Variety (Sep 1933)

50 VARIETY C D IT O Rl A L Tuesday, September 26, 1933 Trade Mairk Roel^tored ITDbUsbed Weekly by VARIETY. l0c. 81d Sllvermaii. President IM West «.th Street New Torlc City SUBSCRIPTION: Annual.........tG -Foreign..,.. Single fioples.... .■. -16 Cente Vol. f 112 120. No. 3 WE »0 OUR PART To the 'Film Daily' 'Variety' wishes publicly to acknowledge its gratitude and express Its thaifiks to Jack Ali- coate and the staff of his 'Fiinri Daily' for; their more than: generous: oflFer of last, week to place at 'VaHetyV ;dis-, posar the entire personnel eciiiipnient of- the piiblicatioh. 'Vaclety' wants 'Film Daily' te know that it i grateful.. 15 YEARS AGO (Frow VARiEtT and .. Pantaeres circuit tossed out . oC the -iioew—^booklne^ - office;—-Lo^ w—-told .^Pantages ■tftiiBnd^ lot^^ quarters by Oct. IB. ; No .advantage in the coft- Tieotioh. I British, Ministry of InfornYation asked Famous Players, to. send plans .of flncst studio. To serve as a model for a British propaganda iilih planti' GIVen planis of ■ paragon studio at F.tJ iLee, th.en . regardeol as thef most up to date. Spanish influenzal, which: had started in the training camps, was spreading and. hurting theatre biz. (Cbntinued from page 1) (Saturday):, They get In tomorrow morning (Wedneiday)i Two sets. of. services, i Wednesday night .and Thursday iafternoon, will b6 held, the first under :ri»e. auspice^ of the. vari- ous theatrical organizatlbns and Theatrical Guilds—Catholic, Episco- pal and Jewish, of .which latter SIme was a founder arid second vicer president. ; Sime's services will be as alniple! as the yARiErrtmuggs Itriow he woiild want theinri td iie.' Sid knowia that Slme. wants no euioglcs) no tnourn- fiil turned ruleig dsv.mpufnlhg bor- ders. The paH-bearers arfe .hls staift.. AIL of /^m.' RusJti CHif:, Aliel, Ibee^ Big^, Shan, Kaut, Land,. Chat:, Walif, Odec. iPlus Atthur Uhgar,: HoUywbod braricl;! managet; HaV Halperln, Ghicago branch, manager; Joshua Iiowe (Jdfo), iioridpn branch .man-, ager;: p. M. (Monte) Samuel, Varibtt's oldest correspondent (ever, since the flr^t ii^suie); plus Harold Erichs and touis Rydell, business and,, advertising, managers; plus. Jack Lait, "Varibtt: alumnus; Managers were shying at the plan to establish a theatriciEil cheering section for Al.Smith's campaign for the governorship. Felt it would be bad buslnesis to fool with politics. Five new shows were set for Broadway week of Sept. 30. Six houses ^yere dark the qurreht week. Harry Web.er had a vaude -act, •An . American Ace.' Girl .played' ja, lerrhan • spy drid audleinces made life miserable for her. Beahed by a woman from a box at one show. Chaplin's picture, 'Shoulder Arms,' was being booked for Oct. 20 re lease. Rental $62,50 a day. About, the first of the war com pilatioris. was Xiniversal's 'Crashing Through to Berlin.' Made vp most- ly of newsrect clips with only the titles using new negative. 30 YEARS AGO (From .'C'lipper'y ,San Francisco still in the drama- tic, du.iiips, but Jolin Robinson's cir^ cus played to big l)usiness. .H« had a transportatiori ccntract that kept all other big shows out that sea Altdona- \yas\6ne of the beat show towns in l>.cnhsS'lvanta but had; seen no circuses. Business came from the Penn R: R, ihops Ipcdted there. Thoy had to ishyt cto.wn circus day, SO'they refused to liaul shpw trains there; Made an exception ;.1n. the case of F ugh, ich was dated Oct. 10. Patti and ; Liily Langtry were sailing for the ■States: oh the sdme st^anier. Each was paying $500 for a bridal suite. Lotta money for those days, but a good ad. There, were about , 3Q theatres open in New York, arid nibst doing well, though there .was a dearth of new plays:.. A story bf Va^ibtt by one of .trie muggs is: 0. paradox in yie.>v of sun- dry IhVitatioha by interested book publishers to get. out a. book on VARiBtT. 'That's. the nuts,' said Sime. 