Hollywood Filmograph (Jun-Aug 1929)

June 8, 1929 Equity-Producers Deadlocked On Contract Details of Week's Events in Union Fight Continued the Coast, numbers around 5000, it is stated. Of this number, close to 2800 have played in pictures. Around 1500 are stage and musical comedy importations brought here by the talkie rush. There are also a number of active members, who are writing, directing and producing. The Equity Contract demand followed a checkup of 2800 members vitally interested in motion pictures, started before the talkie stage player invasion, in which 1218 replies were received. Of these, all but 98 were in favor of demanding Equity shop, it is stated. ' The formal statement from Frank Gilmore, president of Equity, which precipitated the turmoil, reads as follows, with a few minor omissions: "The Council of the Actors' Equity Association, after a survey of sound and talking motion pictures and after consultation with Equity members in all branches of motion pictures, has ruled that from today (Wednesday) members of the Association may engage for sound and talking motion pictures only upon the forms of contract prepared by the Association, and only in casts in which all the players are members of Equity in good standing. "Members of the Association who signed contracts prior to June 5, which have not expired on that date, are instructed that they must fulfill those contracts, whether or not it entails their playing in casts with non-members, but they must not engage for future production beyond the existing contracts, except upon the standard Equity forms and under Equity conditions. "My study of the situation disclosed the fact that the phenomenal success of sound and talking motion pictures has created such a demand for actors whose voices record well that members of our Association have gone into them by droves. Many complete casts in Hollywood as well as New York are made up entirely of Equity members And even before that time we had a good number of members in motion pictures, including many of the biggest stars and featured players. "Recently conditions in the studios, as far as the actors are concerned, have been going from bad to worse. "These may, some of them, be held to be the ordinary difficulties inherent in the business of making sound or talking motion pictures, and that the actor must endure them as such. But such an attitude is possible only when fair treatment is generally accorded. No other body of workers would be expected to endure them if the conditions were otherwise — why should the actor, whose work, in the last analysis, is responsible for the success of the picture? "And our experience has been that the actor has not been receiving this fair treatment to which he is entitled. The conditions of their contracts are not observed and the actors do not dare complain openly for fear Attacks "Bigoted, Foolish" Censors "Problem of Regulating Pictures Too Big to Put Into the Hands of Political, Bigoted Fools," Says Be Mille; "Talking Picture Must Be Left Free" "The talking picture must be allowed to grow as an art, and no art has ever grown in bondage," declared William De Mille, representing the Academy before the concluding class in photoplay appreciation at the University of Southern California last week. "The ordinary police laws are enough to protect the public. They can always be invoked and those are the only limits that should be put on the art." "If talking pictures are to grow into an adult art, it must be allowed to grow in freedom; and it must be allowed to reach an adult age and an adult period of thought. The silent picture was to a large extent held back through regulation by censorship. "I consider censorship basically wrong, fundamentally wrong in the way it is applied now. It is obvious that we need a certain police regulation to keep drama within the bounds of decency, but every state in the country has laws to prevent the showing of anything improper. When you try to legislate matters of taste, when you attempt to control thought, and when you do it, not by law, but by the substitution of somebody's opinion for the law, then you are making it pretty difficult for people with mature ideas. "I ask you as American citizens to help us fight against censorship, which is one of the most unjust, unAmerican, thoroughly foolish things I have ever seen, based on the general supposition that a man cannot control the theatre-going of his own child. I maintain that this does not give him the' right to prevent my Warners Schedule Jolson Fi Set For 1ms Warner Brothers have just completed the schedule of activities for Al J olson's productions, which will carry the comedian well into 1930. "Say It With Songs," starring Jolson and featuring Davey Lee, has just been completed and is scheduled for release this autumn. Next picture will be "Mammy," of which Irving Berlin is author as well as the composer, scheduled to go into production next September. From present indications it will be completed on or about the first of the year, for