Inside facts of stage and screen (February 21, 1931)

Page Six INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN Saturday, February 21, 1931 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 CO. 230 Bank of Hollywood Building, Hollywood, Calif. Telephone HEmpstead 8797 Downtown Office: 809 Warner Bros. Downtown Theatre Building JACK JOSEPHS ------- President and Editor ALAN EDWARDS - - - - Secretary and Business Manager Vol. XIII Saturday, February 21, 1931 No. 7 A Forward Step t The progress—forward or backward, as one looks at it— which the screen has made since the Vitaphone revolution- ized the industry is most emphatically demonstrated at the current moment by Jesse Laskv’s announcement that Para- mount-Publix will make Theodore Dreiser's. “The American Tragedy.” Paramount bought the picture rights to the book in the old silent days, and, after a- great deal of talk and publicity, the idea of making the classic into celluloid was abandoned. But the idea was again revived when the master Russian director, Serge Eisenstein, was here. Hollywood was. to use the much-abused term, all agog as to what the creator of '“Potemkin, ’ “Ten Days That Shook the World,” and other of the screen’s great pictures would do. When it was an- nounced that his assignment would be “The American Trag- edy,” everyone who knows anything at all about the film game predicted a classic of classics. But some of the publicity-seeking alarmists of this town— and they are as the sands of the sea—scramed into print with a terrific uproar about the fine hand of Moscow, or some such twaddle, and there were boards to investigate and other ridiculousnesses practiced in the name of Public Serv- ice. (Capital P and Capital S, it you please). Rather than keep this tempest in a teapot going, I.asky and Eisenstein parted company, and a great picture was lpst. But now Paramount will make Dreiser’s masterpiece, and, while there does not seem to be available a director who could do it with the same great genius of the Russian, we freely predict that, the right director being assigned. Para- mount will have a picture which will be one of the artistic triumphs of all time, though boxoffice returns will be prob- lematical until the receipts are in. But the one outstanding fact of Paramount’s determina- tion to do the tragedy is the viewpoint evidenced that the public is rising above the low mental level which brought about custard pies, De Millian bathtubs and William Haines. Tax Revision Due The Authors’ and Composers’ League is an organization that comes in for a great deal of unjustified censure at the hands of entrepreneurs of entertainment. There seems to be a prevalent idea that one purchasing a sheet of music thereby purchases the right to do what- ever he pleases with it, including public use. The folly of this idea is apparent. If one purchases a play in book form he does not thereby purchase the right to present it on the stage; and if one purchases a novel he does not thereby purchase the right to give it public reading. Then why a thought should exist that music is in a different classification than these other arts is incomprehensible. The Authors’ and Composers’ tax for music used in the- atres is 10 cents a seat. In dance halls and other night To charge a house 10 cents per seat when the admission fee spots it is based upon the capacity. This scale is a poor one. as 25 cents and to make a similar 10-cent charge to houses getting 65 cents or $1.50 for seats is obviously inequitable. And the same applies to the dance hall tax. A larger tax on a big dance hall doing less business than a smaller place is by no means right. The inequality in this Authors’ and Composers’ League taxation is recognized by officials of the organization, and they are at present trying to work out a more equitable scheme of getting the royalties which are due them. It is to be hoped that they are successful, as the league is an organ- ization to which all show business owes a debt of gratitude Its membership are the foundation layers of show business. DUMB TALENT Fanchon and Marco should open a managerie. Goats and camels were bought for the “Morocco Idea” and recently a monkey was purchased for Gene Morgan, who opens in the “Af- ricana Idea.” VISITING KAY Mrs. Katherine Gibbs, mother of Kay Francis, is in California visit- ing with her daughter, Mrs. Gibbs is planning to become a permanent Californian. MOTHER RECOVERING The MeKune Sisters are going into their song, dance and chatter act with lighter hearts now that their mother, is out of danger. Mrs. MeKune has been seriously ill. but shows marked improvement after a long hard pull with the flu. FASHION NEWS MOVES Offices of Fashion News have been moved from the Tec-Art stu- dios to the Bank of Flollywood building, Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. Film Row Cuttings By VI Edward Cook,. Pacific Coast booker, has left for San Francisco, Seattle and Portland on a Fox trip. He'll be back in about three weeks. Phil Rei small,' general manager and Harry Lorch, Western sales manager of Universal, are in town, around and aboutT the local ex- change for a few days. M. G. M.’s student matinees of “Trader Horn” are clicking. They have won the support of the uni- versities. and schools. Saturday morning showings at the Chinese take on something