Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1934)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Hollywood On Parade By BILL SWIGART 24 New Orleans Forms New Unit for MPTO New Orleans, Jan. 22. — A temporary organization intended for affiliation with the M.P.T.O.A. has been formed here with Harry S. McLeod of the St. Charles as president. Other officers are : First vice-president, A. Higginbotham, Baton Rouge; second vice-president, Joe Barcelona, Baton Rouge ; third vice-president, Charles Lauve, Franklin; directors, Ed. Myrick, Joseph Alsena, New Orleans ; Philip Shinan, New Iberia. Organization was effected after an address by Ed Kuykendall, in which he criticized Abram F. Myers, Allied general counsel, and said : "The industry as a whole is bigger than any individual and that's the way it's going to be." Penn. MPTO Elects New Officers Today Philadelphia, Jan. 22. — Code problems and the annual election will be two of the subjects up today at a meeting of the M.P.T.O. of Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Delaware. Percentage disputes with United Artists, patent troubles with American Tri-Ergon and the local operators' situation will also be discussed. /. E. Chadwick Calls Coast Independents Hollywood, Jan. 22. — I. E. Chadwick has called a meeting of all independent producers to organize the west coast set-up of the Federation ot the M. P. Industry. According to the plan to raise funds, producers will be asked to pay $10 a reel for each positive print and exchanges will be taxed 10 cents a reel on each release. Ochs Calls Session On M. P. Club Plans Lee Ochs, president of the M. P. Club, has called a general meeting of the membership for tomorrow when several plans to perk up the interest of the club will be put to the members for a vote. One includes installation of a bar and others revolve around creating interest in the club as the daily meeting grounds. Arthur in St. Louis To Handle Fox Deal St. Louis, Jan. 22. — Harry C. Arthur and his attorney, Herman J. Weisman of Waterbury, Conn., arrived here today to confer with the receivers of the Fox, preparatory to final closing of the F. & M. deal, expected this week. Arthur and his lawyer will remain here a few days before heading back to New York. Manager Directs Firemen Brighton, Colo., Jan. 22. — By climbing a telephone pole and directing firemen where to turn the water, W. Glenn Miller, manager of the Rialto, probably saved the town from a serious blaze. The fire had started in the old opera house building and was gaining headway until Miller climbed the" pole, gaining the vantage point. Damage was held to $500. Hollywood, Jan. 22. — A local statistician, like the thousand and one inventors trying to perfect perpetual motion, is going around in circles trying to calculate what Hollywood spends annually for parties. Since the cost of these parties ranges all the way from the price of a quart of gin and a ham sandwich, to the other extreme of champagne, costly favors and a banquet, accuracy of any calculation along this line is about as impossible as the perfection of perpetual motion. • The performance of Douglas Montgomery and Dorothy Wilson in "Eight Girls in a Boat" has convinced Charles R. Rogers of their potentialities as co-starring timber and has set the couple to head the cast in "Canal Boy," an original story by Forrest Halsey and Clara Beranger. • Of all the goofy propositions being daily presented to the local Hays office for approval is that of a local photographic expert who has perfected a unique system for making composite photographs. The genius has perfectd the system so well that he can place any star in any sort of pose with Joe Doakes from Oshkosh Imagine what the Beau Brummel from any Main Street would pay to have his picture grouped in fond embrace with Greta Garbo. It would be great sport for the outsider, but just another headache for the Hays office. The proposition was kaoyed before it could reach the studios. • Rudy Vallee's departure for the East created considerable suspense at the Fox studios until the rushes for his last scenes were okayed. Had retakes been necessary, the company Va. Women Protest Censor Board Shift Richmond, Jan. 22.— Some protest has been made by women's clubs over Attorney General John R. Saunders' request for the resignation of Mrs. Emma Speed Sampson as a member of the censor board. She was one of the original appointees in 1922. Mrs. Elizabeth Churchill Chalkley, widow of the late Senator John W. Chalkley, who is scheduled to succeed Mrs. Sampson, has been a member of the State Prohibition Department which is being abolished as a result of repeal. To Hold London Meet Columbia will hold a three-day sales meeting of the entire English sales force in London on Jan. 27-29. Joseph Seidelman, who arrives in London on the Olympic shortly before the session, will preside. Following the meeting Seidelman will make a survey of the European situation. N. O. Zoning Problem Up New Orleans, Jan. 22. — Zoning problems confronting Warners, United Theatres, Inc., and the Newcomb and Wonderland theatres are expected to reach the clearance and zoning