Inside facts of stage and screen (June 21, 1930)

FACE TWO INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, JUNE 21, 1930 n Rip-roaring Tale Of Films Is Told In “Queer People*■ By ED GIBBONS No more will Carroll and Garrett Graham dally in the pub- licity offices of Hollywood studios. No more will they, it may be gathered, frequent the haunts of the “boulevardiers.” They have written a book instead. It’s going to be one of the most cussed and discussed volumes yet written about Hollywood. Its title is “Queer People.” Its thinly disguised characters are as familiar as Henry’s, the wail of the police sirens, Sid Grauman and Peter the Hermit. 4- The Graham brothers have dug deeply into the little village that clusters round the triangle of Hol- lywood, Wilcox and Cahuenga boulevards. For those, who know the Hollywood of which they write, it will bring a laugh to a page, and here and there, perhaps, a furtive tear. Hollywood’s sole entity, when you come to look into it, is that of a police division in the great mod- ern metropolis of Los Angeles. Actually it is a suburban town, with its country newspapers, its chamber of commerce, its church and social activities, its Rotary, Optimist and other clubs. Superimposed upon this beauti- ful, almost quaint suburban Utopia, exactly in the same fashion that the picture of one happening is superimposed upon another in a movie lap-dissolve, is another Hol- lywood. The two never meet, ex- cept occasionally in the police sta- tion and on the pages of news- papers. For this other Hollywood is. a mad Rabelaisan nightmare, a mix- ture of reincarnated Francois Vil- lons, Will Shakespeares and tongue- tied Caesars. Here consort maids as merry as any ever found in Fircone Tavern (if there was such a place) and haughty maids mag- ically transplanted from the Ver- sailles of Louis XIV. D’Artag- nans ride in new Fords and each haughty Richelieu is marked by the vintage of his Rolls-Royce. In- to this merry gathering place of night club Romeos and pool-room Aureliuses has been thrown the counterpart, many times happily multiplied of all those strange, queer, interesting persons whose difference from the mob has placed their name somewhere in history. Into this giddy whirlpool is mixed the reasoning and the sea- soning of every great era of his- tory from the priestly hokum of the Nile to the beery feudalism of Chicago, all mumbled and jumbled into a hodge-podge as crazy as a Beverly Hills architect’s dream.. With this gaudy, colorful mix- ture of persons and ideas, the Gar- retts have swung shoulder to shoulder and they have come out with a story that is no petulant dashed off sneer of a novelist equilibrating his ego, no leering tid-bit of some disappointed smut- seeker, nor banal diary of an un- observing literary lightweight. It’s a roaring, swinging tale, packed with the atmosphere and the tang of the movie racket, sparing no foibles, but rushing through to its conclusion without petty venom or personal vindictive- ness. It mirrors a collection of characters, upon the beholding of whom, Dickens, Zola, DeMoupas- sant or O. Henry would have dashed immediately to their writ- ing paper. It tells its .tale with a ripping roaring zest, swinging along at a dizzily paced tempo. And. it contents itself with telling an. in- teresting story, instead of critiz- ing, moralizing, putting Hollywood in its place or any of the other literary approaches used by Tully, Van Vechten, Hergesheimer and others who have attempted to fashion a mirror of the movies with words. Most certainly, this book will create a sensation in Hollywood, and elsewhere. And it will stir up a hornet’s nest of enmity from those whom it has lampooned. It’s going to be one of the hot topics pf discussion around Hollywood firesides during the next few months. The Grahams were press-agents at several of the major studios and Garrett had his name on a num- ber of titling credits at the Fox studios. When the talkies came, and the titling racket sagged,, the brothers put into words the ideas and observations of several years in Babylon - by - the - Pacific. The Vanguard Press published their manuscript. HOLLYWOOD TO SET STYLES IN NEW F-M TIEUP Hollywood will be more definite- ly set as the world style creator through a new national tieup with 366 stores, announced this week by Fanchon and Marco, Although tie-ups with merchandisers and manufacturers for exploitation pur- poses have been frequent, in fact an established custom, the new idea, climaxing eight months of planning and developing, presents some new and distinct angles. In co-operation with .several dress manufacturers, and with Fanchon personally designing the gowns, there will be placed each week ifour new styles of frocks, dresses or gowns in 417 speciality shops bearing the F. & M. brand name. The slogan will be “Fanchon De- crees the Fashion.” Each new mode will have a definite release date over the en- tire country, so that the frock presented for the approval of Hol- lywood will on the same day be introduced in Seattle and New Or- leans. F. & M. girls will model the new current mode and exploi- tation stunts will be arranged to benefit both theatre and store. Local exploitation will be through newspapers, by