20th Century-Fox Dynamo (July 8, 1939)

NEW DYNAMO 15 MAXWELL STORY PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN SET Dramatic Advance Zanuck Aim on “Stanley” Elaborate prepara- tions are being made for the exploitation of the first Cosmopolitan production for K-7 re- lease, “Elsa Maxwell’s Hotel for Women”. The tieup with the Hearst newspapers is naturally be- ing capitalized to the limit, but the Publicity Depart- ment is concentrating on the numerous other angles and journals that will wel- come a hookup with this ex- ploitation natural. From New York this week came details of the preliminary cam- paign. Four of the country’s fore- most illustrators were commis- sioned by Publicity Director Charles E. McCarthy to prepare art work for advertising material to be used on “Elsa Maxwell’s Ho- tel for Women”. Included in the four are George Petty, Esquire illustrator; McClelland Barclay, the figure specialist; Bradshaw Crandall, Cosmopolitan cover ar- tist, and John LaGatta. The creations of these four illustrators will be used in full color on billboard posters as well as for national ad campaigns to be used in exchange cities and in the advertising splurges that will be featured in the following Hearst publications: Albany Times-Union, Atlanta Georgian - American, Baltimore News-Post and Sunday American, Boston Record, Boston American and Boston Sunday Advertiser, Chicago American, Chicago Her- ald-Examiner, Detroit Times, Los Angeles Examiner, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Oakland Post- Enquirer, Pittsburgh Sun-Tele- graph, San Antonio Light, San Francisco Call-Bulletin, San Fran- cisco Examiner, Seattle Post-In- telligencer, Syracuse (N. Y.) Journal-American, Washington Herald and Times, Milwaukee News-Sentinel, New York Jour- nal-American and New York Daily Mirror. OTHER FACTS In view of the fact “Elsa Max- well’s Hotel for Women” adapts itself to spectacular exploitation stunts in all key cities, the Public- ity Department is planning nu- merous contests and hookups of that type. A 24-chapter serialization of “Elsa Maxwell’s Hotel for Wo- men”, written by Joseph Mul- vaney and illustrated with photo- graphs from the motion picture, will soon appear in all Hearst newspapers and will be available for dailies in other key cities. The novelization starts in the Mil- waukee News-Sentinel July 12, San Francisco Call-Bulletin on August 7 and Los Angeles Herald- Express July 12. Starting dates for the serial in the other Hearst newspaper cities should be set in time for announcement in the next issue of New Dynamo. This week Mr. Zanuck opened telephonic conferences with Mc- Carthy regarding the advance campaign to launch “Stanley and Livingstone”. Inasmuch as this story does not lend itself to radio broadcasting, Mr. Zanuck has let it be known there will be no such hookup, but an elaborate world premiere is being arranged and further details will be announced later. “Frontier Marshal” Nears Completion Director Allan Dwan has his troupe working day and night to complete Wurtzel’s epic of pioneer days in the Southwest in time for release during the final week of this season. Below is a night scene of the company in action. In the cast are Ran- dolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Binnie Barnes, Cesar Romero and hundreds of others. “Frontier Marshal” is the final K-6 release. News Reinforcement Continued from Page 14 Mr. Talley said that Mr. Kent allowed another entire- ly new appropriation to re- establish the Madrid office and has given Mr. Amado a free hand to bring this office up to the efficiency of the other production centers of Movietone News. Mr. Talley continued: “You have read that Great Brit- ain has decided against the ex- orbitant tax it planned to sad- dle on newsreels. Without undue pride I believe we effected this at the 10th anniversary dinner of British Movietone News. This dinner, incidentally, was a re- markable tribute to British Mo- vietone News and showed the high esteem with which it is re- garded by every British class and group. It served to bring together in tribute a cross section of all important groups. Both houses of Parliament were represented, as were the diplomatic corps, the press, radio and industry. By all odds it was the finest gathering assembled in London this year. “Among the distinguished guests were Lord Louis Mount- battan, the King’s cousin; the Hon. Esmond Harmsworth, son of Lord Rothmere, publisher of the powerful London Daily Mail and many other papers of Lord Northcliff’s old group, and Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary for Air in Prime Minister Chamberlain’s cabinet. Sir Kingsley is the strong man