The Film Daily (1930)

THE Sunday, October 26, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion —€)— Building Up the Mystery Woman RESPITE sincere efforts by Paramount officials to put a stop to the penchant for comparing Marlene Dietrich, their newest German importation, to Greta Garbo, Hollywood writers continue to harp upon the belief that the Swedish star has a rival as the screen's Ladv of Mystery. Paramount executives are convinced that they have a great bet in Miss Dietrich, and they are desirous of letting her win celebrity by standing upon her own feet. And, of course, the comparison is odious if only for the reason that La Garbo is a star of another company. It will be recalled, perhaps, that some Hollywood scribes proclaimed upon the arrival of Maurice Chevalier, that the French star was a second Al Jolson. But Paramount put short work to that, for, entirely aside from the fact that Chevalier is so far above Jolson that there's no comparison, they were bound to have him stand upon his own feet. And they were right, for there are few stars of the magnitude of Chevalier. But it would seem that Miss Dietrich is playing into the hands of the Hollywood scribes, for she now refuses to give interviews and keeps to herself even in the studio. This, yota know, is Garbo to a "T". Then, too, both young women are shortly to be starred in stories based upon the life of Mata Hari, the celebrated war spy. Press agents, of course, started the ball a-rolling in the case of Marlene Dietrich. They harped upon the "mystery woman" stuff as soon as she arrived in Hollywood. And now the brand appears to be sticking. — Evening World The combined capital of the picture producing companies In Japan is $125,000,000. RAMBLING THOUGHTS Of a Gent Trying To Figure ^ What It's All About ah, here we are bright and early at our desk well, mebbe not so bright, but early, anyway at which the office cuckoo clock is so surprised it gives one "cuck" and flops on the floor gasping for breath enthusiastically, we tear into a pile of press notices a foot high ah, a cinch to knock out a kolyum with all this material but after a half hour, the waste basket is filed, and our desk is nice and clean again which sets us wondering on the Futility of it All wonder if the rest of the boys who are doing Big Things in this here biz find life like that there's the production executive, for instance he comes back from a trip to Hollerword all smiles and enthusiasm has he really seen anything going on out there on the cinema horizon to make him jump through hoops and yell whoopee? or has he found it just the same old boloney sliced a li'l more fancy? does he go into his private office, clo?e the door and bite his fingernails and clutch frantically at his hair? everybody starts out with High Hopes and comes back with heebee-jeebees it works both ways guys start from New York for Hollerword or vice versa, expecting to learn something Worth While and when the reporters interview 'em after it's all over, they smile rather vaguely and talk about the nice weather there seems to be some Great Grief gnawing at their vitals, some tremendous disappointment that they'd like to unburden their souls of, but they dassent it's all very, very sad there's Lester Cowan of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, for instance he just left for the Coast after consulting with all the head men and when the Academy boys greet him at the station he'll just smle and look enthusiastic but in the privacy of his boudoir he'll probably sob his heart out on the nice blue bed spread there ain't no News worth talking about any more # * * * £)ANIEL TOTHEROH, author and scenarist, has left for the Coast all hopped up with the idea that he is gonna write the screen's Great Masterpiece but when the supervisor, director, adaptors and the rest of the stude officials get through tearing his masterpiece apart, what then? Dan will ride or walk back to li'l old New York and grab hisself a job writing True Stories for the tabs And there's Mrs. Alma Griffith Grey, wife of Al Grey and sister-in-law of D. W. Griffith, who has sailed for Europe to resume her operatic career and Al stands on the dock as the He de France pulls out, wishing he was an operatic singer, too, so that he could go far, far away from it all Al has accumulated a fortune touting his brother's pix, and there ain't more than a thousand people who know he is the brother of D. W. and that his wife is a great opera singer into every life a helluva lot of rain must fall and some of us gents are soaked to the skin * * * * J^. M. BOTSFORD and George Planck have gone to Nashville to attend the opening of the new Publix house there and what will happen? the Mayor will be there as the honored guest, and he will make a speech saying how proud he is to welcome this new enterprise on behalf of the c.tizenry and wishing Publix all the success in the world then in his office the next morning he will be signing orders for the Chief of Police, the Health Department and the Fire Department to check up alleged violations of the new house and when A. M. Botsford gets back to New York and tells the offic'als what a grand and glorious opening they had in Nashville, the officials will say: "Oh, yeah?" and then they will shove under his nose a pile of squawks from the house manager that the city administration is riding him and can't the home office do something about it, or transfer him to Oskaloosa where the city officials are all fellow members of the Royal Order of Chipmunks and his pals who will give him a break then Mister Botsford sits down and reads the sorrows and tribulations of Job, and sez: "Whatta lucky guy you were, Job, with only boils to bother you." Smile, darn you, Smile! EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House for Tabloid Exploitation Ideas © Used Campaign on Save-A-Life j^/[ANAGER Wm. T. Powell of the Strand, Portland, Me., tied "Manslaughter" to "Save A Life Campaign" during the picture's week's engagement. The Governor of Maine was informed by letter of the campaign and his answer was used for publicity purposes. In preparing newspaper copy, Powell took advantage, in an indirect manner, of various sensational occurrences in Portland during the last two weeks which tied in with the picture very nicely. — Paramount Merchant Tieup On "Office Wife" READERS of the Fresno (Cal.) Bee were treated to a set of ads that hooked up with "The Office Wife," during the run of that picture at Warner Bros, theater. Hookups werel effected with restaurants, candy shops, furniture stores, and printing plants, emphasizing the satisfaction to wives through trading at these places, and the reduction of temptation for their husbands from potential office wives. A streamer across the page read: "What is an Office Wife?" — 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 : Oct. 25 and 26 Eugene J. Zukor S. Charles Einfeld Edward Laemmle Fred J. McConnell Samuel Wurtzel Herbert S. Berg Frank L. Drumm H. B. Warner Jackie Coogan Edwin Meyers Buddy Messinger Mark Sandrich John L. Cass