Motion Picture Herald (Jan-Feb 1938)

January 2 9, 1938 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 41 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Gary Cooper had to send one of his shirt tails to a Ladies Aid Society at Rapid City, South Dakota, in answer to the following letter: "In an effort to raise money for our church, we are making ladies' kitchen aprons out of the shirt tails of some noted men. Would you be good enough to send us one of your shirt tails. We thank you very much and hope to be able to reciprocate sometime." Serves them both right. V Hollywood producers' conception of the credo of most motion picture newspaper critics, as relayed by London's Era : — "There's no picture so good that something bad can't be said about it." V Someone once said that DeMille and Providence can do anything. We believe it after seeing Mr. DeMille's new "Buccaneer." His Bayou Boys, a piratical bunch, are shown going to the rescue of General "Stonewall" Andy Jackson and New Orleans against the British, riding the Bayou waters in small, two-seater primitive canoes hewed in the rough from Louisiana trees. The next shot finds them riding inland, all atop hosses, some with teams drawing heavy cannons on wagons. V Walter O'Keefe, in the Scripps-H award newspapers, recommends Edgar Bergen's "Charlie McCarthy" for the presidential nomination in 1940, on the grounds that Charlie can be depended on to do what he's told. V Extortionists in Los Angeles demanded $6,000 of Harold Lloyd, asserting that the money would be used "to combat the evil your class has brought on America." That's gratitude, after all Harold has done for America's box offices. Maybe the Anti-Laugh Society is back of the threat. In a recent issue of Motion Picture Daily, A-Mike Vogel, editor, opened a discussion by saying : "While not always in accord with the editor of Motion Picture Herald, Terry Ramsaye," etc., etc. Mr. Ramsaye, when approached for a statement, said : "If Mr. Vogel had ever been in accord with the editor of Motion Picture Herald, his expression would have more of the nature of that news quality to which we look to his paper. Meanwhile, may I not say that it is a pleasure to differ with anybody, including Mr. Vogel." V Pittsburgh and a dozen other communities have their Variety Clubs, Hollywood has its Academy, its Guilds and its Masquers, and social, exhibitor and union organizations of one kind or another exist in practically every sector of the country. But Denver^ film community stands alone, with its association of Yellow DogSL Eddie Los is Chief Mongrel, "Dad" Mooney is Keeper of the Bones, and Sam Reed answers to Keeper of the Fleas. V A simple comma can make an awful lot of difference, as witness Metro-Goldzvyn-Mayer's announcement that "Sophie Tucker will celebrate her SOth anniversary on the 'Good News of 1938' radio program Thursday." A CANDIDATE FOR THE "WHOPPERS' "CLUB Remembering the loud boastings of certain motion picture gentlemen in the middle west, particularly around Kansas, on the dimensions and appetites of last summer's grasshoppers, during the "hopper" plague, with locusts, too, Mr. J. M. (Bud) Nass, manager of the Fort Theatre, at Poplar, Montana, sends the above documentary evidence of the kind of grasshoppers they raise out in his sector. He said he bagged this one "while on a hunting expedition." . . If any of Motion Picture Herald's sportsloving readers are undecided as to where to spend their next vacation, they might look into Mr. Nass' invitation, extended this week in writing, to "drop around." Leon Bamberger makes many a "goodwill" speech during a month on behalf of and at the instance of the RKO home office advertising department, where he is employed. Leon has hit many a high-note in his speech-making, but none has equaled his opening remarks to the Cincinnati Advertisers Club, the other day, when he said : A. luncheon speaker is one who eats a lot of food he doesn't want, in order to get up and tell stories he doesn't remember, to people who have already heard them." Whether or not they were anticipating a long, hard winter is not known officially, but Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has put three roving lunch wagons into operation at the Culver City studios, canvassing the hungry workers all day, serving everything from caviar in the can to charlotte russes. V "Marlene Dietrich is irked because her studio is offering her only $100,000 a picture for this year," observes the Arkansas City (Kansas) Traveler, and quips, "Nice irk if you can get it" V Paramount publicity has been making much of the fact that Mae West's new "Every Day's a Holiday" is holding forth at its Paramount theatre on Times Square. The press agents are particularly chortling over Mae's newly acquired propensities with trap drums, as shown in the picture. Yep, concluded one blurb, "From hip-rolling to drum-rolling was child's play for Mae." V United States Representative Samuel B. Pettengill, unsuccessful sponsor of much annoying anti-film legislative proposals, told a group of Boston manufacturers the other day that federal legislative reform sometimes is a necessity, "but there comes a time when the patient must be given a rest." Will Hays seconds the motion. V Press Cards, two bits: Hollywood's American Cinematographer, published by and for the studio-camera membership of the American Society of Cinematographers, printed a classified advertisement offering: "Press Cards — For the freelance photographer, 25 cents, Address General News Box 25M, West Farms Station, New York City." A letter in application, and a quarter, brought back a pretty blue pasteboard, boldly captioned: "PHOTOGRAPHER," and asking police and firemen to "Kindly aid the bearer when engaged in the gathering of news." The card and a nickel will get a photographer a free ride on any trolley car. V MGM exchange bookers trying to date in the next three Carey Wilson shorts will probably have a time explaining their identities to exhibitors, viz: "I Don't Know — Do You?" "How Do I Know?", "What Do You Think?" V Our recent items about a midzvestern vaudeville "fire-eater" setting his sideburns and whiskers ablaze, while doing his act for a rather large audience, has a counterpart in the person of Leo, performer at a Philadelphia dime museum, who could swallow swords by the yard — but he couldn't take smoke. He zvas half way through his act when fire broke out. He swallowed so much smoke trying to save his swords that firemen had to carry him out. V Advertising Age calls it a recession of depression. V Certain Hollyzvood actors and actresses who are beginning to lose confidence will receive with joy the news that false teeth that rock, slide and drop dozvn may cause hissing. Nezvsreel editors zvill also take note.