of the present Government and is the man in charge of Brit- ain’s re-armament program. Many see in him a future Prime Min- ister. Without this high office, however, his word carried weight. BRITISH END “Before this array of British authorities I was asked by Gen- eral Manager Sir Gordon Craig, of British Movietone News, to tell the story of our reel. It’s the fa- miliar story we all know, our ex- tensive coverage and vast world- wide distribution. What surprised me later was the fact that few among this unusually well in- formed group knew that British Movietone News was part of this vast international family. Among these was Sir Kingsley Wood. When he expressed his pleasure on learning the facts, we told him that British Movietone News could not continue this advanta- geous arrangement if the tax was imposed—a blunt but simple and true statement of our position. “Sir Kingsley was much im- pressed and we were invited to witness the Royal Air Force dem- onstration for members of the two houses of Parliament. I was the only non-Britisher to see this thrilling spectacle. And I think Sir Kingsley said a good word for the newsreels to his fellow cabi- net members that resulted in the abandonment of the tax, which would have meant ruin to our English newsreel associate in the Movietone News family. “From England we travelled back to Paris and then to Spain to re-open our Madrid production center. While there we met all the new government officials and closed a deal by which Movietone News will bring to the world Gen- eralissimo Franco’s first talk on his plans for the future of Spain. Spain we found surprisingly vital after its exhausting struggle and almost back to normalcy, indica- tive that the Spanish people still retain their remarkable recupera- tive powers. With the exception of a few battlefields one would hardly know that only a few months ago this country was en- gaged in the bloodiest civil war in all history.” GOOD-WILL After his visit to Spain, Mr. Talley returned to Paris for more meetings and then enjoyed a de- lightful interlude in Holland. This rich little country, according to Mr. Talley, means much to Movie- tone News, not only because there we get more money for a newsreel print than in any other country, but because of its position should the worst come. “Should war break out Hol- land’s position will be tragic,” Mr. Talley says. “It will be the Belgium of the next war, if I read the signs correctly.” At a press conference in The Hague, attended by representa- tives from every important paper in the Netherlands, Mr. Talley attracted columns of space with his story about Movietone News. Like the British authorities, the Holland journalists were astound- ed as Mr. Talley told of the world- wide ramifications of ?>Iovietone News. In the leading article in The Telegraaf, the Times of the Netherlands, he was referred to as “De Meest ‘Bekeken’ Reporter der Wereld,” or translated “The Most ‘Looked-at’ Reporter in the World.” Taking advantage of his pres- ence in Paris at a time when all the operators of the new trans- Atlantic flying boats were con- vening to determine rates, sched- ules and regulations, Mr. Talley bearded this convention single- handed and worked out the rules, regulations and rates to govern newsreel shipments. This new method of crossing the ocean is of vital importance to newsreels, enabling them to present news films of European events in the United States as quickly as a Los Angeles story couid be shown in New York. It’s costly, Mr. Talley points out, but he also points to the fact that Movietone has al- ways been willing to spend money in order that exhibitors might have news while it was news. While in the French capital Mr. Talley also conferred with mem- bers of the Daladier cabinet and established an understanding re- garding our French operations in the face of war. FULL DETAILS ON MOVIETONE SHORT SUBJ ECT LI NEUP! K-7 Output Will Embrace Six Groups-Three In Father Hubbard Thrill Series Complete details were made available this week on the Movietone K-7 short subject output. These were given out following a conference Movietone Producer Truman H. Talley had with Mr. Kent. While abroad making a survey of the newsreel situation, Mr. Talley carried on negotiations he had initiated early in the Spring and kept in contact with New York by trans- Atlantic telephone. At the Chicago convention, the proposed Movietone product for 1939-40 release was dwelt upon briefly because not all the facts could be announced at that time. This week Mr. Talley was in a position to divulge every phase of the product that Movietone will produce—and here it is; Four Vyvyan Donner Fashion Forecasts in