Inside facts of stage and screen (March 8, 1930)

ESTABLISHED 1924 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS Vol. XI Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at Post- office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of March 3, 1879. Saturday, March 8, 1930 Published Every Saturday at 800-801 Warner Bros. Down- town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. No. 10 Grandeur came, was seen failed to conquer Hollywood. Opening of the Fox Grandeur picture, “Happy Days,” at the Carthay Circle last week left the producing element of the picture colony cold, according to a survey opinion made by Inside Facts. While sensational billboarding, such as “A revolution is coming,” had the general populace aroused, to good boxoffice returns, ably abetted by sensationalizing of the opening night, the picture makers generally saw the new wide screen as nothing to get excited about. Typical comment was given by one high exec whose company is reported to have a wide process ready for shooting when wanted. “Why should we get excited?” he said in answer to a question. “Except for a half again more screen to right and to left, there’s nothing there to rave about. One good star is worth twice that much extra screen.” Has Its Place The general attitude was that the wide screen would serve well in giving larger ensemble effects, especially in color, and also would be available for certain type of action pictures where more room for action was required. But off- setting this would be the loss of intimacy with the players which the present size screen gives. All in all, the prevalent reaction seemed to be that Grandeur or its equivalent in the stock of other companies, would be something which, when the houses became gradually wide-screened, could be used occasionally to good effect, but that it would be a mistake to attempt to make it a general me- dium for the presentation of pic- tures. The line of presentation used in Paramount’s airplane bat- tle picture, “Wings,” a couple of years ago was deemed to be the way wide screen would settle down to usefulness. Advertising space for “H^ppy Days” in the daily papers was in- creased over the usual allotment, and reviews by the critics were generally favorable. Restricted Use Radio Pictures is the only other studio in town which has so far admitted taking the widies seri- ously, and it seemed to be the be- lief that the others wouldn’t—not at least until the exhibitors had recovered from the recent finan- cial exactings of the talkies. Many believed that the widies, if they HEALY AND CROSS R K O Theatre, Los Angeles, This Week ‘OH, SUSANNA’ PLANS ARNOLD GURTLER HERE Arnold Gurtler, of Elitch’s Gar- dens, Denver, arrived in Los An- geles last week, and is stopping at the Roosevelt Hotel. He is here to obtain talent for the stock shows at the Garden. held up in popularity, would never- theless be held to the big cities for a period of perhaps years, and that the smaller town ' houses wouldn’t feel any ill effect what- soever from the innovation. Plans are being considered to recast “Oh, Susanna” which re- cently closed a successful run in San Francisco, and to open it in Chicago in April. The show, a locally created affair, went over to excellent returns both in L. A. and S. F. It is reported that, with a salary cut by the cast to decrease the overhead, the play could have continued in S. F. for some time longer, and that everyone in the cast agreed to the cut except one principal. COMEDIANS TO OPEN A new company of Murphy’s Comedians is being formed by Horace Murphy, with opening un- derstood to be set for the Whittier Boulevard Theatre a week from Saturday. Murphy built this the- atre under the name of the Belve- dere Playhouse some time ago. Most recently he had a company playing to good business in Phoe- nix, Ariz. He disposed of it at a good figure. Equity’s proposed move toward organizing radio and television was this week construed locally as fore- casting the early advent of tele- vision, and aroused a. riot of,dis- cussion in, Los Angeles stations. Executives were virtually unani- mous in the opinion that Equity had no place in radio, as it func- tions at present, and held that the proposal showed knowledge by the A. E. A. that there would soon be a drafting of stage and screen peo- ple for the aerial entertainment field. This could only be the case if television came into operation. The near advent of television was also seen in the wording of the new Hollywood standard con- tract, which went into effect March 1. The usual “services of the art- ist” clause is amended in the new document to give the producer the right to broadcast the actor’s work by television. No Vote Here Meantime Hollywood did not take kindly to the way the Equity vote was being conducted. Unlike the ballot taken before the picture Equity strike, which was sent out to all members in the mails, local people were practically disenfran- chised in the present instance. All they received was notice of the meeting to be held in New York March 17. If they wanted to vote they had to make the trip back, and that, of course, was a pretty hefty procedure to demand. The special meeting in New York is to vote on a proposal to amend the constitutional preamble, line 4, now reading “art of the theatre,” by adding the words “motion pic- tures, whether silent or talking, radio and television.” In another article, after the words “first and second vice-presidents,” would be added “third and fourth vice-presi- dents,” the latter two to handle motion pictures, and radio and tel- evision, respectively. Complete Surprise First word of the New York meeting was brought to the radio stations by Inside Facts, which found the principal reaction, both from executives and artists, to be one of complete surprise. Follow- ing which came voluble discussion of what would happen if a sudden influx of stage artists came climb- ing up the studio stairs. Admitted- ly television would cause a shaTce- up in radio circles comparable or even surpassing what happened in Hollywood when the talkies sup- planted the silent drama, with (Continued on Page 3) film colony NOT EXCITED or UPHEAVAL IN RADIO MAY CAUSE INRUSH FROM STAGE