Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1938)

January 8, 1938 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 43 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Mr. William Crouch, Motion Picture Herald's correspondent in Chicago, air mails the following bit of enlightment, obtained from the theatre involved: "The Rialto Theatre, the only Loop burlesque theatre, opens with Ada Leonard, 'strip-tease' star, who recently finished an RKO acting contract, as headliner. Miss Leonard made her burlesque debut at the Rialto some years ago and is the outstanding burlesque attraction in the middlewest. She appeared in several pictures in Hollywood and the manager of the Rialto feels her return will benefit the theatre a great deal as the house has been closed for two months on account of bad business following a raid by the police morals squad." V A fire-eater's mouth and throat are supposed to be impervious to flame, but his whiskers are not. John R. Garnett, Omaha amateur entertainer in the business of fire-eating, appeared on the stage of an Omaha theatre in an amateur night program. For several minutes he inhaled flame, and lit gas-soaked torches on his tongue. Then something went wrong, for suddenly the fire-eater's goatee and sideburns became inflamed. He received first, second and third degree burns under his goatee, his sideburns, on ears, face and throat. V Paramount announces "You and Me" as the new title of "That's What Girls Are Made Of." V In all seriousness, Twentieth Century-Fox sends out the statement: "Peter Lorre, leading screen player, says that one reason for the effectiveness of his character delineation is that he brings his ears into play. He can not only wriggle them, but move either one to a given position and hold it." V Associated Press newspaper headline anent the return of Robert Taylor to California from his vacation abroad : TAYLOR RETURNS; HOLLYWOOD CALM Bet Robert will never get over it. But, maybe it served him right, if we are to believe the story about his visit to Copenhagen, where Alice O'Fredericks, Danish film actress, has sued Carl Hendrik Clemmesen, Copenhagen columnist, because he reported that Mr. Taylor yawned at her when he saw her in Ciro, Danish night club. V Hollywood makeup expert says blondes are only a passing fancy, and in 50 years there will not be any. What will Samuel Goldwyn do then? V Joe E. Brown is said to be somewhat down in the mouth because Columbia titled his new film "Wide, Open Faces." V If American distributors now fighting England's Quota Films Act really want to get some place they should have Mae West tell some Members of Parliament to "Come up 'n' see me about Clause 3 sometime." V Agony Note: "Shirley Temple to give holiday party for her friends, will play hide-and-seek, and her favorite game, blowing bubbles." Explosions Things looked bad for the hero the other night at one point in the wild west film which flickered across the screen of the theatre at DuQuoin, III. "Don't let him get away with it, boys'' someone shouted as the villain gained the upper hand. Suddenly a pistol shot rang out, pierced the "heart" of the villain on the screen, and 200 spectators were on their feet. The bullet, fired by a patron who was trying to help the hero along, bounced off a concrete wall and finally imbedded itself in the back of a chair, half an inch from the back of another spectator. The gent who fired the shot arose and apologized, explaining he was a little excited. The show went on, a la days of the woolly west. V Second explosion of the week came in the Newkirk theatre, Brooklyn, where two 14-year-olds, interested in higher learning, were watching the show and holding packages of chemicals which had been purchased for a high school course, the bottles containing phosphorus, potassium chloride and sugar. They exploded — and Kings County Hospital records tell the rest, including the fact that "Captain Calamity" is the picture that was being screened at the time. V The third theatre explosion of the week occurred in Boston, at the Paramount theatre, where, in the unreeling of a very placid and unamusing and altogether unexciting picture, a girl in the audience, beautiful as a magazine, cover, let go one terrific, clear and penetrating scream. It was a noise described in the Boston Post as resembling a "noonday factory siren." And just as long. Naturally, everybody surmised the worst, and hostile eyes turned on the rather decent looking and dismayed young man sitting in the seat beside her. In a moment, however, the screaming girl left her seat. The bewildered young man followed her. Here's what had happened : The pair had been holding hands and he had casually removed her own ring from "THE" finger, and slipped in its place a blazing diamond ring in a platinum setting. It somehow felt odd and she raised her hand to see why her old ring felt so different. She discovered that she had not only a wow of a ring but the one prospective husband she wanted more than anything in the world. It threw her into a spasm of ecstasy. She just had to scream for joy! It was the 1938 way of saying, "Why, Joe, this is so sudden 1" In the Paramount foyer, after the scream, she was seen to grip Joe's chin in her hands and kiss him — desperately. The Post reports that Joe rather liked it ; "if you'd seen the girl you would too." V The Era, of London, alleges W. S. Van Dyke is an Elk, a Mason, a Founder and Patriot of America, Son of the American Revolution, honorary chief of the Navajo Indians, member of an Eskimo lodge, member of five scientific societies, and an honorary witch doctor. He also makes pictures in Hollywood. Radio-Keith-Orpheum's house publication for the theatre division, a flashy little periodical called "Flash," publishes the following: "Manager Bill Brown at the RKO Albee Theatre, Providence, R. I., was asked to speak before the Motion Picture Division of the Rhode Island Women's Clubs at their annual meeting. Bill was scared stiff and asked us for material. There wasn't anything better we could send him than one of Vernon Adams' many talks before such organizations. This Bill altered to fit the occasion and reports it went over with such a bang that the ladies immediately served notice on him that he must speak at their State Convention." Bill, himself, however, has something to add to the incident. He writes: "It was an interesting experience for me, and was a lot of fun besides. I have only one objection, and it is something that I somehow [ust can't help talking about. When I had finished my speech and felt ready for a little something in the way of refershment, the ladies offered me A GLASS OF GRAPE PUNCH AND A COUPLE OF HORS D'OEUVRES." (The caps are Bill's.) V Crawford, Tracy and Gable are known in official Letland Government phonetic spelling as Dzoana Kraufords, Spensers Tresija and Klarks Gabls. They whistle "Sonja Henie." At the press party given on completion of "Every Day's a Holiday," Mae West's latest, each member of the producing staff was asked to appear wearing a large imitation mustache. So that nobody would see the tongue in the cheek? V And Advertising Age proposes that Mae West's conception of Eve, as presented by NBC and Chase and Sanborn, should make her eligible for a starring part in a series of programs by the Washington Apple Growers' Association. But, then, after looking over his fan mail in the recent weeks following the Eve incident, Lenox Lohr, NBC president, probably yearns for the peace and quiet of Molleville Farm, where he won the Distinguished Service Cross in 1918. V While they were on location at Sonora, California, for Universal's "The Mountains Are My Kingdom," Noah Beery, Jr., and Frances Robinson came upon an old graveyard on the outskirts of the town. They found an epitaph on a headstone : "Too much mouth — not enough gun." V Herb Morgan, short subject publicity man at MGM, reports that box oMces of theatres in Scotland suffer when Robert Benchley's "How to Sleep" is showing. Seems that the Scotch count sheep — it's cheaper. V A story in Washington has it that not even Henry Morgenthau, Secretary of the United States Treasury, has any Constitutional rights. He had an autographed photograph of Joan Crawford, and President Roosevelt took it.