Inside facts of stage and screen (October 4, 1930)

PAGE SIX INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN OCT. 4, 1930 Published Every Saturday One Year $4.00 Foreign $5.00 Advertising Rates on Application Established 1924 As a weekly publication: Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Published by Inside Facts Publishing Company, Inc. 800-801 Warner Bros. Downtown Bldg., Los Angeles, Calif. Telephone TUcker 7832 JACK JOSEPHS ------ President and Editor ARTHUR WM. GREEN - Vice Pres, and Counsel JEAN ARMAND ... General Manager LOU JACOBS ------- Associate Editor Vol. XII Saturday, October 4, 1930 No. 14 BILLBOARD BONER Some wisenheimer gave Fox West Coast a terrible exploi- tation steer when he induced the circuit to discard billboard advertising for “Madam Satan,” the LeMille picture at the Criterion. Instead of using the regular Foster and Kleiser tried and proven method of advertising, W. C. used its influence with the city fathers to placard the street with streamers and ban- ners stretched from building to building, making the block on Grand between Sixth and Seventh look like a dusty spider’s web. This boner has built up considerable dissatisfaction among the business firms of the neighborhood, who object to having their street decorated like a shabby Christmas tree. Result has been that “Madam Satan” is doing a far less business than it deserves, and it is predicted that before the run is over, the billboards will be discussed to their full capacity,' or the run will be sadly curtailed. COPYING NEVER SUCCEEDS It might be merly co-incidental, but such coincidence should be avoided. Two weeks ago, Irving Talbot’s orchestra at the Paramount introduced a grand opera potpourri, which was well received. The following week Rube Wolf offered the same selection, with the comment that such serious music would be a feature of his offerings henceforth. .Another week, an act at RKO showed the origin of the motif of a.number of popular songs, and last week Jules Buffano did a similar stunt with his band. Fanchon and Marco call their presentations “Ideas,” and last week Harry Gourfain called his Paramount stage show a production. Originality is a virtue. It is far, far better to have it said that these shows are extremely different from one another than to have it commented that they copy one another. Rivalry for popular favor will stimulate business but similarity will kill it for both of them. If they must see each other’s offerings, and they should— what they see should be metriculously avoided or reversed, and if inadvertently they have a similar feature, it should be withdrawn forthwith. Competition between the two stage shows should be highly developed in a strive for fine talent and novelty, but imitation or repetition is unworthy of the clever- ness of both producers and leaders. SHORT SHOTS at the NEWS Equipment worth $500,000 was abandoned in the high Sierras this week, when a snow storm broke over the Paramount “Fighting Caravan” company. Among 160 actors and technicians, who were brought to Dardanelle, safely, were Gary Cooper, Lily Damita, Ernest Torrence, Tully Marshall and Eugene Pallette. * * * Attorney-General U. S. Webb announced he will oppose a new trial of Alexander Pantages, convicted of crimnally attacking Eunice Pringle. Announcement stated Webb intends to join district attorney’s office, seeking a rehearing of retrial order. * * * S. Cherry Campbell, former actor, arrested and charged with lur- iug girls to downtown office on pretense of hiring them as models. Stated in complaint Campbell forced girls to disrobe. * * * .Bing Crosby, member of Gus Arnheim’s orchestra, was married to Dixie Lee, film actress. * * * Rita Kaufman, wife of Albert A. Kaufman, Paramount film ex- ecutive, granted divorce from the latter on grounds of desertion. * * * Harold B. Franklin, former president of the Fox West Coast Theatre chain, will leave for Europe on vacation at end of month. * * * Will of the late Lon Chaney was probated this week, terms under which the bulk of $5a0,000 estate is bequeathed to the widow. Former wife received $1, while Chaney’s personal servant, John Jeske, received $5,000. SET FOR DOUG’S PIC Three more players were signed yesterday for Douglas Fairbanks’ picture, “Reaching for the Moon,” an Irving Berlin production for United Artists, which Edmund Gouldir.g will direct. They are Wal- ter Walker, Adrienne d’Ambricourt, and Claud Allister. Elsie Janis com- pleted the dialogue. TELE GROUP MEETS California Television Society, a limited group recruited from the film industry and the University of California, held a formal opening last week of their new clubhouse at the Warner-Kelton hotel. A complete assortment of apparatus : for experiments in television is being installed, with Dr. D. Moran- 'dini of U. C. in charge of all work. TELA-PHONEY JAMES MADISON STAGE HUGE CLUB SHOW Club show presented last Wed- nesday night by the RKO booking office under auspices of Hollywood Post Drum and Bugle corps at the Hollywood club house, was spec- tacular, diversified and entertain- ing. Show was booked and presented by Johnnie Beck, representative