Moving Picture World (Jan-Feb 1927)

4S2 MOVING PICTURE WORLD February 12, 1927 LOOKS as if Broadway was to celebrate Laugh Week for some time with Harold Lloyd at the Rialto in “Kid Brother,” Buster Keaton at the Capitol in “The General” and “McFadden’s Flats,” with Charlie Murray and Chester Conklin at the Strand. And, of course, we mustn’t forget Syd Chaplin in “The Better ’Ole” at the Colony, where it has been and will be for many weeks, till the memory runneth not to the contrary. Ooo-la-la ! what a melange of mirth for all and sundry. * Professor Francis D. Tyson of the University of Pittsburgh avers that it takes a twelve year old intelligence to enjoy the average movie, while Harold E. Jones of the department of psy chology of Columbia University, is undertaking a series of tests to ascertain the mental age and capacity of the average movie audience and their emotional reactions as well. To let you in on something, the latter are being gauged by the psycho -galvanic reflex, no less, which, it is currently reported in the dailies, records the nervous and emotional tendency of the movie fan. What the “psycho-galvanic reflex” looks like we are unable to tell our readers at the moment. Probably something between a vacuum cleaner and chewing gum slot machine. As yet, it is said, the experiments have not been completed, nor the results tabulated, but it is safe to say that the movie fan at least is “over seven.” * Nellie Revell, bravest and gamest of women, was the guest of the A.M.P.A. last week, before her departure for the Coast, where she is going to do syndicate work. Hope she won’t give up her column in Variety, which has been a regular feature of that family weekly, ever since those tedious days in St. Vincent’s Hospital when she wrote it lying on the flat of her back. Good, game Nellie, what an inspiration she has been to so many ! May her new adventure be a most happy and prosperous one. Other guests at the A.M.P.A. luncheon were Major Edward Bowes, Irvin Cobb, John Pollack of the Keith-Albee forces, Ruth Dwyer, Walter Hill and the two Harrys, Reichenbach and Hershfield. Symon (Film Arts) Gould, merely because of some measure of success and excellent work in advancing the cause of better pictures, should not get a high hat. And it certainly seems as if he — or his Guild — had acquired one recently. Reference is made to the foolishly important pronouncement which Mr. Gould sent out regarding the booking by B. S. Moss at the Cameo of “Michael Strogoff.” To the unbiased observer it looks sadly like a case of sour grapes, because Symon couldn't slip in another of his own pet “unknowns” instead of the demonstrated box office feature, Universal’s “Michael Strogoff,” which has just completed a successful run at the Cohan at Broadway prices Tut, tut, Symon! No wonder B. S. Moss wouldn’t listen to you. He knows his onions. * Good Green Roomers will turn out en masse Sunday night to pin a medal or hang a wreath on Harry Reichenbach, prince of press agents, who is the club’s “jest of honor” on that evening. Prompter Paul Meyer has ap pointed Bert Robinson, Doorman De Luxe, for the occasion, while Wilton Lackaye will serve as Roastmaster. Harry, who has acted as toastmaster on countless occasions at Green Room festivities, will now learn how it feels to sit on the receiving end. A special feature will be an illustrated stereopticon lecture by the “jest of honor” on a subject not to be revealed until the night of the beefsteak. This will be strictly de rigueur, decollette and with its embonpoint undraped, according to private tip-off. However, leave it to Harry. Jean A. Le Roy, whose “Ye Movies Of Ye Olden Days” are making a big hit in the KeithAlbee houses where they are now being shown, says that audiences of twenty to thirty years ago went away much more satisfied with their screen entertainment than they do nowadays. He declares that though the motion pictures may have progressed as an art, their entertainment value, if anything, has decreased. In the old days everybody felt when going out that they had got their money’s worth, which is more than be said of many a movie audience these days. After being thrice sidetracked, “The General” and Buster Keaton at last crashed into the Capitol this week, finding Major Bowes slightly groggy with the after-effects of the record-breaking run on “The Flesh and the Devil.” Victor Shapiro came to the front with a claim for “The General” of the world’s record for a “vestibule run” for any picture, three weeks being the elapsed time since “The General” came to Broadway on the sidewalk in front of the Capitol. Now that Hal Roach has sold his famous wild horse, Rex, to Universal, we are wondering who in Carl Laemmle’s big organization is going to take riding lessons. Our vote would go to Manny Goldstein, who up to date has taken all the jumps, and maybe a lot of bumps too, but without being feazed. Paul Gulick, we are assured, cannot be lured away from his golf sticks, while Bob Welsh goes nowhere without his chauffeur. So it must be Manny. IN the eternal quest for brand new brains, which most producers are slow to admit is one ot their prime problems in maintaining box office standards for their productions, but which is just the same, it is a wonder that more of them wouldn’t look in their own publicity departments? Nearly every time they do, they ring the bell. Look how Mort Blumenstock, prize performer of the A.M.P.A. has registered since John McCormick took him to the Coast to title Colleen Moore’s “Twinkletoes,” since which time he has titled a raft of other tophole attractions. Mort got his chance, accidentally, through being given an opportunity to caption “Subway Sadie,” A1 Santell’s great picture last year. If it hadn’t been for that, probably he would still be writing blurbs and hoping they’d “get by” some city editor, if he wasn’t hunting another job. And so it goes. It is also of record that Joseph Jefferson O’Neil, late purveyor of piffling publicity patter for F. B. O. (the kind they all send the trade papers) is now doing adaptations for that company. He has already done two and now has another in work and it is our timid tip, that they will have more box office quality in them than in any dozen recent pictures put out from the same studio. Suggestion to producers : Why not switch your publicity and scenario departments every six months? In this way you could get a new publicity department every half year and keep up to date ? * Leon, Errol, whose rubber legs may now be seen on both stage and screen, in First National’s “A Lunatic At Large” and Gene Buck’s “Yours Truly” at the Shubert, has invented the “Errol Charleston” to take some of the strain off his own legs, which have been undergoing considerable wear and tear. It is a take off on his famous flop walk, which the girls in “Yours Truly” are putting on and is said to be worth the price of admission alone. The Navy’s latest recruiting slogan is “Join The Navy And See The Movies.” This will be a lot more satisfactory to many “gobs” than “seeing the world” from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. At that rate a sailor’s life ought to be “reel” in more ways than one.