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

PAGE TEN INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, FEB. 22, 1930 VANCOUVER, B. C. A. K. MacMartin REPRESENTATIVE 901 Bekins Bldg, - NORTHWEST ^ JEAN ARMAND DISTRICT MANAGER WASHINGTON :: OREGON IDAHO :: MONTANA SEATTLE Joseph D. Roberts REPRESENTATIVE 1118 Northern Life Tower GARBO PULLS UP NEW FOX FIGURE TO HEALTHY $18,1 SEATTLE, Feb. 20.—Greta Gar- bo’s first all-talkie, “Anna Chris- tie,” brought results to the New Fox Theatre boxoffice to the tune of $18,500, one of the best grosses this house has seen since the opening week of “The Cockeyed World.” A lot of snow has been flushed down the streets of Se- attle since dough like this has been planked down at this house. They’re holding this one a second week, and should do a mighty nice business. A couple of rec- ords went haywire on the open- ing days, which proved that Gar- bo can draw ’em. Close behind came Peabody’s final week at the Fifth Avenue, together with Fanchon and Mar- co’s “Uniform” Idea and Charlie .King and Bessie Love in M-G- M’s “Chasing Rainbows.” This one reported $15,400, a couple of grand over the previous week. The Publix Seattle house showed a healthy increase of sev- eral grand with William Powell in “Street of Chance.” This one a few dollars shy of $14,000 for the week. Exceedingly nice busi- ness. Clausen and his Serenaders, Layne and Gordon, lobby enter- tainers, and Stanley Malotte at the organ rounded out the bill. The big surprise of the week was the holdover of “Hit the Deck,” which did $10,000, bringing a total of approximately $35,000 for the two weeks. Vaudeville, headed by Pepito, furnished the balance of the entertainment. A self-appointed censor helped John Hamrick’s Blue Mouse box- office with the “Party Girl” to the tune of $8,150. Pretty healthy tak- ings, but nevertheless the rule at Hamrick’s small house. Across the street, at his Music Box, Winnie Lightner in “She Couldn’t Say No” did $1,100 bet- ter, dragging in $9,250. Billie Dove, at the Metropolitan in “Other Tomorrows,” did a healthy business for five days, while Ken Maynard, in “Senor Americano” at the Coliseum, also had its share in the good weather break. AMATEUR NIGHTS SEATTLE, Feb. 20.—The North- west division of RKO are plan- ning a Grand Opportunity Week for the local would-be thespians. All houses will run amateur nights, winners to appear in Seat- tle for the finals and a coast en- gagement. MRS. GOLDEN ON VISIT SEATTLE, Feb. 20.—Mrs. Lou Golden, wife of the Fox Theatre manager here, left last Saturday to spend a month with her par- ents in Los Angeles. STRONG AT KJR SEATTLE, Feb. 20. — Harold Strong, pianist, formerly connected with various orchestras around here, is now staff pianist at KJR. Blaze by Blaze Description of Fire Is Panic SEATTLE. Feb. 20.—Pinkerton (“Pink”) Day, staff announcer at KOL, pulled a hot one here this week when a local building im- mediately in the rear of the stu- dios caught fire. Day dropped the scheduled phonograph record broadcast and yanked his mike to the roof of his building, from, where he broadcast a flame-by- flame description of the half-mil- lion-dollar blaze, beating the ex- tra editions of the dailies by at least thirty minutes. “Pinkie” kept the broadcast up for forty-five minutes and received a raft of phone calls and letters commending him on the clever trick. VANCOUVER By A. K. MacMARTIN While playing to big business at the Pantages Theatre two reels ot “The Virginian” caught fire in the projection room at the opening show in the morning and were de- stroyed. As there was no other print in town a new feature was rushed to the theatre for showing the balance of the week. * * * * Vancouver Chapter II of the American Projection Society is governed by the following officers: President, Locksley Clark; vice- president, Marvin H. Thoreau, secretary, John R. Foster; treas- urer, Will Tenney; member-at- large, J. Hank Leslie; sergeant-at- arms, W. E. (Blli) McCartney. Wally Woolridge, chairman of degree team. These boys and* a number of the members, 17 in all, recently mo- tored to Seattle, where they in- stalled a new chapter of the order, of which Donald Crist, supervisor of projection in the Northwest for Publix, was elected president. * * * “Elizabeth Sleeps Out,” the comedy presented by the British Guild Players at the Empress, went over in such a big way that it was held over and is still going strong in its second week. * * * The Strand Theatre manage- ment has posted notice and its band will be pulled out when Jackie Souders closes at this house on Feb. 22. Souders, who goes to the Fifth Avenue, Seattle, was to follow Eddie Peabody in on the 20th, closing here on the 15th. He has been held over another week. The Strand, which has been playing F. and M. Ideas, and Jackie Souders as m. c. and band leader for the past 29 months, will revert to screen fare alone starting the week of the 24th. * * * Wally Pullman, for some time banjoist with Jackie Souders’ band, and well known to the fans of the air for his many radio con- certs, has taken over the leader- ship of the Cotillion orchestra at the Cotillion Ballroom. * * * The local censor board has been swept by another wave of right- eousness and is using the shears on film product like a crop gath- erer at harvest time. Maynard Joiner, manager of the New Or- pheum, has hit on a scheme which clicks with the fans right across the board. Every time a censored spot is reached and the film goes silent, an amber colored spot is thrown on a big card which is located on an easel on one side of the screen, which reads “CEN- HAS 'EM SOLID FOR THREE BAYS SEATTLE, Feb. 20. —Lillian Roth, Paramount feature player, took Seattle audiences into her camp in a three-day personal ap- pearance at the Seattle Theatre here over the week-end. House did a thousand dollars more than any previous record. They