Screen Guilds Magazine (May 1936)

A Chapter On Radio ! “For Your Child’s Sake Investigate’’ Eleventh Annual Summer Session Commeneing July 1st for Boys and Girls between ages of 6 and 16 Two hours of real fun three times a week in corrective Gymnastics, Swimming, Boxing, Archery, Badminton, Paddle Tennis, Ballroom and Tap Dancing. This course is offered to your boy or girl by The Carl Curtis School in conformity with its policy of “Human Service” for the nominal sum of $60.00. Isn’t your child worth this small investment? . . . Classes Eimited . . . Enroll Now! 8008 Beverly Blvd. WYoming 2111 ‘‘That Strange Place of Elbowing” Ferguson Alley Chinatown World Famous Barbecued Spareribs Chicken • Steaks • Chinese Food Visit Our Beautiful Jade Room FREE PARKING MAdison 5258 (Continued from Page 13) The rate for old stage plays varies from $50. to $1,000. Why one goes for fifty and another for a thousand de¬ pends on a number of conditions; for instance, whether it’s a “web” show, or not. Here are three that brought $500 each: “The Guardsman”, “The Card¬ board Lover”, “Springtime for Henry”. A. E. Thomas, now laboring at Uni¬ versal, got about $200 for “Just Sup¬ pose”. The old Richard Harding Davis ‘ ‘ The Unfinished Story” fetched only $50. Top names bring more. For instance J. M. Barrie has sold two of his things for $250. >UT that’s all in the small brackets 'for one reason or another. A num¬ ber of Broadway plays have brought one thousand dollars for one broadcast. If pressed for flat figures, by an author with an old play up his sleeve, I would say he can ask and expect to get from $500 to $1,000. Here’s an example: Donald Ogden Stewart got $750 for “Rebound” when Ruth Chatterton played it. At the moment the best consumers of plays are the Lux Hour, Rudy Yallee, and Crosby and his cheese. They put on twenty minute dramatizations from Broadway plays (and not necessarily current plays, either) and they insist on handing you $500. Next week you can sell the whole thing over again— if you can catch a sponsor. The oddest item I have heard in the field of price is one about Leslie How¬ ard. He wrote a play a while back en¬ titled “Murray Hill”. An advertising agent came to him and offered him $500 for the radio rights. He said it wasn’t worth that much and forced the agent down inch by inch to $250. But the reason for this strange conduct was that he wanted to do the play himself on his own program. I have heard of only one unproduced play being sold direct to radio, and that happened in Hollywood. A Los Angeles advertising agency was pressed for a story for Ginger Rogers and started the ’phones going. An unproduced play was turned up, okayed by Ginger’s mother, and Ginger went into it. But the author got only $75. Still, on the other hand, it was an ad and a way to test the material. Now, supposing you have a story in your trunk that would set the air fans agog, how will you get a check for ‘ ‘ The Little Woman?” Above all, don’t run to a broadcasting company and expect to sell it. They just never buy plays, at least so far as I have peered into their inner workings. Lots of plays come in; they are piled into neat, order¬ ly stacks and are disturbed only now and then by an inquisitive janitor. The best way is through the advertising agencies; that is, the agencies which are putting on dramatic shows. I’ll not list them, as they are well known and easily accessible. Hollywood is fast increasing in im¬ portance as a broadcasting center; more and more material will come from here. And that, folks, is the end of the chapter on radio as it interests screen writers living in Hollywood. You perform a service to your Guild by patronizing the advertisers in THE SCREEN GUILDS' MAGAZINE • 26 The Screen Guilds’ Magazine