release in the Spring of 1930. Jolson's following production will get under way in April, 1930, and is expected to be completed in the summer of 1930 and released in the fall. of jeopardizing their chances of future employment. "Such conditions may not be known to the presidents of some of the companies but they are the practices of subordinates who are anxious to make records for efficiency and economy. It is to these subordinates and not to the presidents of the companies that the actors have to go for wark, if they are not stars. "We are confident that Equity's entry into sound and talking pictures will be welcomed by the players in that field, and that they are quite prepared to support Equity in the establishment of the policy which is known in the legitimate theatre as Equity Shop. "For near thrte months this winter Equity took a poll of its Los Angeles membership in motion pictures. They were asked in a questionnaire to say whether or not they desired an Equity Shop in sound or talking pictures, to be invoked at the discretion of the Equity Council. No pressure was brought to bear on them; they were subjected to no emotional appeal, calmly, quietly, logically, they considered the situation and by a writen vote of ten to one asked for Equity Shop. The actual figures were 1120 for and 98 against. "The Equity Council considers that a mandate and is acting on it as such. "Equity does not anticipate much opposition from the motion picture producers for their examination of the Continued on Page 28 Mollie Came One Day Then Rushed Away When Mollie Cohn, well-known Jewish stage actress, who had flown here by airplane to play in the Jack Berin special engagement at the Erseeing anything grown up on the knger Magon thig week; was advised by the Jewish Equity to return and fill a New York engagement, the final two performances were called off. Four were scheduled. The actress arrived here in a rush, turned around immediately and went back to New York, without playing a show. The theatre had already been paid for the rental of the house. Berlin called off the two final pertormances of his origina plays when no substitute could be obtained in Miss Cohn's difficult parts. "Jealousy" opens Sunday, with Fay Bainter and John Halliday as the only members of the cast. 111 screen. "Freedom of thought and expression means freedom to express the opinion you do not agree with as well as the opinion you do agree with. In this country we are forced to deliver our birthright of freedom to a little group of narrow-minded, bigoted people who have never read anything but the Bible and do not understand that. I read the Bible and think it is a fine piece of work but it couldn't lead me to do many things the censors do. If the Bible were produced on the screen what the censors would do with it is nobody's business. "You would not believe some of the things that have happened in censorship. Even my little pictures, which I would not have dreamed could offend a soul, have been massacred in places. Such a simple thing as 'Grumpy' with Theodore Roberts which had a robbery in it came back from Chicago in such shape that I didn't recognize it. They insisted on removing the robbery in this picture. It was a large part of the picture because it was used in developing Continued on Page 31 111 Asher and Rogers Plans Six Inde All-Talkies "Eph" Asher and Charles R. Rogers, formerly of Asher and Rogers, have reunited and are to produce a series of six independently made talkers. They will do two musicals, two dramas and two comedies, with "Carnival," Wm. R. Doyle's stage play, recently purchased, as the first of the six. Asher will leave New York in a few days to determine whether or not they will produce their pictures in the East or in Hollywood. No release has been arranged as yet. Asher and Rogers believe bookings in the better class theatres can be made for good independently made talker productions. Carrillo Starting Soon On First T-S Talker Leo Carrillo will arrive from New York shortly to start work on his first picture for Tiffany-Stahl, a talkie version of Booth Tarkington's play, "Mister Antonio." Following completion of the initial production, Carrillo leaves for 22 weeks vaudeville tour in Australia. He will then return for three more T-S production. 1 1 1 New Writer At M-G-M Joseph Moncure March, author of "The Wild Party" and "Set Up," arrived this week from New York, under contract to write for M-G-M. The writer has created a mild sensation in literary circles, by his stylized writing and insight into modern American life and characters. 1 1 1 At United Artists "She Goes to War," Henry King's production of the Rupert Hughes story, follows "This Is Heaven" into the Rivoli, New York. Engagement indefinite. The same picture will have its Los Angeles showing shortly at the United Artists Theatre after the Barrymore film, "Eternal Love." John Barrymore's "Eternal Love" follows the present offering, "Alibi," with Ronald Colman's "Bulldog Drummond" next, and then the Inspiration picture.