Motion Picture Herald (Jul-Aug 1940)

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July 13, I 940 MOTION PICTURE HERALD 29 ASIDES and INTERLUDES By JAMES P. CUNNINGHAM No Soap Department: The Manhattan Soap Company has not renewed its radio broadcasting contract with Mrs. Eleanor (My Day) Roosevelt, airing Tuesday and Thursday evenings, over NBC, until July 25th. V Banking some $200 to $300 in pennies every Monday morning since enactment of the new Federal ticket tax, as some theatres do, requires a good-sized strong-arm squad to handle the 125 to 200 pound weight of the coppers. V Maybe it's Hollywood's own fault. Anyway, some of the things commercialized in the name of Hollywood sure are humdingers. The latest is "Hollywood Bath o' Bubbles," a lathery bath concoction. The Hollywood Bath o' Bubbles people have installed Miss Kay Watson in a bathtub over at New York's World's Fair where they have her take seven baths a day — seven, count 'em, to show the visiting folk how to bubble their troubles away. V Meyer Berger reports the New York World's Fair theatrical story of the softvoiced woman who called the Fair the other day for information about the Gypsy Rose Lee show. "Could you tell me," she wanted to know, "what time Miss Gypsy begins to disrobe?" The girl on the board did some figuring; told the soft-voiced woman that if she got into the theatre about 25 minutes after the opening she would just about catch Miss Lee's strip number. "That's just the point," the woman told the girl. "I'm anxious to miss that part. I'm coming to the Fair with my husband and he's susceptible, if you know what I mean." Tact is the word for the Fair girls. "I understand. Madam," she assured the soft-voiced lady. "We get that susceptible type all the time." V Charles Clyde Pettijohn, industry fighter of adverse legislation, now is fighting for a municipal swimming pool in his native suburban town of Harrison, New York. V Wall Street bankers and brokers are reported to have lodged a complaint against Hollywood's occasional kidding of Wall Street bankers and brokers in films. And the way some Wall Street bankers and brokers have been kidding films for years! V Simon Meretsky, theatre owner of Windsor, Ontario, has notified the campaign headquarters of the Canadian film industry's $1,000,000 war fund drive that he has donated the Devonshire Jockey Club property and mile track at _ Windsor to the Dominion for the use of the military or other authorities. He is the sole owner of the racing plant, which includes many stables. He says he will not object if it is used as a concentration camp for German prisoners of war. V RKO and Chico Marx have been holding out on Marx brothers Groucho and Harpo. The Government's report of last week listing salaries of $75,000 and over, cited Chico' s paycheck from RKO at $83,333.34, and for the same acting engagement for RKO, Groucho's and Harpo' s salaries were listed at $83,333,33 each. V They're now calling those outdoor, drive-in, auto movie shows "ozoners." New York's Station IVOR has quite a problem of international ethics on its hands. During one of his recent broadcasts, WOR's Ed Fitzgerald did a human interest story on the Subbis at the New York World's Fair. Now, the Subbis, in case you don't remember, are a nomadic tribe of Irak, with certain customs. According to strict tribal custom, a Subbi is not allowed to drink liquor of any sort. It is also taboo for Subbis to refuse a gift. {Incidentally, the Subbis have not gone to war in 5,000 years!) The Subbis were so helpfid to Ed Fitzgerald that he decided to give them. some sort of present. Seeking to avoid a trite gift, he gave them a formal scroll with an order for a case of good vintage wine. Notv the said — or sad — Subbis are in a spot : their mores do not allow them to drink. But — at the same time — tradition is that they cannot turn down a gift! V While many in the motion picture business in London are exempt from actual war fighting, because they are in "selective duties" which the British Government does not want to disturb, most all, however, must do home defense duty, doing three-hour patrol shifts daily watching for Hitler parachutists. V If RKO Theatres, or any other circuits, again have use for the services of Colonel Hubert Fauntleroy Julian in aiding them to get patronage for their theatres in New York's Negro belt in Harlem, as he has in the past, we are pleased