Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1939)

MOTION PICTURE DAILY Monday, January 23, 1939 Insiders' Outlook By SAM SHAIN No New Shows on B'way This Week i Purely Personal ► RE. ANDERSON, former finan. cial vice-president of Paramount and more recently associated with TriNational Films, has resigned from the latter company to become financial adviser to the Maritime Commission in W ashington. • Adolph Zukor, John W. Hicks, David Rose and C. J. Dickinson, having completed a tour of Paramount's British exchanges, are now in Ireland inspecting company operations there. • Alexander Korda is due in from the coast by plane today. Emanuel Silverstone and Irving Asher will arrive by train. The latter will accompany Korda to London when he sails next Saturday. • Harry Buxbaum, New York branch manager for 20th Century-Fox, was given a surprise birthday party at his home in Long Island Thursday evening. • Oscar Morgan, Paramount southern division manager, is house hunting, planning to move his family here shortly from Atlanta. • Gaby Morlay and Jacques Catelain, French players, sailed Saturday for Paris with their troupe following a Canadian tour. • William Keighley has returned to Hollywood from Wisconsin where he has been gathering background material for Warners' "Each Dawn I Die." • Sydney Chaplin has arrived in Hollywood from abroad to assist in the production of Charlie Chaplin's new picture, "The Dictator." • Leon Schlesinger, producer of Warner cartoons, left New York last night for Chicago from where he will go to Hollywood. Bruce Cabot has arrived in New York for a short vacation after completing his role in Warners' "Dodge City." • . Arthur Pearce, formerly associated with Eddie Dowling, is now press agent for Manny Wolf's Restaurant. ; Errol Flynn is scheduled to arrive in New York today from the coast for a two-week holiday in the east. Sir William Wiseman of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., sailed Saturday for London. • Louis Phillips is due back at his office today from Newburgh. Alec Moss is vacationing in Florida. Tom Ricketts Dies Hollywood, Jan. 22. — Tom Ricketts, veteran producer, actor and director, died here Friday at the age of 86! He came to Hollywood with David Horsley to form the old Nestor company. SONJA HENIE'S deal with Madison Sq. Garden calls for a 70-30 split. She receives 70 per cent of the gross, and on the week she stands to get more than $100,000. The expected gross, and there are no matinee performances, is estimated at more than $200,000. The show is selling out at every performance. Miss Heme's 70 per cent is inclusive of compensation for the entire troupe, which she pays. ▼ T That Italian film situation has taken a peculiar turn. Resident trade agents in New York, presumably representing the E. N. I. C., the film distributing monopoly of the Italian Government, have approached independent producers and distributors on film deals. Officials of independent companies are not discussing the matter. Whatever conferences have been held are described as "exploratory." No terms have been mentioned. T ▼ Soon there may be in radio a commentator code comparable to the production code now followed in the film industry. The purpose of this commentator code, which is now being discussed among certain of the more careful radio people, is to remove from broadcasting the purely gossip type of commentating, particularly objectionable material of a personal nature, such as is employed by some of the networks' film commentators. These lads intend to organize themselves into a group from coast to coast and to set up a code of ethics to guide the type of comment, so as not to bring unnecessary injury to individuals or groups. T ▼ In Argentina, now, they have prohibited the importation of film advertising matter. It is a strange act, but the Argentine explanation is that the law has been adopted in the interest of aiding the native printing and. lithographing trade. Under this new Argentine law, all forms of foreign-made advertising are banned. There is one exception. The edict does not embrace trailers in the film accessories line. ▼ T They were shooting a picture in the Grand Central Terminal at 3:30 A. M. Friday. About 100 extras were seated or standing about. Redcaps milled around the RKO Re-Signs McLaglen ■ Hollywood, Jan. 22. — RKO today signed Victor McLaglen for one more picture. lighted area. At quick intervals one of them would start across the space reserved for extras. Two station policemen were busily engaged trying to