Variety (March 1932)

PRICE TOO MUCH EGO ON THE AIR Radio Increases By Advertisers in 1931 ■ •••♦•••r««*.«** • (••••'•••I »'•••••»•■••••«#•• I • • • • • * • ••••••• I • * • • I *■••««« >••*•••«•«.••4 »;•••••#•«« I * « » « » i • 91!«««'*«9**4 r • • • • •••■•••4 • ••faa»9««a. . Amarlcan Popcorn American. Tobacco Anhuter-Busch .. Associated Oil ....'1 Bourjoia ......... Brazilian Coffee .. Brown Shoe i .. California Fruit Growers Campaha Corp.' . Chappel Brothers, Inc. ... Cheseborouflh Mfg. Co. Cities Service Coca-Cola Co. i....... 256,187 Colgates .... Crowell Publishing Co. Cudahy Packing Co. . . . Eastman Kodak Enha Jettick Shoe ... Fuller Brush Funk ft Wagnal's Co. Generail Cigar Co. General Electric General Foods. •...#••»•.••..«•....••••• General Mills. -.T~........*•.^.c....#•*•«• General Petroleum ......... Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Hamilton Watch ........... Edna Wallace Hopper HornMl Hams ....... Howard Clothes ..... Interwoven Hosiery .. lodent Chemical .....••.•••<. Jarman Shoe Kellogg Co. , 34,275 Ponds Cream ... Liggett Lever Bros, Soap Louden's Maytag Washing Machine 191,441 McKesson- Robbins Metropolitan Life ..>... 344,378 M. j. B. Coffee National Belting 26,200 National Dairy Products National Sugar Refinery Northwestern Yeast ... Pacific Coast Borax .... Pennoek & Ford . Pepsodent Co. Pillsbury Flour . Procter & Gamble Quaker Oats Reynolds- Tobacco Royal Typewriter 77,053 Rumford Baking Powder Standard Brand . S. W. Strauss ValBjsar Waite & Bond Wander Co. ; ............. 31,999 Geo. Washington Coffee Wrigley Gum .......... >aee*ee*e*e< I. •••*aeee**f • •^•ee«e« I • e • e « a < JERUZA IN OPEREHA STAGED BY LUBITSCH Maria Je;ritza may be seen In .©peretta next fall In a musical verr •ion of the play, 'the Czarina.' Thought Is credited to Ernest Lu- l»itacli, the picture director; Lubltsch, now in Now York, is aeriously, conslOerlnff producing: and alrecting a play for no particular rea-son except that he's never done one and is itohinicr io make" the at- tempt. 'The Czarina* wa.s done here aome years ago with Doris Kane, 18-Hour Plane Detroit, Feb. 29. A passenger jplane expected to Coast-tptCoast in 18 hours Is being built in the General Motors shops here. It will carry eight passengers and nicall. ■ . Speed ship is for the. Transcontl-. nental Western Air Company and is expected to make Its trial trln arovind April 1. It successful the 18-hour trip, at a speed of about 200 miles an hour with seven land- ings eh route, will beco'tne per- manent. Beginning to Balk at At*tists' Dominance of Programs— - Call It Wrong Merchan- dising^ Which Is Better Known, Star or Product? SOLO ARTISTS WANING Radio stare who become too big for their programs are not wanted.. The . commercial sponsor, for whom the talent Ts but another merchandising factor, does not favor programs which/are so com- pletely dominated by their stars as to submerge the brand of the prod- uct which is being exploited. Radio points to the Cliquot Club Eskimos, the Citiec Service, Good- year and Mobiloil pirbgrams as ex- amples of first plugging the name of the commercial involved. Radio doesn't. especially fancy the self-exploiting Winchell method deduced to be at the expense of the firm which employs. In other words, the theory coming into vogue is that the day of the solo radi.o artist is starting to wane. Radio Is now. becoming more con- cerned with the proper merchandis- ing of Its ad producta rather than the exploitation of ether person- alities. This Is resulting In Bing Crosby going off the Cremo cigar Continued on page 60) San Gemente as the The Westr Wealthy But Theatreless Under Wraps Just to do It up right, the department stores which bor- der on Park avenue now have their furniture on display wrapped In cellophane. DONATE TO CLEAN UP 42D ST. B'WAY TOUCHES HOLD FILM MOB WEST Hollywood, Feb. 2.9. . .. .stage people in pictures are not making the frcciucnt- trips to .New York between studio assignments that, wore once -the rule. They're afraid of ..Broadway and those touches. Having more or .less of a-system out here to sidestep or mlniinlze the financial liability of having friends, the contract people feel that: they're wide open in New York. Providing 'coffee' at $1 r cup or paying for a pal's appendix Is tlie small and the l.'ivge .of the requests