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

PAGE TWO INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1930 FOREIGN LANGUAGE NEW RACKET M Matte r of Tr ailers One phase of screen offering is a sadly neglected one. And that is the trailer field. The custom has arisen, though upon what assumption of effectiveness is hard to determine, of picking out several big scenes from the coming picture and showing these as a bid for re-patronage of the current audience. But all too often these scenes, being isolated and without climactical predication, are rather flat in the trailer showing, and their main effect is to make the spectators believe the coming picture is not so hot. Then there is another phase to the matter, especially now that good singing is becoming a tremendous boxoffice pull. Some new singing star, not yet heard by the picture audiences, is in the coming film. Whole stanzas and choruses of the best song he does in it are given. And what is the audience reac- tion? Why, to say, “So-and-So; sure I’ve heard him sing now. Why should I pay 65 cents to hear him again?” Not only in quality, but also in quantity, the trailers are frequently a boresome part of the evening’s doings. Recently a local house ran a trailer for the coming feature, one almost equal in length for the comedy, one for their next midnight show, and one as a general plug for the house. When it was through the audience had paid a total of 65 cents plus a long boresome stretch. Warner Brothers is away ahead of the other film companies in the matter of trailers. Regular little playlets are written with the coming cast involved, and leading down to discussion of the coming picture from the most interesting angles. Or else nov- elty introductions are used. Some of these trailers are little classics, to whom credit belongs not being definitely known at this writing, but presumably due Bill Bloecher, former publicity chief at Warners, and to George Thomas, his successor. These Warner Brothers trailers are as much a part of the entertain- ment program as any other feature, and often exceed in inter- est the advertised offerings. Why the other companies have let W. B. monopolize this excellent idea is hard to fathom, but they still cling to the methods which the Warners have made archaic. ‘NEW MOON’ ONLY LEGIT TO HOLD UP TO RECORD FIGURES ■‘New Moon” at the Majestic-f-did Theatre is the only show in town that held up on a record breaking run last week. Once again it hit over the $18,000 mark and entered its eighth week with the demand still holding up to capacity. The Duffy houses have been going along consistently. The last week of “Ladies of the Jury” at the El Capitan got $5300. Last Sunday Violet Heming opened at this house in “Let Us Be Gay.” At the Hollywood Playhouse, Frank Crane in “Salt Water” drew $5400, a very good figure for this house. The next-to-closing week of Kolb and Dill at the President in “Give and Take” at- tracted $5000. Taylor Holmes opens Sunday in “Your Uncle Dudley.” The Roger Gray revue at the Biltmore called “Gone Hollywood” hobbled along to about $5000 on its opening week without much in- dication of improvement. An- other week will about see the end of this unless things pick up. “The Nut Farm” at the Vine St. $4400 for its second week. It is slated to fold up Saturday night and will be replaced on Sunday with “Rope’s End,” a sensational eastern thriller. The Belasco is running its last two weeks of “Journey’s End,” and will be followed by Lenore Ulrich in “East of Suez.” The Mason will open late in the month with a new play sponsored by Fred Waring of Waring’s Pennsylva- nians. It is a musical called “Happy Daze.” “The Latest Murder” died a-born- ing at the Figueroa Playhouse, folding up last Saturday night. The Civic Repertory theatre at the Hollywood Music Box is hang- ing on and fighting valiantly for a deserved success. Its present play, “A Bill of Divorcement,” took $3500 for its second week, which under its plan of operation is not altogether discouraging. It will be followed next Monday with “A Ro- mantic Young Lady.” The Actors and Egan are closed, with nothing scheduled. ' REPEATS ON CAST Many of the “Last of Mrs. Cheyney” cast will be used in the filming of a second Frederick Lonsdale play at M-G-M. In- cluded are Basil Rathbone, Moon Carroll, Cyril Chadwick, Herbert Bunston and Effie Ellsier. Sydney Franklin, who directed “Cheyney,” will direct the second picture also, “The High Road.” Ruth Chatterton *has the leading fern role, with her husband, Ralph Forbes, also a member of the cast. MAY DO ‘PHILADELPHIA’ Andy Wright is understood to be planning to give a local produc- tion of “Philadelphia.” Vaude Act At Pathe Had Big Names To It Three big picture men can join the “I remember” club when Pathe starts shooting “The Red Heads,” from the vaudeville act of the same name, which was a sensation years ago. The vaude act was written by William LeBaron, now RKO pro- duction chief; was staged by Wil- liam Wolffenden, now in charge of shorts for Pathe; and was owned by Jesse Lasky. Pathe is going to make it as the first of their Rainbow Com- edies, a series of 2-reelers all in color. Frank Davis, formerly of the vaude team of Davis and Dar- nell, will direct. CHANGE IN POLICY SAN FRANCISCO, March 5.