Motion Picture Herald (Nov-Dec 1938)

December 17, 1938 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 25 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM Expecting the arrival of Charlie McCarthy III, Charlie McCarthy II, of Chicago, called for a taxicab to pilot Mrs. Charlie McCarthy to the Lewis Memorial Hospital. "This is Charlie McCarthy at 3509 Palmer Avenue. Send me a cab," he babbled excitedly over his house phone. An hour dragged by, no cab appeared and Charlie McCarthy II frantically called: "This is Charlie McCarthy," he yelled. "Where's my taxi?" "Give my regards to Dotty Lamour and Edgar Bergen," the taxi dispatcher replied. A second hour dragged by in slow motion. Meanwhile Charlie McCarthy II caught on. Picking up the phone, he called the cab company. "This is Joe Doakes up on Palmer Avenue," he bellowed. "Send me a cab!" V Modest Men Department : "Britain is now looked upon as the universal provider of quality films."— The Era, London. V Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "Mutiny on the Bounty" as such will not be shown in China, Japan, Spain, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. V Stanley Haynes, MGM producer in London, secured the assistance of Repton School, ultra distinguished educational center of England's better classes, in the filming of the school and some of its scholars for "Goodbye Mr. Chips," the Hilton best seller, due shortly. Immediately thereafter, H. G. M. Clarke, Repton School headmaster, proceeded to organize his scholars for the purpose, starting out by sending personal letters on regulations for filming to each. "Baths will be available at definite times to fit in with the Cinema people's requirements," Headmaster Clarke started out. "There will be Chapel service at 7:00 P.M." and "Lights out will be at 10:00." It is "ill advised to smoke," he continued, adding : "And it must be a point of honour that no boy persuades another to smoke." "Boys who have cars of their own or are allowed the use of their parents' may come by car, but they may not use them. They must not enter 'pubs' (saloons). Otherwise there are no bounds." V Kansas City Correspondent Kenneth Force reports on the Kansas City janitor, who, on a night off, decided to get away from it all and go to a movie. He selected "Suez," and he had hardly gotten seated when the big wind scene blew up bringing clouds upon clouds of dust. The janitor rose angrily, muttering to himself, and went home. V Ted Nabors, the "Doctor Quiz" of Radio Station KTRH, Houston, won exemption from jury service the other day because the judge was a "Quiz" radio fan. V According to word received via camel-back at the Denham Studios in London, and thence relayed over to United Artists' publicity department in New York, the filming of Alexander Korda's "Four Feathers" on the Sudan, at Khartoum, is proceeding with difficulty. "After each scene," the dispatch relates, "hundreds of natives are made to sweep a mile of desert sand with rugs to smooth out the confusing marks." REFUNDS WITH PAID ADMISSIONS The Adelphi theatre in Chicago gives a dinner plate to each customer. To each plate is glued a coupon with which, after the show, the patron walks two blocks to a hamburger stand, presents the dish, which is washed of its coupon and replaced with a big, juicy hamburger, attended by a steaming cup of coffee — all for the glued coupon. After eating, they wash the plate for the customer, place it gently in a bag to take home — and on the bag it says: "FREE DISHES AND HAMBURGERS ARE YOUR BEST ENTERTAINMENT." Paramount Pictures, Inc., from their corporate headquarters on Broadway, announces that "Mickey O'Boyle, three-year-old grandson of Broomstick and nephew of Exterminator was signed for the important featured role of Roman Son, in 'The Lady from Kentucky.' " V A Neiv York radio station "Answer Man" has been asked, "What was the last feature picture produced by any major film company to be without sound, and the last to be released without talking." The "Answer Man" is stuck, so he has asked us. Answers may be sent direct to this department. Mr. Carl Laemmle, Sr., retired Universal film pioneer, held a premiere on the lawn of his Beverly Hills, California, mansion, last weekend— he premiered a self-heating hot-dog. Mr. Laemmle, who presumably is having a good time with the $6,000,000 he received for his film company, two years ago, also featured other heated foods in cans at his weekend party, but the heated hot-dog was his pride and joy. The can is a double-decked af¥air. When the lower section is punctured with a can opener, the admitted air causes a reaction in the secret chemicals inside which heats the food in the upper section. V Pretty Glenda Farrell was installed last weekend as Mayor of Hollywood, Fletcher Bowron, Mayor of Los Angeles, doing the installing. Miss Farrell immediately afterward turned to her constituents and remarked as how she was thinking of a program calling for flowers in all vacant lots, ribbon-tied rubbish cans for every street corner and a daily morning scrubbing of the streets. V United Press picks Adolph Hitler as the big news story of 1938, and also lists Republicans' gains at election, the New England hurricane, enactment of the zvages-and-hours law, Richard Whitney's Wall Street confession, but says nary a word about Dave Selznick having ALMOST cast Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind." Radio's talent-digger-uppers are "scooping" Hollywood's talent scouts right and left, NBC alone, within recent weeks, presenting to their public scores of persons who have never before been seen or heard on either medium of mass entertainment and enlightment. Virtually pulling rabbits right out of the talent hat, NBC, for example, has had of late on its ether waves one Robert Cantwell, of Oak Park, 111., a former lawyer who collects cases on persons who have been executed for murders, later found never to have been committed ; and Dr. Charles Berger, of Quincy, Mass., who wears a pair of spectacles that came over on the Mayflower— along with all of that antique furniture. They have also had broadcasting to the American public Mrs. E. Goldstein, Youngstown, Ohio, who goes around gathering data on unusual birth certificates ; Calvin Spears, of Oneonta, Alabama, who grows colored cotton — blue, green, yellow and black; George J. Lacey, of Houston, Texas, who collects murderers' bullets ; Mrs. Marie La Salle, of Erath, La., who trains cats and canaries to live together "in perfect harmony" ; and Paul Bechtold, of New York, who collects methods of curing hiccoughs. -Also found for broadcasting by NBC's talent scouts were Norman Windsor, St. Louis, who collects shoes without mates ; John Cz, who grows pumpkins in the shapes of human heads, fitting masks over the little plants; Fred D. Kipp, of Perry, Iowa, who turns hamburgers into stone (no difficult task) ; Dr. George G. Bell, of Cattelsburg, Ky., who collects old furnaces; and Frank S. Miller, Jr., of Pittsburgh, who collects mustaches. V Warner Brothers have received the endorsement of the Boy Scouts of America for "Angels with Dirty Faces", and the rank and file of little eagles are wondering just who their big eagles had in mind. V Now that Hollywood press agent Russell Birdwell has suggested licensing press agents, Motion Picture Daily thinks newspapers should suggest that they be fingerprinted. V The days of the old nickel movie have not only returned, but have come back three better, a motion picture theatre in the Mexican section of San Antonio, Texas, setting up new matinee prices at two cents the head. V New York's Hollywood-minded detectives can no longer depend on the newsreels and news camera for screen tests, all hopes of having Hollywood talent scouts pick out their "Adonislike" profiles either on screen or newspaper having been blasted by Police Commissioner Lczvis J. Valentine. The Commissioner decided he was sick and tired of seeing pictures in public in zvhich the detectives zvere more prominent than the prisoners with zvhom they zvere pictured, and so ordered detective commanders to "inform" all detectives that if they apljear in photographs in the future they zuill face "drastic action."