Variety (Sep 1933)

RADIO SCREEN I^iblis^ad Weeklr at 1^4 WMt 4Sth St^ New York, N. T., by Varletr. Ina Annual auWripUon, $«. Sinffls cbpleia. 16 cent*, Entered a¥ secon4-clas». matter December 21. 1906, at <b« Fost Offio* at New, Tork. N. T„ under tbe a^t o( iCirch S. IB79. ' COPZUOn*. ItSS, BY TAUVKX, iNCt MX BIORTS KESBBVED . iVoL il2 No. 2 NEW yORK, TUES0AY; SEPpl^ 19, 1933 56 PAGES laUfeva Mecca for Divarcers / ■ ' ■■ ■ llfidi Fast Boy taldiig Them AH Reno, Sept. Cfl^l-Neva ttddge, srambllnff spot on the California-Nevada line with the pne bldectlhff the men's room, has jb^comii a inecCa for diyorcers. Beno lia-iioW getting the igo-by and aU>e- ■jcause a man had an Idea and knew iprhat to dp with it' " With' three divorces behind hlin land high .hope ^or the future, a playboy once known' as America'ci Sweetheart came to Reno a yef|.r Ago, got a gander, at Lake Tahtfe* -50'miles wesit. and flared up with an Inspiration, leaking time out* only .ion^ enough to get married again, i;he lad bustled oyer to the lake and grabbed options on all the land on the Nevada, side.^ Then he proceeded tp^|>^t Qni & pressure rfealty develop- ihetit which has. rdstlklted >tn a great . J.atid boom. ";■ jljl^here's nothing extraordinary in '... this but the sales argument on which the development is based is a pipH—and has snagged the gelt. Ask. No Questions . You come to Reno for a split. The lad'd ehtrfepreneura hook you at the station or at your hotel and induce yaut while you're waiting aground for Bix weeks to elapse, to run over to ^aho^. When you get there you . flee a very pretty body of water to- iward which hillsides slope. On the hillsides are all sorts of huts fash- ioned of logs. Tou.get steamed up Over the picturesque setting for the .joints and are. told you. ought to own lied on page 49) JiO REPEAL ERROR UKE 2% BEER BY HOTELS . T^e New York hotels are all iKttiaicing plans for installation of tap vt'toama and large bars counting on ias-early as Dec. 16 for repeal and legalized liquor selling. The hotels, and their, bondholder!-mortgagees, ai-e banki"g heavily on repeal to take them out of the red. "aate bonifaces state that they will •tot make the same mistake as with legalized 3.2 b^^r. The brewers then were too chary, figuring on the natio& suddenly going berserk on beer jags, and it's no secret that much of the 3.2 stuff was not much oyer 2%.. The brewers' association suc- iceeded in. its aim to keep beer- drunk arrests at a minimum, but it Worked great damagie in creating a Sriesit public grouch against 3.2 beer as being inadequate; with the re- sult that beer sales after the initial " "ijy''the-^ase" boom—for ^home^^^ sumption have; not kept up with eipecfatlons, although still doing rather well; The hotels, catering to a more epicurean clientele,,^ are readying for the demand with vintage cel- lars and choice wine cards, hoping to capturiES' and maintain the pub- lic's wine and liUIcer interests from the start. GfK»ds01d Diiig-a-Lmg A cheery note oh current cpndltiohs comes from, the pawii tirokers on Sixth avenue,^ New York, They say. that many of the' boys who:hocked their, alarm, ' clocks when In need 6f a^^eal are tip'^.'T.e^eeming them. The ', 'aldrm tlckbrs were unked.by the thousands for a thin mme a.piece. Redeeming price is 25c. , Producers Show Inpreasmg Like for. Actors Wl^o've Faced Audiences 7— Qld Screen Favorites Driven . to Sdrannble for Leayiftgis SFEEDS STARDOM SBOWPKM PASSENGER Now that steamships have, opened up a new lucrative field for dis- tributors, passenger planes may be next. Experiments are under way to test the practicability of pictures for air travelers. J. H. Harper, who produces car- toon subjects, is working with the T. W. A, air lines on plans which would have the . film sound track broadcast from some point over a short