Variety (Feb 1936)

«fi VARIETr LITE R A TI Wednesday, Februarj 26, 1936 T^ime Chides English Copyists' Time map takes two neW British new8<»maeazines,.also\weekly, mildly to task for .'franlUy plasladnlng* the tJ. S. tiuhlicatlon. News Review .and Cavalcade are the titles of the "t^wo hew London weeldies. Former Is published by TIbor Korda, Hun- garian, Who denies he Is rielated,' o Al^-'^nder' Korda, and; Cavalcade la edited by Alan Cameron, published by William James Brlttaln; Cameron was formerly associated with Kordx as one ot the editors . o£ Cosmopolitan Press; ^publishei's of a string, of small trade publications, and when Koijda heard that his ex;- euicpr, Camieron, was u-out the idea which he (Korda). had tiursed for some time, that of a British counterpart of America's Time n.aeraEine; he' rushed to press With News ReS^iew in ordir to beat Cameron to the mark.t for the dis- tinction of Britain's first weekly news-magazine. Both are analyzed by,.Time r. .copyi.ng its style,- trpogr- raphy and format. Best SeUers Best Sellers for the week ending Feb. 22, M reporisd.by ths American News Co.$ |ne< icti 'The Last Puritan' ($2.75) >.,,......By George Santayana 'I'he Hurricane* ($2.50) .....By Chas. Nordhoff and James N. Hall 'If 1 Have Four Apples' ($2;6p)............By Josephine L&wrence. 'It Can't Happen Here' ($2.50) v..,,...;.By Sinclair Lewis 'Faster, Faster' ($2,60) .■, By E. M. Delafleld 'Allnchestei' House' ($2.60) By Anne Creena iction 'North to the Orient' ($2.50/,, ....By Anne Morrow LindbiBrgh 'Life With Father' ($2.0Q) .........By Clarence Day 'Woollcott Reader, The* ($3.00)....... . . .By Alexander Woollcott 'Man the Unknown' ($4.50) ..................... . .By Alexis CarreU 'Mrs. Astor'is Horse' ($3.00).... ...,.>«,,.,.By Stanley Walker 'The Exile' ($2,50) .i .By Pearl S, Buck More Stri rdoih Gevman newspaper publishers now must prove'that both they and their wives are of pOre Aryan descent back as far as the year 1800. not* withstanding the Nuremberg laws' provision fol> proof of Aryanism: back oiily to their grandparents. This law provided that under certain circu instances more strin- snt provlsib'ris made by Nazi party organizations or other authorities might be" mainfained with permis- sion of the Ministry of the Interioi?,' Rule .how ..to ho enforced-was Is- sued by .Max AHiah",'/: old p^rty member and head of the largest Nazi .i)u:, Wishing house. . It's entitled "Ah Ordinance for ■Safeguardihg th6 Gern Newsr paprr Publishing Fi^'.d." Anzae Supplement Woriien's Weekly,...A femme mag publlsljed Iby Associated Newspapers In Sydney, Avstralla,. win bring in an 8-pa^e film supplement. A representative. Is at present in Hollywoodv digging up niatierlal. Mag also carries a tr6e novel weekly and a book on how to ap- pear, beautiful at all times. Whole' lot» Ihcludlhg the film, stuffy costs only ^6; Navels given free Ihclude 'Saiji Michelle,' 'Jim the Conqueror,* The Inheritors,* and.'The Tihlri Man.' Moro On W! 11; Rogers' . Oklahoma State, Society sponsor- ing new volume on Will Rogers, to appear March 13. Book to be titled •Folks Say of "Will Rogers.' Cdnirlbutoris Include President Roosevelt, Fannie Hurst, Amos 'n' Andy, Fred Stonci IrVln S. Cobb, Grantlahd Rice, Rabhl Wise, Rupert Hughes, O. Oi Mclntyra and Eddie Cantor. Or. Wise Succeeds Son Editorship of- Opinion', mag of Jewish life and letters^ taken over by;Dr. Stephen S. Wisei Dr. Wise succeeds his son, Jamea Waterman Wise starting with the April issue. He will be assisted by board com- posed of Professor Mordecal M, Kaplan, Ludwlg Lewisohn,. Rebekah Kohut, Maurice Samuel and Dr. John Hayhes Holmes, Cendrars Ends Pie Prowl Series of articles on film atudlos and screen personalities, material for which were slathered by Blaise Cendrars during recent visit here, will appear weekly In the Parls- Solr, said to >have largest general circulation In Frdnce. Cehdri s, who Authored 'Sutter's Gold,' along with 10 other novels. Is now en route to France. Short Life for L. A< Daily Los Angeles. Press, community shopping ne^s sheet, Is back • to twice-a-week ^publication after three days as a dally. Heavy overhead put the damper on six times weekly appearance. Sheet claims circula- tion of 86,«00 "tn the Wilshire- Hancock Park district bf L. A. ClassVfor^ 5c. American Standardyis title of new 6c week akedded for ,some time in spring. Mag to feature material of high literary nature. Joseph Greenberger will edit, with Albert .Wiener holding down the business end. Mag will sell by sub- scriptTon only. Glorifying the P. A* The press agent is to have a ch&inpion in tlie new Publicity News,"national ma^ devoted to. pub- licity and public relattions.,. Will he a, monthly, Initial Issue due March 1. Edwar iib- Itsher. Booksellers' Awards