Variety (Mar 1936)

RADIO SCREEN STAGE Published. Weekly at 154 West 46th St., New Torli, N. T„ by Variety, Inc. Annual subscription, |0. Single copies. 16 cehts. Entered as second-class mattor December 22, 1905, at. the Post Office at New York, N. Y„ under the act of March .3, 1879. ^ COPYBIGHT, 1930, BX TABIETT, INC. ALI BIGHTS BE3EKVED. Vol.121 No. 12 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 1936 80 PAGES Josy Baker at Her Chez Pushes Middle Valve Down and Gives Out By CECELIA AQER , In. a tumult t>f "qu'est-ce que '• c'ests," hand-kissings, clicking of the heels; young men monocled, Har- lem doormen in Zouave uniforms, ■ and occasional champagne cork pops, Josephine Baker opened Chez ^Josephine Baker Friday night (Feb- ruary 28), and in so doing provided :'a spot where those who have been participating in ■ the controversy jr*glng in the sets wliere people get i.iiSrorked up about those things, may r -now repair to gather more material for "their stand on the question of whether Miss Baker is a great artist or whether the press, after the open- ing of the 'Zeigfeld Follies,' did not give Miss Baker a dirty deal. Certainly*the - small confines of a flight club—Chez Josephine Baker was last not too well known as 'Le Mirage'—offer a better opportunity for observing the technique of the Baker bump, which, Miss Baker's (Continued on page 70) BIGGEST FRENCH CIRCUS STARTS Paris, Feb. 26. Largest traveling circus in France Will start Saturday (29) when the Medranos, -whose shows hitherto haVe been fixed or semi-Axed, open a tent -with 6,000 capacity. Will tour France from March to October with one night and longer stands. Opening show, -which starts at the Porte d'Auteuil, near Paris, includes Ritters" Midgets and Togare, -with six tigers. Floyd DiiPont, local American Impresario, will stage a sort of oriental ballet as a closer. Tent is steam heated and cooled. Show carries fire department of 20 and a hospital tent with ambulance. One ring and a stage. Medrano family has run a stationary circus in Montmartre for 40 years, and for five years a semi-fixed one which does one-month stands in larger towns. Both will be retained. Ownership of the three shows will enable-Medranos to offer long book- ings. Edith (Hillbilly) Maxwell Pic Hollywood, March 3. Warners Is having a yarn written around Edith Maxwell, whose trial for killing her father got a heavy Play in the dailies. Carries the title of 'Hillbilly Jus- tice.' Billing FoFTils " current appearance in 'Dear Old Darling,' Alvin, N. T., George Ml Cohan coined a billing phrase: 'American stage actor.' Term is a reminder that .he Is off Hollywood, just in case. IN 8 WEEKS Shirley Temple's last picture, 'Littlest Rebel/ her first to be pro- duced for 20th-Fox by Darryl Zanuck, has grossed over, $1,000,000 for its distributor alone in first eight Weeks of release. The gross for the theatres it. has played in that time has beeh around $2,900,000. This is understood to be a record for any picture on its first two months' dates. 'Curly Top' has gotten close to $1,000,000 in distribution returns to 20th so far. Wildwood, N. J., March 3. Chamber of Commerce of Wild- wood, N. J., wants Shirley Temple to serve as the queen of the summer resort's annual baby parade and J a offering the child star $12,000 for a single day's stand. Bid was made Monday (2) through the Rockwell- O'Keefe agency. There, would be two appearances for the youngster on the day selected, one during the parade and the other during the banquet in the evening. Parade would be staged on any date picked by the player's reps in May or June. N. Y.'er's Ice Ballet Hotel New Yorker Is Installing a portable skating rink and an ice ballet, to work on it for next sum- mer. Troupe will Include a fancy skating team, a comedy act and a line of girls. Effort is being made to book Sonja Heine, world's champion fig- ure skater, for the opening show. Ice shows went out of fashion some years ago, but have been stag- > ing a successful comeback lately at j the College Inn, Chicago. I Four fix in Race for Academy's Award; John Ford Top Director? Appalling Dearth of Likely Film Fodder Forcing Metro, 20th-Fox, RKO to Set Up Drama Coaching Institutes East — O t h e r s May Follow THOSE 'NEW FACES' Confronted with a dearth of tal- ent on the Broadway stage, at least three major picture companies plan to' inaugurate their own schools of acting in New York. Several others are expected to follow suifc It means that at least four and maybe five or six major film producing companies will have company- operated Broadway talent 'kinder- gartens' in