Inside facts of stage and screen (February 1, 1930)

ESTABLISHED 1924 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS PRICE 10 CENTS ONLY THEATRICAL NEWSPAPER ON THE PACIFIC COAST Vol. XI Entered as SeconI Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at Post- office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of March 3, 1879. Saturday, February 1, 1930 Published Every Saturday at 800-801 Warner Bros. Down- town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. No. 5 LATIN-AMERICANS PROTEST SPANISH-LANGUAGE PICTURES VAL VALENTE’S MUSIC Roof Garden Cafe, San Francisco COMEDIANS CLOSE TO BUILD THEATRE WILL PRESENT III MASS MEET Highly optimistic reports were emanating this week from the meetings of the Actors’ and Pro- ducers’ branches of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci- ences concerning the proposed new contract for picture players, first news of which was printed exclusively in Inside Facts last week. A subcommittee of the main committee met again this week, in a private room at the Roosevelt Hotel, and with members sworn to absolute secrecy concerning some phases of the discussions. This subcommittee will meet again next Monday for a final ironing out of several points, and then, it is planned, the proposed new contract will be presented to a mass meeting of Plollywood ac- tors to be held in some large hall, possibly the Hollywood stadium. This meeting, it was stated, will be open to all picture actors and actresses, irrespective of whether or not they are affiliated with the Academy, with Equity, or with any other .organization. Hours of Work No definite date has been set for the meeting, as the framers of the new document wish to have it in absolute shape and with ab- solute accord among themselves before anything is submitted for public approval. To date the main work has been on minor points, largely of a de- finitive nature and with a view to solidifying contractural practices in Hollywood by specific terms. All this work, it is said, has gone off with an unbroken smoothness and accord. The main point proposed for the new contract is a limitation on the hours of work per week for freelance players, which, of course, would regulate the hours of work for contract players in the main. Some of the members of the sub- committee are known to be ad- verse to such a clause, but it is the general feeling that the ma- jority will approve it. Various re- ports were in circulation that the majority view was for a 60-hour work week, but several sources in- directly intimated that this report was amiss. Committee Personnel The main committee, which met at dinner in the Roosevelt Hotel a week ago last Tuesday, had pres- ent Jack Warner, Irving Thalberg, Sol Wurtzel, Mike Levee, Fred Beetson, Conrad Nagel, Lawrence Grant, Sam Hardy, Mitchell Lewis, (Continued on Page 2) Brunks Comedians closed their season in San Bernardino last week, most of the company hop- ping into L. A. VIRGINIA IN CAST Virginia Bruce, Paramount con- tract player, has been assigned the role of the siren in Charles “Buddy” Rogers’ Paramount pic- ture, “Safety in Numbers.” Three other girls assigned to the picture are Kathryn Crawford, Carol Lom- bard and Josephine Dunn. FILM PREXY HERE Amedee J. Van Beuren, presi- dent of the Van Bueren Enter- prises, arrived this week from New York with Hiram S. Brown, presi- dent of the RKO studios. Van Bueren Enterprises catalogue in- cludes “Topics of the Day,” Aesop’s Fables, Smitty and His Pals, and Sportlights, all distrib- uted through Patber, and Walter Futter’s Curiosities distributed through FBO. “Montana,” M-G-M starring ve- hicle for Joan Crawford, has been changed to “Montana Moon.” Listed in the spring building program of Fox West Coast Thea- tres is a new 2000-seat theatre for San Luis Obispo. This company is already interested, with W. B. Martin, in the Elmo and Obispo theatres there. Policy will be talking pictures with the installa- tion of projecting equipment to care for Grandeur (large size) film and building plans will in- clude facilities for the handling of stage presentations. FORESEE BAD FEELING AS ONE RESULT Hollywood's attempt to capi- talize the great Latin-American market for talking pictures has aroused a bitterness among Latin- Americans which will culminate this week in a formal protest filed by official representatives in Los Angeles of the 21 Spanish- speaking republics of North and South America,* These representatives have got together and framed a protest to the talking picture producers of Hollywood for presentation at an early date, according to authen- tic information to Inside Facts. As a result of Hollywood’s present trend and decision, it is stated, there will be aroused “an inevitable resentment of the Span- ish-American audiences,” with a resurrection of “political and so- cial differences of long standing and fruitful of acute controversy,” and which may, if persisted in, “result in disaster, financial and artistic” and “create a situation difficult of solution and perhaps impossible of reconcilation.” Influenced by Actors The trouble arises over the language used by actors in these Spanish versions. Influenced, it is claimed, by the legitimate school of Spanish actors who use what, is known as “Castillian Spanish,” Hollywood has decreed that Castillian shall be the stan- dard language for talkies. This is the official court language of Spain, used by a small minority of Spanish people in Spain it- self and used, it is said, not at all by Spanish-Americans, offi- cially or otherwise. This ruling has the effect not only of shutting out from em- ployment a host of Spanish- American talent speaking in the idiom used by their peoples for 400 years, but also stirs up pre- judices that have been rife al- niost as long, respect for which is of real importance to Holly- wood producers, diplomats aver. Rodriguez Explains Acting for the large group that has taken the matter vitally to heart, Jose Rodriguez, well known writer and musician associated with Earle C. Anthony and his two National Broadcasting sta- tion KFI and KECA, has framed a joint letter of protest which is to be presented to the producers immediately. “This matter is not entirely con- fined to talking pictures,” com- ments Rodriguez. “Radio is also concerned, and I feel sure that (Continued on Page 2)