Motion Picture Classic (Jan-Jun 1929)

Thafs yiy Story — b,bertennis Communiques From The Hollywood Tattle-Front FEED THE KITTY IT'S been said before, but Hollywood certainly leads the world in queer rackets for keeping the wolf from biting holes in the Yale lock. There's a dame making the rounds of the two-reel comedy lots offering a cat that drinks milk from a nursing bottle, crosses its eyes and smokes cigarettes. It answers to the name of Passion and its owner demands and receives fifty dollars a day for the smart puss. For doing a Ben Turpin the mouser receives an extra fifteen. Envious neighbors are making feline existence in Hollywood alleys miserable, hoping to grab ofif another Tabby with movie possibilities. t; CRUELTY TO CHILDREN IHEY'RE telling a tale along Hollywood Boulevard about an angel producer, worth repeating. A retired Pittsburgh raincoat manufacturer. Ironically enough, he picked Los Angeles, with its famous clear-today-and-tomorrow weather forecast, for his loafing ground. But a director and a star, who as movie makers are known as good promoters, induced him to finance a series of pictures. He did, with MOPPING UP SPE th wc PEAKING of Turpin, there's one of Hollyvood's wonders. Sixty-two years old, the comic with the peculiar peepers can still bump with the best of the tworeel fraternity who spend most of their time on the floor taking it big. Movie fans may not know Turpin broke into pictures as janitor of the old Essanay in Chicago. Talking with him recently, he cracked: "No wonder I cleaned up on the screen; I started life with a broom." IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE AND MONOCLES' WE drove into one of those de-luxe Hollywood gas stations the other day — one of the kind where they fill the radiator, check the oil, wipe off. the wind-shield and then say, " No, thank you," when you proffer a tip. Irving Cummings, who was with us, claims that the final touch in this ultra-service idea will be the donning of high hats and tuxedos by the boys who fill the tanks. A LITTLE SCOTCH C" »REDIT this one to Mitchell Lewis, the fella who plays those big, honest trappers from the great Northwest. The first swimmers on record were two Scotchmen. They were out for a stroll and came to a toll-bridge. DO YOU REMEMBER W HEN Lillian Walkerwas known Dimples, the Vitagraph Girl; and Lew Cody was known as The Butterfly Man? PATHOS NOTE M' HOLLYWOODIANS have a rep for being cold-blooded. Ice water runs in their veins. Well, laugh this off. A bunch of extras standing on a corner, fanning as usual, discussing the talkie panic. In front of a restaurant. A miserable-looking wreck blows by, spots a box containing empty cans and discarded food and starts rummaging around, evidently trying to salvage a meal. The lay-offs (theater for unemployed) watched the unfortunate for a minute with mixed astonishment and pity. Then they dug. One of them crossed over to tender the collection — about five dollars — to the stray. And here's the pay-oflf. He turned it down, explaining in broken English he belonged to some cult or other which made it incumbent on its members to forage for themselves when broke. You're right; it couldn't happen any place but Hollywood. OUR SPY REPORTS THEY are hanging tne "Closed" sign on Warner Brothers' big Sunset Boulevard studio gate December 15th. All producing activities are to be folded up until the latter part of February ; writers, directors, players and the entire crew given a vacation— without salary. One Hollywood wag has it that Jack Warner is so fed up on sound and talk he is planning a two months' sojourn in a deaf-and-dumb asylum. Dyar A Bebe-party in Hollywood: Miss Daniels entertains a newcomer to her studio, Robert Castle. He is on the extreme left. Thence to the right, the others are: Doris Hill, Lane Chandler, Bebe herself and James Hall AURICE COSTELLO, onetime biggest drawing card in pictures, standing alone on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Wilcox Avenue, reading a theater marquee blazoning forth Dolores Costello as star of "Noah's j\rk." the usual result. The films are still reposing in nice, shiny cans on a movie factory shelf. A friend, meeting the angel recently, asked him what he had done with the pictures. He replied: " Whythose pictures are worth every nickel I sunk in them. I've got three kids. When they become hard to handle, I lock them in a projection-room and run these films. After the second one they holler, 'Let us out, papa; we'll be good.'" I WONDER WHAT'S BECOME OF— EVA and Jane Novak, illustrated song singers, Broncho Billy, country store nignt, Darwin Karr, the Keystone Kops, airdomes, Wally Van, Elmo Lincoln, Chaplin imitators. B' T HE SHOULD KNOW lO hear Snub Pollard tell it, a production supervisor is a fellow who knows a lot, but can't think of it. MANY A TRUE WORD HERE'S a place out here called Hope Street. Whoever hung this title on it must have been a casting director. It's not a big street, but half of Hollywood, figuratively speaking, is living on it right now. SNICKER— SNICKER lOULEVARD-STROLLING with a wise-cracker the other day, we passed a director who a year ago was in the big money. "That guy reminds me of the song Raymond Hitchcock used to sing," piped the Hollywoodite. " He's all yessed up and has no place to go." THINGS YOU'LL NEVER SEE JACK BARRYMORE taking a custard pie in the face. Clara Bow wearing a dress hiding those dimpled knees. Cecil DeMille directing Harold Lloyd. Buster Keaton laughing out loud in sound pictures. A two-reel comedy without a break-away being thrown. WE DON'T BELIEVE IT ACCORDING to a fellow title-writer, Fox's " Mother Knows Best " is dedi cated to Aimee Semple McPherson. T Let This Be a Lesson A CONSPIRACY was reported among Florida real estate men to change the name of bis next picture to Miami. All will be shot at sunrise. 8