Variety (Oct 1931)

Tuesday, October 6, 1931 PICT■R E S VARIETY $200,000TOP FILM COST Even Chwches Become FiDed^^^W^^ Rctiire Stars Make it WiNrdiwhil^ ■ Hollywood, Oct, 6. . Effort of picture fans to get ntore fi|itlmat« glimpses of ' their flicker taya Is Instrumental In flUng Holly- wood and Beverly Hills churches of all creeds during Sunday and mid-week servlc'ps. Idol-gazers who are hot aatlsfled with autographs, handshakes or watching their ideals eat, are soaking in their spiritual guidance In celluloid company so they caii casually mention to friends that they saw Soandso ait church that morning. This applies especially to the lloUyj^ood variety of star gazers, to whoin personals and rubbing el- t>ows with the celebs are no longer A novelty.. The Draw But to b« able to hear a flrst lady of the screen 'describe her spiritual awakening .while making a testi- monial at a Wednesday night meet- ing, or to be ushered down the aisle by.a leading man, la a. diftefent matter. Sitting in the next pew to the vamp in the latest hit picture is something to talk and write home about for the rabid fans. Popularity of places of worship in the'film colony is not restricted to any creed, since every sect, and branch of religion will And a num- ber of staunch supporters among film celebs. ^ £ven unto the synagogues, which point with pride to lists of epcecs on' their rosters. On the Jewish high holidays, when the studio heads attend, there is always a flock of agents and other business contacts attending in hope of the few words in private that they can- not otherwise obtain. GILBERT TOO TOUGH $60,000 for More Sympathy for Star in 'West of B'way' Hollywood, Oct. 6. Metro had to spend $60,000 addi- tional of 'West of Broadway' for remakes, to tone dowii John Gil- bert's role and . get some sympathy for him. He was too tough In the film as flrst made. Work on picture finishes today with ailbert leaving Saturday (10) for irow York, on route to Europe. He sails on the 'Europa' Oct 16 for * three-month vacation. $700 for Maud Eburne Hollywood, Oct 6. Maud Eburne la now receiving $700 freelancing in talkers. She's an English comedienne. Miss Eburne goes in to the next Twelvetrces' picture at Bodio, then rBltz Olrl' and 'Night Watch' for First National. Leo Morrison is agentlng. , Sam's Test at Par? Hollywood, Oct. 6. .Inside report around Hollywood Is that Sam Barrymbre Colt, son of Ethel Barrymore, has been given c^. sneak test at .Paramount . Believed Par had given the Juve- nile an assumed name to hide his identity and to. keep other studios away. Studio denied the report Asther's German Siiit L,os Angeles, Oct. 6. .. Max Grab, acting German consul here, has brought suit against Nils Asthor fbr .$39'2 under two German Judgments and a bill of exchange held by receivers of a bankrupt fierlln automobile company. , Debt runs from July, 1026, with German laws calling for 8% Interest. ftnigley Goes West Holding a contract with KKO- Patlve, which took him from the Icglt stage,. Charles Quigley, leading nian, left yesterday for Hollywood. He Is set,for six months, with op- tions. ( Placed by Bertha Karp and Paula Gould. Ann Harding's Relief .On her. current visit In New Tork, Ann Harding bets asked RKO-Pathe for complete free- dom from such matters as the usual press hop-up conferences, interviews, etc., on the ground she gets enough Of this In Hollywood. RKO-Pathe as a result refuses to divulge the star's stopping place in New . .Tork. A chatterer discovered the. hotel where Miss Harding was a guest Immediately the star checked out and is now staying with some friends in the coun- try away from. the chatterer mob. V-P SHOW TRADE BOX SCORE, NBCTOP Spread of vice-presidentitls In the ahow business prompts this box score on show biz v-p's, with Its timeliness now possibly to lead to the scores continuance once a month. When the recorded, ins and outs become more numerous a resume of the hitting or missing or both by v-p's can be added. Mean- time, the count of v-p's wltl^ the various . show organizations can, serve as an indication of the up or down trend of the v-it market 'At present it's bullish. Vice-president in the dictionaries is one who takes the president's place lii event of his death or when merely, out of town. In the show business when a president is out of town the president is out of town; that's all, and the vice-president remains Just a v-p. A v-p in the'show business is too common to be distinguished. They V-P's Box Score (As of Oct. 1, 1931) V-P'S Execs Aye. NBC 9 12 .760 Fox Films 7 8 .875 Warner Bros 6 8 ,760 Metro 6 6 .833 CBS 6 8 .825 United Artists.. 