'Cbuidn't mean a. thiner for anybody but ourselves. Npbody'U buy ' .' .Disputed on PPirit, Siriie's answer wa^, 'Because a book -about-VARiBTY^necessar;lly-must he-1^^ plug for yARiHrri; and who .would, be. interested? .Aw, it's.the nuts!' Sime's sumni^tlon of anything as 'the nuts' spoke vplumes. tt disr riilssed. anything frorii an urilriipor- tant detail to, i big enterprise or a self-important individual or entity as being not wprth bothering about. It was. Sime's preemptpry: way of appraising people arid events lie saw as trivial. Thi^ .judgment was sUmmarliy accepted by his staff as gospel. This, is supposed to be ari obit. But' it must necessarily. become; a dMcourse Pn Sime and his intimate riiethods. Hi self-effacement, is perhaps best .Illustrated by the nieagreriess of the matter In the reiference rooms of the newspapers, who, if interested, at all in a iSub- ject or a. personality always have a detailed history. That's all they' had. on Sime. He didn't do his stuff fPr the record. He had a medium of printer's ink to record much that, has become epochal in the. show business, but himself he riiade' elu- sive copy. But he was good copy. The. city editors' assignitients of staff men. to interrogate his Varietty muggs on anecodota was a concrete example. The daiiles have, recorded much al- ready. All wanted to know about Sime. About his fighting, biting style of theatricai journaiisni which prides 'itself upon its total disregard of adviertisers' feeHngs and reac- tions of adversaries in whatever controversy liappens to be on at tlie moment. /'Sirne fought the big shots, and championed the smallies. That was a . reverse English on what had been regarded as theatrical journal practice. 'When Bill Lewis, in 1905, fired 'The Man in the Third Rpw'':6flf the N. Y. 'Morning Tele- grapli' for iiarijiing the act of Rad- ford arid Winchester, Sinie said that it looked as' if he*^d ^have to: start his own paper in order to be able to tell, the truth. He had had the idea any way. Said Managljig Edi tor Lewis, 'You'K ntver get far that way.' The 'Morning Telegraph" had found that a good notice the; year rourid was conducive to a coriapii nicntary ad foi' the piiristmas nurii ber, aiid as things had been going for ye.ir3 U wasn't working .put so bad all arpviri ^ .. as 'TTie Man in the Tliird Row,' his . nom-de-vaudcville-critic, had . other ideas ; that Avcre heresy in'face of the .rClativeTy prosperPus careers . of - the: N. • Y.''OUppei*' arid the 'Dramatic TMirror,' then the flourishing show trade papers along with the 'Telegraph.' Sime's life beinff so closely Inter- twined with that of VARiETT one can't disassociate one from the other. His personality, cotirage and vigpr dpriilnated the sheet from Its eariy struggling beginnings for 2B years until In .i930» With the 25th Anpiyersary rinaklng hlriji an .em!- barrasslng-,subject of attentioii on his regular rounds bt. Broadway he .gcraiTimf»'^ t" fyinrldk, niiha and Mexico City on an aimless trip .just to dodge being around at the time. . To the staff whose exp^rlencei has been that the Old !Boy was usually plenty oii ih6 Job for such special Issues, and generally . working very miuCh at it, this shortly resolvea Itself Into a feeling , that he hadn't stepped put but was stepping down and letting Sid arid the staflC he had trained carry .0rt. This was sub- stantlated i>y a ^ single line . note in the Literati departmerit which told the :sta'flf; and Sid aa. well, that "he had been , cedeil a . 61% ownership of VARIETT by,his father.,and that Sid Silvermari was the new presiderit. bf "Variety, inc. : "irhe legends about Siriie Silverman are legion. The dallies all' wanted thkt. There was so much' that tiie mUggs could furnish little. Perhaps he' wpuldn't have liked it. Wiieh. Sime bought the 'Clipper' he made the ViutiiETT staff co-part- rieris. Everybody on the. editoriai floPr, plus the branch managers and a coupiei of Invitees from the busi- ness departriient became stockhold- ers. They Were privileged ito invest any designated sum they felt they Opera house, Plattsburg, N, Y., burned and correspondent com- mented: 