Variety (Oct 1937)

Wednesday, October 6, 1937 PICTURES VARIETY Par Spreading Premieres Around Country; Frisco, Seatde, New Orleans Hollywood, Oct. 5. Paramount has started a mov<? away from the bailiwick of HoUy- ■wood itself for the staging of elabo- rate film premieres with no less thai> five forthcoming features already set for preems elsewhere. • Idea has been talked about for a long time, the main objective being to exploit picturesque regions select- ed as the locate of important films and to take full advantage of historic and geographical interest attaching to subject matter of features. ' First big out-of-town preem will be that of The Barrier,' produced by Harry Shehhan for Paramount release. This qhe will make its bow in Seattle, background of much of the hovel by Rex Beach from which the' picture was made.: Western' Washington also has a peculiar in- terest^ because a great deal of the footage was shot in the vicinity of Mount Baker and the Cascade mountains. Paramount will dispatch a full complement of stars, featured play- ers, film celebrities and the gala opening will haye all the swdnk and glitter of the customary Hollywood Splurge on similar occasions. This one is skeded to come off Oct. 29. ■ 'Ebb Tide' for Frisco San Francisco' has been designated •a the debut spot for two other big Paramount specials, 'Ebb Tide,' re- cently • completed in color, and •Wells Fargo.' SF draws the 'Ebb Tide' preem in view of the fact that the town takes great civic pride in the fact that. it was the literary home of Robert Louis Stevenson, au- thor of 'Ebb Tide,' and of his step- son, Lloyd Osbourne, also a noted writer. Tljere is a Stevenson land- mark in Portsmouth Square. Same situation applies to *Wells Fargo,' Frisco having been the orig- inal western terminus of the great Wells Fargo Express Co., around which the story of the film is writ- ten. Entire casts of both 'Ebb Tide! anil 'Wells Fargo' will be hauled to the Golden Gate metropolis for the big 'premieres which will be put on •with customary. Hollywood ..pomp and grandeur. 'Ebb' goes on in mid- November and 'Fargo' New Year's Eve. New Orleans Going: Gala C. B. D'e Mille will stage a similar •vent for New Orleans at the bow of his big pirate film, 'Jean LaFitte,' now in production on a budget run- ning around the $2,000,000 mark. Tliis premiere is currently skeded •for late in January. Plans are now being discussed for preeming the Wesley Ruggles fea- ture, 'True Confession,' in New York. Whole plan was decided upon at confabs held by Adolph Zukor, Neil M. Agnew and Robert Gillham at the Paramount convention last summer and Hollywood is waiting now to see if other studios will fol- low suit. BARTHOLOMEW BACK ON THE Metro lot Hollywood, Oct. 5. Freddie Bartholomew reported for ^ork on the Metro lot Monday (4) after a superior court i\ling grant- ing the studio a temporary injunc- tion restraining him from breaching nis contract or working at any oth6r studio. The youngster carried with him a letter which stated that he was re- turning to the studio in compliance jvUh the court order, but that in do- in^ so all his rights to continue a defense and to recover any possible damages would be reserved. Jan Peerce in Vaude • ^^-^ Peerce, tenor, plays his first validate week of Oct. 15 at the Fox, ■L>etto,t. Booked by Curtis & Allen. Only pop stage work Peerce has neretofoi-e done has been in the gf^-shows at Radio City Music NEW METRO MUSIC REAUGNMENT SET ■ As fully detailed in the music de- partment of this,issue, Metro's music publishing interests were realigned over the week-end. Louis K. Sidney becomes liaison between the film company and Metro's subsid music firms. Feist, Robbins and Miller. Feist will "be 100% Metro filmusl- cal publisher, with Jack Gregman at the helm. Jack Robbins will worry about the other two companies, which will divide the 20th-Fox, Wanger, Universal and other picture songs. David Bernstein, Loew's, Inc., v.p. and prez of the Metro music subsids, made the shifts personally. Totce &zelte' Has An Ultra Circulation/ 50G Suit Vs. Par Avers Paramount libelled the Police Gaz- ette in its Mae West picture, 'Klon- dike Annie,' which depicted 'Annie' reading the Gazette in a bordello^ according to an amended complaint filed in N. Y. federal court by the National Police Gazette Corp., which wants $50,000 damages. . Not only was the monthly's rep besmirched, the detailed complaint says, but 'that by reproducing the trademark masthead of the Gazette, Paramount sought to convey that the publication is commonly read by persons of low, vulgar and indecent tastes, traits and character and meant also to convey the idea that the publication was generally to be found in resorts for dissolut(i .and unchaste persons.' Plaint claims Gazette's circulation dropped $50,000 worth as a result. ■ Rogers' Indian Museum; Maybe Also Okla. Park Oklahoma City, Oct. 5. J. B. Wise, of Oologah, states a plan to make the Will Rogers ranch near Oologah a state park is to be' presented soon to^the State Park Commission. He has received a letter from Mrs. Rogers assuring the Oologah committee of her coopera- tion in the plan. 'The ranch property is not for sale,' she wrote. 