Inside facts of stage and screen (January 24, 1931)

Saturday, January 24, 1931 3 a?e Six INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN 'ACTS S<31P(§<31a!, O-r.-e Year Published Every Saturday $4.00 Foreign $5.00 ‘ALL QUIT’ IS IN LEAD IN POLL ON BEST Advertising Rates on Application Established 1924 •h a weekly publication: Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 5927, at the Post Office at Los Angeles. California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Published by 230 Bank of Hollywood Buildingy Hollywood, Calif. Downtown Office: 809 Warner Bros. Downtown Theatre Building Telephone TUcker 7785 JACK JOSEPHS - ALAN EDWARDS - - - President and Editor - Secretary and Business Manager VoL XIII Saturday, January 24, 1931 No. 3 Every professional in California should get: behind the bill just introduced in the state legislature to prohibit police from cossacking the performers into jail when they raid a show for alleged indecency. Charles Miller, Coast Equity representative, was the initia- tor of the bill, which has just been sponsored by Assembly- man Ray Williamson. It is obvious to the most childish intelligence—or should be—that actors are not responsible for the moral aspects of the shows in which they appear. Whether plays are salacious or salutary is a matter for expert decision, and it is hardly the province of the actor to make, the determination when lie signs for a part. George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s profession" was once banned as immoral, Shakespeare in the original would today bring a whole stream of patrol wag- ons, and our own L. A. cops raided the admittedly artistic “Desire Under the Elms” and “The Captive.” How, then, should a mere actor, who does not pretend to ethical discriminations, usurp the place of judge, jury, critics and certain newspaper publishers, and pass upon the finely debatable points of a job which is offered him. Especially in these days when jobs are few and far between. i here are books on the market which have been pro- nounced unfit for public cnsumption. The Higher. Minds of Boston have a habit of such pronunciamentos. But do the police immediately run down and arrest the printers who set the type, the make-up man who locked the forms and the Stooped and wearied couple who read the prof? They do not. But the actor—that is different. Because of his place in the spotlight, he is a ready source for getting publicity for oneself. Some errant Morals Squad Sergeant who has a yen for getting his name into print finds a show raid an easy way of fulfilling his wish—especially if he can bring in some prominent actors along with his pretenses to superior knowl- edge of what's what in show business. ’ Nor is this bill important only insofar as it prevents the 'arrant high-handedness heretofore practiced against actors who are in the casts of shows which chance not to meet with the approval of some burly guardian of Law and Order, so- called. 4 If is a test of the strength of the acting profession and its friends in California. If this bill is beaten it will serve no- tice to the anti-show people that the profession is not too strong to he kicked about when publicity blurbs are needed. It will open the door for the ink-hounds to prate and molest With their former avidity. But passage, of the bill will serve notice that the actors are a force to be reckoned with. Charles Miller is to be commended most highly for his work in behalf of getting this bill before the legislature. It is now up to the rest of the profession to get behind him in this move and put it across. Letters and statements to legis- lators urging its passage are a duty which every professinal should perform. And not tomorrow — today, at once. It is a matter too important to be neglected. The Film Daily's national poll of news, trade and fan papers, taking in some 779 publications, resulted in the following being rated as the Ten Best Pictures , for 1930: No. of V otes “All Quiet on the Western Front” 271 “Abraham Lincoln” 167 “Holiday” 166 “Journey’s End” 151 “Anna Christie” 141 “The Big House” 141 “With Byrd at South Pole” 121 “The Divorcee" 94 “Hell’s Angels” 91 “Old English” 87 Out of this . total three pictures are credited to Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer, with no other producer even a' close second to this total. Paramount, considered one of the ■majors, comes off without one stu- dio-produced picture. “Byrd at the South Pole” is their sole and sin- gle contribution to the cream of the year’s crop. Runners-Up L'nited Artists are on the face" of things credited with two, but “Hell’s Angels,” one of the duo fronting for U. A., happens to be out of an independent studio— Howard Hughes-Caddo production. Runners-up for inclusion in the Ten Best were “Dawn Patrol,” “Sarah and Son,” “Common Clay,” “Outward Bound," “Love Parade,” “Whoopee,” “Big Trail,” "Laugh- ter," “Let Us Be Gay,” “Min and Bili,” etc. Stars figuring in the honors are