wave radio system to planes in transit. The broadcast sound track would be synchronized with a silent portable projector set up in the cabin of the airship. Filmis have been shown on trains 1ft transit' but while successful enough as an expei-iment, has not. been. generally adopted as a car- rier feature. . Cuban RcTolulion as theatre Strike Signal Havana, Sept. Picture biz here is affected, by revolution and subsequent strikes. Operators went on 24-hour strike. After first conference with ex- hibitors, all—demands Of the op- erators were granted. At present first and second class houses pay $35 weekly; third class, $12.25 and fourth class $10.60 with extras for matinees and special shows. There. Will be a 25% in- crease. Before this move, only . deluxers C3T~wef e^^^pSyrng'^aimo^ salaries while the naborhood houses, some with 10 and 12-hour shifts paid as a rule 75c and 50c dally to operators. A general convention is called for early October when exhibitors will unite to fight high film rental (percentage is average of 45%) and to attack the black list method of the distributors. Hollywood, Sept. 18. Like a' rising tirfe* staae p^^ye^s are graduajiy ° shoving established screen players out of pictures.. Dur- ing the past few monthikf influx of stagers has been partipularly. strong* ln,thei major studios 'at, preselit there are 315 players^ stars and fea- turedf under contract., Of thie tpfali 197 have coniis from^ the stttgo dur- ing the past three years, the remain- ing lid are either holdovers'^from silents or .have come to the. screen without previous .stage experience. Outside oil the contract lists, there are about 200 stage people in Holly* wood, bucking the free lance ranks: Most of them find employnient steadier than the recognized pic ture people who, becaim^ names In the silents. Letter group' ate having a hard tlme^tflhding anything more than casual.^mploym^nt. * Largest number of stage imports are at Metros Of the total contract list of 70 players, 40 are from the footlights. Radio has 62 players. 30 of them from the .stage. Paraniount's legit group numbers 33 of the 62 contracted players. Universal cur- rently has 24 cOntractees, 18 from the stage, mostly from 'Counclllor- at-Law' and playing their original parts in the-picture. no.vr in producr tlon. Between 20th. Century and 6am Goldwyn, 20 of the 27 ticketed play- ers on the United. Artists lot are from legit. Thirty of the 49 ear- marked players at Po;x are from the stage, while . Columbia's liet of 10 has three imports. Creep Up In Two Years Though most picture people have been die-hards in admitting the ad- vance of stage players in pictures, their growth has been steady for the past two years, producers feeling that they get more out ot actors (Continued on page; 50) too Hudi Politics Jammii^ Up iNitliiroir OK for Sound Ahyiyay A new way of crashing ex- ecutive gates in looking for a job was tried by a.novice press agent in New Yorfc It was first pulled- on Bob' ^Isk of JXKO, who received a portable plionOgraph and a 'record sent to the RKO' publicity depart- ment.' Thinking it itnight be a new theme song or something, Sisk played the record, only to discover It -was a spiel about the lad'd ability. Same gag was tfted On Gtabe Yorke at Foi.' AIR NAMES m Pat Remembered Washington, Sept. It was all. set to hold over the film code hearings until ^Tlvursday,421>^and .start=them=: again on that day. After be- ing okayed all around, some- body killed it by remembering that the Jewish New Tear falls on Thursday, so they .changed the date to Saturday (23). The man who reminded Deputy NRA Administrator Sol Rosenblatt was Pat Casey. mmi It's the actors who are now .doing the eyebrow lifting.when radio's so- called .'proprfetOry*' advertising. ia n^eiitloned. That's the type <>p afd-, vjertlsing- which