to advise that the Colonel has returned to these shores from Finland, where he arrived after the Russo-Finnish War, to "help" Finland. We might also add that he returned wearing one honey of a gorgeous blue and gold Finnish uniform. On arriving in the S. S. Mathilda Thorden, with a crowd of Finnish refugees and American volunteers who actually fought for Finland, Colonel Julian had one tough job disembarking, what with the vociferous protestations of his shipmates who questioned his wearing the Finnish uniform with its most liberal display of bright, gold heavy braid. The Colonel likes uniforms. V The staid old New York Times is actually going in for frivolity, for fun and frolic from Hollywood, reporting from the movie capital the movie story of how some producers are so fearful of ridicule that they go to extremes to avoid anything that may be spotted as a "movie boner." Singled out in the Times dispatch was the unnamed director of ivestern features who was looking at the daily "rushes" when he noticed a faint, a very faint marking on the chest of an Indian extra in the distance. Not being able to make out the design he extracted that particular piece of film and had it enlarged. To his expressed horror he discovered that the Indian had a U. S. battleship tattooed over his wishbone. V PM, New York's new nickel-a-copy newspaper, reports that Mr. Jack Goldberg, who makes Negro movies for Negroes, is going in for "moral uplift," "just like Hollywood" — "with no more razors or dice games." Circuit managers of the Fox-National Theatres chain in and around Wisconsin are using some pretty unique ideas to 'drum up' business, like the "Screwball Scrambles" show staged by the circuit's Lloyd theatre at Menominee, where heavy advertising plugged the performance as "A blitzkrieg of insanity," adding that, "Nobody in their right mind would attend a show like this. -On the screen a stupendous stinkeroo plus specially selected stinkerettes." V An exhibitor in Indiana wrote to J. A. Tan~ney, head of S.O.S. Cinema Supply Corporation, in New York, inquiring about the purchase of a cooking outfit for his theatre. Deep probing revealed that he zvas interested in a cooling outfit. "Hollywood Premieres" are to be blamed for a new stunt, "Hollywood Premieres," being a promotion for theatres as conceived by one Rogers Gibbons, youthful and imaginative citizen of Peoria, Illinois. Gibbons works with three girls. The girls line up 10 local merchants who "contribute" $20 apiece. For this the merchants receive "screen credits," whatever they are, also some publicity, for which, and the $20, they pledge to help in the dressing, makeup and other effects to transform local boys and girls into Hollywood glamour stars. Automobiles are loaned by a local agency and on the night of the "Hollywood Premiere" the young participants roll up in limousines to the front of the theatre, which is bathed in light from huge flood lamps. Camera bulbs boom as the "stars" walk to the lobby microphone and Gibbons introduces them to a breathless public. The deal is worked on percentage, as arranged by Gibbons. V Jim Farley and his Democrats can expect less spending of energy at their Chicago Presidential convention next week by broadcasting men, than was spent at the Republican convention in Philadelphia. Station WOR-Mutual Broadcasting System's men, for example lost 54^4 pounds running around like mad in the Republicans' convention hall. Arriving on the scene, the staff of 20 tipped the scales at 3,064^2 pounds, gross. Returning, they weighed in at 3,010 pounds. What caused the 20 to weigh in and weigh out in the first place is a question which only the broadcasting company's press agent can answer, for the "news" comes from him. V Paul Glase, managing Wilmer and Vincent's Embassy theatre at Reading, Pa., dug deep into the archives to exploit his exhibition of Fox's new picture of "Lillian Russell." Mr. Glase has a personal collection of programs and playbills, numbering more than 25,000 items of the drama, musical comedy and minstrel stage, dating back to 1790 from the English stage and to 1805 from the American stage. He has been collecting some 40 years, and for the "Lillian Russell" movie he made up a huge easel-frame display of the original programs and playbills of the real Lillian Russell of the stage, from her performances in New York, Boston, Chicago, Brooklyn, Philadelphia and elsewhere.