The Film Daily (1930)

THE Wednesday, December 24, 1930 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opininn — €— New View of Sex in Pictures npHIXGS quite as tense and colorful as anything ever in a movie are happening behind the scenes in Hollywood and in the sanctums of bankers who have to concern themselves with the progress and the ultimate destinies of the cinema industry. It is interesting — and cheering — to learn, for example, after listening to some of the magnates of the film world, that producers have begun to feel that sex themes have been overdone in many studios and that this conviction rises from a study of recent "fever charts" in a good many box offices. Walter Vincent, owner of a chain of theaters in Pennsylvania, has told the producers that on this account many parents are beginning to break their children of the movie habit. What has been lacking in some of the seats of high authority in the cinema wodd is a clear sense of the truly magnificent possibilities of the newer movie devices. Even some of the routine ou'put of the Hollywood studios is superb in its pictorial quality. Frequently it is possible to sit in a theater and observe the progress of an appalling conflict between the artists concerned with sheer beauty of light and color and movement and the heavy-handed and heavy-minded supervisors who, thinking only of the boxoffice, insist on covering dirt and puerilitv with the fine magic of exquisite color photography. The movies are coming to the end of a phase of their development in which it was taken for granted that anything suggestive of sex was a guarantee of profits. — N. Y. Evening Post World installations of Western Electric sound system up to this week totalled 7,398, of which 4,812 are in the U. S. and 2,586 abroad. ■2&H DAJLV • • • FLAPPER TASTES in pictures seem to be much higher than most producers imagine the general policy has been to produce pix that appeal to the high-school girl complex but along comes "M. P. Digest" with a survey which upsets the applecart completely it seems to prove conclusively that the younger element goes in for the Higher Things, and the sedate middle aged dames and grandma go for Buddy Rogers and his type spear these comments from gals who are supposed to be in the giddy stage between 16 and 25 years From a chorine: "I furiously dislike Buddy Rogers and Rudy Vallee. They are too handsome, too perfect, and therefore not interesting." From a sales girl: "A blast of any sort of fury appeals to me. As for the soft, excessively romantic stuff, hold the garbage can." From a young sophisticate of 17: "Producers, I believe, are becoming aware of the increasing intelligence of the public." From a school girl: "Too much beauty is ruining the picture industry. For one, I don't like girls who are too beautiful, nor men who are too handsome. If this industry has a future, it will be built around character instead of faces and anatomies." From a shop girl: "I enjoy almost any movie, but, boy, how I hate sheiks like Rudolph Valentino, Buddy Rogers and the rest." From a miss of mere 18: "The trouble with the movies is that they are infested with brainless and impersonable performers. The talkies have happily reduced the list of half-wits, but too many remain." From a stenographer: "What keeps me away from the movies is their deliberate attempt to please the illiterate and ignorant peasantry of the country." Fact of the matter is the producers overlook the truth that the average flapper is reading psychological, philosophical and intellectual literature these days they don't want Fairy Tales in their talkies this old fashioned idea only finds credence in the Hollywood Fairyland where the Babes are still in the Woods searching hopefully for Santa Claus. Time's Up! Last Relief Fund Call! * * * * • • • JUST ABOUT the time we are all set in our conviction that there ain't no miracles in these prosaic times, along comes some news to upset it here is Max Fleischer passing out 50 per cent Xmas bonuses and 50 per cent raises to his cartoonatics and Frank Spicker, art director of Columbia. drives up witlr a truck and distributes 64 handsome gifts to his co-workers there must be dough in them thar films for some gents With "The Widow From Chicago" playing at the Strand, no mention of the "widow" herself is made on the marquee or in the cast on the program Come On, Fellers! Help That Fund! * * * * • • • AT THE News Reel theater, the Embassy, they are showing Three Intellectual Giants Henry L. Mencken, Gilbert K. Chesterton and get this one Milt Gross, cartoon creator of "Nize Baby." but the newsreel clip that really intrigued us was a view of a Canadian distillery taking care of the Holiday supply did you get yours? why, how dreadful! At the basketball party the other night for the Relief Fund, Tom Hanlon and his wife were overheard daring each other to get out on the floor and dance Do Your Bit! Aid the Fund! ■» * * * • • • REMEMBER WHIA Mister Spoor and Billy Anderson, the film star, got together in Chi and formed Kssanay S. & A get it? Erich von Stroheim got his first job in the films as a second assistant director on "Less Than the Dust." made out at (ilcndalc, L. I., with John Emerson directing Mary Pickford was tli. star and she didn't have any exclusive dressing mom. either And now that Xmas is almost lure, let's fold up our typewriters and toddle home recalling the Good Old Days when we stopped in at a half do/en favorite joints and got ourselves in a real Christmas Spirit before greeting the Family well, kid. pass that bottle of turpentine here's how sh ish merry ixshmas anyway — hie EXPLOITETTES A Clearing House fot Tabloid Exploitation Idrus e « « « » » » Opposition Attraction Boosts Picture MANAGER Clayton Tunstill took advantage of the opposition to exploit Clara Bow in "Her Wedding Night" at the Publix-Lyric, Brownwood, Tex. The Business and Professional Womens Club staged a mock wedding at the Armory. Tunstill, taking advantage of an ideal tie-up, arranged to have a boy and girl dressed in oldfashioned clothes to attend the wedding. They mingled around arm in arm among the crowd. On the back of the girl was pinned a placard reading, "Clara Bow in 'Her Wedding Night'," and on the boy, "Showing at the Lyric Theater Now." — Paramotoit * * * Two Good Plugs For Amos *n* Andy T-JERE are two of several stunts used by Manager Ben M. Cohen in putting over Amos 'n' Andy in "Check and Double Check" at the Publix-Capitol, Hazelton, Pa. Using an advance stunt, a bed was put in the lobby with a dummy in the bed as though sleeping. A card on the bed stated that this person was waiting to be one of the first ones to see Amos 'n' Andy in their first talking picture. With the Mayor's sanction, the sidewalks were chalked with single and double checks with the populace quick to get the significance of "Check and Double Check." This unique stunt created more than the usual gossip which in turn helped to remind persons about the picture! — Radio Pictures MANY HAPPY RETURNS Best wishes and congratulations arc extended by ThE FILM DAfl.Y to the following members of the in dustry, who are celebrating tneii birthdays: December 24 J. W. Alicoate Howard Hughes Ruth Chatterton Michael Curtiz Evelyn Hall Eulalie Jensen