Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

46 Tke Talkies HaVe a Birthday Photo by Seely Louise Dresser's performance in "Mother Knows Best" entitles her to a big slice of the birthday cake. George Jessel is dec i d e d 1 y eligible, thanks to "Lucky Boy." Photo by Mishkin discovered him. Meanwhile, before Warner began his first stellar vehicle, "Sonny Boy," he was borrowed by MetroGoldwyn for another talkie, "The Bellamy Trial," which is now being shown. A lad you're sure to hear a lot of in the future history of talkies is George Jessel. When the idea of filming "The Jazz Singer" was first conceived, Jessel was announced as its star because he had created the role in the stage play. Some business differences arose before the picture went into production, and Jessel was replaced by Al Jolson. This appeared as a fatal tragedy to the Jessel career, particularly in view of the fact that the few silent pictures he had made were none too successful. However, his audible talents have finally been capitalized by Tiffany-Stahl in "Lucky Boy," and his work shows him to have that sort of screen personality which takes on a dynamic quality when speech and song supplement pantomime. Many Hollywood names that come under the category of supporting players will be on the guest list of the talkie's birthday party. Louise Fazenda is the first comedienne to register in a big way before the microphone. Such character men as Richard Tucker, who played the prosecuting attorney in "On Trial," and John Miljan, who scored in "The Terror," are finding the weeks too short to fill all the engagements offered to them. One of the interesting developments during the first year that the talkies have been with us, is the almost complete elimination of animal stars. "Wonder" horses, and dogs with human intelligence, are being stricken from the rosters of the very studios which went in heavily for such pictures in the past. Rin-Tin-Tin is the only canine who has withstood the upheaval, while his friends, Warner Baxter's place card will be near the head of the table. Betty Compson had completed her cycle of screen popularity, ยป and would be heard little of in the future. Here again an actress without stage training accomplished a new triumph when she spoke for the screen. Ever since "The Barker" Betty Compson has been rated as one of the best. The contract she has signed for her year's activities is a unique tribute to the demand for her services. RKO, Warner, and Columbia will divide them, giving her a total of thirteen pictures in .which. to appear during the next twelve months. The first fling at an all-dialogue picture of feature length taken by Fox, enriched the mobilization of speaking stars with two actresses. In "Mother Knows Best" Madge Bellamy scored a decisive professional victory, which was seconded by the vocal performance of Louise Dresser. A real gift from the new entertainment device is the refilling of Jackie Coogan's baby shoes with David Lee. Davey is probably the only player who has shown complete unconcern before a microphone. Not a single note of self-consciousness crept into his lisp when he talked with his screen dad, Al Jolson, in "The Singing Fool." The wistful appeal of his childish voice has touched the hearts of millions of fans, and has coaxed a starring contract from the company who