6 6 .833 Fox Theatres.... 6 8 .626 UFA 4 6 .666 Paramount 4 6 .666 Loew's 4 6 .666 Paths 3 6 .600 Radio Pictures... 3 6 .600 Universal 2 4 .600 Publix 2 °6 .400 RKO 2 6 .400 Columbia ....... 2 4 .600 First National ..1 4 .260 are always around, mostly with an added title, but really as counter- signers for checks. ■yice-presldencles in the show business are generally titles that look good on stationery. Some companies seem. to prefer handing out v-p titles rather than Issuing salary raises. Most of the v-p's, after the preliminary glory, would prefer the raise. All In all It's the most versatile alibi oince available. 16 Companies This recount Involves only nine picture producers, five theatre cir- cuits and two broadcasting chains, all the major members of tlicl:- flelds. National Broadcasting Com- pany leads the bunch Individually with nine v-p'.s, and ■ the others range downward to two. "V-p's with other titles aa a rule won't give up the double billing. Some v-p's do their v-p'lncr In two places at once, like David Bernstein of Metro and Loew's and Winnie SheC'han and W. C. Michel ■ GO-flP BUDGET TRUCE Aim at $5,000 Stu- Salary Maximum — Otely Boosts for Low-Salaried Talent Which Proves Merit—Old Line Crew Feels Cots as Picture Gross Avorage SUps to $400,000 PRODUCTION THEORIES Hollywood,. Got C Flouring on a conMryatlvs esti- mate of 9400,000 groM returns en a picture, all the producers hava a ee- operativa .underatandlng . amongst themselvea to out film eetta and keep the negative cost down to as near $200,000 as possible. Truce on Star-stealing and new terms for stars and players en 'a 1031' basis without fear of poaching en one an other, \% along the same lines. ..The manner In wrhich Metre, mere than any other studie, it seems^ has been permitting star eontraota to lapse and later re-elgning its old people at the same or modified terme is in this move to. keep the nut down. Metre had mors con- traeta lapsing at this .time'than the other atiidioe. Thus William Halnss secured a new deal with the elimi- nation of an interfering agent who 'steamed up' the usual demands for increases. Ramon Npvarre and Marjorie Rambeau have been ethers In the same category^ Exceptions are In cltses like Clark Qable^ yiTxo, starting verjr .low and suddenly coming into popularity, had to be taken care of financially in a manner more In keeping with his vogue. General objective la to get.picture costs back to . the pre-talker stage of .a general level of $200,000 to {260,000, and to limit the ca«t coats to 16-20% of the whole top. The way budgets have not been working out with almost every pic. ture of any importance la a con stant studio headache. Ideal ob Jective would be to Unklt any star's top to $6,000 a week. Allowaneea Getting It ais much Insldia the bud- get as possible to allow: (or the ex. tra retakes and remakes.Is some- thing else again. Warners thinks It has it solved by Intensive rehearsals before actual ahootlng. Metro ia committed to the remake and retake rather than put out a weak one for the' sake . of a few extra grand. Mayer and Thalberg liken a talker to a play which has benefit of out- of-town breakrin. The only 'on the dog' showings for a new picture are the coast previews and the big idea Is to refurbish and rehabilitate them froni these rough exhibitions for ul- timate commercialism. . Winnie Sbeehan states he has to keep costs down in keeping with grosses these days although not committed to any set figure. All de- pends on the type of picture. ' : All the above wlU have Its excep- tions when It comes to a Marx Bros, or a Chevalier, but that's -the gen- eral idea for the general run of product. Chief antipathy more than ever before agalnct the agents has arisen fromi these alleged hold-ups, on tal- ent which had been built up by cost- ly campaigns and on expiration time were represented by some new agent who demanded more. ' Studios object to any such inter- ference from the 10-percenters or otherwise. In ' their drive for eco- nomic readjustments. Stocks Turn to Come£es and Farce As Films UnroD Drama and Tragedy Reasons for Schnozzle Hollywood, Oct B. . . Ben. Piazza's argument in persuading Metro to finally change Jimmy Durante's name to the more familiar Schnozzle Durante in all billing was that the kids ' are pushovers (or -such a moniker, as Is evidenced by their regard for comic strip characters and will flock to see Schnozzle whatever the picture. " . They haven't had such a juve appeals name since 'Musty Suffers' (Harry Watson, Jr.). STUDIO AD BAN IS BOON FOR FREELANCERS