of the college spirit with glee clubs and school bands holding forth on the stage. The first showing following the Chinese will be in San Francisco on road show basis. Here’s a fact worthy of note: The new Laurel and Hardy three reel comedy at the State is get- ting equal billing with the feature in trailers, 24 sheets and aril ad- vertising. Hank Peters has severed his connection with Van Buren Cor- poration and is succeeded by Bill Jenner who will handle the'Sport- lights, Aesop Fables and Tom Ter- rie’s Vagabond Series for Pathe. L. A. exchange managers and West Coast Theatre execs gave Peters a testimonial dinner at the Rancho Club Friday night, prior to his departure for the Easp The Pathe gang' presented him with a grand engraved cigarette case and lighter. Francis Bateman had a great Arizona trip for Pathe, but he did have to put up with a long line of hardships, due to the, by now, historic cloudburst. One of these big moments came when his car slipped off the muddy road and turned over. However, there were no casualties, so everything is oke. Eddy Ballailtine, Pathe manager of exchange operations, has left for New York. Elmer Sedin. home office representative, expects to leave' town this week, too. He will go to San Francisco first, then on to New York, making all offices of the Western division bn the way. N. P. Jacobs, branch manager of RKO, is another near victim of the Arizona floods. He's back at the office again and says that conditions in Arizona arc on the upward trend. Division Manager Harry Cohn of RKO, is off on a trip covering the Western division. In case there’s any doubt about it, RKO’s “Cimarron” is breaking all existing house records wherever it’s being shown. They re all hold- ing this picture for a longer period than contracts call for. According to Jack Nelson there’s an Educational short at all the world premiere theatres in town, including United Artists, the new Los Angeles and Carthay Circle. L. L. Bard, President of the M. P. T. O. of So, Calif., pre- sided over an enthusiastic meeting Tuesday at the Mona Lisa Cate. $7,500 was raised in fifteen minutes to assist the Allied States Asso- ciation of Motion Picture Exhibi- tors in putting through the resolu- tions that were adopted at the Chicago Convention held February 10 and 11. The resolutions con- cern the music tax, block book- ing, copyrights, etc. A vote of thanks and appreciation, was given Abram F. Myers, President, for the good work that is being done in the East. W. W. .Wilson and A. Alperstein, who were delegates at the Chicago Convention, gave re- ports of that meeting. Inde exhibitors are being urged to join the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of Southern California and give their help to the work. The proposition works both ways as the M. P. T. O. can be of service to them in many ways. Jack Miller, President of the Chicago -Exhibitors Association, is planning to drive back to his home town on Sunday. Lola Adams Gentry is full of enthusiastic ad- miration for his capable handling of his territory, and her comments are approvingly echoed up and down the Row. Tickets for the Exhibitors’ and Exchangemen’s Benefit Perform- ance are selling swimmingly, says the peppy. Lola Adams Gentry. They’ve reached the point where Expert Exploitation By JAY PERRY SILVEY San Francisco Office, Inside Facts Exploitation and showmanship go hand in hand. No longer can you he satisfied with merely hooking a picture, laying out a few nondescript newspaper ads, and sitting back with the expectation of your feature sell- ing itself. Competition is too keen, and the feature is rare indeed in this day and age that will sell itself. Don’t depend too much on your press- sheet. Study your synopsis and if possible obtain a preview well in ad- vance of your exhibition date. Then settle down and lay out a real cam- paign calculated to bring the dollars to the box-office. That is the gist of the first stanza in this paragraph. Don’t forget that your ideas may mean something to the other fel- low, and send them in. +- — In all the larger cities there is a good percentage of foreigners that are prospective customers if you have something to sell them. The plot may be laid in their country; the star may be a native of their own land; a character in the picture may lit in; or, as is now the case in many instances, you may book a foreign picture now and then. In these eases, do not overlook the possibility of reaching this class of patron in their own language—through their newspaper. Jerome Arcnds of the San Fran- cisco Princess has been playing several Russian pictures at that house and finds good results by giving the local Russ paper a few ducats and a story to be trans- lated and run as news.