The Film Daily (1930)

THE DAILV Thursday, February 13, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion €) Critic Deplores Borrowing From the Legitimate Theater CO long as novelists, play^ Wrights and musical-comedy librettists keep on producing their wares, the movies need never suffer any dearth of material. It has already become one of the unhappy symptoms of the industry that it can manage to subsist so readily on the creative talents of others instead of being compelled, as the publisher or stage producer is compelled, to cultivate its own field. And so long as the public complacently swallows these secondhand ofiferings, it is doubtful if the movie people will ever trouble themselves to create from their own resources the material which properly belongs to the camera. Those of us who look patiently and longingly to the time when something distinct and indigenous will emerge from the mechanics of sound and visual reproduction cannot escape a feeling of exasperation at this wholesale reliance of the movies on the stage, particularly since the prospects point to an increase, rather than a lessening of this dependence. Thornton Delekanty in "New York Evening Post" Television Won't Empty Theaters, Declares DeMille T DON'T think it possible that television will keep people from the theater, any more than radio. The desire to leave home one or two evenings a week to seek entertainment is too strong. Television will be a splendid newsreel asset. I can visualize the inauguration of a President which we would see and hear in our neighborhood theater the moment the new Executive takes the oath of office. Cecil B. DeMille ■ THEIR FIRST JOBS JOHN D. CLARK newsboy Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly, Jr. J^UDWIG BERGER, who directed "The Vagabond King" for Paramount, will return from his trip to Germany in time to attend the world premiere of the picture at the Criterion, New York Hearst Metrotone News is being used by Judge Max S. Levine and District Attorney C. T. Grain to tell the world about the undue severity of the Baumes law, which compelled Judge Levine to sentence Ruth St. Claire to life imprisonment for shoplifting John Barrymore's initial all talker, "General Crack," will open soon for first run engagements in 50 cities throughout the country. Give A. P. Waxman credit for that sendof? Harold Mirisch, who has been with the Warner here left last night for St. Louis Jerome D. Kern will soon leave for the Warner Coast studio Mervyn Le Roy, First National director is scheduled to arrive in New York tomorrow. Of course he's on the Century Seen at the Embassy, N. Y. — Harry Hirshfield throwing a theater party to witness his debut in Movietone News Bet if Mayor Walker went in for such parties, he sure would make b.o. history Winnie Lightner, Monte Blue, Grant Withers and Milton C. Work, bridge authority, will play that game for a broadcast hookup over 70 stations in a coast-to-coast tieup Jules Levy, general manager of RKO booking dept. got in N. Y. the other day after basking in the Havana sunshine. Now that Ginger Rogers has been signed by Paramount, it does not necessarily mean that she will not be seen on the stage, for providing there is no confliction she will divide her time between both, according to William Morris Warner's "The Green Goddess" gets under way tonight at the Winter Garden, N. Y And Friday night Harry Richman in United Artists "Puttin' On The Ritz," will do his stufif at the Earl Carroll, N. Y Al Lichtman will be back at his desk Monday after spending three weeks down Florida way on a much needed vacation. When he returns, Paul Burger, his assistant, will catch a train for the sunny South where he will take a few days off. ... Sammy Fain, who writes songs for Paramount at their Long Island studios, really should be called Feinberg. He never even took a music lesson in his life and to think that he actually wrote some of the most popular hits of last year Do you know that there is a theater in New York which actually shows Chinese motion pictures? Actually I mean. FEBRUm 13-MANY HAPPY RETURNS Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the foUowing members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays today: Howard Bretherton George Fitzmaurice Dorothy Mathews Kate Price AND THAT'S THAT By PHIL M. DALY A PATRON walked up to Norman Bauer, manager of the Colony, where the vocalized "Phantom of the Opera" is playing. "This is the same picture that I saw about four years ago," said the patron. "Well, in a way," Norman temporized. "Oh, I know it's the same picture," the patron insisted, "but at that time I suppose it had just been produced and wasn't old enough yet to talk." * * i^ Natural color and music are inseparable in entertainment, says Lawrence Tibbett. And you can prove it by watching avy Southern darky do his stuff. * * * "I see in the papers that Doris Kenyon can sing a song in seven different languages." "That's nothing. I have a piece that I can do in about 20 languages." "What is it?" "A violin solo." * ♦ * SALESMAN— What are you looking so gloomy about? EXHIBITOR— I was in an allnight bridge game. SALESMAN— Did you play for money? EXHIBITOR— No, but the other fellows did. If 20,000 pounds of powder and six tons of dynamite were used in ITniversal's production of "All Quiet on the Western Front," Lynn Farnol wants to know how much explosives would be required to make a war picture that is not quiet? TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN John C. Flinn given executive position with Famous Players. * * * South Carolina committee votes down proposed censor bill. * * * Universal planning to enter nontheatrical field. * + * Famous Players Canadian Corp. Ltd. capitalized at $4,000,000 eight per cent cumulative first preferred and $750,000 common stock.