Motion Picture Daily (Oct-Dec 1936)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Will Mark Don Lee-Mutual Hookup with 4 Hour Show 2 MOTION PICTURE DAILY (Registered U. S. Patent Office) Vol. 40 October 29, 1936 No. 102 Maktin Quigley Editor-in-Chief and Publisher MAURICE KANN, Editor J. M. JERAULD, Managing Editor JAMES A. CRON, Advertising Manager Published daily except Sunday ^and holidays by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc., Martin Quigley, president; Colvin Brown, vice-president and treasurer. Publication Office: 1270 Sixth Avenue, at Rockefeller Center, New York. Telephone Circle 7-3100. Cable address "Quigpubco, New York." All contents copyrighted 1936 by Quigley Publishing Company, Inc. Address all correspondence to the New York Office. Other Quigley publications, Motion Picture Herald, Better Theatres, Teatro Al Dia, International Motion Picture Almanac and The BoxOffice Check-Up. Hollywood Bureau: Postal Union Life Building, Vine and Yucca Streets, Boone Mancall, Manager; Chicago Bureau: 624 South Michigan Avenue, C. B. O'Neill, Manager; London Bureau: 4 Golden Square, London W 1, Bruce Allan, Representative. Cable Address "Quigpubco, London"; Berlin Bureau: Stuelerstrasse 2, Berlin W 35; Joachim K. Rutenberg, Representative; Paris Bureau: 29, Rue Marsoulan, Pierre Autre, Representative; Rome Bureau; Viale Gorizia. Vittorio Malpassuti, Representative; Australian Bureau: Regent Theatre Buildings, 191 Collins Street, Melbourne, Cliff Holt, Representative; Mexico City Bureau: Apartado 269, James Lockhart, Representative; Budapest Bureau: 3, Kaplar-u. Budapest, II, Endre Hevesi, Representative ; Tokyo Bureau: 880 Sasazuka, Ichikawa-shi, Chiba-Ken, H. Tominaga, Representative; Prague Bureau: Uhelny trh 2, Prague 1, Harry Knopf, Representative; Shanghai Bureau: Rooms 38-41, Capital Theatre Building, 142 Museum Road, /. P. Koehler, Representative; Rio de Janiero Bureau: Caixa Postal 3358, A. Weissman, Representative; Buenos Aires Bureau: Corrientes 2495, N. Bruski, Representative: Barcelona Bureau: Hotel Ritz, Plaza de las Cortes, Harry Chapin Plummer, Representative; Montevideo Bureau: P. O. Box 664, Paul Bodo, Representative; Moscow Bureau: Petrovski Per 8, Beatrice Stern, Representative; Vienna Bureau: Neustiftgasse, 54, Vienna VII, Hans Lorant, Representative; Amsterdam Bureau: Zuider Amstellaan 5, Philip de Schaap, Representative. Entered as second class matter. January 4, 1926, at the Post Office at New York City.. N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. Subscription rates per year $6 in the Americas, and foreign S12. Single copies: 10 cents. NBC to Have New Washington Studio (Continued from page 1) construction will be ended in April, 1937, and that the studios will be officially opened either in May or June. The building will have a separate NBC entrance and marquee. The new quarters will double in size the facilities now available to Stations WRC and WMAL, NBC's Washington stations. Blue prints call for an audience, or "show" studio 26 by 39y2 feet, with an elevated observation booth 26 by 39^ feet; two program studios, 14 by 27 feet; two speaker studios, 10 by 18 feet; two transcription rooms; one conference and clients' audition room, and one master control room. In addition there will be room for 18 general offices and program rooms, a music library, an artists' lounge, technical laboratories, and storage rooms. The entire floor will be air conditioned. O. B. Hanson, NBC chief engineer, who was in charge of building and installing the broadcasting equipment in Radio City studios, is acting in a similar capacity in Washington. When the Don Lee stations join the Mutual network on Dec 29, thereby moving the latter chain into competition with NBC and CBS on a coastto-coast basis, the event will be marked by a four-hour program, it was learned yesterday by Motion Picture Daily. While details are as yet incomplete, this much has been established