The Film Daily (1930)

Wednesday, July 2, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion —€)— hoosing Titles Is . Tough Proposition titles under £HOOSING which pictures are to be released is one of the major perplexities of production and one of the most difficult details, although in itself it seems comparatively trivial. There are so many factors to be taken into consideration, and the psychology of the public is so hard to keep pace with, that the business of picking;' a successful title 'frequently demands the ideas of all of the executives on the lot. The modern tendency in the titles of books and plays has been towards brevity, so that it is necessary to pack a tremendous amount of suggestion into a few words, and herein lies one of the difficulties. It used to be common to see a play using ten or fifteen words and even having a secondary or explanatory phrase such as The Rise and Fall of John Pillsbury and his Family, The Triumph of Virtue over Villainy. With such latitude as that it could not be very perplexing to tell what your story was about, for the title was a veritable synopsis of the plot. In this era of one-word titles, the success or failure of a production may lie to a great extent in the title. It is easy to discourage a fan bv a badly chosen title, just as it is possible to arouse his curiosity and interest bv means of a clever one. Many failures of plays have been charged to a bad title, even when the merit of the offering was unquestioned. — Graham Baker A xi*? FILM FACT A E r**^ DAY exhibitors cut In Poland the out the dialogue on sound films and make it : silent as the talkies are not so popu ar. ^^^^^^^™ Along The Rialto with Phil M. Daly TF THE class will come to order, we will consider the case of E. B. Derr, president of Pathe, now whooping it u*p on the Gold Coast as production supervisor his magic touch is already to be noted in "Swing High" at the Cohan and "Holiday" opening tomorrow at the Rivoli if he keeps it up, they will soon be calling it the Golden Rooster he's one of the best li'l organizers in this film biz, having graduated from a course with Bethlehem Steel, where he personally engineered the merging of 92 companies into one giant organization he'd probably do the same for the flicker industry, but there ain't 92 companies left he was also comptroller of the Four River Shipyards employing 26,000 people he should make a swell director of mob scenes then he took a hand in FBO and First Nash outside of this he's done practically nothing he probably considers his work at the Pathe studio as a well earned vacation now if you chumps could loaf as efficiently as E. B., look where you'd be today the class will now join in singing that recent song hit, "He's So Unusual." * * * * TV-WE WHYTE, manager of the Rialto, ran himself bowlegged trying to dig up some flags of the South American republic of Colombia to stick in front of the house to welcome President-elect Herrera of that country -Hank Linet of Columbia Pictures heard about it, and big-hearted guy wot he is, he sent a messenger over with some Columbia banners labeled "Prosper With Columbia" for some reason Dave didn't use 'em won't these press agents EVER learn to cooperate? * * * * TV/ARNERS have postponed reopening of the Warner and Hollywood houses the former will probably open about July 16 with "Old English" and the latter around July 18 with "Moby Dick" "Sweethearts and Wives" held for second week at the Strand, while the Beacon's next is a first run of "Those Who Dance." * * * * (T1EORGE EASTMAN of Eastman Kodak has been appointed by President Hoover as a member of the George Washington Bi-centennial Commission Just by way of helping to fill this kolyum, would you consider these famous song writers as inventors of note? Lindy*s new eatery in the Broadway Block building is getting a play from our more select film gentry George Batcheller has signed Jesse Greer and Ray Klages to write the songs for Chesterfield's third talkie, "A Jazz Cinderella." JJONALD COLMAN had Sir Gerald du Maurier as his guest at a preview of his picture, "Raffles," in Lunnon Sir Gerald played the part of Raffles during the original stage run Mike Marks, "Mayor of Seventh Avenue," sez he is going on a vacation with Tommy Culkin to the Catskills to get away from the kibitzers he told Tommy that they were going to Sullivan county, but that Irisher doesn't know it has been re-named Solomon county Ever hear of the vaude team of Sunshine and Roses? according to Walter C. Kelly, that was the original and prophetic name of Clark and McCullough * * * * ILLUSTRATING how fast American producers are grabbing off foreign talent, Earl Ettlinger, German comedian, was signed up with six hours to catch the boat from Hamburg to play in Molnar's "Olympia" -on the way he got his wet wash from the laundry and hung it out to dry on the steamer deck Professional Boxers' Night was held last eve at the Globe for "The Big Fight," with a lotta celebrated pugs as guests Pathe's "fainted Desert" does not refer to Holly 1. where a li>tta extras have found it all paint but no dessert. * * * * W//1' NOT think up a good gag line for yourself right here? Yon can il<> it, kid! EXPLOITETTES A. Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas c Merchants Sponsor Kid Matinees TOW PRICED competition crowding him particularly on his children's business, set Manager George Frantz of the Fox, Montrose, Colorado, to planning how he could recover his fallaways. Through a cooperative advertising tie-up, he promoted several merchants in town to sponsor Friday matinees for the kids. Through screen and newspaper advertising, Frantz announced that certain firms would be hosts on the weekly matinees. In addition to the advertising, the business houses paid $5.00 for the publicity. —"Now" Research Work on Title Helps Put Over Film YV/HEN Warners' Strand, Syracuse, featured "Sweethearts and Wives" recently, C. Spencer Chambers, supervisor of penmanship in the public schools, dug into his collection of old theater programs to establish that that title was more than a century old. It was the name of an operetta given at the Theater Renal, Norwich, England, on Mav 14, 1825. — Warners 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: July 2 George Folsey Hayden Stevenson F. D. Langton David Ragin Harry Crocker