Motion Picture Herald (Apr-Jun 1931)

52 MOTION PICTURE HERALD May 2 3, 1931 YOUR PUBLIC By RITA C. McGOLDRICK IN THE weaving of any strong fabric certain threads stand out as dominant notes in :he theme of the pattern. They may run inconspicuously for an occasional space, in their iormation of design, but they appear consistently bindi ng the whole together. Within the past month we have seen the forecasting of motion picture pattern for the coming year in its processes of development. The leading companies have spread the motifs of their plan with elaborate an _ — nouncements and gay coloring through the pages of the Motion Picture Herald. From the viewpoint of a public that is beginning to pick and choose its entertainment with more selectiveness than ever before in the history of the industry these announcements and magnificent color plates are of more than usual interest. AAA The Large Question Mr. Martin Quigley, publisher of the Motion Picture Herald facing the problem which the new schedule of pictures presents asks, in a pertinent editorial, "Is the Motion Picture Business Getting Anywhere ?" Then we turn the pages of the season's announcements as they appear in the last few issues of this periodical. Plate after plate is a masterpiece of the printer's art ; prints like photogravures worthy of frames ; color in royal splendor ; tints as delicate as if they had been rubbed in by sensitive finger of the artist. But subject matter ? There arts stops. Do these advertisements really stand for the type of picture they represent ? And if they do, what has happened to the industry's Code of Morals in all of this? AAA The Critical Public Your patrons are beginning to weary, at last, of the over-sexed picture and the endless gangster rackets. They have demonstrated this in a great many cities recently where a feature heralded as a sensation has suddenly gone as flat as a pricked balloon. In two Canadian cities within the past week two gun-men pictures expired without a gasp on the theatre managers' hands. These are the straws that point the way the wind is blowing. It will pay you to watch the signals ! AAA Circus Psychology The showmanship that gathers together the World's Greatest Show under the big top in any city might teach the makers of motion pictures a lesson. The circus succeeds on variety. It does not attempt to give its audiences a large quantity of any one kind of entertainment — the successors of Mr. Barnum know better than that ! But in motion pictures we move in cycles. We have sex, and more sex, and then SEX, in a whole series of Illicits, Indiscreets, Tarnished Ladies, and Indiscretions. We had the Office Wife theme done to death in a litany that included Sex in Business, Beauty and the Boss, Behind Office Doors, the Secretary's Secret — all as much alike as hat checks in a cloak room. And for the gangsters ... the list has been too long to comnile. Last week in Brooklyn every large motion picture house in the down town area was featuring a gangster theme. So the public, fed to satiety on the too steady diet wearies of its movies . . . and goes to the circus. AAA Let Us Have Comedies! On the radio broadcasts on better motion pictures sponsored by one national group of club women on twelve stations over the country, the question was asked recently, "What type of picture are you most anxious to see made in the coming year?" The answers came back in a flood: "COMEDIES !" The second Question asked, "What have you most wearied of on the screen ?" And the replies came in volume, "Gangsters — and women's secrets." Children everywhere are clamoring for children's pictures — there is an active market for more "Skippy's" and a few more "Connecticut Yankee's." AAA Endorsed Lists Are a Help The theatre man who is watching the trend of affairs that are affecting his business— the statements of Martin Quigley ; the viewpoints of Nicholas Schenck, interviewed in last week's Herald, the re-actions of the public to the current productions ; the reports of the organized club women and parent teacher groups who represent the intelligent cross section of your public, will find these the threads that are dominant in the pattern of motion picture making ! The endorsed lists of pictures issued by the leading club groups engaged in the work of previewing and classifying films will help you in evaluating the sugar coated ads which describe the pictures you are considering for your theatre. A postal card addressed to the Herald will bring you one, or all of the following lists as a free service each month. General Federation of Women's Clubs. Daughters of the American Revolution. Parent-Teachers. Los Angeles Branch. Y. M. C. A. International Federation of Catholic Alumnae. Billboard Revision Watched The city's billboard ordinance at Oakland. Cal., is being revised and theatre interests are watching carefully to check adverse restrictions. Producers, Take Note! A smashing attack upon "The Current Cult of Cynicism" featured the commencement exercises for a class of 2,679 graduates at the University of California at Berkeley, Cal. It was an interesting commentary of intellectual youth upon the trend of the times in literature, the stage and the screen, and was delivered by Garff B. Wilson, honor student. Expressing his disgust for the cynicism which he said was so general today, the young orator said: "We see it in the literature of the time — in plays written with one eye on the box office and with the other on the police stafion. "We see it in movies about women who thought it right to go wrong; in stories which go just beyond decency and stop just short of wit. "We see it in the writers who are not concerned with women of the past, but woman with a past who do not look to normal experiences for their inspiration. "The world war crystallized the belief that we had been betrayed by deceptive standards. But this, I think, is not the case. If one set of values has been found wanting, must we then believe that there is no possibility for perceiving another set? If some cannot have faith in a future life, must we all ,then, cease having faith in this life?" Dei+ch, Halperin, Samelson and Borack in Publix Shakeup A series of promotions in the booking department of Publix has been made by Sam Dembow, Jr., and Leon Netter following recent resignation of Burt Kelly who left Publix last week to join Educational. The men promoted are Joe Deitch, Alex Halperin, William Borack and Dave Samelson. Deitch, who formerly handled booking for Salt Lake territory and Texas, will act as division booker of territory handled out of Omaha, Des Moines and Minneapolis district booking offices. Halperin takes over booking of Illinois, Indiana, southern Ohio and Kentucky area, in addition to Chicago and Detroit assignments. Deitch's former post is assumed by William Borack who was district booker in Salt Lake City. Borack will come to New York to work under supervision of Gaston B. Dureau. Dave Samelson of New York will handle Salt Lake territory in addition to the Saenger booking he is now doing under Dureau's supervision. Borack's post in Salt Lake City will be filled by Jack Marpole who is transferred from manager of the Paramount in Ogden, Utah. Narrow Film Machine Out Siemens Co. of Berlin will shortly market special apparatus for recording and reproducing narrow width film. Taylor to Continue on U. A. Lot Estelle Taylor, now working at United Artists, Hollywood, in the Ronald Colman picture, "Unholy Garden." has been signed for Samuel Goldwyn's production of Elmer Rice's "Street Scene."'