American cinematographer (May 1937)

May, 1937 • American Cinematographer 177 AS MIDNIGHT SOUNDS-- By George Blaisdell I T’S AN interesting highway, that Boulevard Hollywood, especially after the sun has dropped behind the ocean. From the world around come the peoples of the earth to give the more or less famous thoroughfare the onceover. And many of the natives—there are those who imagine a year’s residence qualifies for that classification—emerge then to do their stuff. That may be merely to parade the highway to see and to be seen, and possibly to be garbed as ordinary sane and sound persons or maybe to be garbed as eccentrics whose imagina- tion has been touched by the sun of Hollywood—just plain nuts. Others may be good busines.s men, men who realize the commercial value of being sufficiently well known to the crowd to be called by name. In less than an hour on a recent evening three instances of sidewalk entertainers crossed this writer’s path. It was around 11 o’clock and must have been on a Friday night, for the crowd was piling into the boulevard from the Stadium fights. • A tall young man with two dogs was putting his well trained pets through their paces. He well may have believed he might attract the at- tention of a picture executive and for that attention to be translated into an engagement. It was an unusually interesting per- formance, one feature of it being the ordering of one of the two black animals to stretch flat on the side- walk. With the second dog the mas- ter then turned his back on the re- cumbent and whining animal and strolled away. The mate of the detained pup seemed as distressed as the other, unable apparently to make up his canine mind to which one of his friends he would stick. As the crowds gathered the dog be- hind was forced to follow his master’s motions in various antics, audibly begging all the time for permission to rejoin the two. When the delayed signal finally came there were yelps of delight, from both dogs, and indications of genu- ine relief on the part of the sympathetic bystanders. • At the corner of Vine and the boulevard there was a crowd around some young man who seemed to be standing on a barrel. For a moment there was a thought of the soapbox come to Hollywood, a soapbo.x manned by an aspiring actor no longer able to keep his feet on the ground. It may have been an actor, but his eight or more feet of anatomy were planted firmly on the sidewalk. Be- side him was a dwarf of maybe three feet and a half of elevation. As the two strolled down Vine street but not arm in arm the crowd followed. The dwarf may have been out of sight to all except those on the inside of the throng, but the giant could be seen blocks away. • Ten minutes later on the south side of the boulevard and moving west was a young man exceedingly indifferent to the stares of the multitude. He carried a walking stick with a curved handle. Strutting and waddling out in front of him a half dozen feet, look- ing neither to the right nor left and keeping to the center of the sidewalk, was a creature strange even to the eyes of blase Hollywood. Circling its well-rounded belly was a light strap. Penguin it must have been. The creature from the far south stopped at the Cahuenga curb, as sud- denly as an old man searching for a traffic signal. The custodian of the bird, if bird it was, reached down the crook in his walking stick, fast- ened it under the strap circling the creature’s belly and nonchalantly lifted his friend to the crook of his left arm. Thus the two crossed Ca- huenga. On the west side the young man set his friend to the sidewalk. The gaping crowd parted. Proceeding west but swaying with a 45-degree heel to the north and south the ant- arctic bird started toward the Egyptian, possibly to call on the equatorial monks who live in the fore- court of that theatre. ▼ Dr. Nagel Passes D r. frank NAGEL, father of Conrad, rare actor turned radio master of ceremonies and picture director, passed on during the last month. Dr. Nagel was a national au- thority on music. For many years he was president of the Hollywood Opera Reading Club, in which position he contributed markedly to the knowl- edge as well as the entertainment of many Hollywoodians. His illness in recent years has meant a distinct loss to the cultural life of the community. In the days of the beginning of screen sound eight or nine years age this reporter, then a Variety mugg wrote an interview with the doctor in which the latter foretold with deep conviction the coming of the time— and not far removed—when the screen would bring famous operas to the multitudes, finely reproduced vocally, with the actors and backgrounds shown in color. Skeptics there were then, but we know now the doctor was right. T Dr. L. E. Dodd, U.C.L.A. I N OUR April issue in the caption topping a learned and informing technical article from the hand of Dr. L. E. Dodd, professor in charge of Geometrical Optics, Department of Physics, U.C.- L.A., omission was made of the particular institution of leaming with which the doctor is affiliat- ed. The offense was aggravated by the fact the said university was identified in the proof sub- mitted. As usual in such cases while the succeeding ignominy at- tached to the proceedings may be shared by several, neverthe- less it must be shouldered by one. And here it is: Our apol- ogies to the doctor, who with cordiality and magnanimity re- marks that otherwise the two THE EXTRA OF HOLLYWOOD Extras we’re called and such we are. But if left out you’ll get not far! We’re come from all the ends of earth To do our bit in making mirth. . . To cheer the dull, to soothe the ill. And to the jaded bring a thrill; To paint Mankind since dawn of Time And show how steep has been the climb; Give Fancy rein to alter Fate; To lift the low to high estate; Impart to King the chance to see How small he really proved to be. Through us you’ll find the answer turns On that famed prayer of Bobby Burns: The Screen’s the power the giftie gie us To see oursel’s as ithers see us.