The Film Daily (1935)

Monday, July 1,1935 TIMELY TOPICS Chorus Girls Fading Out, Says Dance Director £HORUS girls will be unheard of in Hollywood — within a year. They will be known as "dancing actressses." The new trend, which will be seen for the first time in "Broadway Melody of 1936", will eliminate the old time chorine. In her place will come a new type, who will play a semi-principal role in the picture as well as dance. This drastic transformation will cause havoc with the present ranks of Hollywood chorus girls, which contains more than 2.000 names at the present time. The list of girls will be cut to 200. But the remaining 1800 will be assimilated into the ranks of dress extras and will suffer little financial loss because of the change. In "Melody," we are doing away with the old style musical dance routines in which hundreds of chorus girls are used for "marches" and "arm-waving routines. Instead we are using no more than twelve girls at a time, although we have fifty for these small line-ups. When the girls are in front of the cameras they will be playing actual roles in the production. Their routines will be as important to the picture as the dialogue itself. Because of this new trend, it took us several months to pick the girls for the "newdeal" line-up. They had to possess the same qualifications found in the average featured player — also they had to be excellent dancers. Making the former chorines semi-principals will give them a fairer chance to achieve screen success. Instead of being lost in a crowd, they will occupy important camera positions and will be given lines. To prove my point, let me state that seven of the girls picked for the "Melody" newdeal chorus were given term contracts with M-G-M. The girls are Lorna Lowe, Bonnie Bannon, Mary Lange, Claire Myers, Mary Lou Dix, Diane Cook and Wanda Peery. — Dave Gould. Milwaukee Items Milwaukee — Louis Orlove, formerly manager of the Uptown, Saxe neighborhood house, is now managing the Riviera, Fox neighborhood theater. E. W. VanNorman is now managing the Uptown. H. L. Levy, formerly with United Artists in Boston, has been named northern Wisconsin representative, working out of the local exchange. B. R. Katz, head of the advertising department of the Warner theater here, and Irene Silver, Racine, were married last week. At MALT # # tsJcS0^ fhR°M the r-^ magic words! thev HiH ™,J "fi y ?un they come int0 realization.. as £2 oiaSon111 te ^t °f t!lree mfmbers of the Warner St 2SS?*™? AwtmSdejrg00d " arbigH ^fr « <5 r^-i 'i? 'c ij smitft' Jr Gradwell L. Sears t,thep^ distributing organization, that has been not only a reward ?or the good work of these men but evidence to theTest of a bvwoTn ^TFi th3t the "UP fr0m the ranks" * «ot Jus a byword or catch-phrase and that's why the spirits of the Warner pluggers has shown some extra exuberance lately. ▼ T T Z^*f V JuSTx^ !e,w bioSraPhical bits about three candidates for the Horatio Alger lodge "Andy" Smith executive in charge of eastern and Canadian distribution SwVT h Path\ln 191£ as salesman on New York's lower J^ast bide became booker, assistant manager and branch manager, respectively, in Pathe's Boston, Cleveland and Dallas branches .spent most of 1917 in a Georgia machine gun camP ,fr°m 18 to '24 was assistant sales manager and later general sales manager of the W. W. Hodkinson Corp. * ™'j -c ?n J°ined First National as assistant sales manager to Ed Eschman continued until 1928 and was eastern sales manager when Warners absorbed the company then handled eastern and southern territories for three years before assuming his present duties all in all, a lot of experience and background • • • 0UT 0F the Army in 1919 came Grad Sears to join World Films as salesman in New York the following year he went with First National as salesman for Chicago's north side was made city sales manager there in 1923 branch manager in Cleveland in '25 back to Chi as branch manager in '28 to New York in '29 as western sales manager under Ned Depinet then in 1931 western and southern sales manager under the Warner-First National merger not a bad lot of stepping in the space of years covered • • • NOW FOR the youngest member of the successful triumvirate and one with a distinction that is not very common an advertising and publicity director with a billet as vice-president (other live-wire advertising and publicity men take notice and be spurred thereby; maybe your bosses some day will realize your importance in the setup) Charlie Einfeld started as an office boy with Vitagraph 15 years ago then went to First National as junior copy writer in the ad dep't and worked his way up to director of advertising and publicity there when F. N. was combined with Warners, he continued his post in the merged setup oh, yes, almost forgot Charlie also did a stint as assistant manager of the Leo Brecher circuit in New York • • • WRITING FROM his summer home in Santa Fe, New Mexico Langdon Mitchell, who did the script of "Becky Sharp," says that although he has not yet seen the screen version of RKO's new Technicolor picture, quite a few enthusiastic letters have been sent to him by friends who have Al Smith was among those present at a preview of "The Farmer Takes a Wife" in the Fox home office theater the other night Edward B. Marks Music Corp. has moved to the RCA building, Radio City Elliott Fisher, juvenile actor under five-year contract to the Small-Landau agency, has been signed for a Max Fleischer short « «r « » » » EXPLOjTETTES "Let 'Em Have It" Gets Police Assistance J{ TIE-UP with the local police, resulting in two outstanding lobby displays, were among the stunts arranged by Manager Robert T. Cullinane, of the Georgia Theater, Atlanta, for the premiere of "Let 'Em Have It," Reliance production released through United Artists. Police co-operated by allowing a battered gangster's car, recently captured in a running gun battle, to be displayed in the lobby of the theater. This stunt accounted for additional publicity stories in local newspapers. Later Cullinane arranged with local experts of the police department to fingerprint all Atlantans who wish to be protected. Complete fingerprinting apparatus, under the direction of Detectice Chief A. Lamar Poole, was installed in the lobby of the theater where everyone was offered an opportunity to be fingerprinted for their own protection. Both these stunts attracted huge crowds. A few days before the opening all local newspapers played up the engagement with several feature stories and plenty of art work on the stars, Richard Arlen and Virginia Bruce. Daily announcements in connection with the local baseball game were broadcast over Station WJTL. A contest was arranged with this station and the first 15 persons sending in the nearest correct figure to the amount of paid admissions to the game received guest tickets. The "Georgian Globe Trotter" over WGST commented on the attraction, as did the local commentator over WSB. A 15-minute playlet, arranged by studio players, was put on through Station WJTL. Many local merchants carried still displays in their windows. The advance billing campaign consisted of 400 block window cards and 100 block type threesheets. Another stunt which attracted attention was the daily display of fireworks at the theater every time the trailer went on the screen. — Georgia, Atlanta Beauty Parlor Helps Locally gARNEY DOBRANS of the C own, New London, has made a wonderful tie-up with a local beauty parlor. A 27-inch ad was printed in the newspaper which didn't cost the theater anything. The tie-up featured the Irene Dunne Combination at a special price. With each combination a pair of guest tickets were given free. — Crown, New London, Conn.