Inside facts of stage and screen (February 22, 1930)

PAGE TWO INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, FEB. 22, 1930 PAN AM PRODUCING AT CHADWICK 63 Register at Spanish Bureau 1st Day TO BE OPEN EVERY SATURDAY TO LIST OTHERS FOR GULL ITALIAN LANGUAGE Pan-American Pictures, Inc., a company recently organized has taken over the James Cruze stu- dios, formerly the Chadwick, lo- cated on Sunset and Gower in Hollywood. The company is headed by Charles J. Roche, president, who is a banker and realtor from Bos- ton, and will be under the general management of George H. Bowles, well known in financial and mo- tion picture circles. The operations of the company will be restricted to the making of feature pictures and shorts in the Spanish and Italian languages. There will be no attempt to make them into English versions at the start. The first of the group will be “Bells of San Juan” a story of old California in which Don Alvarado will be starred and Renee Torres, a Mexican beauty, will be his lead- ing lady. Others for the cast have not been set. Fred Windermere, long active as a film exec, and the husband of Belle Bennett, has been signed as production manager. Jimmy Mack is in charge of publicity. Josoe Sabuni has been appointed general supervisor of foreign departments; Guido Conca, manager of the Ital- ian section and Charles Kovac, musical director. Distribution will be arranged for independently, facilities for which are now being made by Roche, who is at present in Boston for that purpose. WISWELL TO PUT ON ORIGINAL AT EARLY DATE HERE BE AT With big picture names pledged for personal appearances, no acts are to be booked for the Auto Show ;t the Shrine Auditorium February 22 to March 2 inclusive. Harold Roberts Orchestra of 16 pieces has been signed as the only music to be at the show, playing both matinees and evenings. Auto show officials are looking for an attendance of 150,000 for the week, which is normal. Last year a fire cut in on the attend- ance, bringing it down to about 100,000. The picture names were ob- tained through Mary Pickford, who will appear on the opening day, Saturday. Miss Pickford is presi- dent of the Motion Picture Re- lief Fund and arranged for a lump sum to be paid those who appear, all of the sum going to the fund with the picture people donating their services. At least one a day will appear, those already promised including Miss Pickford, John Bar- rymore, A1 Jolson, Dolores Del Rio, Bebe Daniels and Norma Shearer. Opening will be at 2 p.m. on the first day and at 10 a.m. on subse- quent days. Closing wil be at 10:30 p.m. Ballyhoo for the show will in- clude an old car race on the first day, starting from the Coliseum and at the auditorium. Rules are that cars must make the trip un- der their own power. Prizes for the stunt will be $100, $75 and $50. The show is under auspices of the Motor Car Dealers Associa- tion of Los Angeles, with Bert Roberts, executive secretary, in charge. BACHECHI IN L. A. Arthur Bachechi, owner of the KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque, N. Mex., is in town this week on a combined business and pleasure trip. He made the trip by plane, and plans upon returning the same way. DOES LIBRETTO L. C. Wiswell, New York pro- ducer, whose first local offering was “Undertow,” a pip of a show which played the Egan and the Hollywood Playhouse locally, is planning to produce another orig- inal here very shortly. The new one is “All That Gliters,” an original by Zelda Sears, M-G-M writer, and Tay Garnett, Pathe director. Wiswell is Miss Sears’ husband. The show went up to the point of rehearsal about four weeks ago, but when all ready to entgr the production stages a mixup in bookings blocked progress, with plenty of time guaranteed in San Francisco but none in Los Ange- les. As the play is one of Holly- wod studio life, claimed to be sure- fire around the movie colony and environs as well as elsewhere, Wiswell postponed its opening un- til the local time could be ar- ranged. Edward Eisner was brought on from New York to do the stage direction, but when the impedi- ment occurred he was transferred over to direct the Belasco and Curran show, “East of Suez,” which opens in Santa Barbara Friday night. As he will be with this production for some time, it is probable that another New York director will be brought west by Wiswell for “All That Glitters.” While players’ contracts have not reached the point of actual signature, the cast is all selected and set. In addition to “Undertow,” Wiswell produced “The Scarlet Lady” on the coast, with Pauline Frederick starred. THIS PRESS AGENT IS DUE FOR RAISE SOON An ambitious press agent in a northern town, seeking prefer- ment with the house manager of a theatre, sent out a story thus: “Full credit must be given to Manager Blank for the tremen- dous business the Dank theatre is doing this week for his excep- tional publicity and exploitation is packing them to the doors. The picture current is Greta Garbo in Anna Christie.’ ” Poor Greta, and all the time we thought she was a drawing card. CO. BUYS VIRGINIAN Carl Burns has sold his Old Vir- ginian Theatre on Main street to the Consolidated Amusement Com- pany of Wichita, Kan. The new owners have changed the name to the Star Theatre. TO TRY TALKIES Jeannette Gilmore, who was the second lead in the Australian company of “Rio Rita” for two years, is coming to Hollywood shortly for movie work. TO PRODUCE ‘CODE’ Belasco and Curran are tenta- tively planning to produce “The Criminal Code” in Los Angeles and San Francisco as soon as they can get Alfred Byron, character lead in the New York company. Building Was Non-Union; It Doesn’t Do Biz mm Anson Weeks’ Orchestra With three highly successful years at the exclusive Hotel Mark Hopkins to his credit, Anson Weeks and his Orchestra have been signed recently by the Music Corporation of Amer- ica, which firm will exclusively manage the Nob Hill musical organization. In addition to playing nightly at the Hopkins, Weeks and his Orchestra broadcast over the Pacific Coast National Broad- casting System and an^the feature of the western half of the Florsheim Frolic Hour aver NBC on a National hookup. The organization also cuts records for the Columbia Phonograph Co. Readers’ Views Portland, Ore. Editor, Inside Facts, Los Angeles: I am writing this to compliment you on the splendid editorials in your issue of Feb. 8. The one about “Getting An Ag.ent” is worth plenty of money to anyone who will read it and digest it. The one under the name of “That New Story” is a masterpiece and how I hope it helps. There was another that I don’t remember the title _ but it was all about Stepin Fetchit. We certainly know much about trying to have ideals and live up to them on the stage and no doubt it is just as hard in picture work. When I first saw Stepin. I sat through the picture twice just to enjoy the reality of a Southern negro as we all know and love them. If someone with sense and a bit of sentiment would handle him right he would be sensational. He must have more sense than the people who argue with him. (Signed): MRS. EDDIE PEABODY. Lon Murray, dance director, has written the libretto of an oper- etta for which it is said Umberto Sistarelli, musical director of “Oh, Susanna” now playing San Fran- cisco, has written the score. Mur- ray states that his opus will re- ceive a Los Angeles production in the fall. The Eastside Athletic Club, newly built, on Ninth and Lorena streets for the purpose of holding boxing exhibitions, folded up last week when their second show grossed less than $1000. The reason for the flop is said to be due to the fact that the arena was erected with non-union labor in a strong union neigh- borhood and of a consequence the organization men avoided the at- tractions. San Francisco. Editor Inside Facts, Los Angeles. On several occasions I have read excellent editorials in your paper suggesting to the manage- ments of legitimate theatres to consider the audiences who come early and not seat the late-com- ers until the end of the act. Lately you have not printed much upon this subject, and so I note the custom continues as before. The penalty of inconvenience which it places upon those who come early to enjoy the show to have their toes treaded upon or their view and interest in the show disturbed ,is enough to dis- gust them with legitimate shows. In the movies, where the per- formance is continuous, one ex- pects that, but there is no call for it when the play starts at a regular hour for one and all. If the late comers were once made to stand up through an act or take seats in the rear, if there are any, they would soon de- velop the habit of getting there on time. If the newspaper ads carried a line that nobody would be seated after the curtain rose, and the rule was enforced, it would make show-going a heaven. Keep after these theatre mana- gers and soon perhaps your good work will bear fruit. I enjoy reading your pithy arti- cles and well-spiced editorials. They are the cream opinions of show business. Good luck. (Signed) G. U. HEADE. Hollywood. Editor, Inside Facts, Los Angeles, Calif. I was one of the boys who JIT Carli Elinor and his Symphony Orchestra may leave the Carthay Circle when the first wide screen picture, Fox’s “Happy Days,” opens there Feb. 28, following the current run of M-G-M’s “Devil May Care.” If Elinor leaves it is expected he will go to the Fox Studios as head of the music department. The matter was not definitely set the