Variety (Dec 1929)

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28 VARIETY PICT U R E S Wednesday, December 11, 1929 Coast Notes Complete cast for "Clipped "Wings" (Cruze); Oilve Borden, Lloyd Hughes, Norman Peek, How- ard Hickman, James T. Mack,-Wil- fred Lucas, Harry MacDonaldj Bodil Rosing; Harold Rosson photographing air stuff. . J. Harold Murray, Marjorie White, El Brendel, "The Dollar Princess," Fox. William Wyler to direct "The Storm," U. Clyde Bruckman retained by Harold Lloyd to direct his next picture. Van and Schenck's "Take It Big" has been retitled "Playing the Field," M-G, • New contracts at M-G: for C. F, Reisher aiid JacqUes Feyder^^direc- tors. ; Each to run ia;3f*^r. • v - Pr4n]^lln. Pangbo^^rij'" ^Jaek Ken-i niedy, W^ sTiortls/.'■ :..-v : ^. • Mairguerltfe' Ilpl>ini3<)ft, , colored songstriess, lohg tferm' contract with Radio. Atthur Appel will stage the d,ances for "Good News," M-G. Par has borrowied Stuart Erwiii froni Fox for "Young Eagles," Radio has bought "Tommy," stage play, for Arthur Lake. David ■ Starr, *'The .House of Troy," M-G Louis J. Bartels, "Benson Murder Case," Par. Mary Carr, , Freddy Fredericks^ ••Second Wife," Radio. . Cliff Edwards, "Flower Garden," M-G. ' Catherine Dale Owen, "Such Men Are Dangerous," FQX. Philippe de' Lacey, "Sarah an^ Son," Par. Aggie Herring. Lucien Littlefleld, In Charles Murray's picture. Col. Locust Sisters (6), M-G short, Wallace Beery, "jPircus Parade," Cruze. , ■ Roland West. has. acquired screen rights to the Charles Walt's novel, "Love in" Chicago." Goes into pro- duction shortly, Cliester Morris starring, for UA. ' Complete cast for "Back Pay," FN: Corinne Griffith, Grant With- ers, Montague Love, Vivien'Oakland, Kitty Mitchell; W. N. Bailey, Diclt Gordon, Dee Loretta, Hallam Cooley, Jim Markus, Louise B6aver. Freeman Lang, "Show Girl in Hollywood," FN, "Yonder Grow the Daisies," to be directed by Berthold Viertel for Fox. Dorothy Revler, ' "The Black Sheep." Col. Josephine Sabel, Barney Fagan, to "Old Timers' R^vue," M-G. Charles McGuirk and W. K. Wells adapting "On the Level," Fox, Neil Hamilton in "Benson Murder Case," Par. Lou Paine, Agostino Dorgato, ••Fresh from College," M-G. John Ford to direct "A Very Prac- tical Joke"' aftd Irving Cummings to do "On tiie Level," both Fox pic- tures. Tiff, borrowing Marian Shilling from 'M-G for "Resurrection." Henry Armetta, Polly Moran, •'Fresh from College," M-G, Evelyn Selbie to "House of Troy," M-G. Stu£|,rt Erwin, two at Par. First •'Only the Brd,ve." John Miljan, Gwen Lee, "On the Set." M-G. Fay Wray, "Young Eagles," Par. Neil Hamilton, "The Benson Mur- der Case," Par, Phil Rosen, ''The Lotus Lady," for Audible, Phillip Strange, "The Black Sheep," Col. Sally Starr, "For the Love of Lil," Col. AMrglnia Brooks, "Good . News," M-G. Johnny Arthur, "For the Love of Lil." Col. Renee Macready, "The Fire Walker," Radio. Percy Heath and George Marion, Jr., writing an original, "Safety in Jv*umbers," for Buddy Rogers, Par. Sid Franklin will direct talking version of Lonsdale's "The High Road," M-G, with Norma Sliearer. . Vivian Oakland. "Back Pay,".U.A. Mat Madisori, shorts and"Queen Kelly," Pathe. Conrad Nagel, Mary Cfarr, Lila Lee, "All the King's Men," Radio. Helen Patterson, Joyzelle,' Jack Randall's Adagio 1' our, WB sliort. Ben Westland adaptihg"Satin Strii>es," Tiff. " Lois Leeson continuity "Paper Profits," Tiff? "College Days," Tiff, changed to •'Sunny Skle.s." . J. E. Nattefox-d adapting "Lasca," Tiff.- Wynne Gibson, "The Song Writer," M-G. •VlrErinla. Sale, WB short. . Gilbert Emery, "Benson Murder Case," Par. =-™rhtrrles=Sellon>-'^Let?3-Go-.Nativ.e'i aiid "Come Out ot the Kitchen," Par. , . Merna Kennedy, "Songwriter," M-G. M-G to^produce "Five and Teh," Fannie Hurst, serial. Jack Oakie, "Let's Go Native," Par. Walter McGrail, "Two ' Black Crows,". Par. Charles DeRavenne, "Slightly Sc-'rlet," Par. T.no arcCarey. borrow from Pathe to direct "Let's Go Native," Par. Even the Cops! Hollywood, Dec. 10. Hobby of collecting photo- graphs of film stars has worked Its way Into the Hol- lywood police force. One cop carries a book full of slips. Eveiry time he spots a screen face, he stops t he player, .pulls him aside as if. to slip oyer a "ticket" and confl- dehtlally says: "Now listen^ pawtner, r ail I want Is your latest picture autographed tvith a few chummy words. 