The Film Daily (1934)

THE ■%2a DAILY Friday, April 6, 1934 Springfield, Mass. — James H. Skiffington, for 11 years with Fox interests, has been named manager of the Jefferson, owned by Winchester Amusement Co., of which Louis Cohn and Harry Cohen are heads. He succeeds Billings R. Booth, who will become manager of a Georgia group of four houses with headquarters at Athens, Ga. Manchester, Conn. — The Circle, owned by Warner, has been closed for the summer. Kansas City, Mo. — A constitution and by-laws were adopted this week by the Variety Club, which now has a membership of 74. Salt Lake City — Manager Jack Rue of the Universal office is in from a trek throughout the Idaho territory and reports that conditions are greatly improved throughout this section. Salt Lake City— Manager R. C. Hill of the Columbia exchange is still leading the U. S. during the eleventh month of the Columbia sales drive. Cleveland — G. W. Erdmann, sec retary of the Cleveland Motion Picture Exhibitors Assn., substituted for M. B. Horwitz at the hearing in Washington before the Nationa! Recovery Review Board. Buffalo — Harry Seed, manager of the Warner branch, and A. Charles Hayman, managing director of the Lafayette theater, have returnee! from vacations in the South. Chicago — Harry Turrell, who wa; transferred from the Capitol to the Avalon some time ago, has beer returned to the Capitol. He was the first manager of the house and is back on his old job. Buffalo — -Three out of five firstruns current here this week are Warner-First National features. These are "Hi, Nellie" at the Great Lakes, "Wonder Bar" at the Hippodrome, and "Jimmy The Gent" at the Century. SUNSHIN€ IN THE DAY'S NEWS Big Easter business reported in numerous situations. l-n "ViBlliSiMr IB iBirn .?x»y Tcii j ' i ill! IE Sjg^-r : ^r with PHIL H DALY • • • IT STARTED as a more or less revolutionary experiment in the field of motion picture technique a studio try-out of an Idea, as it were and the try-out proved so successful that its sponsors are going to book the film as a regular release we refer to a one-reel picture of "Pagliacci" with Henry Hull in the famous role of Canio produced and directed by William C. DeMille ▼ ▼ ▼ • • • THE EXPERIMENT embraces a combination of the arts of music and the drama well known operatic singers furnish the vocalization talented actors of the legitimate stage supply the pantomimic action what you call a Perfect Wedding of the best in opera and drama the singer contributes his or her golden voice and is not seen the actor portrays the role with his entire attention on Visual Expression thus le-creating the Lost Art of the silent picture where pantomime was all-important as it should be in a motion picture that's why they called it MOTION Y ▼ ▼ • • • IT MAY be that Mister De Mille and his collaborator John Erskine who wrote the English libretto have created a technique that will take both Opera and Talkies out of their hybrid classifications the first stole Drama and added it to the Voice and thus messed up two distinct Arts the second stole Voice and added it to Pantomime and thus messed up the New Art of the Motion Picture by the simple process of having one set of actors sing the roles unseen and the other players enact the roles in pantomime before the camera presto! the Opera and the Motion Picture are united in their Pure Forms no longer Mongrels of dubious mixed breed so maybe these two experimenting gentlemen have discovered Something! Y ▼ T • • • IN ANY event .. "Pagliacci" is one of those Real Innovations that you cannot afford to miss it is superbly produced and acted and sung .... just two scenes from the famous opera presented in 12 minutes . . Henry Hull's acting is a screen treat watching him, you realize how ALL screen players are terribly handicapped trying to play to the mike with their Voice and to the lens with their Acting and what real actors can do before the camera when they can concentrate on their pantomimic action and what a gawdsend it must be to the opera singers not to be forced to pretend thev are actors! ▼ T ▼ • • • SO THE picture public will have the final say if they go for this New Technique Audio Produc tions will sponsor the outstanding operas in feature length William DeMille will produce and direct them and E. W. Hammons will be tickled senseless to present them through his Educational organization at last music lovers everywhere will have the opportunity to hear and see the operas heretofore confined to limited stage production in one or two metropolitan centers and to see them acted PROPERLY for the first time in history by skillful actors of the stage . truly, a most worthy and commendable Achievement T T ▼ • • • ON THE "Hall of Fame" program Sunday eve John Barrymore and Carole Lombard will broadcast a scene from Columbia's "Twentieth Century" over NBC The United Press officials saw a preview of "I'll Tell the World" Universal pix which opens Apr. 20 at the Roxy they unanimously praised its authenticity and character delineation of newspaper people which to our knowledge is the first time News Experts have thus commended a newspaper film yarn Audiences at the Strand during the run of "As the Earth Turns" will be given ballots to vote their approval or otherwise of films without hoke such as this pix. « « « » » » NAKED TRUTHISMS By MARTIN STARR Publicity Director for A.Ml'A Naked Truth Dinner "CINALLY, yesterday's two Santy Clauses allowed us to mention their names, which will give you an idea to what extent some people are going to make AMPA's party a party! Mr. Jules E. Brulatour and the Eastman Kodak Co. will shell out plenty pesos for the hire of those celebrated Meyer Davis musikmakers, with Davis being on tap all throughout the long and transcendent night. . . A moot question was finally settled by the dinner arrangers. Lovers of bird food will have a choice of either chicken or turkey. Those ordiering turkey will find it gently sprayed with gravy. Others, who don't look so good in gravy polkadots, will just stick to roast chicken. What culinary strategy! Folks entering the grand ballroom of the Astor on April 21 should not be taken aghast by the length of the speakers' platform. While some hotels boast of the longest thisa and the largest thata, the Astor has always taken pride in being able to construct the biggest rostrum. It stretches from 44th to 45th Street. But at no time have all the dais sitters become speakers.' Affairs usually end before sun-up. Right now, with the industry convention-minded, there might be\ some constructive purpose in exe-; cutives settirig aside a few of the larger committee rooms. Between dances they might be able to rush their lads upstairs for some of those quick pep talks. It ivill help to cut down on convention expenses. And besides there's many a good sales point that could be driven home on a night like that. AMPA, star maker of the industry, always had a habit of corralling shy celebrities out of their hide-a-ways. That Christmas dinner found them at every table. On April 21 there'll be enough "names" mingling with the guests to make many a city editor wonder how they escaped his reporters and hocus-focus boys. The stars are ever appreciative of those indispensable, comprehensible lads of the space-grabbing platoon. . .