The Film Daily (1930)

THE -#B Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion e Belasco Predicts End of Talking Pictures THE decline and fall of the talking picture was forecast by David Belasco in his birthday interview. He is seventy-seven years old. "If I were younger and had plenty of money," he said, "I would go into the production of silent pictures. That is the great field for the right man today. Good, silent pictures would sweep the country. The great mistake of the motion picture producers was that of launching the talking pictures. The silent picture was one of the most interesting developments in the field of entertainment. It has deteriorated from an art to a nuisance with the introduction of the 'squawkies.' The talking picture interested the public in the first place as a novelty and then as a freak. The novelty has worn off, and there are signs everywhere that the people are tiring of the talking picture. The difficulty is not only that of the mechanical faults of reproduction, but the inferiority of the motion picture product. They cannot turn out good talking pictures on a large scale. A producer of legitimate drama has to work and struggle with raw material all year and he is exceedingly lucky if he produces one or two good plays. The talking picture companies aim at producing twenty-five or thirty or more talking pictures in the course of a year. No wonder the average talking picture is what it is. The talking picture producers can never get playwrights to turn out good work on any such scale." — New York "Herald" In Switzerland there are 285 picture houses, 20 of which art traveling shows. ■JZ&* DAILV Thursday, July 31, 1930 Along The Rialto with PhilM. Daly QNE OF the real big productions of the season is about completed director Raoul Walsh is putting the finishing touches on his $2,000,000 production, "The Big Trail" 12,000 people appear from time to time in this super many new records of achievement have been established in the months it has taken to complete this epic of old pioneer days the company actually endured the hardships of pioneer days the big punch is a buffalo stampede, with hundreds of the frightened animals thundering over the plains John Wayne, who is featured, almost lost his life when a big bull charged him director Walsh was out for realism and he almost got more than he wanted looks like a great picture the world premiere will be at Grau man's Chinese the first week in September P)ON HANCOCK is back from the Morristown forests in New Jersey where he went for a vacashe at his sister's home she ups and leaves him with a 11-room house and four servants to look after so he comes back all worn out, but thoroughly qualified as a house manager It's a boy at the Mannie (Aesop Fables) Davis' home, and now Man nie is more animated than ever The Grantland Rice Sportlight west coast unit just filmed Wrigley's Catalina Island, shooting a tug-of-war between oarsmen of the U. S. Navy and the Glass-Bottomed Boatmen J. H. Gallagher will attend the R-K-O managers' meeting in Chi next Tuesday pOX STUDIOS are out with a claim that during the past seven months they have housed productions that require the services of nine times the total number of extras used by all other studios in California combined what's more, they state that the schedule for the next six months will maintain the record * * * * TED HEALY, working as comedian in "Soup to Nuts," was allowed by Rube Goldberg and director Benjamin Stoloff to ad lib an entire scene with four of his gang Low score for ages has been chalked up by Fox for new featured players recently signed they are all under 19 New Wrinkle: Photos of all Fox exchange managers are being supplied to all house managers so that they can be admitted to the shows on their muggs alone Ruth Waterbury has been appointed editor of the new 10-cent fan mag, "Silver Screen," to be published by Alfred A. Cohen of "Screenland." gEN ATWELL will handle the publicity for D. W. Griffith's "Abraham Lincoln," opening at the Central on Aug. 25 Martin Schiff, travelling auditor for Universal, who has been vacationing in Gotham, goes back on the job next week Rube Jackter and Joe Goldberg of Columbia are gonna walk across Brooklyn Bridge some evening next week in order to close a contract a Brooklyn exhib they were trying to line up, who walks to New York and back again every day over the Bridge, sez he'd sign if they accompanied him on one of his walks, so they immediately took him up Sam Tulpan of H.E.R. Lab has a standard sales line: "We have a very fine sound proposition" Sam figures that's a good one to lead off with, for it leaves no room for argument "DAT GARYN caught in an off moment: We saw him snoring in a chair at Spinrad's barber shop while getting a massage that proves how tough this trailer biz is Tay Garnett, the perfect type of what the public thinks a director isn't: He goes to work in an ordinary business suit he seldom takes his coat off he rarely sits in a chair marked with his name he stands close to his actors when coaching them a gentle voiced, self-effacing director will wonders never cease? EXPL0ITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas €) Big Broadcast for "Dixiana" 'THE complete story of "Dixiana" took the air from the Radio Picture sound stages in Hollywood Tuesday night when Bebe Daniels, Wheeler and Woolsey, Dorothy Lee and others of the cast sang into the mike the melodies they sang for "Dixiana." Teddy Maxwell, coast announcer, told the story to listeners over a fifty station hookup, over the NBC "red" network. An unusual number of listeners were anticipated through newspaper advertising on the broadcast which broke in metropolitan newspapers concurrently with the broadcast. — Radio Pictures Tieup With Thrift Books JULIUS LAMM, manager of J the Fox Theater, Sheboygan, recently sold $2,500 in Fox Thrift Books to a labor society. The thrift book coupons will be used at the society's picnic. One coupon will be given free to each purchaser of a raffle ticket for a chance on a prize. In this way the society assures everyone at the picnic something for their money spent on raffles and gives the purchaser a chance to win a bigger prize. —Fox MANY HAPPY RETURNS mtb* Best wishes and congratulations are extended by THE FILM DAILY to the following members of the industry, who are celebrating their birthdays : July 31 James Flood Irving Lesser Fred C. Quimby Howard Sheehan Carl Smith Gilbert Golden