'My monicker's bft this eJip ^Wd. my ' home address; so 4pn*t" send it to the statipn^bir.tlio^e guys up there'U'get'^Ise," •': Nine out of 10 such ap- proaches Connect. TKen direct^ "Red Pepper," for Pathe. •■■ ■ Phillips Holmes, "Benson Murder Case," Par. Virginia Bruce, "Only the Brave," Par. . .Wijliam Boyd (stage), "His Woman," FN. - Kenneth McKenna, H. B. Wal- thall, Peter Hawthorne, "Temple Tower," Fosr. BeUny Rubin, Lee Kolmar, May Boley, "The Songwriter," M-G- Bett'y Farrlngton,- "Two Black Crows," Par. Eddie Welch gaggiilg "Fresh Prom College," M^G, Fox changes "Hollywood Nights" to "Fast Workers." TIfE has purchased screen rights to Sophie Kerr's novel, "Mareea ■Maria." ^ Vera Gdrdon, Kate Price, "Cohens And Kellys," U. WB buys Walter DeLeon's story, "The Fired Man." To be tabloided. "Tiall Timber" for Ken Maynard, replaced by Bennett Cohen's "The Fighting Legion," U. R-K-O's 2d Run, Syracuse Syracuse,. N. Y:, Dec. 10. Marking the,circuit's first venture In the local neighborhood field, Radio-Kelthi-Orpheum is closing for a term lease of a new $300,000 de luxe picture house to be erected by Julian Brown, young millionaire capltaliist, In James street, just east of Grant Bbuleyard, suburbian. The new house will seat 1,600, with 230 seats in the mezzanine. The deal i,for the property will be closed during the week. House will play 2d runs. Quincy's First Quincy, IIL, Dec. 10, First theatre robbery In this town's history had two well-dreissed yeggs sticking up the Washington theatre (Pybllx) and walk off with the week-end receipts of $1,800. Jobbers had evidently attended the last performance Sunday night and hid In the theatre until all em- ployees were gone. They then held up Thomas Robey, house manager, and Fred Jansen, stage manager, who were together In the box office. CABFENTES dUITS Salt Lake City, Dec. 10. George. Carpenter, associated with iiOuis Marcus In the theatre busi- ness since 1916, resigned last week when announceniient was made that the final 60% of the old L. Marcus Bntei'prises was sold to Publix, which already held the other half. Carpenter left for Los Angeles, but t)lans on returning here after a Sojourn In Southern California. Ray Hiendry, formerly of the Publix Granada, has. been transferi'ed to manage the Capitol. W. B. Schut- tee goes to the Granada. SMALL-TOWN MAN ASSIGNS New Philadelphia, O., Dec; 10. George M. Jordan, Newcomers- town theatre owner, made an as- signment to Otto Beiter, of New- comerstown. Property In Jordan's name is valued at approximately $75,000, It ha$ been rumored the New- itftmeiistojyi^yieatge^^jjl^^b^ over by a chain." "~ " Seatinuj Conferences. Washington, Dec, 10. Makers of rlieatr*? seats are to meet here for a trade confcronciJ under auspices of the Federal Trade Commission Dec. 19. Conference covers entire seating Industry, tak- ing in' schools and churches. Idea Is to work out a set of rules for business practices. FRANK MERLIN started with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. He has, with great success, directed Shaw, Schnitzler, Synge; in brief,' the best contemporary dramatists. "Rope," a dramatization of the popular npveli "Teeftallow," was an artistic success last season. Now with Fox FH'ms, Hollywood, indefihitely. Direction SID N E Y P HIL LI PS, 234 West 44th street. Projection Confabs Hollywood, Dec, 10. Academy's committee on the co- ordination of screen Illumination held Its first meeting last week: Members appointed by heads of the Academy's Technicians' Branch, Society of M. P. Engineer? (Coast section), American Society of Clnematograpbers; and American Projection Society, are J. A. Bail, Emery Huse, Peter Mole, Richard •Towers, C. L. Strong, John Aahl- berg, S. J. Twining, Gerald Rackett, J. M, NIckolaus, and Russell H. McCullough.. Exhaustive report on a survey of release print handling, with ten- tative recommendations for standr< ard practice In blueprint form, will also be submitted to the Acad- emy's joint committee on studio and theatre problems. If approved It-will be passed on to various technical organizations and authorities for further sugges- tions. Cal. Strikes Billboards' Los Angeles, Dec. io. More than 60 civic organizations have United with the^ Scenic League of California for the elimihation of billboards on tie highways. The movement has been fostered by the large oil companies and other com- mercial organizations. The Standard Oil Co. has offered cash prizes for the 10 best articles on how to eliminate unsightly out- door advertising. Most of those