The Film Daily (1929)

DAILY Thursday, October 24, 192 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion €) Regards Sound Pictures As an Aid to Surgery THERE are many important operations which the average surgeon performs but once in his life. If these operations are recorded on sound film in the future and distributed among doctors and students, it is reasonable to expect that there will be a tremendous decrease in mortality from such causes. William Fox * * * Lauds Arbitration System in Industry WE believe that the arbitration system has been sound in its business aspects and of good morals in trade relations. It has contributed to a growing ethics in the trade and has values not yet by any means exhausted. "Motion Picture Journal" * * * Sees Public Content With Banality in Films TO give them the credit due them, all the producers, all the actors and all the directors would like to take the banality out of films; but a large proportion of the public does not seem to be of like mind and intention. Harry Carr in "The Los Angeles Times" * * * Pictures First Among Industries in Progress NO industry, no machinery for promoting enlightenment and happiness, has progressed as rapidly as moving and talking pictures. The printing press, alone, can be compared with moving pictures in power of education. The whole world is instructed and entertained by pictures, and its semi-barbarous regions civilized by them. "New York American" TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN 2<f NEWSPAPER o/'FILMPOM HBHttsBSsna,' Capitol, New York, has premiere opening tonight. * * * Harry Reichenbach elected an officer of Equity Pictures Corp. * * * Cecil B. De Mille, Gloria Swanson and Bebe Daniels en route to New York. Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly, Jr. GERMAN version of Herbert Brenon's production of "Lummox" will have its premiere at Hoboken, advises Warren Nolan, United Artists publicity impresario, styling the Jersey city as the place where "a hamburger's still a hamburger, but the beer is not so near" Jimmie Chapman, veteran of the Educational San Francisco office, has joined the Fox West Coast booking department Virginia Lee Corbin was secretly welded to Theodore Crow, New York broker Among other honors heaped upon him, Thomas A. Edison has been named the first honorary member of the Academy of M. P. Arts and Sciences A "friendly" get-together is promised for Thursday's meeting of the AMPA. Well? Mary and Doug are in London this week, where they expect to witness premiere of "The Taming of the Shrew." Carmel Myers is to make a poisonal appearance at premiere of Columbia's "Broadway Scandals" Oct. 28 at the George M. Cohan, Noo Yawk. Today the Stebbinses are in the birthday spotlight. Gertrude Lawrence left the Empire t'other night to sing a song or two under the benevolent eye of Alexander Woollcott, who was doing his weekly "Town Crier" over WOR. Jay Gourney accompanied her in "Housekeeping," the song he wrote for her use in "The Battle of Paris," which Paramount is keeping up its sleeve ;also in "They All Fall in Love," Cole Porter's contribution to the star's first audible There's to be a headline show at the testimonial dinner for Georgie Jessel Sunday sponsored by the Jewish Theatrical Guild of America Lenore Ulric is to do a personal appearance act with "Frozen Justice" tomorrer night at the Roxy Mary Garden is considering a singing appearance in talkers Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, says he draws the line at "those rotten American films with their silly plots" but the British public certainly can't agree with him.: Walter Eberhardt, publicity ace of Electrical Research Products, is to give up raking leaves at Scarsdale long enough to attend \v ^■^/r-°-A racket at Memphis, starting Tuesday D. W. Griffith has left Noo Yawk for the Coast. Joe Brandt is still m Lunnon with his new foreign sales manager, Milton Schwartz. 75 NUMBER 75 Industry Statistics By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Statistical Editor, The Film Daily /CONSTRUCTION of theaters in the United States during 1928 represented three and a half per cent of all building in the country and included a combined investment of $161,938,000. Last year's figure is a tremendous increase over figures of a few years ago, estimates placing the increase in cost at more than $153,000,000 over the 1923 total, which amounted to $18,085,568. In 1924, new theaters were valued at $24,701,398; 1925, $56,000,000; 1926, $69,783,000. MANY HAPPY RETURNS October 24 Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who today are celebrating their birthday: Arthur W. Stebbins Marian Coldwell Cooper Julia Swayne Gordon Byron Morgan S. J. Stebbins Henry Goldfarb Arthur Edeson -AND THAT'S THAT By PHIL M. DALY THE SCENE was a place of liqui refreshment on the upper we side where congenial souls gather I forget the cares of the business da and make merry as congenial sou have made merry since time begai Inside an hour seven total stranger had become great cronies, discussin things freely that they wouldn't te their wives. There was one gent \\ the crowd who would be priceless ; any sort of a party, from diplomat to ditch-diggers. If the conversatio sagged, or somebody got arguments tive, or some guy perchance starte worrying about home ties, this gei would pipe up up cheerily: "I'll sin you a song." And he would. An how. So the gang stuck till the closed the joint. The seven cronie parted, maybe never to meet agaii But they'll always remember th genial gent who left them as he tei ered down the avenue, still singinj cheery song. * * * Come to think of it, a big part o this li'l old world's history has bee built on the ability and inclinatio of some genial gent to sing a sowj; We might start with the Biblicc Songs of David. A.nd before th written tvord was in the grasp o the masses, the prowess of a nation' heroes and the beauty of its heroine was perpetuated by strolling sing ers. They were the world's first hit torians. So we have the sagas o the Vikings. The scented love lyric of the Persians. The haunting fol gongs of the Russians. The bonne ballads of Scotland. The cheer, chansons of the French. Music butt into the fibre and soul of a peopl for centuries — because some gen was able to sing a song. * * * So today we have our Irving Bet lins and George Cohans. Today w also have seen the miracle of a wob bly silent screen art take on new lif and soar to undreamed-of heights C popular appeal and prosperity. Why Because the silent shadows are noi singing songs. Scientific and engi neering geniuses have presented th industry with an age-old idea: "Wh; not sing a song?" And the screen i singing its way into the hearts of th world. THEIR FIRST JOBS PAUL GULICK raking hay in Vermont at 75c a day