full swing by late spring. Indicative of the trend In training its own prospects for screen work is the capacity enrollment at Para- mount's actor training school. This one has been in operation for past two years under the supervision of (Continued on page 70) Free Commersh Show Digs Into the Blue To Sell Auto Parts Hollywood, March 3. Crammed full of risque and dou- ble entendre lines 'The Shaler Cir- cus,' commercially sponsored vaude entourage, appeared in auditorium of Hollywood women's club before a small, non-paying audience. Show, comprising four acts and an afterpiece, runs little more than two hours, with advertising plugs for Shaler automotive products. Seven people utilized on stage, in- cluding announcer and an attend- ant. Bill is topped by Monk Watson, comedy monolOglst, and also in- cludes Eddie Mack and Buddy Brown, acrobatics; Zeke, hillbilly ban joist, and a bit player. Ad plugs come frequently between the sev- eral acts. Tour, purely commercial, is being made by truck. Tickets here carry line 'for adults only,' with indica- tion made that original stag ver- sion was much better, but had to be cleaned up for resentation to mixed audience. Garbo and Coward Stockholm, Feb. 21. Greta Garbo is here and Walks around quite freely, go- ing to theatres, cinema*, and restaurants Without causing much attention. Noel Coward met her on the street and was quite shocked. Told her that it won't do; she'll ruin the w-.k. mystery built up around her and which she has managed to keep for so long. COURTESY PASS GAG A FLOP ON B'WAY Looks like the 40 and 65c 'cour- tesy pass' gag is cold on Broadway. Indicated by the folding of 'The Devil of Pel-Ling' Saturday (29) after less than two weeks at the Adelphi. Nightly takings were puny, one statement showing $21 In the till and another something like $77, with last week's estimated gross hot over $500. Meller had a ticket scale of $2.20 top, but even before it opened slips were distributed with the informa- tion that they could be exchanged at the box office, at a rate of 40c for the balcony and 55 and 85c for the lower, floor. Plan flopped. Stated that this type of cheap ad- missions is no longer saleable be- cause theatregoers won't fall for throwaways unless the shows are established. 'Pel-Ling' was presented by O. E. Wee, who when associated with Jules Leventhal, staged a number of revivals on the throwaway basis. Leventhal is now interested in 'Squaring the Circle' and 'Sailor Be- ware' for out of town dates on the low admish plan. TOWNSEND PLAN PLAY Portland, Ore., March 3. Play based on the Townsend pen- sion plan is being produced with a local cast for presentation at the Mayfair, picture house, by Will Maylon and George Stone. Produc- ers also wrote the script, 'Life Be- gins at 60.' Play Is in 12 scenes and is- aimed for presentation film houses, Hollywood, March. 3. Charles Laughton Is expected tc hose out Victor McLaglen for beat actor performance when votes are counted in annual Academy awards banquet Thursday night (5) Laughton is on the ballot for hia 'Captain BUgh' role in 'Mutiny On The Bounty,' but he is also men- tioned for his performance in 'Bug- gies, of Red Gap' which gives him a double, nod in the votes over McLaglen's solo outstander in, 'The Informer.' Checkup of voters shows that Bette Davis and Elisabeth Bergner are due to wage a hot battle for award on best actress performance tn 1935. Former was nominated for work in 'Dangerous,' With Mlaa. Bergner getting on the ballot foil 'Escape Me Never,' British-mad© feature. Academy members are likely to. hand honors to. Bette Da via this year, in view of freeze-out of the player from nominations last (Continued on page 72) ffWOOD GUILDS' ACAD BOYCOTT Hollywood, March 3. What amounts to a virtual boy- cott of the Academy Awards Ban- quet March 5 was imposed by the Screen Actors and Writers Guilds following a meeting yesterday (Monday) to discuss a course to be pursued. Wires went, out to all Guilders asking them to ignore in- vitations to attend. The film Guilds are burned at the asserted subterfuge used by the Academy to lure Guilders to the banquet. It is claimed the pro- ducers are making up parties and including Guilders in each group, without their knowledge it is an Academy setup. Pullman Pix All Set Chicago, March 3. Sidney Cohen is giving a final demonstration of motion pictures on trains to officials of the Pullman Co. here today (Tuesday). Cohen and B. I. Clatworthy, engineer, have developed special projection equip- ment with RCA Photophone. They expect Installation in some 300 Pullman club cars in. the fir. year.