Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

Over . tke Teacups 29 time to run up to Hollywood for luncheon. No one else at the Universal studio is working. "Broadway" occupies practically all the stages, and all the attention of the sound experts at Universal, and all the other employees have been laid off until it is finished. "Have you heard about the Universal theme songs?" Fanny asked so brightly that I knew a dirty crack was coming. "They have two. One is 'Don't Blame It All on Broadway,' and the other is 'There's a Broken Heart for Every Light on Broadway.' So for once theme songs really have a meaning. "I can hardly wait to see what that picture will be like. It should have been marvelous, but some of the advance reports are disquieting, to say the least. You see, it is the story of a poor, smalltime hoofer, who works in a cheap night club, and it is the burning ambition of his life to work up to something really swell. But Universal has built a set that represents the biggest, most ornate night club that ever was seen, which takes all the point out of the hoofer wanting to work his way up to something. "But even if the handling of the story has been a great mistake, Glenn Tryon and Evelyn Brent are said to be glorious. Some rank outsider stole into the projection room and heard Glenn sing, and he said that he recorded like a combination of Al Jolson and 'Whispering' Smith. "And, oh, I meant to tell you — or maybe you have heard about Patsy Ruth Miller and the double who lost a job." Even if I had heard it, she probably would have told me again. "Pat was making a picture for Warner Brothers in which she was supposed idly to burst into song, as she wandered about her household duties. Imagine her surprise when they led out a big prima donna, with a heavy voice all marcelled into trills and crescendos, to double for her. Pat simply couldn't bear it. She argued and pleaded, and was on the verge of bursting into tears, so they finally consented to let her do her own singing. After all, Pat has a nice voice, and she has taken singing lessons every now and then, and the character she was playing wasn't supposed to be a prima donna, anyway. "Everything has been breaking nicely for Pat lately. You know, Al Santell has always had a desire to have her in one of his pictures ever since he graduated into the big-league directors. She worked for him in a couple of the first pictures he made, but since then they have always been under contract to different companies. Now Pat is free, so he has cast her opposite Jack Mulhall, in 'Twin Beds.' Photo by Spun 'Broadway" has been a long, Evelyn Brent. Irene Rich went into vaudeville, but Fox lured her back into pictures. "Pat is also to be in a Pathe picture soon. It is called 'The Flying Fool,' and, as you well know, that is Pat herself in person. They will probably have their troubles getting her down on the ground long enough for close-ups. "And that reminds me, Bebe Daniels got her pilot's license the other day. She has put in her order for a plane." "I'd be more interested to hear that she was returning back to work in pictures." "Well, she probably will, almost any day now. But don't be heartless about it. Think of the years that Bebe has put in just rushing from one picture to another. And think of the money she can make building houses and dabbling in real estate, while she is not tied up at a studio." Some day I may really believe that motion-picture players work, but it all looks pretty much like play from where I sit. Not since the days of Pearl White serials has it really seemed to me that girls in pictures work for a living. Tap-dancing lessons and vocal lessons ought to come under the heading of amusement, if they like their work. Lots of people take them who don't get paid for it. "Oh, there's Lilyan Tashman !" Fanny exclaimed, and all the dishes on the table were momentarily in danger as she waved with a sweeping gesture. [Continued on page 107] hard grind for