Variety (April 1933)

SCREEN STAGE Published Weekly at 164 West 46lh St., New Tork, N. T., b]r Varletr. Inc. Annual subscription, $6. Single copies, 16 cents. Sintered as second-clnss matter December 22, 1906, at the Post ORice at New York, N. T., under the act ot March 3. 1879. COPTRIGHT, 1033, BT TABIBTT, INC. ALL BIGHTS BESERTED \rOLi 110. No. 4 NEW YORK, TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 1933 48 PAGES Some Cross-Country Squawks on Beer Filed Early as U. S. Awaits the Day Chicago, April 3. ' Advocates ot repeal thinking ' ahead to. the need f.or 36 states ln-> ' d'orsing the ipth Amendment-rub- ; out are a bit worried over possible - excesses oni 'beer night,' April 7. 'Beer deliveries can't start from ♦ibreweries until midnight (6). Ti General consensus of the sagacious ;"hereabouts Is that It was a lool- ^. Ishly greedy stunt to designate i Thurada^^ as the beer welcome night. -^Saturday would have been better, •Jwith ample time to get the suds . distributed through the, city by then. ' Much apprehension a^so that the ' late Teletise of legal beer will result , In bootleggers' stocks and near-beer • being substituted during the first ^ night. . lo-'e conservative- places such as Henrld's will close at their regu- lar hour and make no effort to par- ticipate. Better type restaurants expect to keep beer and serve It '■•ut not to stress the fact. However, there will be plenty of local foam ^ parlors dedicated to beer. Merchan- dize Mart, where NBC has Its head- quarters, will have a special beer : grill for men only. Etate-Congress here and the Gayety, Milwaukee, are the first mid western burlesque houses to adopt beer. Or, rather, to bring It back, for both houses wei-e beery in the old days. Rathskellars in the cellars of theatres are contem- plated. Meanwhile bottled beer will be hawked in the orchestra at . the State-Congress. Rialto and Star and Garter will probably sell bottled beer, the same - as pop, In the audience, but no fur- ■ ther expansion of policy is contem- plated. N. Y. Optimistic The New York roadhouses look to the beer thing as a natural this summer. They figure it'll raise a big load from them, for protection, and are joyous at the prospect of ' selling the legalized brew and Just • ' the mixing' waters for those who bring their own bottles. Additional space, amounting to : 360 square feet, has been leased by ' < Sandy Thompson adjacent to his Saratoga club, in Harlem, for con- • version Into a beer garden. It will be known as the 'East Indian Beer Garden' and open for business Fri- day (7), if and when beer is okay. A new revue will be staged for the opening of the garden. Milwaukee's Price Ideas Milwaukee, April 3. The local citizenry has risen in ^ wrath against the announced price of $2.60 a case of 24 12-ounce bottles , and about $1C for a 31-gallon bar- rel. Protestors point to the fact that cost of labor .and ingredients has shrunk greatly since 1918, when beer had its last filng, but, so far, the brewers have not shown much will- ingness to lower the price. It Is tholr contention that the great cost of-puttinc: plants back into .shape (Continued on Page 43) 9 Peelers Irving Place theatre. New Tork, stock burlesjiue, is ex- perimenting with nine different strippers in one show. It's a record number of peelers for one burly trbupe. Idek Is to find out If the customers want stripping, or stripping. Raifio Education Supji|kuits Books In Long Beach Long Beach, Cal., April 3. Deprived of several schools de- stroyed In the earthquake, neces- sitating outdoor classes, this city's Board of Education will use the radio for one half hour of in- struction daily for all of Its Junior high schools, and several of the grammar grades. CBS's daily American School of the Air is to be the program util- ized for this ether education. Dally use of the air feature was determined at a meeting of the board as a means of teaching his- tory, literature and other subjects through the ' CBS dramatizations. Loss of school books and other equipment in the quake clinched the wholesale use of radio for edu- cation, a departure that it is claimed would never have been considered but for the conditions of the schools following the calamity. City schools will use the printed manuals supplied by CBS to en- hance the dally broadcasts which come to the putdoor classes through loud speaker systems. ETHER GIVES III Just a Rough Idea of How N. Y. Hotels Bid for Biz How the receivers of a newer mldtown hotel, east of Fifth ave- nue. New York, are bidding for buslnos.s, has attracted attention in hotel circles. Announcements have been mailed to any number of prospective guests, Inviting them to Join the hotel'.s 'Over Night Club.' To Join, one merely has to sign the .•CRi.ster. single or double. It la an Invitation or notice to the effect that the hotel welcomes guests without Ijaggagc. Announce- ment states tlint if a person (or persons) 'mlssos the la.st train,' the hotel Is available and pajama.s, tooth bru.sli and razor will be .'sup- plied without cost, other than the regul.aT rates for rooms. Effete East Side Merchan- dising Sharps Admit the Air Needs Frank Show Values — Not Merely a Bally of Sales* Graphs— Exec Invasion Follows Stagie Talent's Dominance of Air Waves FEW 100% AIR NAMES Radio's antipathy to anything of, from or by Broadway, which not s» long ago. was used by thoso of the radio business as a permanent theme song of hate, has gradually reduced in volume to a weak whis- per. For Broadway, which was once the term used by radio to de- scribe show business, has taken radio, over, body and soul, top and bottom, hook, line and sinker. That which the original broad- casting people