companies, now concentrating on radio advertising, have canceled over 60% of their billboard space, and. their big-hearted effort to pre- serve the scenic beauty of Oall- fornia (to please motorists who use gas) Is getting them advertising. SOIL DiSTBIBUnON Wiashington, Dec. 10. Department of Agriculture's edu- cational films were shown to 5,000,- 000 people in the United States alone, says the annual report of the Secretary of Agriculture. Twelve new subjects, consisting of 26 reels, were made .during the year. In addition to the distribution outlihed above, departmental films were included as a part of exhibits at 74 falria and exposltlbhs through- out the country, , Ufa-Technicolor Trade Marks . Washington, Dec. 10. Ufa has been granted three trade marks: "Ufatone," "UfaphOn" ahd "Ufaton." Numbers are 290,766, 290,767 and 290J65 respectively. "Technicolor" h^a ialsp been cov- ered with trade miark numbered 291,418. Ufa claims use of the hew names since Sept. 5, 19i29, while-Technicolor is stated to have been in use since Nov., 1922. In German. Version . Hollywood, Dec. 10. M-G has borrowed Joseph Schild- kraut from U to co-star with Vilma Banky In the German version of "Sun Kissed." "Remainder of cast unchanged. Victor Seastrom is directing. "Sun Kissed'* Is adapted from Sidney Howard's ""They Knew What They Wanted." * Sweden's Sound (Continued from page 4) favorites sing and talk, kni the picture which contains the right percentage of dialog In the. right place will have little* difficulty in doing well. ••Weary River" was such a plc-. ttire. It has played here success-, fiilly because It Was the type that'; Is Understandable: in spite of a lit- tle dialog, Up to the present time the fol- lowing all-talkers, and piety res with part dialog, have b^en released here, all other sound pictures con- taining synchronized score only: ; All-talkers: "Fox Follies," "Wolf of Wall Street," "Why Bring That Up?" "The Glad Rag Doll." Part dialog: "Singing Fool," "Wealry River," 'Innocents of Paris," "Show Boat,* "Noah's Ark,""From Head- Of the ali-talkers "Fox Follies:' made a success. "Wolf of Wall Street" played "sllent'f during the first evening performance and as an all-talker during the second pcr- for,mance. It lasted a week only. "Why Bring • That Up?". was con- sidered by critics a§ a slap to Swedish' audiences. Even those who claimed they understand Eng- lish didn't know what Moran and Mack were talking about, but they must have overestimated their knowledgO of English. Projection was. good, for this one at the Pic- cadilly theatre with W. E. wire. "Singing Fool;" "Show Boat," "Weary River," "From Headquar- ters;" "Noah's Ark," "Innocents of Paris" and "Glad Rag Doll" con^ tained superimposed titles in Swed- . ish to make the'picture easily un- derstood. "Fox Follies," "Wolf of Wall Street" and "Why Bring That Up?" were released as-presented In New York. iSpecial treatment In Swedish is no doubt necessary, although hot the final solution of the problem. Swedish talkers are coming, and will no doubt affect the business of. American films, at least while the Swedish dialog picture remains a .novelty. As is well known, Bruce Johnson, formerly with First Na- tional and now again an associate of J. p. Williams, la "contemplating pictures in six* languages. Including Swedish. It is understood he has already received' backing from Swedish sources. Ghatter in Ni<:e By FRANK SCULLY Nice, Nbv. 29. Perfect timing featured the talk- ing craze when it crashed into town last week. . Three first-run"houses, with no inside tie-ups,- went sound simultaneously. One of them. Casino de Paris, using RCA! here, had to close for several weeks to rush its wiring BO as to reach the barrier on time for the start. Even so it got the worst break, opening- with Ricardo Cortez In "New Orleans," while the Paris Pal- ace copped Maurice Chevalier In "Innocents of Paris," and the .Rialto topped both of them with Jolson in the aged "jazz Singer," with patches on its kuees. Chevalier is a Riviera boy and the picture was queued for a week be- fore It opened. It is still a sell-out. Casino de Paris tried to cut under the Chevalier appeal by throwing in Cortez, who has a big following lo- cally, having made a picture in Nice under the direction of Leonce Fer- ret. But the picture disappointed. It was dialoged In English with French titles running at the bottom of the frames." Mouth-to-'mouth comment shows the! Chevalier