of RKO office. B. B. B., cafe impressario of Hollywood, presided as master of activities, and was assisted by Harry Golub, and Steve Juhase. Gertie Jacobs, at the piano, han- dled the accompaniments, assisted by Gladys Thomas and Frank Jag- gard. Show started with a concert by the Union and Pacific Band. Decker and Van Epps, the Sailor Four, Billie Weir, Lucinda and Ricardo, Dotty Roberts, Lyon and Owen, Steven Juhase* Harry Galub, Burke and Durkin, Ates and Dar- ling, Plawley Sisters and Bea Thrift and her four Jesters, were on the bill, as were Frank Yacka- nelli, Bill Borzage, Convoy Arkan- sas Horse Thieves, Valde Borbosi, Lewis Sisters, Coyle and Weir, Vio- let Lunday, Sullivan Sisters, Lois Rogers, Gladys Hunt, Helen Sim- monds, Helene Drennen, Jackie Shannon, Lois Rogers, Clarice Cat- lett, Bubbles Levail, Irene St. Fran- cis, Jean Gerard, Dorothy and Marjorie, Berdie Omar and Alyce Yerkes. Hello, Clara Bow. Hello, James Madison. In heaven, a million dollars is like a penny. Yes, and in Calneva, one hun- dred dollars is but as fifty cents. Hello, Lew Cody. Hello, James Madison. What do you think of the idea of gathering contributions to buy Lip- ton a cup? Too much like giving a down- and-outer a complimentary benefit. Don’t believe Sir Thomas will ac- cept it. Hello, Phil Goldstone. Hello, James Madison. Why do you object to having Pepsodcnt in Tiffany studio? Because it removes the film. Hello, Wil R.ogers. Hello, James Madison. Are you in favor of prohibition? Sure; bootleggers must live. Plello, Jerry Geisler. Hello, James Madison. I observe that the Appellate Court has granted Alexander Pan- tages a new rtial. Thus it is EXPRESSED that no man shall be RAILROADED. Hello, Carmel Meyers. Hello, James Madison. Some more shooting in the Windy City, I read. No wonder that after Chicago, they always add “111.” Hello, Moran and Mack. Hello, James Madison. Why is a man, whose wife di- vorces him, like Germany at the present moment? Because both are in line for new dictators. Plello, Aileen Pringle. Hello, James Madison. In New York I understand sev- eral men have been arrested for selling ships. Yeah; judgeships. Hello, Raoul Walsh. Hello, James Madison. What do you call the Soviet’s raid of the Chicago wheat pit? A Bulsheviktory. SNACKS ofi FACTS PROJECTIONIST Ann Christy and Roy Randolph dining and enjoying themselves ... at the Swagger Inn . . . even if Ann did object to being introduced as Mrs. Randolph by Art Varian . . . Billy Wiemann enter- taining ... at the same place . . . after a day in the Holly- wood picture studios putting over E. B. Marks Music Company’s 52 catalogs . . . How one little man’s head can hold so much music . . . and so forth . . . still worries me . . . Betty Bartholomew keeping all of the pluggers satisfied with her order at Newberry’s . . . orders for music we mean . . . Joe Cornbleth lining up more picture houses for Lyons and Lyons . . . Myra Kinch slapping on the grease paint for “Temptations of 1930” . . . remember the school days Myra? . . . Paul Rechenmacher getting the score in shape for “Reaching for the Moon” ... at United Artists Studio . . . Paul is one of the unsung heroes who gets too little recognition for the efforts he puts forth . . . maybe it’s because he parts his - hair in the middle . . . Adolph Tandler preparring the scores for the foreign versions of “Hell’s Angels” ... at Metropolitan Studios for UFA . . . Betty Hudson writing from Seattle . . . and reminiscing with her old playmates . . . Betty is one of the main factors in the success of the Sterling Chain Theatres . . . Dorothy Potts . . . who could double for Norma Shearer . . . meeting our old friend Dot Roble . . . who also writes . . . thanks Dot . . . also in the mail from Seattle came a mention from Syl Cross ... the hustling publisher . . who just signed a recording contract with Wurlitzer for Rock-a-bye To Sleep in Dixie . . . Charles “Carter the Great” . . . getting a letter of intro- duction from one to another . . . and hot-footing it to San Francisco .... Les Klicksl and his two able assistants working on his electrical dolls . . . getting ready for the big flash at Loew‘s . . . Harry Wallen back stage at the Colorado . . . chatting with Gwen Evans . . . while she puts the boys and girls through a rehearsal ... the latter digging up receipts to show . . . with the list still growing . . . Zebe Mann on the phone . . . Zebe is a clever arranger . . . Mack of La Salle and! Mack digging in his trunk and bringing forth a load of Australian billing . . . they’ll be at Loew’s this week with a pip of an acrobatic offering . . . Bebe Sherman ... a personable miss . . . miss . . will be topping ’em some day with her “blues” . . . asking for a copy of “Poor Kid” . . . the Bobby Gross’s together with the Greens at the U.S.C. game . . . together with the columnist and Sig Bosley . . . the •former and latter actually getting a couple of plugs apiece over the loud speaker system . . . which is the heighth of something or the other . . . when it comes to records (pun) . . . Isabel Gillis wondering what to do with all the good looking pluggers at Kress’s . . . and playing the new tunes for us . . . some day we’ll write a song entitled “Sweet Isabel” ... or “The Swetheart of Tinpan Alley” . . . her perpetual smile and cheerful word is one of her many personality assets . . . Gene Stone of the Hollywood Pub- lishing Company . . . plugging his firm’s tunes . . . here’s a rival for A1 Burgess . . . Jack Reed also on the job . . . George Waggnei; watching his tunes being sold . . . Claud Allister seeking advice on encouraging a moustache to quick growth . . . the comedian is rais- ing one like Douglas Fairbanks for his role in the Fairbanks’ pic- ture “Reaching for the Moon” . . . which starts soon . . . Louise Fazenda in traveling clothes . . . leaving with her husband . . Hal Wallace . . . for New York . . . they will embark for London, Paris and Berlin . . Louise’s first vacation in. many months. . . . Lucile Webster Gleason helping guests to enjoy themselves at the Dominos Revel held Saturday night ... all acts were written and staged by members . . . with plenty of talent evident in the group . . . The Jameson Thomases finding a charming English cottage in a Holly- wood lane . . . after hovering for weeks between it and a Spanish dwelling . . . Thomas eagerly waiting for the release, of his first American film “Extravagance.” . . . Alfred Santel at Fox Hills Studio . . . deeply engrossed in piles of airplane literature . . he is to be a purchaser . . . long interested in flying . . . and his new pic- ture “Squadrons” ... an air film . . . adds to the interest . . . Pierre de Ramey . . . French actor . . who keens his title of count for formal occasions in the French colony’s social calendar . . . He has just finished a part with Constance Bennett in “Sin Takes A Holiday” at Pathe . . . Alan Crosland returning from a hurried trip to New York . . . “Children, of Dreams” finished just before his departure . . . Under contract to Warners ... he will take a short holiday before going into his next picture . . . Natalie Moorhead finishing her scenes “Ex- Mistress” at Warners late one afternoon . . . and rushing over to United Artists for a test. ON BAD SOUND (Continued from Page 2) Next approach to perfect sound projection is reached by having the projectionist rehearse the picture, and cue it to suit the acoustical < conditions of the particular theatre in which it is to be shown. Electrical Research required such rehearsals in their original con- tracts and knew what they were doing when they included this re- quisite. But executives, who are supposed to know something about sound, saw where a few dollars could be saved, and orders came over one circuit, The Publix, “no more rehearsals.” Now their projectionists see the picture for the first time with their audiences, and some door-boy or usher buzzes the projection room for more or less volumne as the case may be. The other evening at the Para- mount theatre, when Wallace was playing with full organ, this “ex- pert on sound” buzzed for more volume. Not being able to tell the difference between the music from an organ and music from the screen, he is considered qualified to tell projectionists what the vol- ume should be. The writer attended the showing of “Animal Crackers” at this the- atre and heard quite the poorest sound projection that he has listen- ed to in some time, and it was not the fault of the boys in the projec- tion room. Some of them at the Paramount are the oldest men at the game, yet they are told how to present their sound by some one downstairs, who does not know the difference between an organ and a recording. Ninety-five percent of union pro- jectionists are conscientious men the public a good show. No one hates it quite so much as the pro- jectionist when a picture with poor recording comes into the theatre. Regardless that every theatre chain, with exception of Warner Bros., shows an enormous increase in earnings for 1930 over 1929, orders have come through that economy must prevail, and to save a few dollars in projection room overtime, good pictures are ruined. A certain ■ executive head of the largest and best known chain of theatres in this part of the country, not content with bullying the pro- jection wage scale committee into cuts in projectionists’ salaries down to a lower level than they were in 1927, in some cases amounting to twenty-eight percent, now wants one man in the projection room in- stead of two. In a great many theatres he has succeeded in cutting the crew to one man. One man, no rehearsals, no over- time to keep the equipment in con- dition, volume controlled by some door-boy, and then the public is led by false publicity to believe that the projectionist is responsible, when the reproduction is poor. EDITOR’S NOTE With reference to MGM’s squeeze film, it is reported by J. J. Milstetn, exchange manager, that this has been discontinued, having proven inadequate in the smaller houses, although it worked excel- lently in the larger ones. The dif- ficulty seemed to be that where the amplification was moderate the “squeeze” effect brought the volume so low, as to be deemed unworthy and so the entire system has been discarded.—Editor.