'However should the State of Oklahoma at any time be interested in the property as a memorial park, I would be most happy to cooperate in every way possible.' The Will Rogers Memo- rial Commission has voted to con- struct an Indian museum at Clare- more as the state's tribute to the late humorist-actor. Small-Landau Split ~ Hollywood, Oct. 5. Agency firm of Small & Landau is being dissolved and the two part- ners, Maurice Small and Arthur Landau, will set up their own quar- ters. Edward Small has been out of it since his return to active production. Details of the client division is being worked out. 'VARIETY' MUGG GOES METRO Wolfe Kaufman (Variety) has joined the Metro writing corps in Hollywood. Flew out Saturday (2). Kauj was seven years on the New York news staff until resigning to take the studio job. First assignment will be an origi- nal for a musical, to be produced by Nat Levine, the laller's first as a Metro producer. First . Time in Nearly 20 Years That the 4-A's Es- tajblished Such Coopera- tion-—E m b r a c e s Legit, Films, Concert and Radio —$30,000 Loan to AFRA VAUDE NOT YET IN For the first time since its forma- tion nearly 20 years ago, the Assp- ciated Actors and Artists of Ameri- ca has at. last established a working unity among its component parts. Approval by Actors Equity Assn. last week of the hew arrangement for inter changeability! of cards finally puts in motion the machinery for close organization among the mem- ber groups. Under the new rule, any per- fornier in the four principal branches of ' show business (legit, films; concert and radio) must be- long to the Four A's group having jurisdiction in the field in which he works. Additionally, failure to join the orgdnizsition in any new field he enters wiU bar the performer from all other fields, including his orig- inal one. % Although all the member groups in the AAAA have not okayed the hew rule and are consequently not yet covered or cooperating under its workings, they are expected to act on it soon, now that the work ar- rangement has been set. So far, the groups involved include (besides Equity, and Chorus Equity) the Screen Actors Guild, the American Guild of Musical Artists and the American Federatiom of Radio Artists. Other Four A's bodies not yet included are the American Fed- eration of Actors, the Hebrew Ac- tors Union, the German White Rats, the Hungarian White Rats, the He- brew Chorus Union, the Grand Opera Choral Alliance and several other smaller ones. While the original Four A's con- stitution contained a clause covering interchangeability, it had never been put into use. Changed conditions ini show business since it was drafted had made ' it unworkable. An amendment of the constitution to bring it up to daite is a complicated and long-drawn-out procedure. This new rule piitside the constitution was therefore drawn up and ap- proved. Figured the AAAA consti- tution will ultimately have to be re- written in more modern and work- able form. In the meantime, the new ruling will cover interchange- ability and working agreements. Un- der the new arrangement. Equity's contract with the SAG remains un- changed. $30,000 Sans Interest Rule, which went Into effect im- mediately and continues for three years, may be terminated on 60 days' notice by any of the four parties on notice to the other parties. Termina- tion,- however, will not affect the clause relating to the loaning of money by Equity, SAG and AGMA to AFRA. This clause states that the fund ($30,000) loaned to AFRA is without interest, except on de- mand, after which 6% will be charged annually until the money is repaid. Each party to the pact agrees to instruct its members -to apply for membership in any group in whose field he may work' and further agrees that non-compliance will re- sult in suspension. Each of the parties 'recognizes the desirability of applying the theory of interchangeability' and agrees to the following rules: '(a) Any mem- ber shall not be deemed to have withdrawn from the field of any party hereto until he has ceased to work therein for a period of at least one year. On expiration of one ycir the member may, if not in default in dues, be permitted an Honorable Withdrawal Card, (b) Any member in good standing of one group hereto (Continued on page 19) Catholics of Canada Want a Motion Picture Censorship of Their Own Working Title Hollywood, Oct. 5. Metro has bought Marcel Pagnol's big Paris hit, 'Fanny,' and will star Wallace Beery and Frank Morgan in it. Sales price not reported. Studio" is looking for new title. Pagnol produced 'Fanny' in France, both on stage and screen, from his own script. Frank Morgan, who gets one of leads, also created star role of same author's 'Topaze' on N. Y. stage. 