keep the redcaps from walking into this reserved area. The boys were trying to get into the picture. Late commuters on their way home, who didn't know what all the shooting was about, and seemed to care less, peculiarly enough, skirted around the kliegflooded area of the rotunda to keep out of the picture and get the warm, milk-train seats to settle down for their matutinal snoozes. The big moment of amazement for the regular redcap force came when a retinue of well-groomed colored gentlemen in bright, shiny uniforms flanked a large man with red face, and brief case, who was emerging from the shadows around Gate 25. T Of course, those "baggage smashers" who were with him were not regular redcaps. They were extras. Some of the extra girls were seated on the baggage room counters, swinging their silk-clad legs, and men extras seated along the racks beneath the ticket windows. Instead of "Camera, lights, action!" the assistant director said "Let's go!" There was no megaphone and no beret. His trousers were baggy, his hat slouched, and he wore a nondescript sweater. T A girl with a purple hat dashed out madly from an archway to the information booth. Evidently she was on the wrong side, for she reeled around, reversed herself at the strident cry of the assistant director, "Wrong side ! Get over on the other side." Then a tall, gray man walked into the lighted area as if he were looking for an incoming passenger. At that moment, without any noticeable sign or signal, the kliegs faded slowly and the rotunda took on again its familiar early morning appearance. The scrubwomen waddled through on their way to the offices which they were to tidy, and the night workers plodded their weary way across the station out into the cold air. The stars in the terminal dome resumed their pale glow as the artificial lights faded. "Hollywood" retired and the Grand Central was again part of the New York scene. Col. Signs Ruggles Hollywood, Jan. 22. — Columbia has signed Wesley Ruggles to a producerdirector contract. No new shows are scheduled to open this week on Broadway legitimate stages. Maurice Evans' revival of "Hamlet" closed on Saturday with 96 performances, just short of the 100 mark for which most revivals of the melancholy Dane strive. Although the Evans show was still doing a firs Sn te box-office business, other commitfwnts forced termination of the run. Total of 25 still remain on the boards, of which two, "Tobacco Road" and "Pins and Needles," are holdovers. Dearth of hits is still puzzling the Rialto. The season has not been lacking in productions, but the survival rate has been unusually low. Only 12 new dramatic pieces are among the survivors. Additionally, there are three revivals, two plays based on novels, four based on other dramatic works, and two new revues. "The Primrose Path" is a dramatization of "February Hill" by Victoria Lincoln, and "Mamba's Daughters" is taken from a novel of the same name by DuBose Heyward. "Tobacco Road," now in its sixth year, was also adapted from a novel of the same title. Revivals include "The Importance of Being Earnest," "Outward Bound" and the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. "Leave It to Me" is a musical adaptation of "Clear All Wires." "I Married An Angel" is based on the play by John Zaszary with music added. Thornton Wilder wrote the adaptation of Johann Nestroy's Austrian classic, "He Will Be the Devil of a Fellow" to make "The Merchant of Yonkers." "The Boys From Syracuse" is based on Shakespeare, with modern dialogue added. "Where There's a Will," based on Sacha Guitry's "Le Nouveau Testament," closed Saturday after seven performances. Soskin Asks Extension London, Jan. 22. — Simon Soskin and Amalgamated Studios have asked the court for an extension of the option to redeem the mortgage on the studio. McAlpine & Sons opposed, claiming there is no likelihood of a sale by Soskin. It is believed the War Office is interested in the land and buildings. MOTION PICTURE DAI LY {Registered U. S. Patent Office) MARTIN QUIGLEY, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher; SAM SHAIN, Editor; JAMES A. CRON, Advertising Manager. Published daily except Saturday, 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 addresss: "Quigpubco, New York." All contents copyrighted 1938 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 Fame. BUREAUS: — Hollywood: Postal Union Life Building, Vine and Yucca Sts. ; Boone Mancall, manager; William R. Weaver, editor. Chicago: 624 S. 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