means of syndi- cated fashion articles and rotogra- vure pictures, and through the lo- cal affiliated style shop, and not through the local theatre. Every three months there will be spe- cially staged style shows in co-op- eration with the particular unit showing there that week. This exploitation covers 366 cities. F. & M. units do not make all of these cities, but one of the angles is that the publicity may help to build up a demand for them where not now shown. Many of the stores will be new ones, and the remainder will be established stores which will change their billing to “Fanchon and Marco Mode Shops,” a standard Neon sign being designed for this pur- pose. The stunt is expected to estab- lish Hollywood more firmly than ever as a world style center. It starts operating August 1. “Modes of Hollywood,” F. and M. Idea presenting the first Fanchon created fashions, opens in the Colorado Theatre, Pasadena, Calif., on July 17. He Wouldn’t Take Chance SEATTLE, June 19.—-Jim Brown, just returned from the IATSE convention in Hollywood, is telling a few yarns. One of ’em is that he was standing at Holly- wood and Highland when he heard a girlish voice call “Hoo-hoo!” He paid no at- tention at first, but after a few more calls he turned around, and a few feet away was a shiny Rolls-Royce sport roadster. Behind the wheel—he say—was one . of the famous personality girls of screenland. She was beckoning to him -—he says. “Come on over and let me show you the sights,” she called—he says.. We asked him what he did. “Did?” says he, “Did? I turned round and walked away. I never speak to. peo- ple I’ve never been intro- duced to.” WARNERS STAGE POLICY RETURN STARTING SOON Following on the heels of exclusive predictions by Inside Facts and despite denials in other publications, Jack War- ner this week definitely an- nounced plans for the return of stage presentations in War- ner Brothers’ de luxe houses here, joining with other circuits in the return to the “in-the-flesh” policy. Larry Ceballos established his headquarters at the Warner Broth- ers Hollywood Theatre building this week to commence casting for forthcoming productions, which lead off at the Hollywood house on July 4th. He will handle the presentations under the general di- rection of M. A. Silver, coast the- atre operating head. Leo Forbstein, who conducted in major picture houses here for years, and more recently has been associated with Warner Brothers and First National Studios, will be musical director for the new policy. Nineteen - piece orchestras are slated to go into both houses, with the orchestra pit of the Warners’ Downtown (formerly the Pan- tages) now being remodeled for the larger orchestra. Details of the booking arrange- ments for the Warner produc- tions, which are to be produced with all the resources of the War- (Continued on Page 5) g E g W g 1 E I E -V. I E M. E # $ I g E 1 § I I E 1 E E § 1 E ¥ g § 1 w £ 1 E E E as a as a g E I 1 I E a a g Mary Francis Taylor premiere danseuse with “Student Prince,” “Oh, Susanna,” “Gone Hollywood” and “Broadway Melody,” who is now Ballet Directress, teaching (Belcher Method) modernized bal- let dancing at the Bud Murray School for Stage and Screen. ANG&S TAKE WING SO LEGIT PRODUCTION PUNS ARE FEW This is one of the quietest weeks in many moons in the realm of contemplated legitimate production. The angels seem to have taken wing. From all available information, the Ferris Hartman project for a summer season of light opera has been dissipated. Orig- inally planned for the Shrine Auditorium, and widely adver- tised up to the evening of opening date, inquiry as to why there was no opening was met with the story that demands ■= I frnm the auditorium people for a NEW COLUMBIA PROCRAM IS SET AT MEET; SILENTS OUT Columbia will spend over $10,000,000 on twenty special type feature productions on their next season program, in addition to distributing over 100 short cartoon, novelty and dramatic subjects, according to the announcement of Presi- dent Joe Brandt, following the conclusion of the western sales convention of the organization at the Roosevelt Hotel last week. It was determined at the convention that Columbia will also discontinue the production of silent pictures, and an increased program of direct-to-the-public ad- vertising was decided on. Columbia’s new selling policy will be featured by a plan of sell- ing films after they have been completed and have established a box-office value. Six of Columbia’s 20 feature productions will be known as “Co- lumbia Giants,” and will be of ex- tended run calibre for de luxe the- atres. The vehicles selected are: “The Criminal Code” — Martin Flavin’s prison play. “Arizona”— Augustus Thomas’ American classic of the stage. “Dirigible”—A spec- tacular dramatization of South Polar expedition. “Charley’s Aunt” —The internationally famous Eng- lish farce comedy by Brandon Thomas, which will be produced for Columbia by A1 Christie. “Tol- ’able David”—By. Joseph Herges- heimer, remade into an all-talk- ing drama. “The Last Parade”—A dramatic story of the reconstruc- tion period following the World War, to be directed by Frank Capra. The remainder of the 14 special productions are all based on suc- cessful stage and book