The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

13a which Cliff Reid will produce with Ray McCarey directing. . . . “Inside Track, story of midget auto racing, recently published in the Elks Magazine, has been purchased by this studio and will be produced by Bert Gilroy. Roach Thorne Smith’s “Turnabout” has been purchased, and a scenario is now in the making, with production set to start February 12, with John Hubbard and Victor Mature in top roles. . . . Lon Chaney, Jr., has returned to Hollywood. . . . Adolphe Menjou and William Gargan have been signed for “Turnabout.” 20th Century-Fox “Molly, Bless Her,” a story owned by Metro for several years, and reported to be based on the life of the late Marie Dressier, has been purchased as a Grade Fields starring vehicle. “Sailor’s Lady” is the new title for “Sweetheart of Turret One,” which is set to go before the cameras this week. . . . Ernest Truex joins the “Lillian Russell’ cast. . . . Wally Vernon has been signed for “Sailor’s Lady.” . . . Leo Carrillo. Nigel Bruce, Eddie Foy, Jr., have been added to the “Lillian Russell” cast. . . . Roger Qvale, 24-yearold Norwegian ski instructor at Sun Valley, Idaho, has been signed to a long-term contract. . . . Brenda Joyce will have the lead in "Maryland,” taking the role for which Andrea Leeds was at first considered. . . . Henry Hathaway has been borrowed from Paramount to direct “Brigham Young.” Universal Directorial assignment on the next “Sandy” picture, “Sandy Is a Lady,” goes to Charles Lamont. Players set to date include Mischa Auer, Billy Lenhart and Kenneth Brown. . . . Margaret Lindsay has signed a contract here to appear in four pictures a year for a period of five years. Her first performance under the new agreement will be in “House of Seven Gables,” opposite Vincent Price. Helen Vinson gets the top femme spot in “Enemy Agent,” spy story with a Los Angeles locale. Richard Cromwell, Fritz van Dongen, Jack Arnold, and Charles Williams are set for featured roles. Lew Landers is directing. W anger Robert Benchley has been added to the scripters on “Personal History.” Warners June Lockhart, 14-year-old daughter of Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, will make her dramatic debut in support of Bette Davis and Charles Boyer in “All This, and Heaven, Too.” . . . Regis Toomey gets a featured role in “We Shall Meet Again,” starring Merle Oberon, George Brent, and Pat O’Brien. . . . Frank Wilcox and Herbert Anderson, two new players at this studio, have won contract extensions as a result of their performances in “The Fighting 69th,” starring James Cagney and Pat O’Brien. “Brother Orchid” will be Edward G. Robinson’s next picture, scheduled to start sometime in February. . . . Herbert Anderson’s contract has been renewed. . . . THE EXHIBITOR Our Mr. Mentlik REPORTS THE "6 9 T H” DINNER Dear Chief: If you’re thinkin’ of putting one of those “Our Mr. Mentlik” heads atop this batch of copy, you might try to work in something about a “day with Warners.” Last Wednesday, I think it was, your hardworking New York correspondent was all but supported by the WB press department, but don’t you to get to thinking that all I did was eat and plug “The Fighting 69th.” It started out early. No sooner do I get in the office to finish up on some of the sleep I missed the previous night, when in comes a call from Ira Tulipan. “Lew,” he says, “if you’re not doing anything around noon, drag yourself to Duffy Square. There’s gonna be a mess of stuff happening.” So what happens? So I go to Duffy Square at noon. So I tried for a half hour to force my way past a coupla thousand folk trying to get a glimpse of Jimmy Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Jeffrey Lynn, and Bishop John F. O’Hara placing wreaths at the foot of the Fighting Father’s statue. I would have done better if I stayed in bed and listened to it over WNYC. Sid Rechetnik and Paul Lazarus, Jr., seeing us trade press guys hanging around the fringe of the crowd, invited us to warm up by eating at a place called The Kitchen (advt.). Said Sid: “As long as yer eating here, you must order some sliced steak.” So we ordered said dish and it was delicious. Remember that sliced steak. Comes night, and trekked eastward to the Waldorf to attend the reunion dinner of the Fighting 69th. It was the soldiers’ party, but my ducats