'Reom Service'Cost RKO 2606, and Now 250G for Manes in It , Hollywood, Oct, 5. Marx Bros. ha;Ve signied with Radio to make 'Room Service* and one other picture, the first for $250,000 and the second at a considerably hiked figure. Second " may . be 'Of Thee I Sing,' which Radio owns for pictiures. Samuel J. Brlskln will produce 'Room Service,' with Morrie Ryskind scripting and no director yet set al- though Gregory LaCava has been mentioned. RKO paid $260,000 for the film rights 'Service.' UA SEEKING TO QUASH BILL HART'S 2D SUIT His original $500,000 suit against United Artists restored to the N. Y. supreme court calendar for new trial, William S. Hart, with his sister, Mary Hart, has begun a second, ac- tion against UA, this time; for $185,- 000. Latest suit, also begun in supreme cotirt but subsequently moved to the U. S. district court, claims actual damages on the film,' 'Tumbleweeds,' made by the cowboy star in 1925. Action charges UA knowingly committed a fraud in signing a contract with the plaintiff for release of the pic. UA'sl attorneys seek dismissal of the suit on the ground the charge doesn't constitute a cause for action. According to the actor's latest suit, UA forfeited all rights to any in- come from distribution of the; film by intentionally making a contract it had no intention of keeping. De- fendant's share of the income from the film was $185,000, which the suit seeks to recover. UA had the action transferred to the U, S. dis- trict court on the ground that the plaintiff is not a resident of New York. Hart's original suit for $500,000 was brought in 1931. He won a jury ver- dict of $85,000, plus $1,759 costs. Appellate division last July set the verdict aside as not supported by the weight of evidence, with the supple- mentary opinion that the amount of damages ^yas not properly reached. Plaintiff was given the choice of a new suit in N. Y. supreme court or an appeal to the higher court. House, Grossman, Vorhaus & Hemley are attorneys for Hart.' UA is repre- sented by O'Brien, Driscoll 3e Raf- tery. Montreal, Oct. 5. Another headache for exhibitors in this city iand province is seen in the proposal by Cardinal Villeneuve, R. C. Primate of Canada, to establish a provincial Catholic body to ex- amine and censor moving pictures in the province of Quebec and ty take steps to provide films complying with.strict moral standards. . An already established Quebec Board of Moving Pictures Censors has worked fairly well for exhibitors for th^e past 12 years. Eugene Beaulac, chairman, is a former news- paperman. The new proposal is to act in support of the present board by means of a 'Catholic cinema centre, directed by a priest and in- cluding as members the fathers and mothers of families, preminent civic leaders, etc;' The duties of this body would be (1) to deterniine the value of various pictures; (2) to handle complaints in connection .. with the Provincial Censor Bureau when instances of laxity crop up; (3) to jstudy the pic- ture question from all angles, re-> liglousi moral and cultural, for the purpose of joining with other Catholic action agencies for the gen- eral improvement of pictures. His Eminence adds that this organization might well be whipped Into a power- ful, province-wide force modelled on the United States Legion of Decency. The Cardinal In his statement says that the proposed supervising body would insist on 'morally, sound' pic- tures, establish a classification of all films coming to the province and seek from the Provincial Govern- ment laws complementary to present legislation to assure adequate con- trol of the industry in Quebec Province. The law Is already pretty rigorous in this province, one of its most onerous" provisions being the enact- ment which provides that no minor under the age . of 16 can attend a moving picture .theatre, even though in company of parents or guardians. MRS. BUHERWORTH'S $16,000 SETTLEMENT Suit to collect, insurance on jew- elry stolen four years ago from Ethel (Mrs. Charles) Butterworth in a Hollywood holdup has just been settled after much litigation and five appeals. Mrs. Butterworth received $16,000 in cash as settlerhent of her claim. She previously refused jew- elry offered her by the insurance company as settlement, claiming it was inferior to h^r own. Suit had considerable legal inter- est as it set a precedent for insur- ance companies which cannot sub- stitute for stolen Jewelry if policy holder does not wish it. Metro's Fritz Kortner Fritz Kortner, German actor now in America, is being screen-tested by Metro. He nriay go into legit show while awaiting outcome or test. Kortner, who has appeared in numerous German film productions, has been in London legit since the Hitler regime. He is viewed as a suit- able type if his broad accent can be polished up. 220 Strawhat Testees Cut to 60; Need Only 12 List of 220 actors and actresses recommended by scouts, after view- ing their work in strawhat sock companies during 'the past summer, has been trirnmed to ,60 by Mfetro, Not all of those originally inter- viewed or tested were new faces, some of them having Broadway eps. Talent department at Metro ex- pects to have number of candidates narrowed down to 12 within the fortnight, with nearly that many screen tests to be submitted to the Coast for final word. Soph's Biog Hollywood, Oct. 5. Sophie Tucker is to have her life bioged in a book by Jack Yellen, which will come out next summer. Actress Is digging up data from the time she started as a coon shout- er. Art embellishments will bs pose."? with royally and other titled English friends.