The Film Daily (1937)

Friday, Oct. 1,1937 A "JUttU" fro*» Mfywtod "Ms // By RALPH WILK HOLLYWOOD CAMUEL GOLDWYN announced yesterday that Jascha Heifetz, has been signed to a pix contract. Heifetz will make his first screen appearance in "The Great Musical Festival," which Goldwyn will produce in Technicolor next May. Heifetz and Mrs. Heifetz leave Hollywood tonight for New York on the first step of a concert tour. T Y ▼ Assembling one of the largest speaking casts ever recruited for a major film, Producer Pandro S. Berman has selected 51 players for Ginger Rogers' new RKO Radio solo starring feature, "Having Wonderful Time." The picture goes before cameras this week in the San Bernardino Mountains, with Al Santell directing, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., playing opposite Miss Rogers. ▼ T T Warners have purchased the screen rights to "For Valor in Citizenship," by George E. Q. Johnson, WHO'S WHO IN HOLLYWOOD At 19, directed • • • Introducing Interesting Personalities: No. 150 • • • HENRY KOSTER. Universal director. Born in Berlin. Has been a painter cartoonist, reporter, newsreel cameraman, assistant director, directed his initial picture, which he readily admits was a flop. Has Franciska Gaal and Dolly Haas, who are now in Hollywood; Lili Dagover and others. Author of more than 50 original stories and screenplays. Has directed in France, Germany, Austria and Hungary. Directed seven pictures, with Joe Pasternak as producer, two of them being "Three Smart Girls" and "100 Men a Girl." His initial picture with Pasternak was "Five in a Jazz Band." Ambition is to make color pictures and he predicts black-and-white pictures will be a thing of the past in two years. Hobby is using 16 millimeter color film. Stands 5, 10. Eyes, hazel. Hair, dark. which was recently published in Liberty Magazine. The story is based on Johnson's personal experiences and observations during the six years when he was U. S. Attorney in Chicago at the height of the struggle with gangs, rackets and other forms of organized crime. Case of a star doubling as production aide, Tom Keene is credited with the complete series of photographs and research data which enabled Monogram studios to reconstruct the historic ghost town of Lundy, in the High Sierras, for his new film, "Where Trails Divide." Most of the player's research was furnished by Hillis Parrett, 73, who still lives there. "The Ugly Duckling" went into production yesterday at Metro with Joe Ruttenberg, cameraman, Sandy Roth, assistant director. Edwin L. Marin will direct and Harry Rapf will produce. Director Lloyd Bacon, who has been vacationing on his yacht, has a new stuffed fish for the sportsman's den at his Hidden Valley ranch. It is a nine-foot man-eating shark he caught recently while cruising in the Santa Barbara channel. Vitaphone to Release 11 Shorts in October Vitaphone will release 11 short subjects during October, announces Norman H. Moray, Vitaphone executive in charge of shorts and trailers. Of the 11, two are tworeel length, and nine are one-reelers. The two-reelers are: Hal LeRoy in "Ups and Downs", a "Broadway Headliner" (Oct. 9); and "Starlets," a Presentation Revue (Oct. 22). The one-reelers are: Salici's Puppets in "Puppet Love," a "Vitaphone Variety" (Oct. 2); Milt Britton and His Orchestra, a "Melody Master" (Oct. 2); "Rover's Rival," a "Looney Tune" cartoon (Oct. 9); "A Vitaphone Pictorial Revue No. 2," a "Pictorial Revue," (Oct. 16); "The Lyin' Mouse," a "Merrie Melody" cartoon in Tech ^Icolcr (Oct. 16); Mai Hallet and Jtfs Orchestra, a "Melody Master" (Oct. 23); "It's Work," an E. M. Newman "Colortour Adventure" (Oct. 23); "The Case of the Stuttering Pig," a "Looney Tune" cartoon (Oct. 30); and "Playing With Danger," a Floyd Gibbons "Your True Adventure" (Oct. 30). Mono. Adds Schwartz B. Schwartz is a new member to ;he sales staff at Monogram's New j,York exchange, according to an announcement by Joe Felder, branch nanager. Schwartz will cover the Brooklyn territory. "Horizon" Stays In Seattle Seattle — "Lost Horizon" has been leld for a third week at the Liberty is a regular run attraction, followng its roadshow engagement in Seattle. RKO Will Preview Pix For Air Shows' Sponsors (Continued from Page 1) be of "Music For Madame" tonight. Frank Healy, formerly with NBC, has been engaged by RKO as contact man with networks and agencies for radio publicity tieups. "Hentzau" for Selznick, "Graustark" for Goldwyn West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — With "The Prisoner of Zenda" clicking strongly, two more mythical kingdom romances are heading for the screen. David O. Selznick will make "Rupert of Hentzau", with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., in the title role. Samuel Goldwyn plans to make a film version of "Graustark". Omaha Para. Foreclosure Suit Dropped by Court Omaha — District Judge Frank Dineen dismissed without prejudice the foreclosure suit on the closed 3,000 seat Paramount brought against the A. H. Blank Theaters Corp. of Nebraska, Tri-States Theater Corp. and Creighton University by the Omaha National bank. This formally returned control of the house to the Blank interests, but date of reopening still is uncertain. Baroness Rabier Dead West Coast Bureau of THE FILM DAILY Hollywood — Funeral services for Baroness Rabier, mother of Gertrude Michael, screen actress, who died in Sacramento from a heart attack, will be held here. Mich. Allied Regionals Prelude to Convention Detroit — A series of regional meetings of exhibitor-members has just been completed by Allied Theaters of Michigan, at Jackson, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Saginaw. Pearl Sprott, manager of the office in Detroit, attended all meetings, which were preliminary to the convention to be held at the Hotel Statler here Oct. 12-13. Radio Station, Theaters Join for Minn. Newsreel Minneapolis — Station WTCN is entering the newsreel field here in cooperation with the World theaters of this city and St. Paul. Reels will cover events of local interest, with emphasis upon those broadcast by the station. Under the arrangement the World furnishes the equipment and the cameraman, while Stephen Wells, director of publicity and special events for WTCN, edits the film and writes the continuity, and Charles Irving of the production department acts as commentator. Dinner for Schlaifer Chicago — Testimonial dinner will be given to Jack Schlaifer, western division manager for United Artists, on Saturday at the Congress Hotel. Manny Silverstone, representative of Alexander Korda, and Seymour Poe, assistant to Schlaifer will arrive from New York for the dinner. Bureau of New Plays Will Accept Mss. Till Dec. 15 Manuscripts in the Second Play Competition of the Bureau of New Plays set up by seven major companies to encourage new playwrights from among college men and recent college graduates will be accepted beginning today and continuing to Dec. 15. Anyone who has attended college as graduate or undergraduate since Sept. 1, 1931, is eligible this year. Awards of $500 will be made to the authors of the six best plays in the competition. At the discretion of the Bureau of New Plays, and on the basis of future promise and financial need, these awards may be increased to scholarship awards of $1,250 or to fellowship awards of $1,500 to $2,500. Winners of awards and honorable mention will get an opportunity to have practical contact with production by being permitted to attend rehearsals of plays and study professional production problems and their solution. The companies sponsoring the play bureau, which is under direction of Theresa Helburn of the Theater Guild, are Columbia, M-G-M, Warner Bros., 20th-Fox, Universal, RKO Radio, and Paramount. Ascap Recognizes Gilbert Co. L. Wolfe Gilbert Music PublishingCo. has been voted representation as a publisher by Ascap. Cherokuis House Opening Elmwood Park, 111. — The new Elm theater of the Cherokuis circuit opens tonight.