The Film Daily (1931)

THE Tuesday, February 10, 1931 Timely Topics A Digest of Current Opinion Taking a Rap At the Meddlers Q C. PETTIJOHN said a mouthful at the Memphis meeting of the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi M.P.T.O. when he remarked that everyone seemed to have two businesses: their own and the motion picture business. That has been the trouble with the movies for years. Men and women who would refrain from giving even the corner grocer hints on how to sell his wares insist upon dashing in and telling the motion picture business how it should conduct itself or else . Ardent reformers who probably have not seen a motion picture in years, declaim against the present product, and estimable old maids shudder with horror at the demoralizing effect of the movies on "our children." Men who could not successfully conduct a magic lantern show for a Sunday school protest against managerial methods, and welfare workers lament the movies as schools of crime, though it is seldom that the judges on the bench join in the cry. They know that the children learn nothing from the movies they have not already discovered through other sources. No good ever is accomplished by this officious meddling, but that probably never will prevent their antics. — Jay Emanuel, "N. Y. State Exhibitor" TEN YEARS AGO TO-DAY IN William A. Brady denounced by T.O.C.C. of New York. Admission tax repeal hinted at from Washington. * * * Adolph Zukor states he is willing to take leadership of industry. zSWl DAILY • • • WHEN THEY first sprung the Bathing Beauties on the fans way back in 1897, they thought so little of the gag that the sponsors decided they'd pep it up with two trained acrobats walking into the water on their hands, while a Newfoundland dog was made to swim in the foreground and wot was their surprise to find the fans ONLY interested in the ten Broadway chorus gals who did their stuff as Bathing Beauties and the cry went up from here to Singapore from the enthusiastic moviegoers: "Let's see more of the Bathing Beauties." obligingly the film producers arranged with the bathing suit manufacturers to show more of the beauts and that, girls and boys, is the explanation of why gal's bathing suits are as they are today and the very first "runaway" scene without which there would be no Westerns was the result of an accident a carriage manufacturer who had just got out a new design wanted a film made of it so they had the beautiful open carriage coming down the street very dignified when suddenly the two horses bolted a coupla gents on horseback gave chase the dumb egg at the camera wasn't grinding, figuring the shot was spoiled so the director grabbed the crank, and caught the scene thus the great "runaway" gag was invented, without which there would be no independent producers today for all the indie can afford to produce these days is a western and all he needs to produce a western is a runaway sequence the first vamp dance ever screened was that of Vitta Richards, of London Music Hall fame back in the nifty '90's they called it "The Coquette Dance," the word "vamp" being first employed generally some time later in referring to Theda Bara's work • • • EDWIN CAREWE resurrected "Resurrection," the great Tolstoy novel, for the pix in the silent days, and then sold the rights to Universal for the current talkie version this one venture has kept Eddie in doughnuts and coffee all these years his original name is Fox, which the bra.cs on the Indian reservation useter call him before he heard the call of the White Fathers and came to Hollerword Will Rogers and Monte Blue, two other gents of redskin descent, haven't done so bad in pix, either lo, the poor Indian. • • • VINCENT LOPEZ, the Music-World Almanak informs, is a. great believer in numerology so he figures out all his business deals by sequence of numbers so Paul Jonas, the big radio and orchestra man, sez: "Say, Vince, seeing you're so strong for good numbers, whazzamatter with sticking my numbers in your books?" Bill Wiemann, general sales manager for Edward B. Marks, the musickers, is always burning up over his name being misspelled it's "Whyman," "Weeman," "Wideman," "Wiseman" and now some gink has started calling him "Wee Willie Wiemann" and he's really a big man • • • THEY DO be telling us that Paramount's "Stolen Heaven" developed unexpected audience punch at a preview in Plainfield, N. J it knocked the audience kockeyed with its emotional high-voltage, and looks like a 1}. o. natural "City Lights" at the Cohan theater and "Bright Lights" at the Warner at the other end of Broadway canyon is a mosl appropriate setup, say we Amedeo, the magician, after six months at the Paramount lobby doing his stuff, is now over at the Brooklyn annex Martin Starr, director of the Galveston Beauty Pageant, has got out a ritzy souvenir hook for the 12th annual affair, filled with fotos of the pips also Martin's phiz it's dedicated to "The Glory of Beautiful Girlhood." « « « » » » Short Shots from New York Studios __«>■ HARRY N. BLAIR __ £HARLIE RUGGLES will play the role of Chevalier's boon companion in "The Smiling Lieutenant," the Ernst Lubitsch production which gets under way next week at Paramount's New York studio. The film will have two leading women, these being Claudette Colbert and Miriam Hopkins. Harold Fingerlin, monitor man on the "New York Lady" set, is receiving congratulations on the birth of an 8 lb, son which arrived the other day. Burton Churchill, Edw. Robbins and Charles Trowbridge, all of the New York stage, are additions td the cast of "New York Lady now in production at the Paramount studio. Greatly perfected portable sound reproducing apparatus has proven of great assistance in extending the market for films to help merchandise various commodities, which method is being widely adopted by numerous large manufacturers including U. S. Rubber Co., Proctor & Gamble and Coco Cola, according to Visugraphic Pictures, producers of industrial films. In constructing the subway car and station used for the latest Vitaphone comedy starring Mr. and Mrs. Jack Norworth, entitled, "The Naggers in the Subway," the Vitaphone studio used material furnished by the Interborough Rapid Transit Co. Al Goulding directed the short from a story by Casey Robinson. Casey Robinson, Vitaphone staff writer, who authored "The Last Parade" for Columbia, before leaving Hollywood several months ago, is also responsible for the script of Earl Sande's two reel comedy, "The Handy Guy," which Warner Hros. have just completed here. 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: February 10 Harry Beaumont Alan Hale Roy D'Arcy