definitely : The program will be divided in two equal parts ; one half of the entertainment to be provided by the basic Mutual stations, the other half by the Don Lee outlets. The basic Mutual stations are WOR, New York ; WGN. Chicago ; WLW, Cincinnati ; CKLW, DetroitWindsor, and WAAB, Boston. The Don Lee stations are KHJ, Los Angeles ; KFRC, San Francisco ; KGB, San Diego and KDB, Santa Barbara. Mutual's Denver station. KFEL, will also participate in and contribute to the festivities. Wallenstein Group Included Mutual will offer a panorama of its most popular musical programs, headed by Jazz Nocturne and Alfred Wallenstein's Sinfonietta. The bands of Guy Lombardo, Shep Fields, Eddie Duchin, Cab Calloway. and other top flight orchestra units will follow in an hour-long dance presentation. Ed Fitzgerald will probably act as Mutual's master of ceremonies for the evening. What the Don Lee stations will offer as their share toward the program has not as yet been established, although it is almost certain that many Hollywood favorites will be in the studios that evening. Conrad Nagel. now a Don Lee employe, will m. c. from the coast, with the probable assistance of Clark Gable. Brief addresses will be made by A. J. McClosker. president of WOR and chairman of the Mutual board ; W. E. Macfarlane. president of Mutual : Fred Weber. Mutual general manager ; and Tom Lee, executive head of the California web. Politics Cancelling Sustainers Politics continues to be no respecter of radio programs. With the campaign now in its final week, many of radio's most important sponsored offerings will be cancelled out to make room for political talks. Tonight for instance. Gen. Hugh S. Johnson's speech on the NBC Red network kills the last half of the Vallee program. Tomorrow night on NBC. speeches by gubernatorial candidate Bleakley. Herbert Hoover and John W. Davis kill the Waltz Time and Radio Guide shows. At 9 :30 Saturday night on the Red. President Roosevelt's address, to be followed at 10 :30 by Governor Landon's, ousts Irving Cobb's program, as well as a few sustainers. Monday on the Red. the Republican National Committee, with Governor Landon on the speaker's platform, removes from the air the "Contented" Milk and Kreuger beer programs (10 to 11 P. M.). The same evening, 11 P. M. to midnight, President Roosevelt's final campaign speech delivered over the NBC Blue and Red networks, cancels a brace of dance programs. Columbia is not so seriously affected as NBC. On Saturday an address bv President Roosevelt, from 9:30 to 10:30 P. M.. completely cancels the "Pet" Milk program, and the A Bit Previous Quite by accident, NBC reveals that it expects President Roosevelt to be returned to the White House. Announcing that the President would inaugurate the 1936 Mobilization for Human Needs Campaign on the air Nov. 6, NBC goes anticipatory by saying the speech "probably his first general address following the election, is expected to originate in the White House." first half of the Luck} Strike Hit Parade. An appeal by Landon, which immediately follows, cuts the final half of the Lucky Strike offering. On Monday, the eve of the election, a final address by President Roosevelt, 11 P. M. to midnight, cripples the repeats of Renfrew of the Mounted, and Pick and Pat. Boost Pearl Via Transcriptions Raleigh and Kool cigarettes, sponsors of the new Jack Pearl series which starts Nov. 9 on the NBC Blue network, will try an unusual stunt when the program gets under way. There were only 43 Blue network stations available when the program was signed. Desiring more coverage, the sponsor has decided to make electrical transcriptions of the weekly episodes, which will be broadcast as a "canned" program over 18 additional network outlets. Most of these stations are located in the belt from North Dakota to Texas, where the sponsor's cigarette sales are fairly heavy. Style Show, Male-Conducted Something new in sponsored programs will come to the