Variety (Dec 1929)

62 VARIETY EDITORIAL Wednesday/ December 11, Ib^b niETY Trade Mark RcBistererf . rabllahed Weekly b» VARIEXT. Inc. Slme Silverman. President 164 Went 40th Street New York; City 2d Squawk From the Sticks By Ed Gooding ("Variety's" Toledo Correspondent) SUBSCRIPTION: Annual tlO Foretgm. BlHKle Coplea. ,2S Cents Wise "Variety 5" YeahJ Looks like this thing may go on for weeks. Carl Laemmle may try to buy the serial rights, and produce It for the grind houses. VOL. xcvn No. 9 15 YEARS AGO {Frotn variety and Clipper} Belasco-^Lasky gave their produg- tlon of "JRose of the Rancho" a Broadway premiere and it was the wonder of the film trade that the New York dalltes treated It like a legit stage premiere in their re- views. Robert Warwick-was star. In the Dec. 4 issue, the banner on Page 1 reads: N. G." The biggest news of the week! •Legs Minus S. A.~ Why, you chumps, that story originally was sent put by a studio p. a. along in September. The opposition here printed it the day before I got around to It, so I threw it away. But It was in "Variety" next week. Another studio p. a. read it, rewi-ote it to insert names of his own company and execs, and sent it out. It landed in one of. the fllm trade papers/^here a third studio p. a. saw It and again rewrote It and sent it out as briglnating from his outfit. I finally printed It in desperation. Then"Variety"—all of six. weeks later! Page i and slopover of nearly a column! ' United States began to come out of the business depression cause 1 by the World months'old Gary, Ind.,'and up-state New T.ork textile factories were running over- time on war igoods for Europe. However, the famous "war brides" had not yet made their Stock Ex- change debut. Another thing—whyinell is it when one of us slaves out here hotfoots War, now about fftur I it out to get an exclusive story for the rag, maybe cheating his own sheet Steel mills riesumedjn J by holding up publication till "Variety" gets a crack at it, he then finds it burled under the 111 and Injured column? And a story rewritten from the daily press gets a head, on Page 1. K. & B. surrendered their lease on the Grand Opera House, New York, world famous theatre built in the '80's with easy Wall Street money* Howard Gould took the house back, having inherited it with his father's (Jay (jould) estate. Film producers and. renters tried to get together in tlie first move toward price: stabilization. Propo- sition tentatively. Was a •'gentle- man's agreement" on rentals; Idea] wa-s. fotceci by price cutting com- petition and dog-eat-dpg attitude in trade. You birds have, fallen down on Hollywood chatter, New York chatter and studio "advances" lately. How do you expect us guys to get out a paper every day^ if you don't suppiy the stuCE for us to steal? Outside 'Variety/' , draihatlc pages have to carry the appearance of having sbme news, you know. . But to return—Wise "Variety?" Yeahl I'm. leftlng! All o. k. fironi .Mr. Godding. But the "Legs" story wasn't the press release he riefers to. If It had been, Mr. Gooding would have printed it in the Toledo "Blade" without hesitating. . Inside Stulf-Vaude Much talk of theatre over-seating in New York. One house in the overcrowded Bronx Went from the- atre to garage. At the Same time in the less crowded disttict of Broad- way in'the 80's an. old garig©-was being converted" Into a picture.] house. : i Legmania turns ate. reported cutting down on . buck dancing routines Or else eliminating these routines entirely. Reason is that during past season almost'four but of five choruses have speclaltized In buck danc- ing with the similarity of steps boring the audiences. Inside Stuff-Pictures (Continued from page 36) write the 'dialog for » forthcoming epio. Author would have been willing to work oil the picture at $600 a week with a contract for four weeks. Instead of going to the poet direct, " the film man called on a legit producer in New York to procure the writer^, his friend, believing he could get him less by this method. Price asked by the legit producer was $30,000, and the film official agreed. He burned plenty when he found out. One of the biggest tie-ups of the kind, ever effected will be engineered by First National for "Girl from Woolworths/' scheduled for the New York and Brooklyn Strands Christmas week. Besides the special parties for Wodlworth employees, enlairgements of scenes from the pictui-e will be l)laced in 156 flye-flhd-tehs and plans are under way, but not wholly completed, for a Wool worth girl contest In connection with the latter stunt, F. N. may send Alice White east. Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, which prides itself on being the^" greatest C. C. in the country, has a 24-window display ofX. A. in the lobby of it's new buildin^r. Everything made in L. A. is displayed. In the section devoted to pictures there is a miniature of a studio, and surrounding it are the pictures of who the sigh announces as "the great screen stars. These a,re Norman Kerry, Virginia Lee Corbln, Priscilla Dean; Kenneth Harlan and Dorothy Devore. Divorced wife of a picture actor is figuring on marrying another actor. First husband Is $1,600 In arrears oh alimony. Former wife had him hailed into a LoS Angeles court, but someone tipped the Judge that the wife was about to wed and wanted the money for a trousseau. Judge called them both to his chambe.rs and told the. woman that she would have to settle for less than half. Case is now. off the court' calendar. ' . ^ Charlie. Bierbauer, deposed head of Keith's Family Dept., hasn't yet laccepted the agency franchise offered io him'on the way out.. According to the booking/office the oiSer stands if he cares to take it. Meanwhile Bierbauer is pittying with his end of "Courage," making the trip to Baltimore last week to be with the show. Social secretary of Mrs. Vliicent Astor called up Paramount with an idea of inviting Maurice Chevalier tO a party in aid of a charitable of- ganization. Chevalier, due to his belated trip east and necessity of sttfrting prodtictiori on "The Big'. Pond" as early as possible, could not attend..... Mrs. Astor did not want him to perform in any way but merely come as a guest, it was pointed put in the invitation. Providence movie fans have their own Ideas. The Providence "News" found that out wiien it coiiducted a contest to find what the average, fail wanted ks screen fare. • Hundreds of replies were received in the contest, which offered cash prize for best essay, and ducats for a number Of others. Majority of Opinions gave producers the razz for putting on too many talkers with musical comedy background. Idea that's got the post office In various sectors of the country deliver- ing pamphlets plugging Publix entertainment, at no expense to the chain, was sprung by 'Ben Serkowich. It's a tie-up oiii the early Christmas mailing cahipaign. Pamphlets are paid for by commercial, houses and industrial firms who take credit for pamphlet's early shopping and mailing advice while sue- cumbing to a plug for the resident Publix theatres. Pekin cabaret; upstairs in the building 47th street, Broadway and Seventh Avenue, and one of the pop- ular night siiots, had! the biggest show amohg BrOa,dway spots of the kind. Politeness is killing on R-K-O now, with the 'telephone operators at headquarters, in subsidiaries and in the theatres instructed to grieet all callers ^Ith a "goOd mOrning/' "good afternoon" or "good evening," dependinir on the time of day the phone rings. At the theatres, also, the operators - have been Instructed to answer phones by saying "R-K-O Jefferson," etc., putting the initials in front of the naoies of each house, 50 YEARS AGO {FromXftipper') Reviewing baseball season of 187?, Clipper observes, that the curved ball now has beei? perfected and is essential to good iplay. Bats- men experienced in facing pitchers with a curve can now punish one who can command, only an accurate straight ball. Reports from the west that Fox is pulling vaude out of its wired houses is denied by Jack Loeb. A TopekAj Kan., report likely led to the rumor. This was explained by Earl Simmons (F & M) through three or four r & M Ideas playing the Jayhawk theatre there on spec. As the house • was having trouble with the local labor union, permanent F. & M book- ings -were called off. Ritz Brothers, who played the Palace, Chicago, last week, started a billing scrap which Jack Hess, publicity director for RKO. Dissatisfied with second place in the ads, the brothers took space in the "Herald" and. "Exaniiner" to exploit themselves apart from the regular Palace display. Hess , immediately notified all dailies that the name of the RKO the- atre could not appear in siioh ads. Public refused to patronize the new idea of limited endurance con- tests. Dan O'Leary, champion pe- destrian, tried to run a six-day •walking match in Newark, N. J. with contestants in action only 12 hour^ in 24, but gate was . disap- pointing. First mention appears of a sisr day bike race (high wheels) when meeting was held in Chicago Sher- man hotel to match local riders against a foreign team Just arrived, Plan was to have contestants work 14 houri3 a day until total made 84 hours,. A slight misunderistanding between audience and performer at the State-Lake, at. a second show^ caused a rumpus which a,lmost resulted in wiping out a couple of acts. Trouble started when Bprt HanlOn, whose ace gag is applauding the audience*^ Sitting in. a chair and asking them to entertain him, evidently got sore because he didn't like the way the mob performed for him, and walked out on them. A person in the first row gave him the razz, and Hahlon burned, Will Singer, manager, paid him off for-the two days and-told him to stay out.. Mrs, Hanlon, Doris Canfleld of Canfield and Alle^i, also on the bill, wanted to assert herself, and they were told they alsO would be paid off. After pleading on the part of Hanlon and Canfield and Alien, Hanlon, was permitted to return to the stage. Commercial publicity. was-^ not an unknown art. John Welsher and John Frazer were rival makers ' of athletic fOotwear. Welsher pubV llshes a challenge to Frazer, offer- ing to run him in his own. shoes any distance from 100 yards to a mile for a side bet of $500, - E. E, Rice produced his "Surprise Party." In the cast Were a number of players familiar to the elders of this generation, among them Henry E. Dixey,\^ Pauline Hall, Sarah Coweli-Leraoyhe, one L, Harrison. ^;~.wjioL-j)yob.ahly^wagJLee, and ry^^^ Sdouin.' From; the Olympic Club, San , Franclisco, comes a suggestion for electrical timing of speed contests, principally trotting, races. Idea is to create an electrical impulse to start and stop