'a good one will probably be buiit;' Old theatre was . a con- '.verted church and pretty spur for • town of that siz6^ Ciilcago musician sent. M6(".'6ska -a song to be sung in 'Cymbeline.' She'countered with an inkstand and a. tii»e<'-volume life of Mozart today arid .domlriates iti Three years ago Radio and Music were back next to ;Outdpprs dnd the C>bitS. They were mPved iront by Sid:: VaudeylUe sometimes reaches three pages of news these days iand with, difficulty. Some Dates and Dope . lirie shifted geoigraphlcaily .with thej_" trerid of shPw . buainess. :-B^y-S^^Scrap& t_)}y>i?9r^ In 1922 Sime took over the floundering 'Clipper' frorii Leo Feist, Inc>, the musi.; publishing flrrti which had subsidized the publicatipn, arid after a year's experience of trying to. run two show trade, papers S.lmC scrapped the 'Clipper' (with an out- door policy) as a flop arid merged soihe pf its features into VAiuett. The 'Dramatic Mirror' liad expired arid is rio more. could attord' aniT pay "oft In four C[uarteriy- installments . out *of their earningis, Because of the added du- ties entailed by the acquisltlpn of the 'Clipper' (and also, the 'Times Square D^lly') Sime increased everybody's income^ The raises more than piermitted the stock pur- chases. A year later Sime concluded that the spark of life in the venerable theatrlcall publication which Frank Queen had founded back in 1853 had flickered too low. Sime. scrapped it. His .losises .fan into the hundreds of. thousands. The boys lost sev- eral thousand. What Sime took the rap for, only the business office rec- ords show. The bpys received a" personal promlssoi^ note from ^Ime' agreeing that on such and such date Sime proriiises to pay each man's Invested sUm, plus 6% intereist. That was Sime. 'The World's Worst Daily' The 'Times Square Daily' was a gag .to. Simp. He called it 'the world's, worst daily.' It was a, bit ahead of its time in 1922. That self-kidding arid self-deprecating, most of Which Slriie wrote, panning his four-sheet, tablotd-sizo 'Times Square Dally' was a great gag to the BrPadway Circulation which en- joyfed It Sime iater felt that it might cut in on Variety. He scrapped it N.ow VARIETT has a Daily Variett in Hollywood, In existence siric.ie Sept. 6, 1W3. Arthur Ungar, coast editor, felt a Varibtt dally would have a field. Sid iand Sime said oke. Sime never' used the editorial 'we.' He dropped the personal pro- nouns altogether wherWer possible^ or usCd VAiuETT as spo^sman for it. But-in personal-coriyersatlon he al::^. ways used 'we.' The pnly 'I' he was forced tb use was In telling the staff, 'I think , that this might be. a good idea," or 'will you see so,->and^ so' (for a story). But 1 think' or •will you' meant 'or else* to the staff. \ Sime was a scrapper. And. who- ever was VARiBTT's antagonist ac- cordingly b<?cairie that, of each and every merriber- of the staff. . The pa.rty on the other side couldn't be rfght or.iSime wouldn't be feudin'. jylth 'erii; Sime was a right- guy-^ always. : If sime foresaw the. decadehce of vaudeville arid the growth of the presentatipri (p<cture). theatre, wliere .acts wiib were worth $750 rocclyed $2,0,00 from a larger-gross- infe deluxe cinema, he advocated that. Albee thought Sirne Was kill- ing Keith-Albee yaUdeVille. Sime 4iii£l^=lQng:=since^CL0jiclude^^ kiUed it himself. That went for any of Variett's historic battles, ditd still goes. Sime's prophetic foresight was only manifested (n the trend- of Varibpy's editorial utterances. By tiiat nieans alone the show business recognized the importance of each branch." Films was the last de. partment in the m^.k6up of Variety 11 years ago. It leads the paper VARiErrT's first offices were in the old Knickerbocker . theatre huUdlng .on- dSthi and Brpa<l>yay, since razed. Later It 'was ait 1636 Broadway iat the 45th' and Broadway cprner where. Loew's State now stands. Loew's bought the property^ Slirie had tp riiovQ afoUnd the corner Iritp the .present 164 West 46th street building, which