middle of this week, but all indications were that Fox, which owns the Carthay Circle, would de'cide that the first widie was a sufficient draw without any flesh-and-blood entertainment what- soever. Which undoubtedly would be true, but whether this rule would hold up for subsequent pic- tures was another question. Eli- nor’s Concert Orchestra, the only symphony aggregation playing in any Southern California theatre, has been considered a permanent and a popular fixture at the house. Elinor is at present occupying the dual role of orchestra maestro and house manager at the Carthay. His salary for the two positions is reported to be $500 a week. LLOYD DIRECTING ANN By a switch of directors Rollo Lloyd will direct Ann Harding’s next Pathe picture instead of Rus- sell Mack. Mack was taken off the picture “Jane Eyre” for as- signment to another special, and Lloyd, who did the adaptation and dialogue, was given the spot. Lloyd directed two of Miss Harding’s stage plays, and was dialogue di- rector of some of her previous Pathe pictures. stood in the trenches last sum- mer while the Equity battle was on, and I’m sure glad to see that our fight wasn’t in vain. I mean by that that it looks to me that the new contract they’re making out here wouldn’t have come hadn’t it been for Equity. If we didn’t best them we at least scared them. So long as it looks like we can’t have Equity this new con- tract looks pretty good to me. And as it was bestowed by the producers I guess that they’ll see that it’s enforced both in letter and spirit. If not, well I guess maybe Equity will be watchfully waiting to step in if things get bad again. But anyway its a whole lot better than the old con- tract, and maybe we actors are now going to get a break on the hours we work and all that. So let’s all be satisfied. Are we downhearted? No. (Signed) F. M. L. The new bureau for registration of Spanish-speaking professionals of legitimate rating opened last Saturday on scheduled time with 63 registrations. This was about capacity listing for the after- noon. Qualifications of the applicants for registration are passed upon by a committee composed of rep- resentatives from the studios and representatives of the Spanish- speaking colony of L. A. The bureau is an outgrowth of action by the Academy , of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the M. P. P. D. A. The bureau will be open every Saturday afternoon for registra- tions. It is located at headquarters of the M. P. P. D. A. at 5504 Hollywood boulevard, room 324. Through its operations it is ex- pected a complete roster will be built up for the making of Span- ish-language versions. The com- mittee is also registering those with expert technical knowledge necessary to the making of these Spanish versions. After registration, call for those registered will come through the call bureau. I SETS SI TOP ON ’KINO' With M-G-M having its “Rogue Song” as an outstanding feature of its program, Warner having the same in “Show of Shows,” Fox banking on its Grandeur “Happy Days” for a smash, Radio concentrating on its “Radio Re- vels” and so on down the line, Paramount is concentrating on putting over its “The Vagabond King” for a top-notcher in the sensation class. This picture, which has the New York star, Dennis King, in the lead, supported by Lillian Roth, is all-color and made from that perennial stage wow of the same name from Justin Huntley McCarthy’s novel of Francois Vil- lon, “If I Were King.’’ Word is out to the Par pub- licity departments and exchanges to make this one a big thing, and word has gone to exhibs that all first run houses shall charge a $1 top at nights for the picture. While many of the other studios have been hoisting prices on their specials in all cities, Paramount has hitherto stuck to regular ad- mission no matter the quality of the pictures offered. The picture has its local open- ing March 6, preceded by a pre- view at a midnight matinee March 1 at the Paramount Theatre. Top for this will be $1.50. To Issue 12 Old Time Stan Laurel Films Joe Rock is planning to reissue 12 two-reel comedies he made with Stan Laurel five years ago, synchronizing them with sound and music. Stan worked with Rock when the latter was producing at Uni- versal for eastern release, and the time-limit on the first release has now run out. Rock has been located at the old Marshall Neilan Studios on Glendale boulevard, in charge of the Premier Pictures Corporation, which, however, did not launch into a producing program as planned. He will give up these studios some time this week, it is understood, having received an- other offer for producing. Whether the new activity will take over the Premier Pictures or enter the field under a new name is not yet de- termined.