fought so long and strenuously — show business — has reached into every important phase of radio, and thus far hasn't lost a decision. Showmen, both actors and managers, are having a cinch proving their superiority in the new show business, with radio now defi- nitely a part of the business which it once fought to keep out. While inevitable, it happened when those who declared they would do without show business and showmen, commenced to bor- row from showmen for their own sustenance. Meanwhile the Broad- way attitude remained lukewarm to radio, but show business was grad- ually steamed up about the new field when that field, finding Itself unable to get by on its own, en- couraged the migration oC Broad- way to" east of Fifth avenue. Air Stars, B'way- Products Starting .frojn. the. top and reading down, the big stars of radio are, with very few exceptions, of Broad- way antecedents. A recent coun- try-wide analysis of the radio pub- (Continued on page 30) What a Break Hollywood, April 3. Every Hollywood bit player wants . to. make Fox's extra call, for . .April . 10-11, when studio. needs 237 people to drink beer In a beer garden scene for 'My Lips Betray.' The. new 3.2% beer will be used, with regular $5 and $7.50 checks paid. Decision to use real beer came when studio discovered that for 'Five Cents A Glass,' now in production, near beer caused more burps than the real stuff, spoiling many feet of film. Stooges (h'ganize to Play M^^^ Backstage Botfets Keepii^ Tm Alhre 1,000 Inaugurals First week of release found over 1,000 sets of-the recording ot: the recent Inaugural cere- monies in .Washington disposed of by Columbia Phonograph to dealers. Event was etepciled on three 12-inch platteris, the recorders using CBS broadcast wires for the pickup, and no royalty paid the network. Studios Withhold Slutf Yam Sales; Fear Horse Latf Hollywood, April 3. , Plans of Metro, Paramount, Fox and Radio to sell their surplus story material to other producers has so far been a blank with only one or two sales made pwlng to executive Interference. In each case where the agency commissioned to sell the yarns has reported a producer in- terested in a particular story, the studio owning It has refused to sell, figuring that if a comr<otitor saw possibilities in it. It should re- main at home. Listing of the stories In catalogs has brought laughs due to the in- accuracies in synopses. At Para- mount, before the catalog was sent out, producers were requested to give the list a final once-over to make certain that they were fami- liar with everything to be sold, and should they see any possibilities In a particular story it would be held out; Synopsis Warped Several of the Par producers re- quested stories be withdrawn after reading the synopses. In one case, a producer insisted he had never read the story before and that It looked to him like good material. When the original was delivered, Jt was a story he had worked on for several months, but It could never be recognized by the synopsis. In other cases, studios refused to let stories out when they found that opposition producers were inter- ested. Fear was that writers who (Continued on Page 43) Social Torch Songs Chicago, April 3. Mrs. Furber Marshall, Gold Coast society matron, will sing torch songs for NBC. Artists' Bureau secured her for sustaining pprlods over WMAQ. Mrs. Marshall Is reported to have sung professionally at the Kit Cat Club, LoniJon. ' And now the stooges have organ- ized, impelled to get tpge'ther be- cause of the actors' move to quell the benefit racket. The stooge fa- vors and will play benefits, and his meeting place 1b a Sixth avehad eatery. Title adopted Is t|ie 'National As- sociation for .the . Prevention of Cruelty to Stooges.' By-lawa of til© organization rtod: The N. A; P. G. S. is not in sym- pathy with the ban against bene- fits, aa this is the^way we've beep eating'.the past year. ' ' Qomplaints are to be filed' with promoters of benefits suggeatibjr ellrnination of . iuttet lunches. We'd Uke a few hot,mea,Is. Members are ordered jiot to takb Jobs until verifying' tliat those they stooge for have, at least, soma talent. Association is opposed to stars taking salary outs, as i-t reflects on the social standing of the stooges. If animals are ^Bed. in the act, stooges must Insist oi^ equal bill- ing. Second-hand clothes are not to be accepted if more than six months old. There Is an N. A. P. C. S. presi- dent, Joe Frankifenstein Plosky, who really is a stooge tp a stooge. The v.-p. Is Frank Swlcjc, who claims to be understudy to fed, Healy. Tho secretary Is known as Baron Cohen, alleged to be an ex-pug and billed as the 'monopede monologlst.' There should be a treasurer. Membership committee is holdlnc; up the application pf Benny Baker. Lou Holtz's stooge, on the grounds that he looks too well fed. .Holtis is accused of staking Baker on the side. Gyps Reaping jhrvest Through So. CaL Qoake Los Angeles, April 3. Three gyps resulting from quake destruction, still not under control, are receiving the attention of city officials. They Include sale of tick- ets for fake benefits, collection of old clothing and food fot..relief of the victims, and the charging of exorbitant prices for minor re- construction In homes. Latter has Just come to the at- tention of city execs who are warn- ing the public that any oflflclal In- spector will carry proper Identifica- tion. Better Business Bureau, llke- wl.so, has prepared a warning for citizens. Where Wanda Wound Up Tacoma, April 3. Wanda Hawley, old time film queen, packed them in at a local department store here one day dem- onstrating wash dresseij. Store did big buslnes.s for Wanda was a good demonstrator.