The Film Daily (1937)

SHORT SHOTS FROM EASTERN STUDIOS = By SID WEISS — JLOYD FRENCH is shooting a band short at the Vitaphone Studios with Mai Hallett's orchestra, Teddy Grace, Jerry Perkins and the dancing team of Buddy and Claire Green. It is titled "Swing College", and offers Hallett as the dean of a musical college. Bob Snode starts work tomorrow on an Audio short at the General Service Studios titled "The March of Sound." Paid Draper is in the lead. B. K. Blake, producer of the "Voice of Experience" and "Court of Human Relations" series of dramatic hits, starts an entirely new series of musical shorts Wednesday at the Biograph Studios. Sid Gary, Val Irving, Meta Carlyle and the male chorus of the Campbell Hussars are featured in the initial short. Blake himself will direct, with Frank Zucker and Charlie Harten at the camera. Joe Henaberg starts Thursday on a short with an all-kiddie cmst at the Vitaphone Studios. He follows that with a Milt Britton short. Al Christie has completed shooting on the Buster West-Tom Patricola comedy titled "Gobs of Love," leaving only two more subjects to go to complete Educational's current series of 42 two-reel shorts. The two to come will feature Tim end Irene, to be directed by Bill Watson, and the dancing team of Herman Timberg, Jr., and Pat Rooney, Jr., which Christie will direct. Sam Sax has signed Clem McCarthy, noted sports announcer, to a series of 13 sports shorts, to be directed by Lloyd French. Two will be completed in June before the Vitaphone shut-down. Addenda . . . Carl Macllvain, former head film recorded at the Brooklyn studios, has been elevated to chief recording engineer . . The boys are still gabbing about Johnny Doran's grand blow-out at the Film Art Studio opening ... Ed Savin's son, Buddy, has organized his own orchestra . . . Sam Sax is nursing a badly sprained wrist Bryan Foy, here from the coast for the convention, dropped in at the Vitaphone studios to say hello to his old gang there . . . The Warner Club Bingo party was a complete sellout . . Roy Mack starts Friday on a George Price short, following that with Hal LeRoy and June Allyson Tony Bundsman directed "Tom Sawyer" tests at the Astoria Studios Thursday. THE ■J%0* DAILY Monday, May 17, 1937 A "£UtU" fa»» "JMs" By RALPH WILK HOLLYWOOD "LJARRY W. CONN, former radio script writer for Jack Benny, is writing dialogue for sequences in "Broadway Melody of 1938," starring Robert Taylor and Eleanor Powell. T T T Richard A. Rowland is negotiating for the purchase of three songs, which he will use in "Painter In the Sky," a color-musical, he will produce for Grand National. Betty Laidlaw and Robert Lively wrote the screenplay based on an original story by Allen Vaugh Elston. T T » Darrell and Stuart McGowan have just returned to Republic from a two-weeks' vacation and are now polishing their original screenplay, "Love Ahoy," a Coast Guard story, which Armand Schaefer will produce. Production starts in two or three weeks. t t ▼ Erpi has started active construction on its new $250,000 Hollywood plant located adjacent to General Service Studios, Inc. Consisting of three two-story buildings, the project will house general offices, warehouse, garage, review room and a complete laboratory. r T T News of the day — Rudolph Friml will compose the score for Nino Martini's "Music for Madame" . . . Sol Lesser has signed Smith Ballew, ork leader, to star in westerns . . . 20th-Fox has renewed Roy Del Ruth's pact . . . Karl Tunberg and Don Ettlinger are writing "Pigskin Parade of 1937," which George Marshall will direct. T T ▼ Directorial assignments Eddie Cline to direct "Fall Guys" for RKO; D. Ross Lederman to direct "Flashing Skates" for Columbia. T ▼ T Film rights to "Manhattan MerryGo-Round" have been sold to Republic Pictures, Inc. Radio program currently starring Bert Lahr, is produced by Blackett-Sample-Hummert, Inc., and Mildred Fenton made the deal with Republic, who plan to use the title for a feature film. The adaptation will be credited to Frank Hummert. T t t — Diana Gibson, first RKO Radio Pictures young contract player to be loaned out to a Little Theater group under the plan announced by S. J. Briskin, left Hollywood Saturday to play in summer stock at the Muckers Playhouse in Idaho Springs, Colo. Her Colorado stage debut will be in George Bernard Shaw's "Candida." t r ▼ Title changes — -Columbia: "Professional Juror" to "The Man Behind the Law"; "With Kind Regards," to "It Can't Last Forever"; "Texas Cyclone" to "One Man Justice"; RKO: "Missus America" to "Meet the Missus"; GN: "Grand Canyon" to "Painter in the Sky." T T T . Casting assignments — 20th-Fox: Maurice Moscowitch, "Lancer Spy"; Violet Kemble Cooper, "Heidi"; Margaret Seddon, Margaret McWade, "Danger — Love at Work"; Monogram: Grace Durkin, "Thirteenth Man"; Columbia: James Flavin, Richard Kipling, James McDonald, "Girls Can Play." T T T New contracts: Fred MacMurray, with Paramount; Andy Clyde, with Columbia. Fund Renames Frohman Daniel Frohman has been reelected president of the Actors' Fund of America. Walter Vincent was elected first vice-president; Bernard A. Reinold, second vicepresident; Sam A. Scribner, treasurer, and Robert Campbell, secretary. George M. Cohan, Charles Dow Clark, Vinton Freedley, J. Herbert Mack, Warren P. Munsell and Richard Sterling were elected trustees for a three-year term. Otis Skinner was chosen as trustee to fill the unexpired two-year term of Donald Brian, and Lee Baker was elected to succeed Walter C. Jordan for an unexpired one-year term. Omaha Mayor Bans "Ecstasy" Omaha — Mayor Dan Butler, continuing his one-man censorship drive, assisted by City Welfare Inspector Tom Knapp, has ordered Ralph Goldberg of the Goldberg Theater Corp. to cancel the booking of "Ecstasy" at the Town Theater here. Wilson Made Felder Aide Jerry Wilson, associated with Republic Pictures since its inception, will join Monogram today as ansistant to Jos. Felder, manager of the New York exchange. He will handle sales in Long Island and upstate New York. Plans Bank Night Suit Omaha — Attorney General Richard Hunter, who recently won a decision in his Bank Night case at Beatrice, announced here that he plans to file a suit against one of the 27 local houses engaged in a cooperative weekly Bank Night. "The Prince" Held for Third "The Prince and the Pauper" will remain for at least a third week at the New York Strand Theater, beginning Wednesday. $500,000 For Improvements Chicago — Great States Theaters, B. & K. subsidiary, is spending $500,000 for improvements in downstate theaters. TliEWEEI\ IN REVIEW (Continued from Page 1) DOMESTIC of 60 titles, 46 of which were named on forthcoming line-up. Norman H. Moray, Vitaphone exec, and Sam Sax, production chief at Brooklyn studio, revealed that 134 shorts, comprising eight series, would be released next season. * # * Highlights were plentiful during seven-day span. Columbia reported nine months' profit of $1,189,354 for period ended March 31, last . . . Nationally, newsreel companies put finishing touches on elaborate arrangement for distribution of Coronation footage, scheduled to reach U. S. screen tomorrow . . . Proposed amendments to RKO's reorganization plan will, it was reported, add approximately $1,200,000 to the settlement of unsecured creditor's claims . . . Technicolor was reported as set to announce a net of $165,000 for the first quarter of 1937, with re-election of Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus and other officers expected at board meeting in New York on May 25 ... At Mid-week, Sidney R. Kent, back from Europe, declared a decision would be forthcoming by July 1 regarding the continuance of his company's distribution of GB product . . . Al Friedlander, prominent indie distributor and former official of First Division, died on Wednesday from a heart attack . . . Death also claimed Carl Levi, Loew theater district manager in New York. FOREIGN Scarcely had cheers of Coronation crowds died away when London's press raised cries of protest against the profuse cutting of newsreel films of the event to "the same length as Mickey Mouse." The Archbishop of Canterbury and official co-censor, the Duke of Norfolk, were targets for the critical blasts. Scenes taken inside the Abbey were held to be the best material filmed. Offsetting the condemnation of the British newspapers, however, was the praise directed at the success of the spot news television broadcasts of the historic pageant to an audience of 50,000 televiewers in the United Kingdom. Observers were of the opinion that transmission and reception proved beyond question the practicability of news telecast programs. * * * Two London cables brought respectively news that Dr. Brugin, Board of Trade secretary, is meeting the three film trade societies there on May 26 to discuss thf; ^ position in the next quota act; aW that dissatisfied GB shareholders are making an appeal for subscription purposes asking the Board of Trade to make inquiry into corporation's position. Latest circular alleges GB's losses amount to $15,000,000.