Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1937)

February 6, 1937 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 91 J. C JENKINS-HIS COLYUM Reynosa, Mexico Dear Herald: Jevver see a bull fight? You didn't, eh? Well, you haven't missed much. Those who never saw a Mexican bull fight, and have heard so much about them have come to believe that they are quite an event. That was our belief, but we saw one yesterday and one is all we care to see. A bull fight will incline you to think that the human race has drifted back to the stone age. This bull fight we saw was about as sporty an event as to see a 200-pound pugilist fight a blindfolded four-year-old kid. It was no bull fight at all. In the first place, they weren't bulls ; they were poor, thin steers that had been brought in off the cactus plains, and none of them were fat enough to make even Mexican beef. These steers were let into the arena through a chute. As one came through they would stick barbs into the steer's shoulder to make him fight and then the matadors (or whatever they are called) would walk around him with a red blanket and the steer would charge the blanket and the matador would step out of the way. They would keep this up for a while and then one of them would run a long, thin blade through the steer's heart and kill him. This is what the Mexicans call sport. When they killed the steer the crowd would cheer like they do at a Cornhusker football game. After they butchered two of these steers we were so disgusted with the performance that we got up and left the arena, and as we left we were thankful that we lived in a country where this kind of butchery is not permitted. We went to see this bull fight in order to be able to say that we had seen one, and now we are so damned ashamed of it that we are not going to brag about it, even to our grandchildren. Get this bull fight out of your heads; it isn't sport, it's butchery. It's a torture of dumb animals, and that's not sport. Shine Mason of the Palace theatre at McAllen was there to see this bull fight also. We were surprised to see him there because he has lived close to the Mexican border for a number of years and we supposed he knew what a bull fight was. Shine got up and left the arena before we did and we don't know whether he was sick at the stomach or went out to get a drink. If it was a drink he wanted he could have gotten that in the bull pen, for they passed it all around the crowd. We don't think it was a drink he wanted, for we don't think Shine drinks, and we are sure he didn't follow off some senorita. Well, we saw a bull fight, anyway. V McAllen, Texas We have made a "find." The casting directors may not believe it, but we have. We have found a girl that we are confident would make a big hit on the screen, and our twelve years' experience watching the actresses on the screen leads us to this conclusion. She is a Mexican girl and she can speak both English and Mexican fluently. She graduates from the high school this coming June and she has a personality that would make them grab on to the seats and hang on. She is 19 years old, dark complexion, black hair, blue eyes, and her height is 4.11. She weighs about 110 pounds, dances well, is a fair swimmer, and she is the editor and business manager of the Wheel, a high school paper. Her name is Bertha Garza and she is the leader in all school and social events. She has never taken instructions outside of her school activities and would therefore be an apt student for a screen director, and if some of them don't get in touch with this girl they will be overlooking an important opportunity. Her address is McAllen, Texas. We get our mail at the same town. V The other night we went to the Palace theatre and saw Shirley Temple in "The Stowaway." Of course, you probably know all about this picture already, but if you haven't already played it we would advise you to get. Then we saw "Come And Get It." The action in this picture is built around a lumber camp in the north woods. If you are interested in lumber camps and seeing them cut down big trees and slide them down the mountains into the river, this one will be of special interest to you. It is largely an outdoor picture and it is a heman picture with a lot of the rough stuff left out. It has a good story well played and well directed. Then we saw "The Garden SHORT PRODUCT PLAYING BROADWAY Week of January 30 CAPITOL Wanted: A Master MGM CRITERION Nut Guilty Vitaphone Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra Vitaphone Farmer Al Falfa in The Tin Can Tourist Educational MUSIC HALL Screen Snapshots, No. 4... Columbia Fishing Thrills Columbia Ski Parade Twentieth Century-Fox PARAMOUNT House Cleaning Blues Paramount On the Nose Paramount RIALTO Every Sunday MGM Louis Pastor Fight Film. . . . DuArt Film Laboratories RIVOLI Sporting Pals Paramount Three Blind Mouseketeers .. United Artists ROXY l-Ski Lov-Ski You-Ski Paramount Vistas of Spain European Films Whoops, I'm an Indian .... Columbia STRAND Pigs Is Pigs Vitaphone Poets of the Organ Vitaphone The Hollanders Vitaphone of Allah," a color picture that will please those who like Oriental settings, though the "settings" reminded us of the sand dunes of the Imperial valley of southeast California. A lot of people called this excellent entertainment, and maybe a lot of people were right ; we don't know, as we didn't stay to the finish. V Some girls spend more time in the beauty parlors than they do with mother in the kitchen. We have seen a lot of girls who required a lot of beauty parlor service. But then, how about us? V The other day we passed what we thought was a German, and we said, "Wie geht's?" And he replied, "Buenos dias, Senor." Then we stepped on the gas and went out and got some more grapefruit. You never can tell what these Longhorns are. After this we are going to talk U. S. V There it goes again. For four weeks now we have planned to go up north and call on the boys in the central part of the state, and each time there has been a "norther" which has brought rain to south Texas and sleet and ice to the middle part and no doubt a blizzard to the central states, and here we are with nothing to do but eat grapefruit and oranges and go to bull fights, although we are not going to any more bull fights. There is one thing, however: J. C. Fanning of the Brownsville theatres is just itching for us to come down there and go fishing with him, and that helps a whole lot. V There is a lady who operates a theatre somewhere up in the state. We wish you could remember her name and the town, for we want to go and call on her. We remember when we called on her once before she said "Why, you old scalawag, what are you doing away down here?" V There are some people who seem to think that getting money from the government is just like finding it. As a rule they are not overly burdened by taxation, but — The tax man comes around about The middle of the spring And figures out just what we've got — Then takes the whole damthing. We knew a man in Indiana once who told us he was glad he didn't own a railroad. We asked him why and he said, "Because they have to pay so much taxes." We sold our railroad just on that account. All right, let's let it go at that. COLONEL J. C. JENKINS The HERALD's Vagabond Colyumnist The HERALD covers the FIELD like an April SHOWER. Dictograph Elects Halpin Dan D. Halpin, assistant chairman of the board of Dictograph Products, Inc., in charge of sales and advertising for the Acousticon division and new Dictograph Silent Radio division, has been elected vicepresident of the company.