were sent from Mort Blumenstock’s office with a note reading: “Dress is optional, but naturally we’re all dressing.” Naturally, chief, I wasn’t planning on going any other way. But, great day in the morning (colloquialism by courtesy of “Brother Rat,” a WB picture), if they meant formal wear why didn’t they say it. There must have been at least 1500 men jammed into the main ballroom William K. Howard has signed a term contract as a director. . . . Elsa Maxwell’s “How To Give a Party” started January 22. “Riding into Society” will go when the first short is completed. . . . Frank Wilcox has been given a top spot in “The Sea Hawk.” . . . “Married, Pretty and Poor” is now “Saturday’s Children.” . . . William Lundigan goes into “Three Cheers for the Irish.” Sixteen big-budget features are now in preparation and scheduled to go before the cameras in the next five months, according to Hal B. Wallis, executive producer. Pictures are “The Sea Hawk,” with Errol Flynn and directed by Michael Curtiz; “All This, and Heaven, Too,” with Bette Davis, directed by Anatole Litvak; “City for Conquest,” with James Cagney; “The Constant Nymph,” with Merle Oberon; “Torrid Zone,” with George Raft and Ann Sheridan; “Beethoven,” with, pos of the Waldorf. National Guardsmen were there in uniform; regular army officers were garbed in their Roxy-usher-type dress outfits; exhibitors and Warner representatives were all smoothied out in tuxedoes; ditto for most of the trade press. I blush to tell it, boss, but I was there in just an ordinary day suit. Funny thing about that party. I bumped into a chap named Herb Stein. Herb and me usta be classmates out Wisconsin way some years ago and I lost track of him for more years than I care to remember. And he turns up among the 1500 humans gorging food at the Waldorf. He came into town on the plane that brought the minions of Hollywood correspondents in for the dinner. At nine o’clock, the dinner got itself on a nationwide hookup with original piping from NBC’s WJZ. Among those who spoke were Governor Herbert H. Lehman, Bishop John F. O’Hara, Colonel William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, Brigadier General Alex E. Anderson, Jack L. Warner, Cagney, O’Brien, and Lynn. Other familiar movie folk sitting up with the speakers were Will H. Hays, Charlie Einfeld (no gags about the gee-gees), Grad Sears, Wayne Morris, Edward G. Robinson, et cetera. From my perch up on the first tier, I could see Bob Taplinger, Blake McVeigh, Mort Blumenstock, Ken Aneser, Paul Lazarus, Jr., and the rest of the Warner mob weaving in and out of and between tables. Seated comfortably and taking in everything there was to be seen were gents like Eddie Schnitzer, Harry Cohn, Murray Silverstone, John J. O’Connor, Max Fellerman, Max A. Cohen, Sam Dembow, Sam Rinzler, Harold Rinzler, Fred Meyers, and a mess of other movie people who just couldn’t be pointed out. Funny thing about part of the evening was the manner in which everyone mobbed the dais for autographs of the stars. Among those who waited on line for autographs were some of the industry’s top executives. Then came the screening of “The Fighting 69th.” The reception it received almost rocked the mighty Waldorf right smack into some neighboring Park Avenue apartments. The thought of returning to Brooklyn was appalling, but to the rescue came RKO’s Max Fellerman who invited me to join him in riding to Flatbush in Sam Rinzler’s car. And so to bed. Love and kisses, Lew Mentlik, Your New York Correspondent. sibly, Paul Muni; “The Sea Wolf,” with Edward G. Robinson; “An Angel from Texas,” with Eddie Albert; “The House on the Hill,” with Bette Davis; “The Spirit of Knute Rockne;” “The Times of Tony Pastor;” “The Patent Leather Kid,” with George Raft; “Brother Orchid,” with Edward G. Robinson; “Captain Horatio Hornblower,” with Errol Flynn; “Reuter’s;” and “The Life of Alfred Bernhard Nobel.” Edward G. Robinson went to New York for the opening of “The Magic Bullet.” . . . June Clayton has been signed to a term contract. . . . Charles Boyer has been signed to play the lead opposite Bette Davis in “All This, and Heaven, Too.” . . . Lee Patrick was brought from New York for a role “Saturday’s Children.” . . . Brenda Marshall gets the lead in “The Sea Hawk.” . . . William T. Orr, stage player, has been signed to a term contract. January 31, 1940