calls for delicate copy handling, such as laxatives, body oddr eradicators, etc'..' The radio networks pllaced ytheir transmitters abave:°'^uch copy -uhtil' a couple of years.ago, when.they. V.'eakened -land gave in. But how the talent 'hr.s adopted the net- works' discarded attitude, and while tiie - 'proprietory"- ladvertlsers ar<?i;: having no trpuble in dbtaihihg net-' work tin»e,:- It's fretting quite dif- ficult to' grab first . rate talent. Four established ether names turned down one laxative 'manu- facturer's' attractive salary pfter last "wtfek, stating plugging such a product on the airwaVet'^gfhi damage thelt ^reps. An anti-odor maker and . its. ad agency Is having- similar trouble with the bigger names, and both may have to agree to non-names or stay off the air,. World's Worst Program % Favorite in LA. liOs Angeles, Sept. 18. Although Al Fox announces his program as the 'world's worst,' it proved otherwise when KGPJ, lios Angele37""^dr3'c6nTfnue^^ "carl^ morning air feature. Immediately following the shut down, thousands of letters, mostly from eating houses, gas stations, and other all nlte spots; deluged asking that the program be re- turned, pronto. It worked, and now both Fox and hlfl hound dog are back playing phonograph records. Vienna^ may follow Iti the fo6V steps of Berlin on the Na^l otties- tlon within several months. Such, at least, Is the belief gained by^, show folks in Austria based , on ob- servance of' reactions ' as noted hy Frederick Wh^e-Spltz. • ■ ■. ■ J. > .. ■ .■■ , ■ Spitz; formerly 0peral6'c.ahd^Iie{i4^< booker of the.^Irkus Wentz In Wi'- enna and the Tlvolt theatre, Han- over, has just arrived in the United States^ forced out of business by Nazi interference. In Hoover it was simply a mattej; of gettlajg but like other^j^wli^h show folks. In yi« ehi^'a,' where offlciaUy there's 119 Nazism, he says tlieat^es owned oi* -^' operated by Jews are boycotted to such an eictent as to kill bUsInesa' possibilities,. Ucalites ^Fear* Cli r. Theatres, 41i ever the" continent^ ijeports SpHz, . tare Buffering from- t^b hiucii politics no 'matter what ' thiair d;Ue^nce or .wHilit tbie <;bun- try. In Central , JSurbpe there's practically no show biz left:. Blgr i^ame /kcta playing Berlin hbuses» > he says, die compiletely If of for- eign origin, while siiiall' nobodies from around, the comer Kf|t"tbe ap- plause from fear-strickefi''-custom^ e^s who figure they miist be 'jpa- trlptlcf above all. Bijit not enoiig:^ locaUCes^ to go the roiinds and for- eigners are resenting'the treatment they get. j 'indication of _ how, bad things are, even outside >of Germahy, be- cause' of the German- influence. Is that Spitz has been commissioned by a number of the bigger name acts In Europe to dig up somo -American bookings. Among thesft axe acts such as. the Frateillhis, ^ ^ Vjfhoye yvo^^ Europe cguiii.c stantiy and have never before tried or wished to cpMie'^td the U. .S; They are Italorli^enCh^ Also Spitz has the three Andreiu ^ivels, from Madrid, about the be^t clown act- in Europe; Kassner, magician; an^ Sylvester -Schaejfer,- Tprotean' artist. EiSENStflN^ PLUNIaE Undertakes- 'SIM- Vear^ of RussiaA Historjf-rrHlQW. .Many Feet? ivibiscow. Sept, 18. After a period Of silence, part of it spent in an expedition to Kara- Kuiiti, Serge. EJ^en^tein lets it bft known that he Is at wOrk on ah ambitious ' film opus to be called 'Moscow.' It will recount the histpry of. the proletariat ,in .Moscow, .in. .the paist 500 years, no more, Historfans and .antiquarians... and^^ researchers--^ andr .spciologiists are helping him get the .stuff togetjier. ita Qould's 32 Auditions Rita Gould.may be challenging the high record in the matter of giving radio auditions. She'.i rendered 32 auditions for nptwork.M, advertising agencies, and, she now su.spects, office boys.