The Film Daily (1930)

Tuesday, June 3, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion €) Harry Warner Sees New Developments in Films FHERE are several new developments pending in the motion picture industry, but to find the ones that will be of the most interest to the public is our problem. This is due largely to the intellectual advancement of the people themselves, which has been largely brought about by the screen. The screen has educated the people to think for themselves. In looking to the future we must ascertain just what will do good as well as amuse. While you are entertaining the public you can put in a background that has some educational value. . . .When radio first came out it was the opinion of the public that people would stay at home. It had just the opposite effect. It created a desire for entertainment. . . .The character today takes precedence over the star. Today, we are seeking out personalities for characters, people who can play these particular characterizations better than any one else, regardless of what their name does or does not stand for . . . Pictures, either talking or silent, didn't hurt the theater, but theatrical producers and theater managers did. They did not have sufficient foresight to advance with the times. They seemed unaware that you can't build anything on a weak foundation. If they hadn't blindly followed each other and hadn't pandered to a certain element in our population, but instead produced according to their own judgment what was best, there would be a different story to tell. Harry Warner 2,253 pictures were imported by Poland in 1929. 1,549 of these were from the United States. Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly J-[OWARD HUGHES has come through with his "Hell's Angels" at last, and according to reports of the opening at Grauman's Chinese theater on the Coast, it looks like a sizzling success it received one of the greatest ballyhoos in the history of Hollywood openers all the reviewers agree that it has been done on such a gigantic scale that it is breathtaking especially the scene depicting the burning of the Zeppelin whatever the final verdict, there can be no question about the nerve and money-spending ability of its backer. ATANCY CARROLL has arrived in New York to make her next picture at the Paramount stude, "Laughter" Nancy is still shaken up over her trying experience in a stalled 38-foot cruiser rolling helplessly in a gale Dave Whyte, managing director of the Rialto, has appointed Bud Gray, publicity man, and Jimmy Dunn, house manager, gentlemen-in-waiting to the theater's mascot, a German police dog but Bud isn't issuing any publicity about it, so we're doing it for him :. .Jimmy Gleason pulled a tough assignment in Pathe's "Beyond Victory," having to stand against a board while a gent threw knives around him so, according to Harrison Carroll, the director compromised with a rubber board and the knives were projected through the reverse side by a spring. * * * * J? UBE GOLDBERG on location with the Raoul Walsh company shooting exteriors of "The Big Trail" in Montana, sez that they are being annoyed by disappointed song writers who dolefully sing their rejected songs as they walk back to New York Ben Turpin uses a parrot perched on his steering wheel to call the traffic signals, but when the parrot called a traffic officer "pretty cop," Ben drew a ticket anyway INTERVIEWING SOME of these entrants for the Film Golf Tournament, we asked them: "What excuse, if any, have you for being a Golf Addict?" thus approached, some came clean, others side-stepped, and one or two broke down completely and begged us to say nothing, as it might ruin them with the folks back home Dick Brady made vague references to a blow on the head in his early youth Leo Brecher waxed reminiscent, and spoke sentimentally of the days when in rompers he used to play in the sand pits over on Avenue A, and now he just can't keep out of the sand pits Irving Chidnoff had his picture taken at graduation, and the photographer stuck a golf ball in his mouth to keep him from crying, and that also explains why he became a portrait photographer all in all, this Golf is a strange malady and what is worrying us personally is the fact that even we are beginning to FALL for it say, ain't it a grand and glorious feeling when you accidentally make a good drive down the fairway? Q J. NORTH, chief of the M. P. Division of the Dep't of Commerce, spent Memorial Day in New York Jean Leroy tells us that this wide-screen was first shown in America 'way back in 1895, when August Lauste projected a picture the entire width of the old Tony Pastor stage Radio sent out a call for chorus men for "Half Shot at Sunrise," and 350 of them stormed the studio entrance and the studio manager sent out word : "Tell those girls to stop chattering." Bebe Daniels sez her coming marriage to Ben Lyon has no connection with her current picture, "Lawful Larceny." * * * * T'HAT WARNER bunch won't let us get away with anything they tell us the Winter Garden loud-speaker is plug Kinp the "Flame" song from the First Nash "Song of the Flame" and not a Paramount song as noted here oh. well, it was free publicity any way you figure it, sez we * * * * AN EXHIBITOR was knocked unconscious by the crowds rushing to his rival's theater. EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas o Uses Club Plan to Build Patronage P)AN STEARNS, manager of tht Willoby theater, Willoughby, O., has instituted a Willoby Theater Club Plan that is going over big with local civic organizations. The plan, open to all social, civic and fraternal organizations, involves no expense whatever. Tickets are issued to the organization sponsoring a particular show and for each ticket sold, the organization receives 40 per cent of the price of the ticket. Last week the Browning Parent-Teachers Association sponsored and sold tickets for "Around the World with Mr. and Mrs. Martin Johnson." — "Associated Publications" * * * "War Spectacle" on Roof of Your Theater "^fHERE fire laws permit colored fireworks resembling bursting shells and discharged from the roof of your theater make an excellent ballyhoo. Fireworks never fail to capture the attention of the crowd and hundreds will flock to your theater to see the exhibit. Shoot off a number of blank cartridges to heighten the effect. Place red and green flares on both sides of your marquee and on the roof and slug your ads with the line: "Where the sky is red and green you will find "All Quiet on the Western Front." — Universal MANY HAPPY RETURNS Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays: June 3 Robert Edeson Francis E. Zeisse