Hollywood, Oot 6, Banning by the Producers'. Asso* ciation of player, advertising tie- ups has proven ai bo on to the crowd 'of freelance stars and directors. Ad men are now seeking out the names without studio contracts for jCree plugs. Tleup men say there are many names In the freelance field as. good aa those on studio payrolls. And there's nothing to prevent the ads bringing In the studios, as any player can mention that she worked for a film company. In addition to turning their ef- forts to the freelancers, tie-up men ore concentrating on furniture plugs, or other articles used in making up a set. Deemed significant on the New York end is the steady and increas- ing demand coming to play broker*. from stock companies (or comedies and farces. With feature pictures, this fall evidencing a leaning to- ward drama and-tragedy it appears as though the stocks have Inter- preted the public pulse to mean that the country wants to laugh—^wlth nothing much to smile over outsldei the theatre. The-stock troupes are In some- thing of a Jam themselves; aa thejr' don't want to revive any more of the old'falthfuls than they have to, yet they" are also fighting shy of . plays which have been made Into films. The troupes have found that since dialog came to the. screen enough of an edge has been taken off their stage presentation of'the same scripts to make them a pre- . carious venture. Hence, they are abstaining more rigidly than ^ver this season. It therefore almost, shapes up as a sure parade of the standby plays to be Inserted into the repertoir<»B, perhaps more often than desired. Situation forms quite a predicament, for the stoicks as between the old . and-the new with Hollywood con- stantly- cutting down the trouped'' chances of making money oh up-to- date manuscripts. Few, If any, stocks wiu attempt musicals thl§ season because o( the expense Involved. This ia as uaiial except that those comitanles which normally might contemplate such an effort abolished the Idea' with the thought \ ' - GARB0-WHAT7 Contract Runs Off Next Summer-^ and Thenl of Fox Films and Fox Theatres, though Michel Is no longer treas. of Fox, but still v-p. Albert War- ner v-p's for Warner Bros,, 'WB'a Artists' Bureau and the Stanley Co., all at the same time. Hollywood, Oct 6. Future of Greta Garbo in pictures is still one of those things. She has not yet informed the studio that her fingers were crossed when announc- ing several months ago that she would not re-algn on expiration of her contract Miss Garbo's contract has until next summer to run. She is now In 'Mata Hari' with nothing ahead set. Metro officials believe the actress win change her mind, but those close to Miss. Garbo say she's not fooling about returning to Sweden. Lcmdau, Kenyon Terms Hollywood, Oct. 6. Doris Kenyon and David I.andau are probable for term contracts at Warners. Landau, who earner to the coast with the legit 'Street Scene' and olayed In the picture, has been cast In 'Union Depot.' Miss Kenyon is on the fence between pictures and a concert tour. Leads of 'Sky Bride' Hollywood, Oct. 6. Paramount Joins the air cycle re- vival with 'Sky Bride.' Carqle Lombard, Richard Arlen and Stuart Erwin cast. TWELTETBEES 'VENEEB' Hollywood, Oct 6. '■Vcnoer' RKO-Pathe's most re- cent play buy, goes to Helcn .Twelve- trecs). Robert Milton will direct Euskin for Fox Hollywood, Oct. 5. Ilai-ry Ruskln, Icglt writer, is duo here Sunday (11). He has a term contract with Fox. FILM STORIES GOPOIIYANA Hollywood, Oct S. Attempting to create a new box- office trend in pictures, producers are getting away from the tragto, sordid, sexy trend that has beei^ prevalent for the past year. New things listed (or production are full of sweetness, optimism find sentiment Words such as tarnish, vice, confession, forbidden; sin,. tragedy and any reference to gang- sters are taboo In the new crop of titles. Production Is taking on a Polly- anna atmosphere, with only an oc- casional 'Frankenstein' or 'Murders of the Rue Morgue' to pep up the programs. INDEX Bills 44 Burlesque 39 Cluitter 46-49 Editorial 64 Exploitation 18 Film House Reviews.... 42 Foreign Film. News 16 Foreign Show News,.... 68-69 Inside—Iiegit 62 Inside—Pictures 64 Inside—Radio ........... 67 Inside—^Vaude .36 Legitimate 66-63 Legit Reviews 61 Letter List. 70 Literati 64 Music 65-69 New Acts 40 Nows from the Dallies.. 62 Nite Clubs 69 Obituary 71 '"Outdoors 71 Pictures 2-34 Picture Reviews'. 23, 29 Radio ..; 67 Radio Reports 66, 68 Sports ., 62 Talking Shorts 23 Times Square... 45-61 Vaudeville 35-39, Vaude House Reviews.. 41 Women's Page 63