material. The first of these, already com- pleted, is “Rain or Shine,” Joe Cook’s Broadway stage success with the original star and support- ing, cast. Others are: “Madonna of the Streets,” adapted from W. B. Max- well’s novel, “The Ragged Mes- senger,” with Evelyn Brent starred; “The Miracle Woman,” adapted from R. R. Riskin and John Meehan’s stage play, “Bless You, Sister”; with Barbara Stanwyck; “The Good Bad Girl,” from Wini- fred Van Duzen’s newspaper serial, NEW O’BRIEN FILM George O’Brien is shortly to commence work at Fox on “Fair Warning,” adapted from the Max Brand novel, “Untamed.” Mar- guerite Churchill, now playing the leading feminine role in Raoul Walsh’s epic, “The Big Trail,” will play opposite the athletic star. Mitchell Harris and Ruth Warren will also be in the. cast of the film which will be directed by Al- fred Werker. another Barbara Stanwyck stellar vehicle; “Brothers,” with Bert Lytell; “Subway Express,” based on the New York stage hit by Eve Kaye Flint and Martha Madison; “The Lion and the Lamb,” an all-talk- ing version of the Collier’s Maga- zine serial by E. Phillips Oppen- heim; “Lover Come Back,” the McCall Magazine story by Helen Topping Miller, also to star Barbara Stan- wyck; “Ubangi,” a sound and film record of the Colorado African Expedition across the equator, pre- senting adventures and discoveries of Paul Hoeffler, explorer and big game hunter; “The Woman Who Came Back,” an Evelyn Brent starring vehicle; “The Flood,” a spectacular visualization of an overwhelming deluge, and others to be announced later. In addition to the 20 feature pro- ductions produced in the Colum- bia studios, eight outdoor romances starring Buck Jones, the western star, will be released by the or- ganization and produced under Co- lumbia supervision. Two of these have already been made—-“The Lone Rider” and “Shadow Ranch.” The third vehicle, now in prepara- tion, is a dialogue dramatization of Bret Haute’s tale, “Tennessee’s Pardner.” Columbia will pay more atten- tion to the development and pro- duction of the shorter screen, sub- jects. The creations of Walt Dis- ney will head the list of sound cartoons from the Columbia or- ganization, and “Mickey Mouse” and “Disney Silly Symphonies” will be represented by two series of 13 subjects in each. Another popular cartoon crea- tion under this company’s banner is “Krazy Kat.” Thirteen are an- nounced. “Talking Screen Snap- shots,” Columbia’s “fan” magazine of the screen, specializing in “off stage” views of picture person- alities, will be represented by 26 issues. Thirteen “Curiosities,” photo- graphic and sound records of oddi- ties from all parts of the globe; 13 “travelogues,” and other short length pictures will augment the feature program for the season of 1930-31. make a deal with the Philharmonic Auditorium, but without success. The report now is that Earl Askam, one of the singing principals, is trying to stir up some financial backing for the venture under his own aegis. “Hi There,” the musical show recently premiered in San Francis- co, and projected for a showing at the Biltmore here which did not materialize, is now slated for a New York showing. George Fawcett is giving con- sideration to a new vehicle to fol- low “Under a Virginia Moon” now at the Vine Street, and as soon as the choice is made will begin cast- ing. Edward Eisner will direct. Wallace Stark’s “Paths of Glory” is getting a try-out at Long Beach under the auspices of Disabled Vet- erans, and may come here to the Figueroa Playhouse. Principals are Burt, Sproete and Ruth Hill, with William Strauss directing. George Sherwood’s production of “A Man’s Man” at the Figueroa folded up, with the cast charging it to experience, as they had waived the Equity bond. “Decency,” at the Mayan, closes this week end, although business had been picking up, and the house will remain dark until June 30, when “Molly Magdalene” opens under A1 Rosen’s auspices. At the Hollywood Playhouse, Ed Rowland is thinking about putting in some sort of a legitimate stock company, and the Blanchard two agency is casting nets into the actor sea by way of prospect. There is nothing too definite about the idea, though, as yet. Although it was announced last week that the Hart Players, Pasa- dena, would disband, it is now stated they will go back to stock shows after the “Ingagi” film closes- John Hill’s projected production of “The Little Show” is still hang- ing fire, and while he still has plans for doing it here, there is nothing definite as to when or where. At the Majestic, Lillian Albert- son’s production of “The Last Mile” is building up, checking in $11,500 for its second week, and it looks set for a nice run. Fourth and last week of Bert Lytell in “Brothers” drew $5,800 to the El Capitan. Has been suc- ceeded by “Nancy’s Private Af- fair,” which, opened strong. At the President, second and closing week of “The Whispering Gallery,” grossed $3,950, and at the Vine Street the fourth and final week of George Fawcett’s “The Great John, Ganton,” brought in $4,900. The Biltmore and Mason are both dark, with “Subway Express” rehearsing at the latter house. Eddie Miller is closing his dance school this week and will return to the East, owing to the illness of his mother.