Hollywood Filmograph (Jan-Jul 1930)

14 July 12, 1930 R. K. O. Admits Need Of Good 'Prop Men Advises Showing Old Pictures To Public Here Is Outline of What Is to Be Used in 'Cimarron' "A motion picture is as substantial as the 'props' that support it." That maxim is guiding the RKO studios in assembling material for "Cimarron,'' soon to go into production. At least $300,000 will have been spent in gathering "props" before a camera turns, it is estimated. An army of men are scouring the United States and Mexico, and material of the 1890 period is arriving daily by carloads. Thirty-five hundred horses and mules are being imported from Mexico because only 500 were available in California. Vehicles of the type before the "horseless carriage" will include 1050 covered wagons, six-mule-team freighters, dog carts, bull carts, sulkeys, tallyhoes, surreys, phaetons, chaises, buckboards, victorias, hacks, buggies and carriages. A veritable Indian territory ranch of long ago is springing up near Hollywood as live stock, fowls and domestic animals arrive from four corners of the country to play important parts in the Edna Ferber epic. Scheduled for use throughout the picture are a flock of prairie chickens, rattlesnakes, quail, jack-rabbits, goats, sheep, canaries, pigs, cows, calves, dogs and cats, crates of ducks, chickens and turkeys, burros and Indian ponies. Among the interesting household objects now more or less obsolete are iron tea-kettles, cedar tubs, churns and water buckets, feather beds, crazy quilts, a coffee grinder (one that's held between the knees), coal-oil lamps and lanterns, eight-day matches, bone-handled knives and forks, camelback trunks, rag carpets and rugs, hickory chairs with rawhide bottoms, porcelain dishes, buck saws, clay pipes, high-wheeled bicycles, wood cook stoves with hearth, double-shovel plows and double-bitted axes. Of special interest is an old-fashioned hand-printing press acquired at great expense. The film will illustrate the evolution of the newspaper business from the '80's to the present time. 1 i i Alan Sears has finished a fine part in "Her Man" at Pathe, with Tay Garnett directing. BEAUI^UL HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY 6000 Santa Monica Blvd. HE. 3830 HO. 8455 RALPH INCE AND AILEEN PRINGLE (In a scene from a recent picture) When "Little Caesar" gets under way at First National Studios, Ralph I nee will be one of the leading players in the production, which Mervyn Le Roy is directing. In the cast, aside from Mr. Ince, there will be Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Buster Collier, Jr., Maurice Black, Blanche Friderici, Landers Stevens, Ferika Boros, Elmer Ballard, George E. Stone, Stanley Fields, Thomas Jackson, and Nickolas Bela. GOLDBURG IS IN TOWN Jesse J. Goldburg, who represents the Van Beuren Productions, who are making the Grantland Rice Sportlights series, the Vagabond Adventure series and other sport subjects is here. Mr. Goldburg and Al Mannon, of the Tec-Art Studios, went over to Catalina where they shot a Grantland Rice subject showing all the sights under water and some of the sports of the islands that will startle the world. IN TOWN Alexander Carr has returned to Hollywood. No affiliation as yet, but ere long he expects to sign with some of the producing companies. DOCTOR BEAUMONT Whenever M-G-M had some retakes or a "sick" picture they used to call on Robert Z. Leonard to do the retakes or make a picture out of a bad story. Now Harry Beaumont has been elected to the post. Erie C. Kenton was to direct "Three French Girls." The story was not what it should be and Erie didn't really care about directing it, so it was given to Harry Beaumont — or should we say DOCTOR BEAUMONT? So They Will Realize Advance Made by the Present-day Talkies Let Mr. John Public now and then have a glimpse of some old pioneer pictures, and his appreciation of modern photoplays will be greatly enhanced. Thus advised C. Graham Baker, associate executive at First National studios, after coming from a showing of some of the film masterpieces of a generation ago, recently given at the studio. So rapid has been the evolution of the motion picture that few people stop to realize how far the science has proceeded since the first crude camera turned out the semi-exptrimental film that is the forefather of today's photoplay, declares Baker. Even those associated with the daily production of film lose sight of this tremendous development, so gradual yet persistent has it been, he points out. "A showing of a film drama that thrilled and charmed him a decade ago, would first amuse and then bore the fan of today," says Baker. "The change has not only been in the technical and mechanical field, but in improved methods of direction and writing as well as acting. "But the rapid pace which has attended this evolution in the past is being tremendously accelerated in present-day progress. Within the next year or two there will be more remarkable developments in the production of pictures than have been recorded in the past twenty, I predict." i i i Mabel Mayo, who is well known on the stage and who recently came into pictures, has just finished a fine part in "Outside the Law" with Mary Nolan and Owen Moore. Tod Browning directed at the big U lot. Miss Mayo played leads on the stage opposite Jason Robards and Robert Frazer, was in stock with the Poli Players and in many shows on Broadwav. THOMAS CATNEY Telephone MAdison 5785 MEYER SYNCHRONIZING SERVICE ETROPOLITAN STUDD. HOUYWOOO GOLF COURSES IN YOUR BACK YARD Have a 9 or 18 hole miniature golf course put in your back yard by C. R. SNOW GENERAL CONTRACTOR who specializes in golf course construction. Also retaining walls, paving, bridges, foundations, steps, pools, landscaping. Phone NOrmandie 5452.