Inside facts of stage and screen (May 10, 1930)

PAGE SIX INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1930 Published Every Saturday One Year ... $4.00 Foreign ... $5.00 Advertising Rates on Application As a bi-monthly publication: Entered as Second Gass Matter, No- vember 17, 1924, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. As a weekly publication: Entered as Second Gass Matter, April 29, 1927, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. i Published by Inside Facts Publishing Company, Inc. 800-801 Warner Bros. Downtown Bldg., Los Angeles, Calif. Telephone TUcIcer 7832 JACK JOSEPHS ...... President and Editor ARTHUR WM. GREEN .... Vice Pres, and Counsel WILLIAM C. OWENS ... Secretary and General Manager Vol. XI Saturday, May 10, 1930 No. 19 Something New Heard in Theme Songs “Let me write a nation’s songs,” quoth a classic sage, “and I care not who makes its laws!” “Desires suppressed crop out in the form of sublimations,” says a great psychologist. Mix these two pointed remarks and you get a new con- coction, currently and melodiously popular on the radio, in the theatre and wherever music is dispensed. It’s the great national vogue for “stein songs,” “mug songs,” “drink songs” and other lyrical extollings of certain currently illegal quaff- ings. The popular song beats a straw vote all hollow as a baro- eter of public reaction. It’s a thing close to the mob spirit. It’s something for hypocritical politicians, reformers and the great clan of “We Know Best” to think over every time they hear the marching rhythms. It’s particularly significant that in a current sound news- reel of the annual parade of the New York police, the pres- ently sensational “Stein Song” was the predominating mel- ody blared out by the marching bands. Even the bluecoats have caught the spirit. And have you noticed that “How Dry I Am” isn’t heard quite so frequently! TEL-A-PHONEY. ftj) JAMES MADISON TIBBETT-MOORE IN ‘NEW MOON’ Lawrence Tibbett and Grace Moore will be starred in the M-G-M picturization of “New Moon.” Jack Conway will direct the mo- tion picture version of the Oscar Hammerstein operetta with the original Sigmund Rombery music score. The book by Frank Mandel and Lawrence Schwab is being adapted for the screen by Sylvia Thalberg and Frank Butler. Dia- logue is by Charles MacArthur. “IDEA” FEATURED Fanchon and Marco’s “Gyp Gyp Gypsy Idea” will be the featured entertainment at the Lincoln High- way celebration in Ely, Nevada, during the first week in June. SPOOR TO CONFER G. K. Spoor, co-inventor of the Spoor-Berggren wide film process, is _ due to arrive at RKO studios this week for a conference with studio officials. WANTED Few Snappy Girls for Special Dem- onstration work. High Class Cosmetics tad Beauty Preparations. Apply 1515 West Pico St., Los Angeles, Calif. Says: Tips to my pals: Song-writers see “June Moon” . . . lovers see ‘The Questionable Elaine’ . . . sophisticates see ‘Strictly Dishonorable’’ . . . musicians see “Rah, Rah, Daze’’ . . . and for laffs . . . don’t forget the CELLAR . . . • • •• P. S. — The CELLAR is at Cosmo Street and Hollywood Boulevard . . . between Vine and Cahuenga . . . the phone numbers are GRanite 8 8 8 2 and HOllywood 9 15 9 . . . parking is free at the lot across from the CELLAR . . . the CHRYSLER and SAM- SONS are there. Thank You. WILBUR ENDS SEASON The Wilbur Players closed their season in Honolulu ftn May 4, and are due to set sail for Los An- geles, May 17, for the summer. They are expected to reopen in the islands next autumn. DENNY WITH MOORE Finishing a part in “Madame Satin,” Reginald Denny has been signed by M-G-M to play apposite Grace Moore in her first star- ring picture, based on the life of Jenny Lind. Scenario by Hans Kraly and Claudine West and dialogue by John Meehan. Orig- inal music composed by Herbert Stothart, Arthur Freed and Harry Woods. NEW ORLEANS TRIP Director Luther Reed, accom- panied by a technical staff, left this week for New Orleans to film Mississippi River and levee scenes for use in Radio Pictures’ original operetta, “Dixiana,” starring Bebe Daniels, now nearing completion. “Extras” for the exterior scenes will be recruited from negro col- onies in the Mississippi River bot- toms. MISS BROX WEDS Patricia Brox, of the Brox Sis- ters, was married to Robert D. Gerstenzang at the home of Wil- liam Perlberg, agent and hubby of another sister, on Monday. MRS. INCE WEDS Losing by her marriage her in- terest in the principal of the $2,- 000,000 Thomas Ince estate, his widow, Mrs. Elinor Ince,. was on her honeymoon this week in north- ern California after her marriage to Holmes Herbert here on Satur- day. NEW AKINS CONTRACT Zoe Akins, playwright and nov- elist, has signed a new contract as a Paramount writer. Paramount first signed her to do the adaptation of Timothy Shea’s novel, “Sarah and Son,” which was filmed with Ruth Chatterton in the leading role. Paramount’s filmization of the Schwab and Mandel golf musical comedy, “Follow Thru,” will be en- tirely in color. SHAKEDOWN OF STARS BY MAG GANG DIES OUT By GENE SWIFT The days of star "shakedowns,” which have yielded rich returns to some fan publication writers in the past, are about over. The old-time star system has just about faded. The cloak of silent mystery which clothed the stellar lights of the inaudible screen, and which stimulated