he bpyght frpna Mme. Frances. It f qrmerly hbused her riipdlste shop. The editorial second, flpbf as a result is a curious layout of mirrors, and front arid rear platforms from whence the riiodels pardded. Sime and . Sid latr terly sat~ on neither of the plat- forniSi but around' an elbPW on that .floor, alongside of the resporterS. Too many dropper-inners when they sat at that front platform. . W.iien oil tiie second floor pf .the. Broadway and 45tii street corner, a. Striking White' Rats . actor took a shPt at-. SimA through the window. He wk^ sitting at his i:olltop desk with his back Iri direct vision of the HPtei Astor : diagnoUy across and the Putnam building (now the Par- amount theatre stands there) at 43d and roadway. Sime never turned, his desk ar6undj_.. ■ "The actor took a shot -Sime. It was .a_ bum revolver, shot, but It catrie through the VAribtt window arid the boys ducked. S^me contin- ued editing his copy seemingly un- disturbed. He had seen the . actor. He was coiriing by In a hansom cab, in. Itself uriusual in 1919. The cab was shaking. The aim was poor. Sime .'felt there wouldn't .be .a No. 2 shpt anway. If there were, it would still be a bum shot. He knew who the man was-but never tpid. When Marcus Loew built the State theatre and office building now housing Loew's, Inc.,- and afflli- lafed enterprises, the stage entrance was (and is) right next door to 'Variety's ipresent office. Loew again wanted to disppssess Sime, but this time on a purchase at haridsoriie profit of the present 154 West 46th street bulidingr. The late showmari felt that this would make extra dressing rooms and give more roorii backstage. Sims and. Marcus Loew were pals, but ho deal. .J^ariety's. style, its slang, its tempo. Its ■ disregard .for grainmar, inversion' of nduns to read .3,3 verbs, appealed, to newspapermen. Variety started its career in. good English^ Sime switched in short order Into the a.rgPt of the profesh. The profesh .felt that Sime and the Variety muggs were part of the theatre^ , . . "When one act stole .another's ma- terial. VARiBTY'ia reviewers made no bones about branding the copy act. Got so the stage. hands, after read- ihg the notices; would ride the act for .filching soinebody else's mate- rial. That was the stage' creator's best protection. Plenty of fights. Plenty of squawks. All- dated- back to som^thirig in Variety. The paper was a letter from home for the traveling''artist. Anybody who lias ever worked for Variety or knows it realized . that each. Was. enjoyirig the fruits of the enioririous labor which one man ac- complished in founding the paper and-carrying it on to success. /. The $1,500' he borrpwed frpiri his father-in-iaw. Alderman George Freijmari of Syracuse^ was soon, gohe and.he was .$22,000 in hock to Printer C. J, O'iBrien, whose Lafay- ette street . printing establishment jstUl starids; He was the iriajor cred- itor. 'They told 6'Brieh tp sell out Variety and realize what he Could on the 22G l)()ss. O'Brien instead- personally went on a note for Sime ifor another $5,000. Sime subscr quently justified O'Brien's-belief in hlni. ■the staff; has always felt that as an editor and publisher he was a wjz at figures. His training in. his -fa;thoris^business==Gfflce=^isf=^deeri(red= to be the answer. Sime's father, Louis, Cortland, N. Y., and Syra- cuse, N. Y., businessTflnancial man, gave Sime an elementary school education and a course in business college. Both were the nuts to Sime. His St .ff relations are as closely intertwined into Variety as was the fourider's life. No regular hours. Work was play and vice versa. An- other's piay-^the theatres or nit© clubs—Is Variett's work.. Also it.H play, It's th*e old wheeie about the bus. drivers' day off.' iVariety's' Top -Floor From whence eyplved .VAiiiifi'i's now, famous 'top floor.' It's that— the top. (fifth flfppr) of Variety;s of^ flee building.. First floor is the dd- vertislng; second, editoriai;, , -business^—JourthK-vSwltchboardT-arid girls^ rest fPoni, and ,the top;. fifth* Is the 'Chatedu' Which the boys kid- dlngly equipped.