Lewis' Avres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, “Slim” Summerville, Wal- ter Huston, Una Merkel, Anne Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Horton, Robert Ames, Colin Clive, Anthony Bushnell, Ian MacClaren David Manners, Billy Beyan, Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford. George Marion, Marie Dressier, Chester Morris, Wallace Beery, Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone. Leila Hyams, Norma Shearer, Conrad Nagel, Jean Harlqw, Ben Lyons, Janies Hall, George Arliss. Directors Rating Directors come under the wire in the following order: Lewis Mile- stone. D. W. Griffith, E. H. Grif- fith, James Whale, Clarence Brown. George Hill, Robert Z. Leonard. Howard Hughes- and Ttlfred E. Green. Six of the pictures selected by Inside Facts appear in the national poll of the ten best. CHIROPRACTIC ADJUSTMENTS Dr. Edith Woods Rm. 4 — 1096 No. Western Ave., Corner Santa Monica Artistic Scenic Advertising Curtains By Far the Best in America CURTAIN PRIVILEGES BOUGHT FOR CASH • OR SCENERY Chas. F. Thompson Scenic Co. 1215 Bates Avenue Phone OLympia 2914 Hollywood, Calif. I THINGS TO WHICH « © Executive Stupidity By TED PRICE Of all the bores, groaners and-fthat individual’s opinion of his- own malcontents I meet in my daily rounds, the one who belittles the executives in charge of production is the most obnoxious. His smug conceit and lofty cocksureness, his know-it-all attitude, his gullibility and readiness to accept hearsay and cant for truth and fact when he volubly, lays all the mistakes of production at the doorstep of the executive in charge, is getting to be a theme song that gives me a pain clear to my shoestrings. I do not wave a banner for ex- ecutives in charge of producution. I am not taking up arms in be- half of these gentry or shouting from the housetops that executive efficiency, is beyond criticism or re- proach, but I do maintain most stoutly that under-executives, crit- ics, directors, supervisors and writ- ers had better take inventory- of their own particular efficiency be- fore they hand out a list of raps at the guy with the last word. Here are a few facts that the soreheads and bellyachgrs in this business had better become aware of before they make themselves look like a flock of scalding fish- wives at a razzberry festival. In the first place executives do not handlle detail. Their worth is measured by their ability to cor- rectly appraise the capacity- of those who do handle detail and to what extent they can be entrusted with it. In the major producing organi- zations the best writing, technical and directorial talent in the world is made available. This talent, in- dividually-, is judged by- past per formance. a very illuminative rec- ord of which is available to the executive. The facts divulging a director’s, writer’s or technician's ability may be at variance with ability. If it is the choice between a man's opinion of himself and cumulative data that graphically describes the man’s capacity, tiflln the axe grinders are. entitled tp howl. A general building contractor cannot throw up an eighteen-story edifice of stone and steel with a crew of craftsmen who have never built anything but telephone booths in the back yard. Just so with the executive responsible for a $200,000 picture. And he knows it. So he hires the best designers and engi- neers in the layout and construc- tion of a picture that money caff buy, and that money buy-s not that designer’s own estimate of his abil- ity but a capacity- written in past performances. If there is a better way “of judging a craftsman’s ca- pacity the executive is open arms. When an executive has enlisted every known agency and medium for securing the best craftsmen available and assembled this talent to produce that which their record dictates they are best fitted to pro- duce, he has functioned, at peak efficiency-. Once the forces of pro- duction are set in motion,, he can only adjust differences and. har- monize the discords, as they are presented to him. Fie cannot make BASIC CHANGES in the nature or general efficiency of the production unit. In other words, when production goes to the post it represents peak efficiency in the selection of directorial, writing and technical talent and their assign- ment. From then on any stupid- ity- can be charged to those who take up where the executive lew-- eg, ... NEXT WEEK: ART AND BOX OFFICE JESSE STAFFORD And His San Francisco PALACE HOTEL ORCHESTRA Featuring His and Gene Rose’s Song Hit, “Tonight” HARVEY KARELS SCHOOL OF DANCING 7377 Beverly Boulevard VALLIE ORegon 2688 VILLAGE) INN HOTEL Making Special Low Theatrical Rates Wire, Write, Phone for Reservations 5724 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood, Calif. FOSTER and MA’BEL’S Amazing Sensational Animal Novelty featuring “MUTT *1 World Famous Comedian In Fanchon and Marco’s “Africana Idea” This Week, Fox Theatre, San Diego, Calif. THE GREAT YACHTS SENSATIONAL ACT WITH FANCHON AND MARCO’S VAUDEVILLE IDEA AT LOEW’S STATE, LOS ANGELES, THIS WEEK