11, No. 759)— Hacha gives in to Nazi threats; Bridge washout at Edwards, Miss.; Fire sweeps city block in Sandusky, O. ; Roosevelt dedicates hospital; Police captain demonstrates prowess in gunplay; Cherry Tree and Daffodil Festivals; Cardinal Mundelein returns from Rome; King opens Italian Congress; International Kennel Club holds dog show in Chicago ; Amateur boxing bouts in Chicago; Workman wins Grand National sweepstakes. Columbia Immediately following the completion of Buster Keaton's first short comedy preparations were started for the frozen-faced comic's second opus. Clyde Bruckman is writing the screenplay, and Jules White will both produce and direct. Keaton's first comed}% recently completed, has an extremely large cast. Lorna Gray played the feminine lead, and supporting players included Gino Corrado, Linda Winters, Richard Fiske, James Craig, Forbes Murray, Beatrice Curtis and Beatrice Blinn. Sam Ash, Steve Clark, Sam Bernard and Frank Hagney, this week were added to the cast for the new 12-chapter serial, "Mandrake, the Magician", now in work under the co-direction of Norman Deming and Sam Nelson. Warren Hull and Doris Weston are the principals, while the supporting players include Eddie Earle, Forbes Murray, Kenneth MacDonald, Eddie Laughton, John Tyrrell and Don Beddoe. The story was w-ritten bv Lee Falk and Phil Davis. In recognition of his unusual musical arrangements for the recent Community Sing presenting Strauss waltzes, Paul Mertz has been assigned the arranging chore for two forthcoming Sings. One, to star the King Sisters, will be tuneful medley of songs made famous by Bing Crosby. The other will headline the Sons of the Pioneers in range ballads. 20th-Fox to Release 52 Short Subjects in '29AO Adhering to the policy established last year by Sidney R. Kent, president, of making "fewer and better short subjects," 20th Century-Fox will release, in addition to the semi-weekly issue of Movietone News, 52 single reel subjects for the 193940 season. This announcement was made by Herman Wobber, general manager of distribution, at the company's annual sales convention held last week in Chicago. Amplifying Mr. Wobber's statement, Truman Talley, producer of Movietone News and short subjects, and his staff. Lew Lehr, Lowell Thomas, Ed Thorgersen and Vyvj'an Doner discussed plans for the year's shorts subjects in more detail. "The trend in short subject production is definitely away from quantity, as our policy of making fewer and better shorts demonstrated this year," Talley said, "and it is reasonable that we should continue along the same line for the 1939-40 season. Due provision has been made for expansion or contraction for reasons either of unusual interest in subject matter or company policy. We are going to stand on the success of the past season's record and make approximately the same number and type of single reel subjects for the new schedule." On the 1939-40 short subject schedule there will be six in the series of "The Magic Carpet of Movietone;" four Fashion Forecasts, filmed in Technicolor under the direction of Vyvyan Donner, with Ilka Chase as narrator; six "Sports Reviews" by Ed Thorgersen; four "Adventures of a Newsreel Cameraman" and six "Dribble-puss Parade Comedies," documentary comedies, with Lew Lehr. Paul Terry, producer of Terrytoons, will deliver 26 cartoons, ten in Technicolor. The cartoon characters, Captain McDoodle, the two-headed giant, and Gandy Goose will be continued during the coming year.