board as soon as it starts functioning. would have faced a problem that even money readily could not have straightened out. • The dailies and wire services are still falling for the elusive Garbo hoax, by playing up the recent GarboMamoulian vacation trip to the Grand Canyon in a big way, and to make it big the recipients of this inestimable free publicity are acting their part in true scenario fashion. After establishing their identity in one spot, they hurried away for another spot and a new chapter in the chase. • Notes for the Book . . . Ruth Roland has joined forces with Dave Arlen in the business of free lance publicity purveyors. . . . Eph Asher has been assigned to produce Poe's "The Black Cat" with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Also "Mary and Elizabeth" with Margaret Sullavan as Mary and possibly Pauline Frederick as Elizabeth. Both pictures are for Universal. . . . Maury Cohen, producer of Invincible Pictures, has changed the title of his current production from "Swan Song" to "Cross Roads." The picture features Claire Windsor, John Mack Brown and Anita Louise and was directed by Frank Strayer. . . . Boris Karloff has two Scottie dogs, which he calls "Whiskey" and "Soda." . . . Edmund Lowe has reasons for being jubilant over the repeal of prohibition ... he owns 2,000 acres of grape land in central California, enough to furnish the whole industry with wine. . . . Lewis Stone is planning to make a six months' cruise around the South American continent in a 105-foot schooner, which he has just purchased. . . . First Income Taxes Fall Due in Kansas Topeka, Jan. 22. — Income taxes on individuals and corporations, imposed for the first time in Kansas to boost state revenue, are now due. Enacted by the legislature last winter, the law was made to apply on incomes for 1933 and is imposed on the net. Corporations are taxed 2 per cent and payments are due at the close of their fiscal year and become delinquent and subject to penalties three and one-half months later. The assessment on individual incomes is graduated, ranging from one per cent up to $2,000, to 4 per cent on all over $7,000 annual net income. Exemptions are allowed for individual incomes. Radio to Do "Pompeii" Hollywood, Jan. 22. — Bulwer-Lytton's "The Last Days of Pompeii" will be filmed by Radio at a large cost. It was made as a silent 15 years ago by an Italian producer. Montage by Browning The photomontage used on the cover of Motion -Picture Daily's Studio Number, published last Friday, 1 was prepared by Irving Browning. Tuesday, January 23, 193 Columbus Club Has 400 at 3rd Dinne Collmeus, Jan. 22. — Approximate,! 400 members, including delegatioil from Pittsburgh, St. Louis and C i. cinnati, attended the third annual baill quet and entertainment of the Coliml bus Variety Club in the DeshlJ Wallick ballroom here last night. Among the principal speakers wen J Sir Ernest Du Pille, billed as mai I aging director of Continental The; I tres, Ltd., London, scheduled to drl liver a serious address on Americel films. He proved, instead, to be \ professional English humorist of not I who released an unexpected line >i nonsensical chatter. A vaudeville program was given t I Olsen and Johnson, appearing here : I "Take A Chance," while outside tL ballroom, Haenlein's sideshow wjl presented. William M. ("Billy") James, hoi orary president of the Ohio M.P.T.C acted as toastmaster. Governor Georj White was among the notables presen Elliott Plans Film On Yangtze Rive Hollywood, Jan. 22. — Clyde 1 Elliott, who recently returned froPenang in the Straits Settlements wii a print of "Devil Tiger" for Fox rt lease, leaves for China in March ) film a story dealing with Chine; pirates on the Yangtze river. Tl story is tentatively titled "Yello Waters" and is an original by Bonn Powell. The picture will feature an all nath' cast and will require about six montl to complete, with actual filming takin place about 1,500 miles north ( Shanghai in bandit territory. Ellio' will take three cameramen in additio to his regular sound and technic; crew. Negotiations for release are no\ being conducted with two major corr panies. Canton to Have Two More Theatres Sooi Canton, Jan. 22. — This town wi have two more houses soon and wi lose vaudeville at one. Young & Rinehart have leased th, Lyceum, former burlesque and vaude ville house, and will open it on ;, stage-film policy in about a mont after spending $10,000 on the interior The name will be changed to th State. Allied Theatres, Inc., recentl formed by John P. Shilling, Helen Reese and Sydney L. Geiger, whic acquired the Columbia at a recent re ceiver's sale, is having sound installe< and will open it soon. Loew's is dropping vaudeville afte, a four months' trial. Walker May Receive Farley' s Party Jol Washington, Jan. 22. — Report were current here today that Presi dent Roosevelt is considering Franl C. Walker as successor to Postmaste General Farley for the chairmanshi] of the National Democratic Commit tee, Farley is said to have requested tha he be relieved of the chairmanship a he feels thathe could not hold politi cal and government positions simuL taneously.