Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

421 February 5, 1927 MOVING PICTURE WORLD HOLLYWOOD OFFICE Schrock Quits Warner Post To Join Paramount Raymond L. Schrock, assistant producer with Jack Warner, quite suddenly this week ended his contract in that capacity at the Warner Bros. Studio. Differences of opinion pertaining to production matters is said to be one of the reasons for Schrock being no longer associated with Warners. We learned that Schrock, who has made a brilliant record in Hollywood having previously been general manager for Universal Pictures Corp., will probably enjoy a brief vacation after which, it is said, a big berth awaits him on the Paramount lot. The break with Warners came just before Jack Warner left for New York. In the meantime, Daryll Francis Zanuck, who was elevated to the post of assistant to Jack Warner a few weeks ago, is in full charge of things at the Warner Studio. Roland Named It has been reported on good authority that Gilbert Roland will again play the male lead in Norma Talmadge’s next production for United Artists, “The Dove.” Norma’s current vehicle, “Camille” is rapidly nearing completion. Roland also has the male lead in this production. Hazel Deane, once comedy player, now is in Duke Worne’s “Fighting For Fame,” costarring with Ben Alexander. Male Extras Exceed Women By 100,000, Says Coast Compilation Central Casting Corporation, Maintained By Producers, Takes Care of Twice As Many Applicants As Ten Labor Bureaus T N the yearly report just released by Fred Beetson, president of the Central Casting Corporation, the “extra” situation is greatly clarified. This important branch of the motion picture industry has grown so extensively during the past year that at the present time figures prove the casting office to be the largest placement bureau in the world. During its first year of activity 250,259 placements were made. Through the agency, which is absolutely free with the expenses borne by the producers themselves, there were almost twice as many placements as were made by the ten labor bureaus in the State of California during the same period of time. It is interesting to note that the number of men used during the year exceeded the number of women by more than 100,000. This was due mainly to the epidemic of war pictures produced in which the fairer sex had little if any part. The average daily placement at the casting office is 710 with a daily wage average of $8.46. More than $2,000,000 is transfered to “extra” talent from the producers through this agency, the greater part of which goes into immediate circulation among local merchants. Beetson again reiterates his warning to girls throughout the country enjoining them to remain away from Hollywood and a possible screen career. The Central Casting Office refuses to register newcomers because of the wealth of talent now available and forced to remain idle much of the time. The regulation regarding no further registrations will remain for an indefinite period due to the present supply of extras exceeding current demands. Actor Brings Suit The Cecil B. De Mille Picture Corp. has been named defendant by Eugene O'Brien, prominent screen actor, in a suit for $20,000 for alleged breach of contract. Starts Comedy Arvid Gillstrom has started work on his first Christie production “Cash and Carry,” featuring Neil Burns. It’s another side-splitting comedy with all the dressing. P a t h e To Make “M e 1 1 i n g Millions (Continued from page 417) as to take a similar position in the finest theatres of the country seems to be an ambition literally sticking out from all corners of the place where Pathe makes a good percentage of its serials in the Fine Arts Studio. We got our first impression in this respect and a certain material substantiation of Wessling’s facts and figures when we visited several of the twenty sets which were built for interior shooting on “Melting Millions.” As an illustration of how Pathe is actually executing its convictions, one set, which we visited, used in the seventh or eighth episode and representing the interior of a ship’s stateroom, was so built that it’s walls had been reinforced to hold 40,000 gallons of water. The scene shows Allene Ray as the heroine imprisoned and the water pouring in through an open door and a porthole. In this case a contraption had to be built over the set so that the water could course downward. On another set a prop submarine was floated in a large built-in waterway. This particular effect could have been secured from a miniature set at one fraction of the original cost but Art Director and Production Supervisor Willard Reineck insisted upon every vestige of realism. Still another slant on actual production work represented in “The Mystery of Craghaven” and one which could have easily been “faked” in the old school of serial producing, is embodied in an episode dealing with the explosion of a lighthouse. The exterior shot showing the fragments of the lighthouse being blown into the air, was made at Point Firman, California. The villains at work on the chamber in the hillside under the lighthouse, the actual touching of the match to the fuse, and the closeup of the explosion were all comprised in an interior set in Hollywood. The explosion in the studio is one which people on the Fine Arts lot will remember for a long time. Director Spence Bennet told us that thousands of gallons of water, also making up a technical part of this particular set, were planned to have been blown through a section of the studio roof especially cut away for this occasion. It would seem that an over-charge of dynamite deviated the current of the water so that it carried with it not only the debris intended to fly through the air but a good part of the Fine Arts’ roof as well. No one, fortunately, was injured with the possible exception of figures on the expense sheet. Of course previewing a serial is practically an impossibility. From what we have seen of the sets and a part of the print while it was still in Pathe’s cutting room, we would say that “Melting Millions” will be one of the best put together serials Pathe has ever released. It took ten weeks of steady “shooting” to make “Melting Millions.” The time was divided evenly between the studio and location. The longest time spent on location was in San Francisco where the story and most of its action takes place. The principals in the cast include: Walter Miller, Allene Ray, E. J, Calvert, William Norton Bailey, Frank Lackteen, John J. Richardson, Bob Burns, Ernie Adams, John Cossar, William Van Dyke, Richard C. Travers, Ann Gladman, Eugenia Gilbert, Albert Roccardi. Extras Get $2,000,000 At Hollywood