Exhibitors Herald World (Oct-Dec 1930)

46 EXHIBITORS HERALD -WORLD November 8, 1930 -* Jhe Sound %>oX~ STAR GAZER HOLLYWOOD. Mr. Ernie Rovelstad, Quigley Publishing Co., 407 South Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. Dear Ernie : Am I having a nice time in this town? A question to ask me! I could kill somebody. Probably the one big reason I left New York was because I got sick and tired of their digging up the streets. Eighth Avenue in New York has been a first line trench since 1927. I came here and what did I find. A whole town. Nothing ripped up, no holes in the ground, a nice, entire city. And what happened, I ask you? The minute I set foot in Hollywood they start digging. Millions of riveters, all under my window, tearing up perfectly good streets all day and all night. What's the matter with these people. The streets were all right. Are they digging for oil? And the way they're digging! First, they hire a thousand people to dig on one block. In three hours they have dug ditches twelve feet deep and put red lights and signs, "Get outa here," written very crudely, all around the trench. Now, with the place dug up so prettily, they immediately fire nine hundred and ninety-seven of the men, and start fixing the place with three persons. One of these is the foreman, another is the timekeeper, and the other has the shovel but no badge. And he'll always be lighting his pipe. The noise and dust is one thing, but they fix you nastier than that. You try to turn on the faucet in the morning — nix, no water. You go outside and beg the watchman to turn on enough to give the goldfish, and what does he do? He says for you to buy a cat. "Why a cat," you ask him. "Won't the cat want to eat?" "The cat can eat the goldfish," he says. You get home from a hard day's work and press the button for electricity. No luck. There's no one outside, the watchman is drinking beer five miles away. You finally steal one of the city's red lights and undress by that, going to sleep with the happy thought that you'll be sent to jail for robbery the first thing in the morning. Telephone service is the first thing cut off. It seems they're afraid you'll put in a call for help. But the monthly bill goes on, yes sir, you're a subscriber. If you only had a telephone you could call up and stop the service. If you could only cross the street you'd go to the drug store and buy a stamp so that you could write a letter to the telephone company telling them to call off the service. But you can't cross the street. Does anybody know of any place where there's no Chamber of Commerce ; where they're not building new streets, or reservoirs, or laying car tracks, or repaving sidewalks, or stringing telegraph poles, or putting up street lamps — where there's a city that's perfectly content to snooze along just the way it is, without improvement? Wire, don't write this department. The department will be standing on the corner of Vine and Melrose, on the right side of the street, just where he's been standing since May. Doggonit, I can't cross the street. I'm waiting for them to fix it. Respectfully, NORMAN KRASNA. Clinton Wunder Starts Academy Good Will Trip; Schedule of Talks Ready (Special to the Herald-World) HOLLYWOOD, Nov. 6.— The schedule of the good will tour of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, being conducted by Clinton Wunder, executive manager, is now completed. He will leave Hollywood tomorrow following the Awards Dinner, and will proceed directly to New York. The topic, "A Voice Heard Round the World," will tell the story of the Academy's achievements. Wunder will speak before service clubs, colleges, conventions of women's clubs, educators, film boards of trade and exhibitors. The itinerary follows : Kansas City, Nov. 16-17; St. Louis, Nov. 18; Memphis, Nov. 19; Omaha, Nov. 21; Des Moines, Nov. 20 or 22; Minneapolis, Nov. 23-24; Milwaukee, Nov. 25; Chicago, Nov. 26. Indian Society Adopts Dix HOLLYWOOD.— Richard Dix, star of the RKO product, "Cimarron," became an American Indian by adoption at the powwow of the American Indian Society of Hollywood. Guests included Wesley Ruggles, Howard Estabrook, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor, Roscoe Ates, George E. Stone, Stanley Fields and Robert McWade. HOLLYWOOD. ABOUT FACE "I don't give a damn whether I end up in a sanitarium or not, as long as I make a success of 'Resurrection' for Edwin Carewe. He forced me to take the part of Katusha Masloya after I had refused three times. I didn't think I was equal to it and to tragedy." Lupe Velez speaking — the firey little Mexican who did comedies with Charlie Chase until Doug Fairbanks selected her in "The Goucho." Lupe Velez, who came out of Mexico at 14 and now at 20 is essaying one of the greatest roles ever written. She has just finished a rehearsal with the kindly and yet gruff, the gentle and yet driving Edwin Carewe. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, marring her makeup. "I don't have to make myself cry," she told me. "Not in the part I have to play. I merely have to think of the girl I'm portraying — the tragedy of her life — and I cry naturally. "I'm doing everything in the world that I can to repay Eddie for what he has done for me and what he is doing. I used to be a clown. Now, I'm not. I'm trying to be an actress instead. Eddie has lived this story for many years — as a silent picture it was one of the greatest pictures ever made. "Now he's making a talking version. He has chosen me for the lead. No matter what happens, I'm going through with it. The part almost has killed me — it's the most difficult I've ever undertaken — but it is the only one I've ever enjoyed. The only one which has meant anything to me." Lupe, the firey one, selected by Carewe because she has the hot Latin temper and the spark of flame which the part of Maslova needs, has had a hard row to hoe, although today she has a home in Beverly Hills, automobiles and servants. She is the daughter of an opera singer and a colonel in the Mexican army. At 14, she shook the dust of the little Mexican town of San Luis Potosi from her feet and found a job as a shop girl. Carewe is delighted with the work she has been doing in the production, which is costing Universal a cool million. For the silent version, which Carewe directed with Dolores Del Rio and Rod LaRoque in the leads, the investment was approximately $335,000. "It may seem peculiar and unusual that I've twice picked Mexican girls for a Russian role," Carewe said. "The reason is that they have more of the divine spark than Americans or those from across the Atlantic. They have an ability to live parts and to portray them. "I had six women selected for the role, but I wanted Lupe. When she refused me twice, I was broken-hearted. I finally won her over, however, and she has developed so rapidly that even I, knowing her tremendous ability, am amazed." One job which Lupe has faced is that of changing her voice three times in the course of the picture. She has at first the voice of an unsophisticated country girl. Following her seduction by the prince, the role being played by John Boles, her voice is that of a vodka-drinking prostitute. In the end, she must speak with the dead accents of a broken woman. "I've the greatest combination in the world for the making of an excellent picture, and I'm more happy about the situation than I've ever been before," Carewe told me. "The stage can get away with an evening of sparkling dialog," he said. "There are perhaps five outstanding legitimate stage productions each year which are sold mainly through brilliancy of lines. "Out here, however, we must do about 600 pictures. Dialog is bound to be weak, and we must bolster it with pantomime, which i? the true art of the motion picture." —CHURCHILL.