The Film Daily (1930)

THE Tuesday, June 10, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion —€)— Dramatists Are Not >o Hot for Hollywood W7HEN the picture makers gave the screen a voice they i at once paid the stage the greatest compliment and mined their own position. For the talkie is [ a pallid imitation of the stage and must compete with it on its own terms. If you or they think they can go back, try sitting I through the inanities of one of ! the old silent films with their grotesque mugging and mouthing and writhing. They must go j forward. The screen will never | be silent again. But who is go| ing to write the words? Good plays are generally written on inspiration, not on order. The I good dramatist, if he is worth | his weight in royalties, is a sensitive soul who cannot work un II der the lash. Most of the drama| tists doing time in Hollywood will be back on Broadway before long. All will have money; i| some will be unbroken; more will be shattered for months to ! come. I talked to scores of dramatists, actors and directors I who have been lured by gold to Hollywood. (Dance at night at the Embassy and you imagine yourself at a Manhattan Mayfair l| dance for all the familiar faces, while strolling on any movie lot is like passing the Lambs Club ' in spring.) Thus the burden of I their song: "I'm doing it for the wife and kiddies. Will I be I back? Just wait till the last I option's over." — Brock Pemberton MANY HAPPY RETURNS Best wishes and congratula tions are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays: June 10 Leopold Friedman Dorothy Farnum Vera Lewis Cleve Moore Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly A^/JUCH EXCITEMENT on Broadway in connection with the opening of "Numbered Men" at the Winter Garden somebody pressed the electric button controlling two huge sirens on the marquee, and they couldn't switch 'em off again police thought it was a holdup, for several jewelry stores in the neighborhood are equipped with sirens to guard against holdups so Broadway was in a wild stampede the show got a swell impromptu ballyhoo and somebody got merryell from the police inspector * * * * TiERT ADLER sez it's okay for Sid Davidson of Warner's New Jersey division to get full credit for the tie-up with the Government "A" boards we credited him with last week but nevertheless Bert rises to remark that Tom Olson of the Fox Avon in Utica made the same tie-up before Davidson did now that we have started this new war, it may help us to get some copy for this alleged kolyum A friend called on an independent producer at 729 Seventh avenoo, and asked as he reached for Mr. Bell's original talkie apparatus: "Is your phone working?" and the dejected I. P. sez: "I HOPE so." * * * * JhVELYN LAYE will sail from Lunnon to New York and thence to H'lywood for her first singing picture, "Moon Madness" Ronald Colman will also hit New York from Fog City soon, in time for the opening of "Raffles" at the Rivoli or Rialto And why does Julius Singer no longer wear that white carnation he has been sporting for the past 14 years? probably somebody told him it was getting slightly worn This New York atmosphere has got in the blood of some out-oftown visitors to the Warner convention, for still hanging around town are to be noted M. A. Walsh of Frisco, Otto Rohde of Oklahoma City, Norman Moray of Chi, Bert Lyon, Canadian manager, and Wolf Cohen of the Winnipeg office * * * * T ILY DAMITA, who is to sail on the Paris Thursday eve. returns to Hollywood in September for the femme lead in "Sons O' Guns" We are offering Paramount free, gratis and for nothing an idea for a Treasure Hunt on the Byrd South Pole picture in connection with those two airplanes which the expedition left buried in the snow when they made their homeward flash everybody knows at least a coupla guys they'd like to send to the South Pole, and if you'll all chip in with entries we can start a swell Treasure Hunt Another publicity stunt is to pick the eligible marriageable men of Byrd's crew who had to do their own cooking and mending for 20 months, and watch the Mad Scramble from lazy dames all over this great U. S. A * * * * EDUCATIONAL INFORMS us that "Mack Sennett's new comedies are so thoroughly modern and refined that, when custard pies are present at all, they are used for gastronomical purposes, consumed daintily with pie forks" this film biz is getting just too darned for anything Add Pioneers: James Neill, according to Harrison Carroll, claims that he organized the first stock company on record 'way back in 1893 in Denver, with Blanche Bates as the lead Harry Storin, managing director of the Albee in Providence, will be given a testimonial dinner at the Biltmore in that city on June 17, in honor of hia appointment as general manager of all R-K-O theaters in Rhode Island * * * * A LBERT HOWSOX. scenario editor of Warners, came through with a pip address to the boys at the Chi convention last Saturday Tammany Young has been engaged by Sono-Art as gatekeeper for the showing of "The Big Eight" at the N. Y A. C. Wednesday eve Tammany took the job just for tinsatisfaction of keeping out One-Eyed Connolly, his rival in the gate-crashing art Now you can return to your schoolhooks, boys and girls, for you have loafed long enough * * * * IF AN EXHIB buys blanket insurance, doe* that ii'-ake him «< Indian ? EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation ldea<, — 0— "Match Play" Tie-up With National Shops 'PHE National Shirt Shop.. Inc., arranged three fine windows in their Times Square stores, in connection with "Match Play," showing at the Rialto, New York. Another window was spotted in the National Shirt Shop at Fifty-ninth St. and Lexington Ave. A life-size cut-out. in natural colors, of Walter Hagen. as well as stills from "Match Play" in neat frames, golf clubs and balls and a credit card calling attention to the fact that the Sennett Comedy is playing at the Rialto Theater were included in the window display. The National Shirt Shops linked up with the golf subject by displaying what they called "Match Play" shirts, ties and underwear. — Educational * * * Radio Broadcast for "Puttin' On the Ritz" 1*HK Palace Theater in Huntington, W. Ya., staged a Grand Summer Opening with its presentation of Harry Richman in "Puttin On the Ritz." A giant radio broadcast was the main feature of the campaign. This comprised a resume of Harry Richman's life, interspersed with various features. Included in the program were recordings of the special Brunswick exploitation record prepared by the star, in which he talks and sings the hit numbers of "Puttin' On the Ritz"; Palace symphonic orchestrations and vocalizations and a resume of the pictures to be presented by the Palace Theater during the ensuing weeks. — United Artists It is estimated that 100,000 patrons attend the 18 Broadway (N. Y.) section houses daily.