split-second watches by the breaking of threads across the track by the horses as they started and again as they finished. Spot booking of acts for RKO's weekly (Tuesday night) broadcast of vaude talent makes it impossible for,'the advertiser to secure a fair share of publicity. Chief objection to the last-minute bool^lng and loss of publicity is. that, after all, the real purpose of the broadcast is ex ploitation. '. Corbperation . between the publicity bureaus of itelth'a (vaude) <ind the NBC (radio) isn't possible, with the latter obviously shying away from the Keith radio press matter so as hot to stick the newspapers with premature and uncertain information. When names of artists scheduled to partake in the RKO hour are sent to the radio departments by the NBC publicity staff, a notation states they are tentative. The. dallies receive too much spot news in the other press matter to chance uncer tain information, RKO's program is never definitely set before Monday, the day before actual broadcast. Often the real names of the bills are not set until the same day. iBut little advance exploitation is possible under that system. Exploita tion after .the broadcast is over is compara,tively worthless. Some of the splendid line-ups of acts, contributing their services free, on recent RKO programs could have supported. volumes of exploitation. They were deserving of it. . . Keith's is spending time and thought to the weekly air programs. Sug- =gfiatiQrusLj;ojLJiette£mfint=.olrJhe^.W executives ahd bookers by Hiram Brown, who listens in every Tues day nlglit on the set in his private office. Improvement In quality is not the first necessity. The best suggestion anj'one could make would be the booking and definite setting of all pro- grams at least three days if not three weeks before the i)roadcast. Any value possessed by the names and acts participating would be im measurably increased by advance heralding. Loew's vaude bookers cling to the custom of catching most of th>lr shows on Monday, although the bills now open Saturday, Saturday and Sunday the acts have to cut on accoimt of four shows. In making, the French version of Maurice Chevalier's next, "The Big Pond/' the French star will act In an unofficial supervisory capacity. Paramount has called in Jacques Batealttle-Henri, who did the French, songs in "Innocents of Paris/' to adapt "Big Pond" and its songs into French. Bateaittle-Henri was lyric writer for Chevalier In Paris before signing with Par. Five hundred negroes engaged for a day's work in a picture wei* recalled a week later for additional scenes. They , were called direct in the first instance and paid $5. Second time was through an agent, and .they were informed they'd have to pay-the 10% commission. They refused to go on unless $7.50 was given them. After arguments, the studio came through. . A 40-60 credit and billing arrangement prevails in Edmund Lowe's one picture contract with United Artists, He is playing opposite Dolores Del Rio in "The Bad One." Miss Del Rio will get the long end on most of the free publicity pre- ceding release of the picture, but when it comes to the ad copy, the firm must see that Lowe is mentioned second. Paramount had Jean Arthur set for "Young Eagles" and Fay Wray for "The Benson Murder Case/' Switch was niade and all was set for rehearsals when someone recalled that Miss Arthur had been killed off In "The Canary Murder Case." Reverse switch, back to the original, was then made. One major Coast Studio gave some 200 or more preview hounds the run-around by tipping off in advance that a big picture would be pre- viewed in San Bernardino. Mob motored out and became plenty burned upon, learning the pic- ture had been previewed in Los Angeles. Betty Amman, now a full fledged star fOr Ufa^ her "Asphalte" being repently released, is'an American girl, 20, who couldn't click in Holly- wood. - She now rates importantly with German flicker, fans. Fox News' world girdling sbund unit, recently returned from a southern Pacific cruise, is now turning but the Grahtland Rice '.•Sportlights." Men and truck, went south last week. ' This detail may again be assigned to a special tour by Fox, Most of the Par-Publlx employees are dping their Christmas shoppi^ff through the Co-operation Buying Dept, of the twin organization In New York. Arrangements are for discounts as. high as 30% on this plan. Joe Seider, former theatreless head of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, is answering press agents applying to handle hlfl few Long Island theatres with: "Sorry, but my organization isn't big enough." Ruth Biery, chattering love-life specialist, and expert on crlminologyi is sending out her annual letter advising the coast studios not to send her Christmas presents. . -=Don-Jose=Mojlca-s-titleon-hls=first'iFox4alker,-''One-Mad-M same as Valentino had planned to use for his next picture. "Vic Shapiro originally submitted it. Charles Rogers, erstwhile indie producer who went into the home talker field, is already wishing himself a,.merry xmas. Some 40,000 home talkers of various makes were sold last year. Hollywood fllm agents squawking on the lull. One non-squawker got two of his clients jobs by thinking up a novelty idea and selling it gi'atls to a producer on the condition they be engaged to do it. If the Idea clicks he may turn pi'oducer.