Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1938)

November 5, 1938 MOTION PICTU RE HERALD 35 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Traveling to Annapolis last weekend as the guest of Twentieth Century-Fox Film and the United States Naval Academy, for the exhibition of "Submarine Patrol," for the Midshipmen, we were taken by some "Middies" to the water's edge of Chesapea"ke Bay to see the last four boats of the socalled "Splinter Fleet," tied up for naval training of the cadets, probably never again to put out to sea. The little wooden sub-chasers came into being in 1917 when the United States Navy found it couldn't turn out enough multi-million-dollar destroyers to chase enemy U-Boats from the sea. Fox in "Submarine Patrol" treats of their exploits during the World War. Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Navy, was said to have acted without authority when he ordered construction of the "splinter" boats, socalled because of their wooden construction, running only 110 feet and weighing but 50 tons, but capable of traveling, as they did, 15,000 to 50,000 miles. Under the urgency of the U-Boat menace, Roosevelt built the subchasers first and got the appropriations afterwards. In the early days of our participation in the war, some of them even rushed out offshore without any armaments aboard, to chase invading U-Boats sighted along the Atlantic. Eventually they carried barrels of TNT on deck astern, a veritable powder keg, to toss into the ocean in attacking submarines. The men who sailed them often couldn't cook or eat because on stormy seas the boats rolled like 10-cent store toys. They would pitch 140 degrees in seven seconds — and that's like trying to stand up while doing the loop-the-loop at Coney Island. And now Fox brings to life the last four boats of the fleet, the rest of them having long since been auctioned off to private citizens, many of them having eventually found their way into the rum fleets of prohibition. V Some months ago these columns reported on Paramount's signing "Sam" and "Sadie," two fleas, who interrupted filming on "Zaza," in which they had parts, while a young flea was born on the set. The fleas, trained ones from Hubert's Museum in New York both died later from the heat generated by the studio lights. Paramount now has engaged two others, both Alaska fleas — they say — who have been snowblinded and are therefore able to withstand the studio kleig lights without being affected. The cast credits adorning the main title of "Zaza," therefore, will, when released, carry the names of "Warp" and "Woof," succeeding "Sam" and "Sadie," who gave their all to Hollywood for their art. V _ Headline in Motion Picture Daily, October Wh : GROSSES SOAR IN BROADWAY'S HEAT Headline in Motion Picture Daily one week later, on October 27th : WARM WEATHER HITS BROADWAY'S GROSSES V A small neighborhood theatre in Boston has a system of bell ringing from the manager's office to the projection booth. If the bell rings once, it means that the film on the screen needs to be better framed. If it rings twice, it means either that the projectionist is wanted on the telephone or that the house is on fire. Hudson Strode, in "South by Thunderbird" (Random House), tells how nowhere do theatre managers cater so to the taste of an audience as in Bogota, Colombia, in South America, where the patrons don't leave if displeased — they stay and demand something better, and the management always has to have extra films to substitute. If a picture is slow, the patrons begin to stamp their feet; unless the story picks up quickly the stamping becomes menacing and the audience get out their matchboxes. They stick the ends of the matches under their fingernails, light them and hold up their hands. Soon the darkened theatre is ablaze with little fivebranched candelabra. If the management does not soon change the picture, the audience begins to split the chair bottoms into kindling wood. V No loser of good electioneering opportunities is Judge Arthur H. James, now campaigning in Pennsylvania's Gubernatorial battle. While he was speaking in the Sayre theatre, at Sayre, Pa., the other evening, one of the members of the audience fell asleep. The sleeper was a big, important looking ward worker and he was sitting within a few feet of Judge James. To make matters worse, the sleeper started to snore and the longer he slept the louder he snored. Someone then shouted "Don't pay any attention to him, Mr. James. He's just another Democrat." Quick as a flash Judge James replied, "No. He's no Democrat. He's a very good Republication. Why he's so satisfied and confident that I'm going to be the next Governor, that he doesn't think it necessary to do anything but sleep until election day." V Paging Harold Franklin : Harold Friary, manager of the Field's Corner theatre in Dorchester, Mass., became a father the other day, and on his card announcing the arrival, stated: "Raising Children Is Your Best Entertainment ." V Theatrical ad reported by the London Era: ILLUSIONIST WANTS ASSISTANT. Must be young, alert and intelligent, or else Completely Useless. V Hugh Herbert, called Hollywood "Screwball" No. 1, has been around Broadway, on a vacation, regaling the lads and lassies with stories that are heaps of fun. On one ocasion, so he told Frederick James Smith, he was appearing in a scene in a comedy in which he appeared to be walking up to a newsstand in Times Square to buy a paper. The New York scenes were authentic, having been filmed in Manhattan without Herbert. Later, by trick process shots, they were projected on a screen in Hollywood and Herbert walked before the gauze with its scenes of Manhattan and was made to appear in the finished picture as if he had actually been on the spot. When Herbert's folks, living in New York, saw the film they were annoyed. So! Hugh had been in town and hadn't even phoned ! Herbert never has been able to explain the thing. The Brooklyn folks merely hiss, "Process shots — baloney ! Couldn't spare a nickel for a phone call ! High hat !" Bob Burns thinks the most kindhearted and tactful bunch he ever saw in Hollywood are the motion picture directors. "They've got a way of turning you down for a part and making you feel good about it," says Burns. "They'll tell a man he's too handsome for a part and they'll tell a woman she's too young." Like the director who was out hunting and mistook a friend for a rabbit and shot him. The director rushed over and took his friend in his arms and said, "I'm terribly sorry — I mistook you for a noble stag or a bull moose." V Leo-the-Lion-minded Metro is searching for a trained fox "which can stay far enough ahead of the hounds so as to be available for retakes," for use in "Stand Up and Fight." They're also looking for a five-year-old "Baby Tarzan" "with bulging biceps," for a new Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan picture. The "Baby Tarzan," of course, "must have super-strength, be able to perform acrobatic swimming feats and give the famed Tarzan yell." Yi, Ho, Seadler! V Maybe the big fuss over the industry's big million-dollar "Movies' Greatest Year" campaign has nothing to do with it, but the pear industry has appropriated $55,000 to make America pear-conscious, Wilson and Company are out to make American housewives "Certified Tender Made Deviled Ham" conscious, the utilities are spending $400,000 to promote gas ranges, dairy products and lumber are in similar promotional schemes, a "National Dog Week" and "National Noodle Week" are two others, and even the playing card manufacturers have adopted the promotional idea for and in behalf of the feeling one gets with a full house, aces up. Even the bed makers are going in for a big drive, to push the sales of bedding. Starting January 1st, they're setting out to tell the country that its beds are outworn. V RKO Pathe production personnel were assembled in the studio production room out Hollywood way to see the rushes on "Dude Ranch," in which there are some beautiful scenic shots of roving mountains and yawning canyons. After many "ahs" (advt.) as to the beauty of the scenes, Joe Johnston, script writer, asked his colleagues, "Do you mind if I holler to see if there's an echo?" Everybody laughed at the quip until Joe did holler and there was a bounding echo. General confusion reigned thereafter. They never discovered that some member of the sound department was in the recording booth nearby sending the answers through two-way loudspeakers. V On the morning after the country found that Columbia Broadcasting System's alltoo-realistic Sunday evening broadcast was not an actual attack by enemy airplanes from "Mars," or some place, but rather represented Orson Welles' interpretative reenactment of an H. G. Wells story, MetroGoldwyn-Mayer came forth with the announcement of a new motion picture, to be entitled: "Hooray, I'm Alive."