-. Clever Street Bally Bob Giimour, batting for the Fox interests in San Francisco, scores a point for the common people in his plaster caricature replica of Rube Wolf now parading the streets. It is simply a large plas- ter or paper-mache head of the well-known leader fitted to be car- ried on a man’s shoulders. Every- one knows Wolf in tin's city, and with the head perambulating the streets during the rush hours, the fact that Rube is still in town can- not be overlooked. No copy is necessary in this case, which makes for novelty. The Columbia Theatre is all dolled up with numerous South Sea weapons and appurtenances spread over . the lobby and hung from the marquee. Within a two block radius of. the theatre the weird sound of the tom-tom strikes the car, and upon drawing closer, one discovers an ahiiost-m-the-alto- gether S. S. islander doing his stuff on a native drum. All of which fits in nicely . with the current at- traction “Bali,” a travelogue of the Dutch East* Indies. This is an occasion where dress- ing the lobby means added busi- ness. Stopping the public and showing them novelties of these or similar types, intrigues their curiosity and lowers, their sales re- sistance. Stopping them in front of. your house is half the battle. Beauty Shops A play for the women's patron- age can be made by plugging the places where they are apt to be found, and the beauty shops, of which they arc plenty, are the cream. Dick Spier of the S. F. Califor- nia uses them on his attraction, "Right of Way,” with a one sheet containing three star stills of Lo- retta Young and appropriate copy of the charm in keeping the hair done nicely along with his theatre copy. A permanent card of this type is also easy to place if you wish to plug your female stars over ■ a period of time. Have your artists lay out heads in oil of several of the more popular stars, paying particular attention to their coif- fures. Your wording should tie-in with the distinctively different hair- dressings affected by these stars and copy that they are to oe fea- tured throughout the season at your theatre. If you are booked far enough in advance, you can also spot in the titles of the forth- coming pictures. Cheap Ones Bad Great care must be exercised in the layout as a cheap job is worse than none at all. While a half- tone of the completed drawing may run into quite a little expense, it must be remembered that after the first run the heads can be separated, on the cut and used for other ad- vertising mediums. An effective printing job can be obtained by having a bronze ink on a white gloss stock. You will find no trou- ble in placing a job of this kind in good locations, and, as they cannot become obsolete, they are doubly desirable. Some old two-by-fours, a saw, and a little red paint, can be turned into effective advertising. Cut the lumber into lengths the same as newspaper width and give them a couple of coats of good bright red. Then have your artist: letter on the name of the theatre and the current attraction. Your local distributor will distribute them for you to the newstands if prop- erly approached. Just Hash By JOHN POE LONG BEACH, Feb. 19. The drum is an instrument of warfare. Napoleon’s victory at Areola was due to the tenacity of a drummer. And the kettle drum is sometimes called “pitched” percussion. And sometimes it is pitched out of the window. * * * Anyhow. Mechanical Age’s im- mortal words will be: Softly sprays the music to the passerb)-. * * * But, since the depression, there has been a drouth of plays like “The Sheeks Had a Name for It.” ^ )jc And “corny” will always remain a placid, pastoral aspect. ❖ * * And now comes the news broad- cast: Seal Beach—J. Crunk, an elec- trician, was jailed here on a battery charge. Ontario—An unidentified fiddle player caused a riot here to- day when be attempted to explain relativity to a group of brother mu- sicians. El Centro—Oscar Veal Cutlets, tenor, has purchased a premiums are being offered for choice seats. The midnight show is to be held at the Fox Wilshire which seats 2300. It’s easy to guess that somebody has been do- ing snappy soliciting for this wor- th)' cause. All Star has secured coast re- lease of the twelve British-Interna- tional super-features and which run at the George M. Cohan Theatre in N. Y. They have added to their release schedule of Independent fea- tures a flock of Syndicate produc- tions, besides those of Cnotinenta! and Chesterfield. Bull-of-a-wateh, yes, sir! Barstow— A1 Fetid, violinist, studied under Kreisler until he got a Chevrolet. Then you couldn't hold him; lie just would play dances. Then he got ambitious and studied legit, for- sooth, and the Vitaphone came along and left him holding tile 8- ball. >jc ije Heard over KTM during a moral talk: “And, noiv. anyone who mis- treats dumb animals will never make a good husband or wife.” Say, feller! * * * Some radio stations use up a lot of expensive 'time reading bouquets to their listeners-in. These “testi- monials” could be mailed to the fans, and might read: “Dear Sta- tion: Since using one ounce of your program my eczema is much better.” t t t But the radio is a wonderful thing, Mr. Marconi; even some of the ultra—rotten stuff is so bad it’s hot. * * * Question: What is a node? Answer: A node iss vol you got to pay off veil it conics due. * * * Just Hash. VARIED CAREER Pierre White lias stepped up, down, or around, depending upon how you look at it, from grand opera to prologues. White, under the management of Arthur Silver is appearing in the Bud Murray Stage Show for the RKO picture, “Cim- arron,” now at the Orpheum. Be- fore coming to the Coast he was a featured principal of the St. Louis Civic Opera Company. He is scor- ing a definite success on the strength of his vocal qualifications combined with dramatic ability and a mag- netic personality. White has made both screen and production appear- ances since his arrival here.