Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

48 .1/ otion P i c t u r c N e w s N 01 c m her 1 . 1930 GOD knows there is no reason to scorn the new owners of Hollywood for their dull performances and their stupid rules. When our highest political office is surrounded by secret commissions and a suave public relations counsel group, when everything from the oil industry, with its Petroleum Institute, to independent grocers, have some organized medicine show to make the public aware of anything but the simplest facts of life, there is no reason why film producers shouldn't give their support to the great pastime of keeping the consumer happy and ignorant. But I happen to believe that the movie is a major art form. There is ample proof that Hollywood does afford able men and women, and it is irksome to realize they haven't a fighting chance to work. Before their work gets through the mill it gets smeared somewhere. Propaganda, rules of any kind arbitrarily enforced, are anathema to genuine art. If movie patrons overnight became as tolerant as Jefferson, if the women's club-houses became groves of Daphne and the censors died of apoplexy, it still would be difficult in present circumstances for one writer and one director and a group of actors to get their work through the factory without a gadget hooked on or a spoke taken out by their owners. It seems to be an immutable law of art that form, ecstacy and dignity grow in inverse proportion to the number of patrons sheltered under one banner. A public utility director is very likely to be an art patron and the chances are that his preferred stock will go to some huge mausoleum of art at his death. He himself is not responsible for the absurd announcements his companies send to the public, the eulogies on how science is making our land a paradise of comfort — he doesn't sign his name, it's "the company." One pants presser is always susceptible to pressure. Once in a while one of his directors might break through. But fifty owners, far away banking control, offer a machine barrier that quenches all fire to some extent before it is properly kindled. The best of our future film productions are likely to have at least one banal episode. But it is no peculiar fault of Hollywood. It happens to be the result of the very framework of finance as it is built today. Our national crest has come to be a slightly tarnished eagle oyer a share of preferred stock. — Lorenta in Cinema. Ttietj say On June 15, Jocelyn Lee, the movie actress, and Luther Reed, the director, were married in Agua Caliente. About a week ago Jocelyn Lee filed an answer and cross-complaint for divorce. She asked custody of their two children. Well — that's Hollywood! Or one of those things that happen once in a lifetime.— /V. Y. News. * * * While making a picture a director was annoyed by one of the male leads. This actor, a former chorus boy, would end every one of his scenes with a hand-on-the-hip movement. The director couldn't make him do otherwise and not wishing his picture to be spoiled he ran to the office of the general manager. "I'm sorry," replied the director, "but you'll have to get rid of that pansy. Else I can't go on with the picture." "Don't worry," replied the manager, "everything will be all right. You return to the lot and that will be taken care of." The director, highly pleased, slowly walked to the set. On the way he met a fellow director who called him aside. "Say," he said, "I've just come from the general manager's office. Do you know what he called me for? He asked me what a pansy was!" — Skolskv in A'. Y. News. * * * /( is interesting to learn thai American producers are making talkies in foreign languages. They may eventually be persuaded to do one in English. — London Humorist. Getting Personal He's a famous star and is now married to a rich Park Avenue woman. His first marriage was also his first big love, and when it began everybody thought it would last forever. So did he. The first wife was a musical comedy favorite who was cute and sweet and should have stayed that way instead of trying to learn as much about Manhattan night life as she could. Finally they drifted apart and were divorced. He took her second marriage very hard, but recovered as most men do and finally found a charming companionship in his present union. But there has always been a hangover feeling for the girl of his youth and he still worries about her. What nobody except his business manager and a few intimate friends know is that the last time his ex-wife was in the Far East with an alleged wealthy, new husband, they went broke and in desperation they cabled to the movie star for help. He not only paid their bills, but helped them to get back here. The Englishman is working for a mediocre salary and the movie star is too much the thoroughbred ever to make him uncomfortable about his financial obligations. By this time the sweet little one has probably learned that she threw away the biggest thing in her life when she walked out on her actor husband. — N. Y. Graphic. Hc, l of fame and wealth, can be unnecessarily cruel, until, at times the unfortunate victim of her jibes and gossip seems pursued by a personal jinx that touches each climax of life. It must seem that way to Lina Basquette. Hollywood has never been kind to Lina, even in her influential days as the wife of Sam Warner. Even in the days when she was the potentially sensational candidate for the glory that Cecil de Mille can build. And certainly not now. — Motion Picture Classic. * * * Joseph Mankieweicz, who in leaner days used to write for the papers, has christened his new Hollywood mansion "Option Downs." — Los Angeles Herald. * * * Though I've known Jim Tally for a number of years, I learned only today that he has an 18-year-old son. The boy is zvorking in the cutting room at Universal. Carl Laemmlc, Jr., got him the job. By the way, Tully predicts that Jack Gilbert's new picture, "Way For a Sailor," will be a big hit. The two erstwhile opponents are very thick now. — Carroll in Los Angeles Herald. THERE'S a domestic rift about to occur in the home of one of filmdom's most popular sheiks. His wife, who helped him climb from obscurity to a rich job, says she could manage the struggle, but she can't stand the heights. It seems that he's so handsome and so nice the Hollywood girls can't let him alone, and he forgets he is married and the father of two children. He is afflicted with what is known in California as wandering feet — has a habit of visiting actresses when he has left word at home that he is taking a singing lesson. In a way, it wasn't entirely his fault. He was married before he was through school, and has had to struggle all these years with no time for romance and no money for pleasure. It's hard on his wife. He is quite keen on a well known blonde star with a director husband, and while she poses as one of the sweetest little ingenues in the business, she hasn't been unwilling to see the married boy friend quite frequently. His wife admits she can't stand much more and while all her friends are advising her to stick it out, she is inclined to ask for an open break, and that wouldn't be helpful to his career. If he should ever marry that blonde he'd be out of luck. Her type in dozen lots isn't worth his charming, intelligent wife. — N. Y. Graphic Claud H. Thompson of the Kansas City Star doesn't believe the report of the recent theft of $200,000 in jewels from Mrs. Eddie Cantor. Because if it were true, Eddie would have written a book about it. — N. Y. Post. John Gilbert has gone just a little hay-wire in refusing to see the press just at a time when he needs their good will as he never needed it before. He has not granted an interview, or posed for a set of new pictures since before his trip to Europe. It is all right for Greta Garbo to hide out in seclusion. But — Anyway, so rabid is Jack on the subject of press men that he arrived, turned on his heel and walked out on a stag dinner party given by one of his most intimate friends, when he caught sight of a local newspaper man who was also a guest. On the other hand, of course, what this forever-talking town takes for high-hat aversion may, on investigation, turn out to be an effort to bend backward and not solicit favorable notices on his "comeback." — M. P. Classic. Rough Host Hollywood — A prominent leading man invited some of the boys whose options had expired over to his Beverly Hills home for a party. Later in the evening or early in the morning the gang still remained around the little bar which adorned the room. Finally things got to such a state that the host had to use tear bombs to get the fellows out. What price courtesy?