-with a trick; neon light. ,it's a .meeting-greeting place. The only free drpp-In nlte club i the height of Sime's mixing. The schedule was this. After working aU day, he'd hand out tho boys' assignments. They scrammed at 6,: 30 or sp for dlrinier arid tb catCh their, shows. "They could wHte their ' riotices the fpilowlng day, but some- how they driited back after the shows'on any pretext. But primar- ily they knew Slnie woUld .be there. He's still there, it's 11 p.m., after the show. He's In his shirt sleeves. They had left .him editing copy. Thfey return to .flrid hlrii banging but and solf-edltlrig his own stuff. He was chained tp that desk read> Ing the grist of the world's amuse- ment- mill Which an army of somb 226 news-gatherers today, thie world: oyer, fires into VAiiiETTrs editorial offices In New Yprk. He separated the wheat frprii the chaff. He read every bit of It aided by Sid and a cpuple of the others. That was .tho machine he Idter set up. What; he dldri't read, he read iri the piroPfs. He^Ione liandled those, Later-Sid— and the editorial board/ ; J Thus; after he was through" with all that, Sime, would bring out his prodigious collection of notes. Hp carried a, 2-by-5-irich pad to jot notes on. He tore each note pfif and put it Into his other pocket. That was tho collectlpn basket ' "Thus the pad itself was always, clean.. He kept that iri his left-hdnd pocket along With a small stub of a pericil. The right ppcket. of his jacket' bulged with the notes he'd Collected. They were just a few words. A.name' pr date. The stpry he carried In his head. JUst as he carried everything else—the business worries, the, col- lections, notes, discounts, the bank balance, without, referring to rec- ords.. ^ " . His assignment, instead of;;catGh- Irig a show, was to clean up His own, cppy^ He usually had a late lunch so sometimes he skipped dinner. If riot, he'd send out for a sandwich. Either th , or if he^d cleaned up at 10 p.m. ire would then go out to eat, alone or with one or more of hia employes. Siriie. usually, came back at 11. . Then upstairs Wliere his play hours began-^at around 11 p.m. Others droppied in. The place was always well stocked. To this day a bucket of ice goes, into the Ice box daily. Perrier arid ginger ale arid the mixers always there of course. The bottom part of .the Ice phest had a special padlock placed oii it— he always kept chilled Champagno in the lower half and wanted to make sure It would be there if any of his guests wanted that. If tomorrow -wsiS a 'light day' for Sime, he'd , take the entire office bunch to Jimmle Durante's, Tex's or any other spot. Or. for.a ride to a roadhouse.. Depended on the. sea- son and' the woafher. Schnozzlo puratite's was the favorite. A 'light day' for Sirne .meant that he didn't have an appointment until 'ioM. That meant he could be horrip at 5 a. ,m. He dveragecl fiye hours of sleep, , M.uCh, too little.;- Soriietimes It Was loss. "If he caught up on it after a few days he.felt that.was' oke too. ^le'd drive his chauffeurs aocordingly, bat then they'd be. off for two days . tp catch Up-on sleep. Same with, office people. It. seertied to work out. okay. Despite a legend to the contrary ho wasn't: a familiar figure at all first ni hts. He was familiar to all first riighters. But those, functions were the nuts to him.. He \vent to theatres to work. He enjoyed cdtch- ing Loew's Ajmericari iloor or the 5th Averiue (Proctor's) or tiie 23d St There he saw new acts. They were showing.. It' was a break-in date. rlf-gDOd^^ttter^t^tlve'Palacr^irin^ Sime was - there during their bdp- tismal break-Iris. By the time, some of 'em got to the Pa,lace they had adopted the suggestions Sime had offered in his reviews. The brtdorso- ment was intended to influence bookers. It-.usually did. .Tomorrow (Wecinesftay) s imo gets back. The muggs ai^e meeting him at Albariy, N. Y.; and riding back with him to the street i^o lo.vcd.