Universal Weekly (1932-1936)

John Boles Gloria Stuart Margaret Sullavan Slim Summerville FORECASTING YOUR FAVORITES I This four page story in () IVIODERNSCREEN t ‘ is reproduced here by special permission of Ernest Heyn, its * ^ editor. Modern Screen has a guaranteed circulation of 500,000 copies and is read by a great audience of more than two million monthly. IF it can be said of any producing organization in Hollywood that it is imbued with legend, that studio would be Universal, with her low Spanish buildings sprawled over acres and acres of a North Hollywood Valley, her many "sets" that have stood for years, and the colorful groupings of real and motion picture cowboys that habitually group around her gates and entrances. But deeper than all external "color," is the spirit of the two men, father and son, who are not merely the production hecids of Universal, but actually its life and its morale. The Laemmles, benevolent and revered Carl Laemmie Sr., whose smile is slow and kind, who at one time or another has held the contracted services of three quarters of the great names of Hollywood, and his son. Junior, whose eyes are alert, and whose smile is quicker to come because his is the newer blood of enthusiasm that lives for the future. CARL LAEMMLE, Jr., born only twenty-five years ago; born, in fact, on the very day his father started his first motion picture. Is the youngest executive In the industry and the only head of a studio who was "born in the business." When Carl, Sr., handed the entire management of Universal Studios over to his son when Junior was twenty-one years old, Hollywood shook it head and muttered: "It won't be long." Since then, "Junior has made them admit that a boy of twenty-one CAN operate a studio and have complete charge of paying out ten millions a year, if that boy Is BORN to the business. Newer organizations, with glittering new stars and personalities, may come and go. Movie trails may be blazed on foreign fields. But I think It might well be said that Universal, like Tennyson's famous brook, probably will go on forever. Even In the midst of their most ambition film undertakings, "All Quiet on the Western Front;" all the Boris Karloff thriller series, the sensationally successful "Back Street," with John Boles and Irene Dunne, there has been an atmosphere of siesta and calm pervading the sunbaked lot with its great, pepper-shade trees. The visitor feels that even the hectic life of the movies has somehow become more leisurely and tempered here. The throb of production Is muffled. One senses that a great deal of time and thought has gone into the preparation of those companies on the various sound stages. The constant rush of speed that is so noticeable on other lots is mysteriously missing here. I had not talked long with Junior Laemmie in his comfortably appointed office on the studio grounds before the affable and gently-mannered young man himself supplied the keynote of this Impression: He said, "My father and I enjoy making pictures. Our producflon schedule Is never so crowded that we are forced to lose Intimate, personal contact with every picture being produced on this lot, from the Westerns and short features, to our 'specials' and feature productions. We try not to lose sight of the fact that the movies are a creative art as well as a commercial industry. "Perhaps a year or so ago I, personally, permitted that idea to run away with me. Our production output was tremendously slowed down so that more time and effort could go into the polishing of certain 'dream pictures,' such as 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and 'Back Street.' My idea at the time was that a great story was the thing. "Last year we made twenty-six feature length films. This year there will be thirty-six. The recent two months shut-down of production at the studio allowed the neces