i .May First -national book award of American Booksellers Association to be made at its cohvpntion early in May. Award to cover books pub- lished through D$c., 1936, classifi- catlohs including most original novel, the most distinguished novels biogi'aphy and. non-fiction^ Though award It not monetary, it Is believed that backing of booksell- ers will help the sales of books choseii. Balloting is in hands of Na- tional Committee, and all booksell- ers will" be permitted to vote. ions and Letters Itlhge F. Warner} .publishing liew fashion mag .for femmes. called Style Arts. Will be quarterly, sell- only by . subscription and will inake Its apjpearance early in March., trene S. Simp Is.editing,. Close on the heels of Womans Today mag comes Hugo.Gerhsback's Woman's Digest, also to devotts. It- self to wonien's side' of. affairs in. getteral. Mag to be edited by Mlna Lewlr ton, former associate ed of Golden Book. First .issue out end of this ihohth. ■ Heiikle-Yewdale Elects Officers of newly' orgatnized Henkl.e-Yewdale House, of which Mertbn St Tewdale Is pre?, Include Henrietta Henkle' as v'.p.; Daniel Jaeger, as treasurer,: and Pearl W, Henkle, secretary. ' " Henkle-Yewdale's first books to Include 'Labor Union Racket,' by Edward Dean Sullivan; 'His End Was His Beginning,' by Herirletta Buckmaster; .'Confessions of An- other Young Man,' by Bravlg Imbs, ari^ .'.Gangplanks to the East' by Bertha Luqi;< Hellinger's Full Page Mark Helllnger will" get a full page-to himself on the-N. Y. Attier-, lean Sunday March of Events sec-, tion starting with the issue of March'15.'. At present he's sharing the page with O. O. Mclntyre, but latter Will be shifted to a different page. Figured .by the American circu- lation department that the Hel- llnger page has upped the paper's sale by over 50,000 thus far. did scripting job at Paramount Coast studio. After: two- weieks layoff, during. Which he finished *neiw piystery novel, Don MalnWarlng Is back on 'Warner studio, L, A., publicity pay- roll. Award, of Parents mag medal for 1935 for. most helpful book'of year for parents goes to Dr. Winifred E;. Bain for 'Parents Look at Modern Educatlbn.' (Continued from page, 6) picture, 'Klondike Annie' (Par). It Is .said the publisher: personally cracked down on tW film and will : loose an Editorial campaign against It on inorals grounds. It-Is the first time any Hearst paper has hurled theatre advertising out of Its make- up, and likewise, first time Hearst, himself a plc producer, has ever gone gunning after a film on such grounds. 'Annie' Is having one of Its first release dates bere at the In- .die downtown Urst runner, Keith's. It opened Saturday (22). 'The News-Post, critic, Norman Clark, will not . review film. Larry Schanberger, manager of Keith's, is quite worked up oyer fact News-Post banned all mention of the film from. Monday on. On Satur- day^ Schanberger points but. sheet accepted 60-lln6 ad frotn Keith's and also started i publicity contest for which cash prize was. donated by theatre. On Sunday, IQOrllne ad was accepted .from houtie, plus a 900-lIne national ad spread. On Monday Schanberger was notified that News-Post would carry nothing more on 'Annie,' but reason for ban was not given the exMb. Monday's ad would have been but 26 lines. Fiction and Films By EPES SARGENT Promi ing New Writer For her first novel, Rahiona Herd- man reveals a keenly analytic mlndi an . ability to .virtually yivlsect her creations and expose their Inner By WOLFE KAUFMAN What's Wrong with Pictures? William J, Perlman, growing very worried about the motion picture business and Its future, has got- ten together a symposium on it. He" worklhgs, .Without the debutante I asked 20 good fellows to write him assertion, *A "Time for Love" (Har- pieces about the business, which he per's; $2 could pass for the prod- put together into one volume called Uct- of an established writer, but 'The Movies on Trial' (Macmlllan- then Miss. Herdman has been on the $2.60).' It is a pompous, if preco- Harpfer staff since '29 and comes clous, volume and it isn't likely to naturally by her expertn6ss, teach anyone anything,, nor solve The story tells of the love of Paui any problems. But It does <jontaln Langdon for his assistant, Mary a few para.graph3 of amusing wrlti Calder. He tries to eat his cake Irig. and have it, too, for he cannot rec- oncile himself to severing his htari tai ties to forni a new alliance. He dalll.es until thje level-headed Mary walks out Oh ; him, stlir keenly loV' ing, but assured , that he hever will be man .enough to meet the. situa tlon Olfearly. It Is a .thoughtful book, for thoughtful readers, though Its circulation will not ba confined to this class. It Is there, however, that she will meet