jammed the house to the doors to get a glimpse of this Hollywood personality and got their money’s worth when she gave them a brace of snappy numbers. It’s the first time they’ve got a closeup of Hollywood since Do- lores Del Rio made her appear- ance at the Met last fall, and they took to it plenty. Not only this, but it’s great advance for “Vagabond King,” which plays here shortly, for Roth plugged her coming picture like a real showman and sent the gang out asking for the playdate. CLOSE AT VICTOR SEATTLE, Feb. 20. —The De Cecilitoes, society dancers, have just closed a two weeks’ engage- ment at the Club Victor, fashion- able night spot. The team took the job while vacationing in this city, which they have been doing for the past six months. After closing at Club Victor, the De Cecilitoes played a couple of nights for John Savage at the Trianon Ballroom to good returns. The dance team left this week for San Francisco, where they are scheduled for an indefinite en- gagement at the Mark Hopkins Hotel. SORED” in box car letters. Dur- ing the run of “Marianne” featur- ing Marion Davies, the censored spots were so frequent the fans razzed the censors to a fare-you- well with hisses, booes and other brick-bats. * * * In the issue of Feb. 8 it was stated that Ted Howland was or- ganizing a musical tab show in Seattle to open in Vancouver. This item was correct with the exception of location as the show opened at the Coliseum, Victoria, and was not intended for Vancou- ver. W. P. Nichols, who oper- ates the Coliseum, has the Royal and Columbia in Vancouver. Mr. Nichols states that if the show clicks in the Capital city, he may give it some time at the Royal here. Organ Review HENRI LE BEL FOX THEATRE SEATTLE (Reviewed Feb. 14) Le Bel offered for the first time on the Pacific Coast the playing of three organs at one time. This was accomplished through the em- ployment of two baby consoles connected with the master instru- ment. The gag presented plenty of flash and clicked gloriously. 1 The concert opened with the house dark and a green spot flashed on the master console as it rose from the pit. Some mys- terious notes, together with crashes and cymbals, were emitted from the instrument with no one seated at the keyboard. Following this the curtains rose to reveal Henri and Loraine seated at the midgets at each side of the stage. They offered a pair of pop tunes that sounded nice, after which Henri gave way to Iris and took the big console. The trio then unfolded the “Orpheus” Overture effectively, with Le Bel providing the melody and the sock, while the maids at the babies brought in some effec- tive interpolations. C. M. “Sandy” Balcom, local organ man, is given credit for conception and execution of the baby consoles. Le Bel’s presen- tation of the organ trio was a clever piece of showmanship and, if used judiciously, should con- tinue to click. Frog. RECORlWHEU AT THE TRIANON SEATTLE, Feb. 20.—Attracting a crowd of 4,100, Tex Howard’s Band, currently holding forth at the Trianon Ballroom, cracked all recent records for this big spot last Saturday evening. According to the management, this is the largest assemblage there since the late Herb Weidoft held .forth there three years ago. Howard’s Band. broadcasting nightly over KPCB, has built a large following in the five weeks it has been playing at the Tria- non. Personnel includes Randy Ball, Jimmy Murphy and Paul McCrea, saxes and clarinets; Gor- don Greene, trombone; Sid John- stone and Frank Allen, trumpets; Mace Chamberlain, banjo and bass viol; Frank Read, sousa- phone; Harry McAllister, drums, and Tex Howard, leader. SPOKANE, Wash., Feb. 20.— Plans are progressing for the re- opening of the American Theatre by Ray Grombacher, local thea- trical magnate, owner of five of the six houses in town. The house, which seats 1200, has ben closed for some time. Grombacher recently acquired the lease, which he held before the advent of Gertrude Hunting- ton, who has been playing road shows in the house. Latest advices call for the opening of Fanchon and Marco’s “International Idea” on the 28th, with Ralph Pollack scheduled as master-of-ceremonies and Harry Colbert coming over as house manager from the Audion, one of Grombacher’s holdings. The Western Electric equipment from the Granada is being moved to the American for installation, with a new junior Western Elec- tric set being installed in the former house. The opening screen feature is Buddy Rogers’ “Half Way to Heaven,” schedules calling for a six-day week, leaving Thursdays open for road shows. The Friday opening is a nat- ural jump from Seattle for the F. and M. “Ideas.” They close in Seattle on Wednesday, with a Wednesday closing in Spokane, giving them plenty of time to get to Butte, Montana. Local showmen are watching the opening with interest as RKO have a toe-hold on the vaude situ- ation in this burg. ADVERTISERS SUE CRUZE COMPANY FOR SERVICES James Cruze, Inc., the company which made “The Great Gabbo,” has been sued and had its belong- ings at the Gower street studio at- tached for $17,463 by the General Outdoor Advertising company of New York tor payment it claims due for electrical advertising used in connection with the showing of the picture in New York City. A third party claim was filed by Mrs. Elizabeth Chadwick to the effect that she owned the prop- erty included in the attachment to the value of $50,000. The writ was released as to that property. Following this release, a watch- man placed at the studio was re- leased from duty. DPE55 YOUR THEATRE OR YOUR ACT WITH THE FINEST AND MOST ARTISTIC ’ENERY"® DESIGNED MADE UP AND PAINTED BY THE LARGEST AND MOST EFFICIENT STAFF OF SCENIC ARTISTS, DESIGNERS AND DRAPERY EXPERTS IN AMERICAS LARGEST AND MOST BEAVTIFI/L STUDIOS Los Angeles Scenic Stvdios Inc 111 pit AFFILIATED WITH GlAS. 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