picture disappointing to the French, who have seen him In the fiesh. Newest gag in refined racketeer- ing is a dame who advertises, "Con- tinental lady (born American), 48 years Old, highest' standards; Of morality and responsibility, having unusual knowledge of Egypt, would take yoyng lady there. Girl must be capable of being presented to best society." "Continental lady" then explains her services cost f 150 a month and expenses. Line about being "cap- able of presentation to best society" is expected to produce an .Al sucker list. Chiselling chisellers has been de- creed by the French Senate as out. Henceforth a tip belongs to a waiter and must not be forked over by him to his employer. Up to now, in addition to tiie per- xentage=addedVto:-all-bills-at'all-ho- tels, the palm squad had to turn in whatever extras they pot before the guest got Into his taxi. This was then split on a very complicated percentage, with everybody from the proprietor to the bell-hop in on the cut. If the Chamber of Deputies ratifies the Senate bill, personal tips stay with the person receiving them and the proprietor mustn't lay a hand on it—a break for everybody but the guest. Hal Roach is planning to make Spanish versions of a number ofi tw6-reet comedy talkers, ;^}mt wlth^ out "dubhihg." Hlspasiid;;, talkert Will be mieide only of = £aiix'el and Hardy, Charlie Chase tuiil: the "Our Gang"; comedies. Spanish casts Will he assembled* hut the principal will appear in the foreign versions, Hmmng the dialog as far as p6sB|ibIe and ^memo- rizing the Spanish words wiilch will be necessary. Although the dialog will he iimlted they will be, strictly speaking, Spanish verwloris and oMginals. ' . , Getting Tagan' Ready as *|ilelody*s' Paris ^uccessoi; Parls,f5|)ec. 2. Despite thia surprisingly auspi- cious . start of "Broadway Melody^* at the Madeleine-Cinema, biz lias commenced to ease oft at matinees, althoug'h evening trade is still strong. Original prediction that. "Melody" couldn't last much beyond the holiday^ seems about right. Allan Byer, M-G-M's 16cal dis- tribution chief,. Is 'ready;ine "The Pagan" to follow "Melody." Suggested Remedies . B^rllh.vUec. 2. . "Germania," the ofillclal organ ot the Influential Catholic. Zentrum party, suggests remedies for thei picture industry here as follows: Present amusement tax should be abolished, as it Is now. possible to obtain sufficient funds from another source by reorganizing the taxes as a whole. In its place should come a 10% tax which would bring In 25,000,000 marks a year and be used for the good of the industry in the following fashion: . financial prizes should be given for 'the production of artistically worthy German pictures, big enough to give "the firm the possibility of further production. A governmental filnj academy should be founde'd under the su- pervision of the Minister of Educa- tion for the development of the younger generation of actors and directors. An archive should, be started in which all "historically valuable pic- tures should be included. Educational and cultural films should be subsidized. MILAN'S 2,500-SEATER Milan, Dec. 1. This city has a new 2,500 seat house, wired by Western Electrio and financed by Commandant Delia' Piani, but otherwise "Independently operated. It opened Nov. 25, with an Italian exploration feature, but is other- wise Paramount-booked up with American product. •'The Patriot" was the second week's attraction. &EBMAN FOOTAGE DECREASE Berlin, Dec. 2. During October Germany fell 'way behind in number of features produced In comparison to foreign countries. Germany's quota w.as 42,000 me- ters of silehts, as Compared to 56,- ' 000 m. of silents and 3,000 of sound from other countries. Last yeaa' Germany produced 55,* 000 m., as compared to only 52,000 na, from outside. ANOTHER SOUNi) SUIT Berlin, Dec. 2. Founding of the Associated Sound Film Industry Ih.JEngland, in which the, German firms of Tobis,. Klahg- film, and Kuchenmelster ai"e in?* eluded, has Caused Western Electric to start suits againiPt Klangfllm and Ufa.- • - . ; . . Claim Is that ,two W." E. pnlents have, been infringed. CAERILLO'S "SENOR" Hollywood, : \ Leo Carrillo, now tourini;- -"Misira- liaj== returns---here Jan;-*-k-=t o^Jlfi.. starred by Tiffany 'in"Sc'i-,( ■ M.\n- ana," adaptation of Stevr;p- Grahana's novel. Wellyn Totnian is cuh!> . yarn, which will also i)>- n Spanish. l>ie (■■ in If \^<n Don't Advert I •■ leu Don't Artvi i .i ■<•