her full recognition. Could make a picture, but for the censorship against ■ illicit love. There re some surprising mis- taltes and errors In the chapters written by WiUlarn Allen White, Rev, John J. Cantwell and a few others, but they're unimportant, be- ing personal. Edward G. Robinson, in a defenigive piece, gets just a m.lte too academic, and: Seymour Stern tears the business to pieces because it isn't artistic, enough. Don Marquis knows why pictures are bad—because the stories, aren't good, enough. Judge Ben Lindsey worries about all tho shootin,'; picturing. If Miss Herdnian can re- peat, she will be established, for aij second effort will be: looked for with interest. • though this is cleaner than many Pictures are mighty nice, he nxore respectable books passed for | *.^^1'^'"> Judge. Goldstein backs him up. WlUIam Lyons Phelps outlines a bunch of stories he'd like to see Hollywood make (sonie of. Which have already been done) and Upton Sinclair details the Holly- wood plot against social security: Most entertaining and unaffected piece in the book Is the one by Brock Remberton, wiio seems to think that sure the picture business Is screwy, but what the hell, ain't it a lot of fun? Mars' TM.rri Since Edgar Rice Burroughs' pre- vious book was 'Tarzan and. tlie Leopard Mein,' the author dives into. Interplahetary space for 'Swords of Mars' (Burroughs,..Inc.; $2), ■Thia.time It Is an airship With a nearly hunian brain, developed by a half-crazed scientist, and a trip to the larger of thei Martian nioons. Packed with adventhre, nicely planned for sustained suspense. In the creation of. this type "of liter ture Burroughs stands w;ithout a I peer. Slightly above his standard. More Saroyan Briefies About.. 18 mouths or so ago nett c;erf and Whit urriett, work- ing hand in hand, creatied a new literary genius for America by the name of William Saroyan. Saroyan was a young Armenian-American who had written a few falr-to-h^Id- dllng short stories and Cerf and Biirnett decided to build him (and their own bankroll) up. They suc- ceeded admirably, proving once niore—if proof was needed—how easy it is. Now Saroyan gives out his second book of short stories, 'Inhale and. . Ed Smith Dead Ed Smith, 67, former Chicago sports writer and. referee, die'd Feb 23 In Hollywood from pneumonia. Widow and daughter survive. CHATTER Paul de KruiC In N. Y. Franz Werfel to Vienna. Alexander Woollcott to Europe, Alec Waugh . and Francis Hackett Europe-bound, Claudia' (jran^tqn off on a trip around the world. Aben Kandel Is doing a new novel about Hollywood. Sinclair Lewis and Harrison Smith to Bermuda. Homer Groy doing an article pn Hplljhvood for Cosmo. John Masefleld's hew book of poems, 'A. Letter from Pontus,' due in May.. John E. Allen's articles on 'News- paper Makeup' io be published In book form. Heritage Press, which' specialises in classics; deviating to do Irving Stone's 'Lust for Life.' Twentieth 'Century-Fos paid $10,000 for Harry Hamilton's first novel, 'Banjo on My Knee.' Ruth Rankin resigned as asso- ciate editor of Silver Screen and Screenland to write a novel. First book under Horizon House imprint to be Mary Master Need- ham's 'Tomorx'ow to Fresh Fields,' John. Evans, whose hew book, 'Shadows Flying,' comes out in April, is married to Claire Spencer. Reglna Kurlander, special writer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, in New York for a month of writing on her own. Wallace Smith Is writing serial for Satevepost on Mexico. Recently lock and Hearst in Pitt Pittsburgh, Feb. 25. For possibly first time in film his- tory a flicker came In .for page 1 editorial blast here last week when the morhlhg post-Gazette, Paul Block dally, put the hooks Into Mae West's 'Klondike Annie.' Captioned 'Is Politics Infiuencing Censorship, piece appeared just one day before picture opened locally at Penn. Discussing brlefiy ban of 'It Can't Happen Here,' editorial also ap peared a day later on page one Of flye other Block dailies. Paramount locally took no action. The expected yanking of a three-column Par na tional ad In the Post-Gazette a day following appearance of blast didn't develop either, and It's believed pro ducers may let It go as Just one of those things, figuring perhaps It may be a faVorable boomerang for business. Appearance of piece had city cen- sors calling at the Penn, with repre- sentatives of women's clubs, for first showing of picture. They found no objections on' moral grounds aN though one of club. representative^ asked for picture's withdrawal be- cause It created Ill-feeling between China ahd America. Fllni critics made note of 'Klon- dike Annie's' splcc, notably Karl Krug, reviewer for Hearst's ISun- Tel^gram and Post-Gazette critic. In face of all this adverse criti- cism, 