made with overwhplming. frequency, upon the folks In the money. Working at Loss One Eroadwayite-out here on a subsiantlal salary fig\ired at the end of si.x months that he had lost- money on the .studio engagement. When laying off between pictures (Continued on page 49) In a vibrant campaign to re- habilitate the block between Broad- way and 8th avenue. New Tork, the 42d Street association held a meetr Ing and went Into action last Fri- day (27). Sum of $50,000 has been subscribed by around 66 owners of property on the street between 6th and 9th avenues. •Clean Up the BirocK' Is iTie slogjan adopted for the former center of legit show business. Attorneys Ba.nton and Pecora, both previously district attorneys, were voted a re- tainer of $26,000, and an equal amount when the campaign is over. Four sore spots are pointed out, two being the burlesque houses (Republic and Eltinge),. the flea clrciia and freak display,-, and a shooting gallery. Pecora claims that under the law all four can. be closed. A surprise development of the meeting came when an attorney representing the Astor estate gave it as his opinion that his survey of 42d street indicated that the: Bowery and Coney Island were never as bad as this block in it.s present condi- tion. He stated that if the 42d Street Association did not clean up the estate would make ah attempt to do so, A police oHlcial was present at the meeting of indignant realty owners. He said tiiat the depart- ment was aware of uh.sa.vory con- ditions, but that although there had been 200 arrests on the block since last July there iiad been no convic- tions. Alaglstrate's court had ruled that burlesqiie hoM!--f>s wore no dif- ferent than'the other thealres. oper- atlng.. Girl Cigar Smokers Elrmlneham,. Feb. . 29; A Florida, cigar maniifuctin-er has launched, a campaign to popularize i.rigarH for ladles. Firm has. started maki.ng 'ladles sl/.ti" clprars. smaller and morf' carefully wi-apped. To get things started company has hired four fjlrls to dine in fasli- lonablc restaurants in the- south to be spen smoking the new cigars. San Clemente, Cal., Feb. 29. This town claims title of the Brookline of the west. With an all year round population of 1,600, and five times that number during the summer months, the place la thea- treless, and has been so since the town - came into being eight years ago. Like BroOkllne, Mass., there's plenty of wealth here, too. Almost the entire residential population Is. of the retired order. Town sup- ports a golf course, sundry tennis courts, bowling alleys, a good hotel and the best restaurant between Los Angeles and San Diego, but it has yet to see Its first picture house. Unlike Brookline, everybody here wants a theatre. However, no the- atre man. or circuit will take a chance. Ole Must Okay • San Clemente. Is in many respects the trickiest town on the coast. It was built by Ole Hanson, former mayor of Seattle, to be solely in the Spanish atmosphere. Can't buy an inch of ground here unless you agree to Spanish architecture, with plans approved by Hanson. Hanson has lots of pretty pictures of Spanish theatres he'd like and has tried to Interest showmen, but they have never gotten together on the project. Meanwhile, the nearest picture houses are in Caplstrano, Ave miles away, almost wholly patronized by Mexicans and to which no one goes from here. There's a 406-scater In Laguna, 13 miles away, and a 200- .scater in Oceanslde, 25 miles away. San Clemente Is midway between. Los Angeles and San Diego. Chinese Societies Offer Yank Flyers $100 Daily to Fight Offers to American. aviators to enter the Chinese flying service are being made In New York. Boys who piloted in the World War. are particularly sought. 'The bids seem to bo coming.froni a Chinese, patriotic service, or bo- clcties, rather than from, any, of that country's omclals. One bid heard of carried with it, if accepted, $100 Jn gold per day, together with transportation to Shanghai and back, should there be a return. Hollywood, Feb. 29. ■ Chinese representatives have been here the past week talking to stunt aviators lii pictures and making of- fers to them to fly for China, Chinese ifjniclal:-) are trying to keep the' names of the aylators v,-ho arc goiuK over a secret, fear- ing' that' local .Tapanese societies may get (o the fliers and buy them off.