Screen Guilds Magazine (July 1934)

1934 PROSIT ! “The Peerless Motor Car Corpora¬ tion notified the Stock Exchange today that it plans to go into the business of brewing ale.” —News Item. The Peerless Motor Car Corpn.. Cleveland, Ohio Dear Sir: I note with alarm that you plan to give up the manufacture of automo¬ biles and turn your plant into a brew¬ ery. Does that mean that I will no longer be able to get spare parts for my old 1924 Peerless or are you going to stock piston rings along with hops and malt? If you’re going from automobiles to beer, ignoring your faithful old Peer¬ less owners, I’m going to trade in my boat for a new Plymouth without fur¬ ther delay. It would be no laughing matter to send for a new bushing and receive a case of 4 per cent suds by return post. Incidentally, I am amazed by the flexibility of your organization. It isn’t EVERY automobile concern that can tap its ingenuity to the extent of a limousine one day and a keg of brew the next. (Though I never saw a bottle of beer yet that was mechani¬ cally perfect until it had been put on the blocks for a 1000 mile factory test.) What is General Motors’ attitude toward the new Peerless? Are you going to be able to meet heavy compe¬ tition from this direction? They will undoubtedly come out with an im¬ proved Cadillac, Buick and Pilsner and may even make an attractive trade-in allowance on emty bottles. Are you prepared for this? The Peerless Company never put any “green stuff” on the market, to my knowledge, and I hope they never will. If I decide to trade my old car in for your latest model I don’t want people referring to it as “belly wash,” and, for Heaven’s sake leave off those hideous radiator caps from now on. See what the boys in the back room will have! Yours truly, JACK CLUETT P.S. : Have you tasted the new Hup- mobile? PROTECT YOUR MANUSCRIPT by Filing it With the GUILD’S REGISTRATION BUREAU Guild Offices 1655 North Cherokee Avenue FEE—50c—Guild Members $1.00—Non-Guild Members July The Two Century Dictionary By International News Service Paris.—Jan. 5.—The new diction¬ ary, on which the French Academy has only been working about two centuries now, was today brought up to half-way through the letter “p.” Unfortunately, however, so many words have altered during the last 200 years that the compilers are forced to go back over the early vol¬ umes. Then, when these have been revised, observers believe the “p’s will be out of date. This is the fifth volume compiled. At this rate the .dictionary ought to be ready somewhere about 2234 A. D. The French, my dears, take many years To write a dictionary. As writings go, this seems quite slow I’d call it very very. Two hundred years, it took, my dears To reach the letter P From A to L was quite a spell Perhaps a century. But still, my dears, these many years Have been well spent, say I If in this scroll, the Cauls enroll Just one word, “P,” “A,” “Y.” —AL LOWENTHAL. Hollywood Men's Shop HOLLYWOOD CENTER BLDG. • 6652 Hollywood Blvd. HOIlywood 9629 ! o Milton Goodman Harry Zigmond Independent Field by John Natteford /\ SURVEY of the material offered to independent producers, and of their actual wants, leads to the conclusion that a number of writers and agents are misinformed as to what constitutes a good story for independent produc¬ tion. It must be a good story, and it must be a story which can be cast and pro¬ duced under current limitations of in¬ dependent production. If a starring vehicle, the odds are against it. First, the major producers refuse to lend star names. Second, the trade itself doesn’t want star names of the second grade. The decision of a recent sales conven¬ tion is illuminating. A series of action pictures was suggested, starring a good Class B. personality. The salesmen re¬ plied that they could sell the action pictures, and wanted them—without hitching them to the star. Take him out, and they’d bring back better money. No matter how much the indepen¬ dent is willing to spend on production, he cannot borrow the great personali¬ ties that make a slim characterization story worth while. And without great box-office names, he cannot afford to make a large pro¬ duction investment. He hasn’t the production cost available, even if the story is as good as the writer thinks. And is the story so good after all? If it were, wouldn’t it have sold where it belongs? It is a common fallacy to assume that the cheaper a picture is, the worse the story. On the contrary, the story must be better than many of the ma¬ jor’s stories, before the independent producer can feel enough confidence to invest his money in it. He knows that as long as he cannot get star names, cannot get great directors, can¬ not show lavish backgrounds, he has left only one entertainment value to make and sell—story. EVERYTHING PHOTOGRAPHIC for Professional and Amateur New and used. Bought, sold, rented and repaired. Camera Silencing. Send for Bargain Catalogue Hollywood Camera Exchange 1600 Cahuenga Blvd.'. Hollywood Tel: CL 2507 - HO 9431 Cable Address: HOcamex Open .8 a. m. to 10 p. m. [ 17 ]