air on Nov. 5. from 4 to 4 :30 P. M. over the NBC Red network. It will be a style show for women, conducted by a man, Charles LeMaire. Cadillac will sponsor. Eddie Duchin's orchestra will provide the musical setting. LeMaire will give style advice to the listeners and will introduce prominent fashion exponents. Of course, there will be Hollywood fashion pick-ups. Want Comedian for Parker Lennen and Mitchell, advertising agency handling the Paul Whiteman show, is seeking a comedian to balance the program when Frank Parker takes over the guiding reins early in January. Parker has been guesting periodically on the program for the past two months, but becomes a permanent feature in January when the Whiteman contract runs out. Incidentally, Whiteman, who has been broadcasting from Texas, returns to the New York studios Nov. 8. S30O-000 Transmitter for KSTP KSTP, NBC's station in St. Paul, goes on the air with a new $300,000 transmitter on or about Nov. 11. Film Names Surround Cooper Gary Cooper will be in fast company when he stars in "The Virginian" on Monday night's Lux program. Screen lights assigned to assist Gary Thursday, October 29, 1936 are Charles Bickford, Helen Mack, and John Howard. Contract Allows Musicals Burns and Allen's new contract with Paramount carries a four months' leave of absence clause. January, therefore, will find them heading easl from Hollywood to appear in "I Always Say," stage musical. Schipa, Muse, Rubinoff, et al Short Shots: Tito Schipa, Metropolitan Opera tenor, guest stars on the Sears-Roebuck "Then and Now" program Nov. 5 . . . Deanna Durbin's new picture will be titled "Three Smart Girls" . . . Clarence Muse, colored actor heard on "Paducah Plantation," starts work on his 250th picture in January, titled "Murder on the Mississippi" . . . Elaine Sterne Carrington, author of "Pepper Young's Family," network scripter, entrains to the coast Jan. 2 to produce her play, "The Empress," in Hollywood . . . Loretta Lee, CBS songstress, will broadcast from the coast after the first of January . . . Happy Cronman and True Boardman, Warner writers, have been assigned to do the "Hollywood Hotel" story . . . Sid Silvers, who wrote "Born to Dance," Eleanor Powell's new picture, will arrive in New York in two weeks. He was formerly Phil Baker's radio stooge . . . Dave Rubinoff now dickering with Sam Saxe for a brace of Yitaphone shorts. Continue Amateur Hour Hollywood, Oct. 28. — The California amateur hour which was scheduled to end Nov. 2, will continue to be an NBC coast feature until the end of the year. Conrad Nagel will stay as master of ceremonies. Donald Novis will continue temporarily, although it is believed that Jane Froman will return as featured soloist later. Radio Not Hurting in N. O. New Orleans, Oct. 28. — A check of film houses reveals that broadcasting, even Roosevelt, Landon, Gov. Leche or Rev. Gerald Smith's talks, does not detract from attendance. The morning newspapers earn the speeches in full. In the smaller cities and towns upstate a different story can be written. May Join Affiliated New Orleans, Oct 28.— Station WBNO is considering hooking up with the Affiliated network, according to E. R. Richards, general manager of the station. An application for full time is also pending with the F.C.C. Reunion for George-Faust Omaha, Oct. 28. — Gladys George, star of "Valiant is the Word for Carrie," held a reunion here with Arthur Faust, dramatic director of Station KOIL, with whom she was co-starred for three years in Bainbridge Players stock at Minneapolis. To Interview Skolsky Hollywood, Oct. 28.— Cecil B. DeMille will interview Sidney Skolsky over CBS on Nov. 2. His subject will be none other than S'dney Skolsky, who will submit to DeMille's third degree on the Lux program. Bennetts to Broadcast Hollywood, Oct. 28. — Constance Bennett will be interviewed by Elsa Schallett Friday over KHJ on the Columbia network. Joan Bennett has has been set for the following week.