Technicolor, described by Ilka Chase and featuring fifty of America’s most beautiful models. Four Lowell Thomas Magic Carpets of Movietone, described by Lowell Thomas and photographed by the world's leading scenic cameramen. Five Ed Thorgersen Sports Reviews, described by Ed Thorgersen and photographed by America’s ace sports cameramen. Four Adventures of a Newsreel Cameraman, described by Paul Douglas, radio’s most popular master of ceremonies. Four of Lew Lehr’s Dribble-Puss Parade, directed and described by Lew Lehr, America’s No. 1 Funnyman. Three of Father Hubbard’s Alaskan Adventures described by Father Hubbard and Lowell Thomas and photographed by the Glacier Priest himself during his many years of exploration. There is need for but few introductions in this sextet of box-office releases. Most of them are old familiars with definite followings throughout the world. Only Father Hubbard and Paul Douglas, among the personalities, and the new Lew Lehr series require exposition here. Lowell Thomas and the Magic Carpet of Movietone stand for color- ful entertainment and box-office draw as the best series of travelogues ever released, featured by camera work the envy of every cinema- tographer in the world; a timeliness which is the despair of the inane competition in this field, and the most brilliant, electrifying and intel- ligent commentary to ever find way through a microphone to a sound strip. THE PRIZE-WINNING FASHION FORECAST Only recall the glories of the current season’s releases to get an idea of what to expect next season in the topflight Vyvyan Donner Fashion Forecasts in Technicolor. Here is a series of one reelers that have the class of a million dollar production. There’s nothing com- parable to them on the market and their sole command of the fashion field is unthreatened because there’s not another company in the business capable or fitted to produce anything that could possibly give them serious competition. Add the fact that next season a little story will thread through these presentations of beauty and style and you have a sales argument irresistible. Then, take the new Adventures of a Newsreel Cameraman, the most thrilling series ever released, and add Paul Douglas, master of cere- monies for several of the biggest network broadcasts, plus the fact that almost every scene will be specially made featuring hazardous occupations, and you have one, two, three, four bull’s-eyes of box-office entertainment of the most outstanding character. Coming to the Ed Thorgersen Sports Reviews, in them one has the fastest moving, expertly photographed, timely presentations of the inside and thrills of sport that the greatest organization of its kind in the world can produce. In Ed Thorgersen, handsome, friendly and ingratiating, you have a real box-office name wherever there is a sports lover to be attracted to a theatre. Every foot of this film is photo- graphed by camera aces whose skill is unmatched in the industry under the direction of men who know sports from A to Z. Over $20,000 worth of special camera equipment has been purchased by Producer Talley for the men making these Sports Reviews so that the intimacy of coverage in these pictures will be not only thrilling from an action standpoint but from the photographic angle as well. ABOUT FATHER HUBBARD’S SERIES Remember the Maine! Remember Krakatoa! Well, the explosion of public indignation that followed the former and the explosion of the volcano in the latter are just mere raindrops compared with the explosion of public approval which is going to follow on the release of Father Hubbard’s Alaskan Adventures. If you think that volcano eruption in Krakatoa was something wait until you see the birth of an iceberg in these Father Hubbard adventures. Imagine yourself in a small boat and suddenly see rising out of the water, a hundred feet from you, a mountain of ice higher than the Empire State Building in New York. That’s exactly what you see in these Father Hubbard entertainments. These pictures are the answer to a live showman’s prayer. It’s solid meat for real hippodrome and circus exploitation. We should sell as much paper on these pictures as Barnum & Bailey uses in a season if exhibitors just take advantage of the possibilities latent in them. Forget Lew Lehr of the newsreel. Forget Lew Lehr of the radio. Forget Lew Lehr as anything you ever knew him as. America’s num- ber 1 funnyman of the newsreel and radio has got a new idea that is going to make him the top comedian of shorts. He’s sticking to the soundstrip on this series, which he will direct himself. It is the goofiest, rough and tumble, belly laugh humor ever devised for the films. LIQUIDATE!!