Inside facts of stage and screen (September 13, 1930)

ESTABLISHED 1924 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS V«1 YII Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927. at Post- „ . , „ _ D T“TT I ^ —— VOI. All office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of Maxch 3, 1879. Saturday, September 13, 1930 Pub!lished E-very Saturday at 800-801 Warner Bros. Down- i r 9 town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. No. ll ‘KID BUSINESS’ SOUGHT HOUSE HERE WILL PLAY RK0 ‘LEGIT’ RKO has taken a lease on the Mason Opera House for production of legitimate plays. The house is scheduled to open November 1. Metro politan Productions, Ltd., a subsidiary of RKO Pro- ductions has taken over the historic Broadway theatre, and will be the first of the motion picture concerns to actually get into the field here for the preservation of the legitimate stage. Warner Brothers started in New York with “Fifty Million French- men” last year and followed it with “Top Speed,” both of which proved phenomenally successful and have been made into equally big talking pictures. Activities of Warner and Para- mount for the rebirth of interest in the in-person theatre were told in Inside Facts a few weeks ago. Definite arrangements of RKO came sooner however than were ex- pected, particularly in regard to lo- cal operations. Policy with the Ma'son, which may be renamed, is to produce strictly original plays, which, if they are successful here, will be taken to New York and af- terwards made into taking pictures. LE BARON HEADS William Le Baron, general man- ager of RKO studios here will su- pervise productions at the Mason. Le Baron was well known as a suc- cessful author and producer, previ- ous to his advent into pictures. Before coming to Los Angeles, he was in charge of Paramount studios in New York. Fred G. Latham has been ap- pointed general stage director and Charles Harris will be in charge of business management. In all like- lihood, Don Eddy will handle pub- licity. Name of the first production (Continued on Page 5) AMOS ’N’ ANDY DIVIDE PEN LABOR Amos ’n’ Andy, now filming their first talkie, “Check and Double Check,” at RKO Radio Pictures’ Studio, have divided the work of autographing “fan” pictures in the following man- ner: Amos writes “Amos ‘n’.” Andy writes “Andy” and usu- ally swings a line under both names. Press agent yarn. MARTY MAY With Anatole FriedlancTs 12 O’Cloek Revue “Man oS a Thousand Friends” — “Disaster o£ Ceremonies” Now Playing at RKO Theatre, Los Angeles HOPE PLAYS FAUST SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11. Hope Hampton will appear at the Exposition Auditorium on Septem- ber 25 in the role of Marguerite in the opera “Faust.” Miss Hampton, the wife of Jules Brulatour, East- man head on the Coast, has just returned from a European operatic tour. BETTY AT PARAMOUNT Betty Grable, former pupil of Earl Wallace, just completed a two weeks’ engagement at the Par- amount theatre as ingenue song and dance artiste, and will return to Paramount _ studio. She recently played an important picture role with Eddie Cantor in “Whoopee.” BUD MURRAY VAUDE Million Dollar is headlining Sid Gary in vaudeville this week. Hal Reed has announced that he is ne- gotiating with Bud Murray to supply a line of girls and vaude specialties for the house, to be billed as Bud Murray Vaudeville. YOUNGSTER NEEDED TO BOOST ‘BIZ’ What appears to be a con- certed move on the part of most of the theatre chains of this country is being made to woo children back to the show places. Short screen subjects are due for a heavy return, as a means of restoring the younger generation’s patronage. This became apparent here, when from numerous sources it was learned that youngsters had not returned to the movie houses, as was expected when the infantile paralysis ban in Los Angeles was lifted. Motion picture heads were not reluctant in declaring the feature film, mainly designed for the en- joyment of the grown-ups, was, to some extent, instrumental in keep- ing kids away from theatres. HERE’S HOPE Cartoons, kid pictures and com- edy shorts were declared the solu- tion. Chain theatre executives have to admit that if the children of today are not educated to attend movie houses, there will be no grown-up clientele in years to come. Like many a big newspaper, the theatres- therefore realize they must play to the youngsters. For the past several months, the type of entertainment of- fered, other than shorts, has not been such as to appeal to the kiddies, theatre heads now frankly admit. As a result, it is noticed there has been a con- tinual drop in the kid business, mainly at matinees, even before the Los Angeles infantile paral- ysis ban went on. West Coast theatres has a depart- ment of public relations, under Miss Ryllis S. Hemington, to work with women’s clubs, churches and other, influences, calculated to have con- trol of what the young seeks for amusement. While this department is admitted ‘3’ effective, it will take something (Continued on Page 3) GREENWOOD NEXT EL CAPITAN STAR Charlotte Greenwood in “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath” will follow “The Poor Nut” at the El Capitan in Hollywood opening September 21. In the supporting cast will appear John Lytel, Johnny Arthur and Sally Starr among others. YOU’LL SEE IT IN FACTS