— Returning from a five weeks’ stay in New York, Curran D. Swint, drama editor of The News, has instituted several changes in the theatre section of that Scripps- Howard paper. Swint is seeking elimination or reduction of the press agent yarns generally found on the drama page, instead sup- plying news that will be of in- terest to the readers. He has in- augurated a list of theatre attrac- tions and is writing a daily col- umn of theatrical events of in- terest. BREAK FOR FAY Kay Johnson, who scored so heavily in Cecil B. DeMille’s M- G-M picture, “Dynamite,” is to get the break she deserves, and which she has not had since then. She’s going to play the key role in DeMille’s next Metro picture, “Madame Satan. Others cast for the picture include Reginald Denny, Roland Young and Wynne Gibson. Story is by Jeannie Mac- pherson, and music and lyrics by Herbert Stothart, Jack King, Elsie Janis and Clifford Grey. HAINES AS COWBOY “Easy Going” is the name of a new play by Byron Morgan and Alfred Block which M-G-M is to make featuring William Haines. It is a western comedy and Fred Niblo has been, elected to direct. IN ‘FATHER’S DAY’ Robert Me Wade has been added to “Father’s Day,” which Sam Wood is directing at M-G-M. The newest racket in Holly- wood for separating film people from their money is the foreign- language gag. Not that this may not prove in the long run to be a legitimate field of business, but some of the ballyhoo stories spon- sored at present should be put on the unfair list without delay. Trade papers recently have been giving much space to activity of Hollywood in the foreign lan- guage problem. Smaller studios making this class of film have been given more publicity, as Hol- lywood becomes more foreign- minded, and some of the bigger studios have announced foreign versions for their stars of English tongue. All well and good, and it does not seem like knowledge of a for- eign language will be any handi- cap to film people, though In- side Facts’ guess is that the eventual outcome will be pictures wherein only the stars are main- tained in two versions, and sup- porting casts for the foreign film will be from among nationals of that country. Such an arrange- ment does not make for unpleas- ant entertainment, as witness the English tongue films of Maurice Chevalier, Irene Bordoni, et al. But, visualizing the whole cast of a Chevalier or Bordoni picture speaking with an accent, and the entertainment would not be so pleasant. Consequently, it seems, Hollywood will eventually settle down to a policy whereby only those who cannot be duplicated for best boxoffice results will be cast in the two versions—people of high individuality such as Laurel and Hardy, Al Jolson. Lawrence Tibbett, Dennis King and others of the stars who have other things than their histrionic ability to recommend them. Wherever there is no such at- tribute, it would appear, the pic- ture will be recast, even though the second cast is not as able as the first one. But this viewpoint is far from that being presented by those try- ing to stampede the industry into studying languages, at so much per lesson. Wild stories are cir- culating that those who speak only English are sure to be sup- planted; and that inability to speak French and Spanish will write finis to many a career. But what these ballyhooers fail to state, and it is an important point, is that, while the essentials of a foreign language can be acquired in comparatively short order, it takes a long stretch of training to perfect speech to where its accent is not the main noticeable point of it. As witness Baclanova, Emil Jannings, and others who have lived in this country and studied its language diligently, and yet never got to where they could give English its proper twists. All in all, bets are that speak- ing knowledge of a foreign lan- guage at the present time may bring some extra picture work now or in the near future, but that those who survive as foreign version castings will have to have such a thorough knowledge of the language that they are indis- tinguishable from the natives of the country. And it’s hard to get that way. GAMBOL BAD GAMBLE Roger Gray is understood to have taken a heavy jolt on his “Gone Hollywood” haywire gam- bol at the Biltmore Theatre. House was understood to be heavily pa- pered—“a regular snowstorm,” one observer reported it—and even so didn’t do good draw. It is under- stood to be due to close Saturday night of this week. VALUABLE COLLECTION During the run of “The Grand Parade” at the RKO Theatre, Press Agent Marin made a very effective lobby display with a number of minstrel programs of half a century ago. They were lent by James Madison and are said to be one of the finest collections of play-bills, programs, dime novels and sheet music in existence, to say nothing of a 70-year file of the New York Clipper. I aj The N. Y. At titude The New York attitude toward talking pictures is surpris- ingly at variance from that of the balance of the country. Pic- tures which New York call bad seem to have a habit of being hailed throughout “the sticks” (which, in N. Y. parlance means the rest of the U. S. A.) as nifty offerings, and also seem to have the habit, disgruntling from the N. Y. viewpoint, of roll- ing up good boxoffice. And the contrary also holds true. Just why this should be so seems at first hard to understand, but a little closer inspection gives the answer. Consider the crop of books written by the New Yorkers. By and large their sophistication is of such an extreme hoity-toitiness that it rings with a distinctly false clank to anyone who is not conversant with the Metropolitan attitude. This ultra-sophistication mainly shows forth in the “smart” dialogue. And now, suddenly, dialogue comes to the screen, and apparently the New York film critics are measuring it by the yardstick of the N. Y. literary dialogue. “The sticks’ ’are less exacting. They are willing to have their characters talk like people they know; they want the reac- tions depicted to be those which are a part of their own lives; they want the stories and the conversations to be human. So much for “the sticks,” but the N. Y. critics seem also fre- quently to miscall ’em these days even for New York audiences. Of course the obvious ones, such as “The Rogue Song,” “Anna Christie,” etc., are ones upon which no one can go wrong, but it is in the chapters of more ordinary routine where the errors occur. It is unfortunate that Hollywood has no definite way of gauging audience reaction before pictures are flung into gen- eral exhibition. It is unfortunate that they have no selected preview audience of experts who can put their fingers on box- office or the lack of it. For even boxoffice is no true test of a picture’s worth; it may be largely the result of a prior picture by the same star, or of a publicity man’s acuteness. And many a star has faded because of the absolute impossibility, in the final analysis, of accurately ascribing faults and virtues, public antipathies or admirations, and whether inspired by the star, the story, the publicity or the comparatively few critics whose opinions may guide many prospective ticket-purchasers. COLD SNAP TAKES CUT IN ON B0X0FF1CES OF FILM HOUSES Snappy weather took a cut-in om the picture house boxoffices during the past week, the effect being general. Except for “The Rogue Song” at the Chinese, which is still run- ning to big returns .and likely to continue so for some time, Wil- liam Powell in Paramount’s “Street of Chance,” with Milton Charles, organist, and otherwise all-screen entertainment in support, made the best showing comparatively speak- ing, by bringing the Paramount boxoffice up to $28,000. Following show, “Roadhouse Nights,” with Helen Morgan and Charles Rug- gles heading the cast, didn’t do so well at $20,000, and hadn’t been ex- pected to do so. Loew’s State ran to only the medium figure of $27,306 with M-G-M’s “The Benson Murder Case” and the Fanchon and Marco “Idea in Marble” in support. “The Rogue Song” continued big at $26,228 for six days, still better than $10,000 over house average. Ramon Novarro’s M-G-M pic- .ture, “Devil May Care,” did a weak fadeout at the Carthay Cir- cle to the tune of $9924, with Fox’s Grandeur film, “Happy Days,” following. Greta Garbo’s “Anna Christie” held up well at the Criterion, do- ing $11,179. M-G-M’s “Condemned” did well by the United Artists, though not sensational at $20,000 for its first week and $15,000 for its second. Richard Dix’s Radio Picture “Seven Keys to Baldpate” finished a weak run with a bad week of slightly over $10,000. The other RKG house, the RKO Theatre, also failed to score anything much with “The Grand Parade,” the b. o. sinking down to $14,000, which is its lowest for some time. Fox’s “Cockeyed World” did right by the Boulevard, gathering $11,216; but U. A.’s Pickford- Fairbanks picture “Taming of the Shrew” dropped down the recent good business of the Egyptian to $9136. WARNERS BUY LOT SAN FRANCISCO, March 5.— Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., have purchased a frontage of 100 feet on Golden Gate avenue on film row, near the present Warner exchange, where the company will soon remodel the present buildings into a new film center. PEGGY WALLACE HURT Peggy Wallace, formerly con- nected with the chorus of the “Follow Thru” musical comedy was taken to the emergency sta- tion, after the car which she was driving, ran into an oil well on Beverly boulevard. Miss Wallace suffered a broken ankle and other small injuries as a result of the accident. PLANS FOR GRIDIRON SAN FRANCISCO, March 5.— Plans and specifications for a gridiron, canopy and the electrical equipment of the stage in the Civic Auditorium was authorized by the Board of Supervisors’ meeting last week. About $40,000 will be spent in the civic theatre. ABE TO START D. W. Griffith was to begin actual shooting this week on “Abraham Lincoln” at U. A. Walter Huston is Abe, and Una Merkel is Ann Rutledge. JUNE IS SIGNED June Collyer has been signed to a long-term contract by Para- mount. U BUSY “What Men Want,” from War- ner Fabian’s novel, has started production at Universal, with Mary Nolan starred under direc- tion of Ernst Laemmle. This makes five shooting, the others be- ing “King of Jazz,” “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “The Storm,” and “Czar of Broadway.” “La Marseillaise” and “Carnival Girl” have just been completed. “Moon- light Madness,” to star John Boles, with Jeanette Loff oppo- site, and to be directed by John Robertson, is being prepared for an early start. Eva Tanguay Sells Home; Has Vaude Act Eva Tanguay is about to return to vaudeville. She has sold her fine home at Toluca Lake and is preparing to present an act. Miss Tanguay came to L. A. a couple of years ago presenting a new hubby to the gang. * Later she started annulment proceedings on the grounds that her spouse deceived her as to his real name. This, she charged, was Chandos Ksaizkiecz but he called himself Allen Parado. Gosh, she shouldn’t have got sore at that. Think if he hadn’t changed it. If she had used the name, she might have been re- ferred to as the “Big Sneeze” and gotten a lot of hay fever publicity.