The Exhibitor (Nov 1939-May 1940)

THE EXHIBITOR 15 Warren Stokes’ HOLLYWOOD NEWSREEL • BOOKMAKER’S DAY IN HOLLYWOOD could well be the title of this week’s discourse on doings in movieland. A Novel Enterprise, this concerns the better class of bookmakers, those of the literary variety, who seem to have diverted the minds of the movie moguls from the class of bookmakers they have more recently been associated with. As a wag puts it, these literary bookmakers have been working under cover too long. Now they are coming into the open, sending more starters to the post than the writers of original screen entries in the box-office line-up for the new season. They even have a new name for the studio readers, this same wag tells us, advising that the studios’ reader of fact and fiction is now referred to as so and so’s Under-Cover Man. Akin to the newspaper man, his work is never done. After a full day at the studio, he still carries on. He even takes the latest books to bed with him, ever hoping to discover something of interest between the covers. Novel Method • THIS NOVEL PRODUCTION METHOD might have been brought on by the offtrack influence during the past few weeks of Unusual Weather with old formulas failing to finish in the money. It could be the result of trial workouts on the novel starters that are now showing profits in the home stretch. In any event, best sellers and newly published books, out in front for the public purse, are now winning the attention of the producers as the best money bets for entry on the celluloid track. Some Clicking • SOME RECENT EXAMPLES are “Grapes of Wrath,” “Of Mice and Men,” and “Gone With the Wind.” Reports on early workouts of these entries are very encouraging and it is interesting to note that the movie moguls are still looking over the bookstalls for established literary champions that can still finish in the money. Next important entry to run on l.he track of public opinion is Paramount’s screen version of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Light that Failed,” already touted by the early dockers as a winner from wire to wire. This studio is now readying “The City that Never Sleeps,” scratching the original title of the best selling novel of a year ago, which was “F. O. B. Detroit.” Perhaps we can forgive Paramount for changing the title in this case since it might lead the patrons to believe the exhibitor is giving away a free automobile. Other early starters listed at this studio, from novel sources, are “Miss Susie Slagel’s “Country Lawyer,” “The Shepherd of the Hills,” “Skylark,” “I Wanted Wings,” and the widely discussed H. G. Wells’ work, “Food for the Gods.” At Warners • THIS NOVEL IDEA is being followed through at Warners with the slating of Louis Bromfield’s “It All Came True,” C. S. Forester’s “Captain Horatio Hornblower,” Polan Hill’s “January Hill,” and Raphael Sabatini’s “The Sea Hawk.” At 20th Century-Fox, the trend is still a novel one. This studio schedules “Children of God,” story of the Mormons, “Marching As to War,” based on the work and growth of the Salvation Army, and “Salute to the Thirty-Niners,” by Mrs. Duncam Pearmain. More on Way • UNITED ARTISTS ENTRIES will include Edward Small’s “My Son, My Son,” a best seller novel, now being exploited through one of the best newspaper contests devised in Hollywood in many moons, when judged from a viewpoint of human interest. Walter Wanger is preparing “Dynasty of Death,” saga of a munitions-making family, and MetroGoldwyn-Mayer is filming “Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep” which is too long for the marquee, plus “The Yearling,” and ‘Danger Signal,” while David O. Selznick, who breezed down the track with his “Gone With the Wind,” is just about ready to release through UA the screen version of the novel sensation, “Rebecca.” Columbia plans to make Clarence Buddington Kelland’s “Arizona,” and Frank Lloyd is preparing “Tree of Liberty” by Elizabeth Page. Future Promise • THESE LITERARY PROPERTIES hold much promise for future box-office stakes, provided they are not turned into mistakes. One of the greatest mistakes made by Hollywood is the changing of an established title. We have outlined a list of best selling novels already procured and in the making. It behooves the exhibitor lo look them over, take into consideration the already established value of the original titles, and, in order to get the full benefit of the advance exploitation and public interest, advise the producers, through the local exchange managers, to retain the novel titles, so that this novel experiment might be launched under the most favorable conditions to everyone concerned. What Title Means • ONCE MORE WE REPEAT the commercial value of an established title. The book sold in the first place because the title aroused curiosity and stimulated the imagination of the purchaser. The same applies to the title on a marquee. The book buyer walks up to the book stand, looks over the covers, and is intrigued into buying the book through the appeal of its title. He buys the title first and lives in hopes of the story living up to its label. The titles of best selling novels have been tested and proven by this process and it is our firm conviction that they should remain unchanged to garner the same interest on the part of the movie going patron. If the new trend is to be a novel experiment, we hope it will be just that from the title on the book to the take on the theatre ledger. Briei Glances At PRODUCTION HAPPENINGS West Coast News Items Hollywood — So that its readers may keep abreast of the times, be in the know on the major developments and interesting sidelights, The Exhibitor offers the following items from the various lots. Columbia Dance Director LeRoy Prinz has started rehearsals for the terpsichorean routines in “Too Many Husbands.” . . . Noah Beery, Jr., has signed for “Passport to Alcatraz.” . . . “Texas Express” has been re-titled “Texas Stagecoach.” Cecilia Callejo has been signed as Jack Holt’s leading lady in “Passport to Alcatraz.” . . . Gordon Jones and Frank Sully have been signed for “The Doctor Takes a Wife.” . . . “U. S. Treasury,” one of the Washington Parade, received the endorsement of Secret Service Chief Frank J. Wilson. . . . “Men without Souls” has gone before the cameras. . . . Thurston Hall and Chester Clute were signed for “Blondie on a Budget.” Goldwyn Borden Chase, one-time Hudson River sandhog, has been engaged to do the adaptation of “Black Gold,” a story which closely parallels his own life and romance. . . . Earlier announcement by Samuel Goldwyn was that he had paid $100,000 for the rights to “The Little Foxes,” Lillian Heilman’s current Broadway success. Lesser At the beginning of production of “Our Town,” a novelty was a New England boiled dinner at the studios to the ladies and gentlemen of the press and the cast, on the studio set. Menu included celery and olives, cream of pea soup, boiled beef, boiled turkey and corned beef, cabbage and boiled potatoes, pork and beans, Boston brown bread, tea biscuits, pumpkin pie and coffee. An added attraction was the souvenir menu, describing the cast, staff, etc. All in all, it was a novel idea. Metro-Goldivyn-Mayer David Miller and Fred Zinneman have been signed to new long term contracts IRWIN SEATING famous for its “NECK TO KNEE COMFORT” AND SNAPPY APPEARANCE Distributed by N«Hon«l Theatres Supply Co. Decorative Lighting • Glass and Metal Work Exit and Dlreotion Signs • Ornamental Plaster Drinking Fountains • Air Distribution Plaques SO Years in Business Is Your Assurance of Our Reliability. VISIT OUR SHOWROOMS OR WRITE US Deslgners-Englneers-Manufaclureri 1745 N. 12th Street, Philo. VOIGT February 7, 1940