'Klondike Annie' got around $2,500 at Penn opening day (21), bettering first-day take of the last West picture here, '(Join' To Town,' by several huildred dbllartr aind on Saturday, following hit close to $4,- 000, fine. That presages a better than a $14,000 week, which is ex- cellient. Stance in Syracuse Syracuse, Feb. 26, Hearst's Journal-American toda.y served, niptlce on the RKO-Schine theatre -pool that Its columns are closed to advertising and publicity on Mae West's 'Klondike Annie.' Picture opens at Keith's Thursday (27) midnight. Understood It will be made an editorial target. On Acting Van H. Cartmell does hot pom- pously announOe that his 'Handbook for the. Amateur Actor,' (Doubleday, Doran; $1.60) Is a comfplete treatise on the art. He merely proffers It as- ah aid to the amatetirs, notably for the director. In slightly more than , , , , ^t, , w 60 pages he gives hints on various 5. ^ ^ phases of acting. Then follows what ^^^^ 1* is he calls an appendix, whidh runs the ^]}^^ Saro>^n is still a fair-to-mid- volume up to 200 pages. Here are shprt; story writer with ajot. to be found an ample glossary, theh** Pi'o«iif. and that some m^m entire production layout of a New I W really write something worth ■York little theatre, and a one-act farce in which the left-hand pages contain a complete analysis of the stage business and the rea&Ons therefore. while. For Radio Writers Peter Dixon, who has had a lot of This alone would give I experience in the writing oi; radio the average amateur director, plejty of new ll^rht on how to direct. Pub liished without the other matter, It would still be a good buy at sev- eral times the.prloe. It should snuggle on the shelf of every little theatre library. _1_ programs, has turned out a fine text book In 'Radio Sketches and How to Write Them' (Stokes; $2). It's a discussion of technique of writ- ing, how and where of selling; how sexuals are plotted, and the'techi nique of children's programs; Book also contains,,20 previously broadcast sketches used by promi- nent persons as examples for study. Starts off with the statement that it is 'not a sucker, book and doesn't promise to teach you anything.' Just a text book for discussion, and it is, too. A good one. Nice Pilotage Margaret Wlddemer has written enough books to have, learned the channels and the backwaters of lit- erary composition. She finds It slm- pie to chart the passage of not one but three marriages In. 'Marriage Is Possible' (Farrair. & Rlnehart; $2), They all Lappen about the- same time and the heroine, her brother | niusic. She does, to find out she and their girl chum all make the p"®ver was legally max'ried, and she. hitch. Shiela Lonsdale marries a strug- gling young lawyer, whose chief fault is an easy ^disposition, but her brother is roped into marriage with a cheap little cheater and. her chum, whom her brother really loves, mar- ries a wealthy Italian-American. AH of these niatrlmbnial adventhres and their Inter-relatlonshlps are of course, marries the doctor. In- teresting and along modern lines, but not gripping, '"ioo involved for picture appeal. skillfully khlt into^an engrossing L.ow Along Easy Lines Departing fronv none of the con- ventions, Mai-y Blckel's 'House Guest", (Conrad McCanri; $2) Is just a well, built biit unimaginative job of writing. Good'picture material. story. ever. The first third, lags in a . leisurely It's good fare for the libraries, but buildup of the plot, but then thl contains greater appeal to people who buy rather than rent books. It's real writing. Psychiatry Barbara Webb, who. specializes in ... „ hillbilly romance, gets knee deep InJ romance, psychosis In her 'Coming Round the Mountain' (Doubleday,. Doran; $2). More than half the book deals with an experiment in psychology woven into a romance. begin to warm up and the story move's smoothly to. Its end, With the complications deftly If unoriglhally h'Oned out. Deals with the efforts of a breezy Frenchwoman to malie a delayed Cagh-ln on a wartime Fuzzy Indirection rather hampers 'Turn Magic Wheel' (Farrar & Rlnehart; , , . ., $2), in which Dawn Powell telLs a "erolne runs aways from the story In a haphazard progress that hills when marriage to a moun- is talneer becomes too distasteful. A native ability to do distinctive sketches brings her New York Suc- cess. She falls in love with a mental specialist, to whom she makes confession that she Is mar- ried. He insists that for her soul's good she must go back to face the supposed to reveal much move than it tells. Highly modern style, but not a good model ■ for young writers, for it probably will be out of style by the time they grow up. For the cognlscentl or something. Not a picture. Not much of a ^sfoi\v, mostly character drawing.