Inside facts of stage and screen (January 31, 1931)

EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS ESTABLISHED 1924 \/rt] !£¥¥¥ Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, f W1 * office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of March t J 879 Saturday, January 31, 1931 Published Every Saturday at 809 Warner. Bros. Down- town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. No. 4 INDES RUSHING IN AS SLUMP RE-OPENS FIELD ¥ Columbia, Cohn May Go To Fox Whether William Fox will pur- chase control of Columbia will be decided within the next couple of weeks, according' to stories circul- ating in picture financial circles this week. While tlie report is wholly un- official, inside .sources declare that Fox recently, purchased a block of Columbia stock and took an option for enough more to give him con- trol should he exercise the option. The story further declares that he is now preparing to exercise his option if he can get certain terms for doing so. These terms, which are said to deal largely with the executive personnel question, are the crux to whether or not Fox takes over Columbia, the report alleges. Wrong Slant The rumored Fox-Clumbia deal would have nothing to do with the present Fox interests, which in- clude the widespread Fox West Coast, it is explained. William Fox is known to have been anxious to get back into pictures on his own ever since the deal which gave over the control of the William Fox Corporation to Winfield Shee- han and his financial backers. The Columbia proposition is regarded by him as this in, it is declared. If Fox swings the alleged Col- umbia deal, his agent will be A. C. Blumenthal, who long has been the ' contact man for the picture magnate on realty deals, it is said. Not tying up Blumenthal in his real capacity, rumors have been circulating that he himself is nego- tiating to buy Fox. Harry Cohn, returning here from the East, was questioned concerning this, ' and was quoted as answering that “there is nothing to it; Blumenthal hasn’t got money enough to buy Columbia.” Which may be true enough, and Louella Parsons, who printed the so-called denial, ac- cepted this as conclusive. The alert and sentient Louella appar- ently didn’t know the tie-up be- tween Blumenthal and Fox. Cohn’s Services The .monkey-wrench in the way of the deal is said to be Harry Cohn himself. Fox is understood to have an extremely high regard for Cohn's ability, and to consider this ability one of the main assets of the Columbia Corporation. In purchasing control of the organiza- tion he is understood to be de- manding that Cohn come under his standard as production chief, but Many Busy As Angles Give Break * Seeing their opportunity in the current financial depression, inde- pendent picture producers arc again flocking into production. A check up by Inside Facts made this week shows that the inde field is busier in preparation and actual shooting than it has been at any time since the talkies drove the indes into idleness. Tec-Art, Metropolitan, the Uni- versal lot and out-lying territory of the inde strongholds are again bustling with life, cost sheets, mar- gins of profit and conferences, and present prospects are that within. the next thirty to sixty days the inde production situation will ap- proximate almost fifty percent of the pre-taikie normalcy. That is if' all plans now in discussion . go through. Many causes have contributed to make the talkie game an attrac- tive one to indes at the present time. Slump One Cause First and chiefly responsible is the worldwide financial depression —a depression from which no na- tion is exempt except Bolshevik Russia, where, under the Soviet five-year plan, there is no unem- ployment and where the average salary and wage earner is getting' a margin of money which enables him to afford not only the necessi- ties of life, but also many of Its luxuries. However Bolshevik Rus-. sia is by no means the best market' for American pictures, and else- where the market for the product of the bigger studios continues to decline. For this reason the big studios at present are not making products of the high class and, proportion- ately speaking, of the generous cost to which they achieved in the days when all the world was po- tentially a god market for each picture produced. The new limited field caused them to hike the price of pictures to American customers, and that’s an in for the indes, who always found their fertile field among those houses which wanted cheaper product than they could buy from the big studios. Another Phase The financial depression also operated in another phase to boost the inde game in Hollywood. Us- ing the term in its respectable sense, the better class of indes are what is known as sharpshooters, (Continued on Page 2) OWEN FALLON At Solomon's Ballroom Cohn is reported to be demanding such an exorbitant salary for his services as to give Fox pause. If this one point can be settled satis- factorily the deal is on, the report concludes. SEATTLE, Jan. 29. — Sammy Sei- gel, formerly p. a. for the Follies, left this week for Portland, where he will assist George Appleby in publicity for the Hamrick interests there. TO MANAGE FIFTH SEATTLE, Jan. 29.—Tommy Ol- sen has returned to his old home town and will act as manager of the big Fifth Ave. Olsen was for- merly sports writer for the Hearst interests here before leaving and reporting to Washington, D. C., for a Fox job. Olsen is well liked here and ought to be a worthy successor to Jim Clcmmer. GRANVILLE HERE Frederick Granville of London is in Hollywood studying sound, color and the picture situation in general with a view to opening up offices here and in New York for picture production. Granville was here in 1921, being brought from Germain by Carl Laemmle.