de- sires of the fan world for intimate stories about their idols, has been torn off by the talkies. Somehow, the little fairy prin- cess of the silent flicker dispelled a lot of illusions when she was heard to speak. Then she became even as the little girl friend down the street. The glamor departed. The ideals she conjured as a dream girl disappeared with the dream. The squeaky little doll sopranos awoke the lulled senses, and the avid appetite for fan yarns began to fade. Fan Mail Dropping Fan mail has drppoed off tre- mendously in the past year. Stars are no longer built up on mash notes. Solid technical ability must supplement picture comeliness, and voice outweighs voluptuousness. The. publicity man and fan-mush fabricator can have none but a negligible effect upon the molding of a performer’s career unless there be real ability to work and build upon. A writer with an “in” used to be able to shake down the pretties of the old days for substantial subsidies in return for romantic fan fodder, especially when said writer happened to have a little scandal as a sleeve card. Some- times, even when he did not have a low-down, a little bluff worked just as well as a persuader. Of course the honey attracted a lot of small flies, and soon a lot of amateur writers descended upon every known—and a lot of un- known — picture players, seeking material for. free-lance stories that were flung in avalanches upon the fan mags. Speaks for Itself New mags sprang up to absorb the material. When the talkies came it was a temporary blessing for the . periodicals, giving them new subjects and the fans ate up the new yarns about the way Min- nie Glutz was going after her vo- cal and language lessons. But af- ter a. coupie of talkers made by Minnie had made the rounds and revealed unmistakably that Min- nie’s ancestors were fish peddlers, the^ mush market began to break. 1 he sudden, dizzy fortunes are at an end. The hard working per- formers who really have some- thing on the ball cannot be kidded as to the value to them of the fan fodder of yesterday. The new screen speaks for itself. The sin- ks' 5 have lost their influence with the public, and the execs only read the appraisals of important trade papers. The shakedown racket has faded, and now the mush fraternity are busy thinking up a new one. STUDIO HOSPITAL Radio Pictures’ studio will soon have a new five-room hospital for night and day service, equipped with. latest medical apparatus physiotherapy room, first aid, re- ception, office and two-bed ward Two nurses, Betty Sabetay and Theora Dann, will alternate day and night shifts. Dr. Stanley Im- merman is in charge of all medical activities at RKO. LETTERS There are letters at the Los Angeles office of INSIDE FACTS for the following: BIDMEAD Bros. DOWNING, Harry MATHEWS, Madelyoe MILLARD, S. S. PEDRO, MiDy SHARLAND, Fred C. Hello, Bob Shuler. Hello, James Madison. Many of your friends con- sider you a greater man than ever before. That’s probably because I am now in the Who’sHoose- gow. Hello, Mahatma Gandhi. Hello, James Madison. England has set up a lot of machine guns in India. A person can almost imagine he’s in Chicago. Hello, George M. Cohan. Hello, James Madison. What’s the first thing you did after tearing up your mil- lion dollar contract with Jos- eph Schenck? Gave my publicity agent a raise of salary. Hello, Pat Dowling. Hello, James Madison. Why are my brains like a can of Maxwell House coffee? Because both are vacuum packed. Hello, Walter Winchell. Hello, James Madison. Why would some movie pro- ducers make poor grave dig- gers? They’d fail to recognize a good plot if they saw one. Hello, Harry Cohn. Hello, James Madison. What class of picture actors are called “Afternoon Edi- tions?” The “Extras.” Hello, Ken Murray. Hello, James Madison. What is the “absentest mentality” you encountered last week? A girl who thought a black out is a negro away from home. Hello, William De Mille. Hello, James Madison. They tell me Peggy Joyce has been married six times on account of her sex appeal. That makes her ex-husbands a SEXtette. Hello, Kay Hammond. Hello, James Madison. Last year more goats were born in Switzerland than ever before. What you might call a bumper crop. Hello, Dolores Del Rio. Hello, James Madison. A friend of mine who stut- ters wants to go into pictures. Let him make a slow-motion talkie. SCHULBERG ON TRIP DUFFY CAST SET B. P. Schulberg, Paramount general manager, left Hollywood for New York this week to con- fer with other production and distribution department executives and attend the eastern sales con- vention to be held in Atlantic City. Schulberg will return to Hollywood late in May, following the annual Paramount-Publix con- vention in San Francisco. He is accompanied on his trip by Harold Hurley, of the studio production department. Completed cast for Henry Duf- fy’s revival of Ralph Spence’s thriller, “The Gorilla,” at the Hol- lywood Play House on Saturday includes Clifford Dempsey and Frank McCormack as the detec- tives; Flora Bramley, John Mau- rice Sullivan, Gale Gordon, John De Weese, Edward Seabrook, Walter Marshall, Phillip Morris, John Manning and Victor Donald. Edward H. Curtis is directing. BUSINESS BUILDER AND RECORD SMASHER EDDIE PEABODY HIS PLUNK-PLUNK BANJO JOYS MEAN PLANK-PLANK AT THE BOX OFFICE HE NEVER MISSES EXCLUSIVE MANAGEMENT Mrs. Eddie Peabody