Variety (May 1938)

VARIETY PICTURES Wedniesdaft May 4, 1938 Lefty in a Spot; Film Beauty Contest Winner from Wrong Side of RR Track By Joe Laurie, Jr. Dear Joe: Just went through another one of those weeks where I hit the jackpot of hard luck. I wrote you about running a' contest for the most popular girl in towh, the winner to get a trip to Hollywood and a test made of hei;.' Well, we opened the ballot box in front of a committee of prominent citi-; zens and on the couiitup, we found that a little blonde dolly by the name of Daisy Belts,' who comes, from the wrong, side of thie tracks, was ,the winner. Welij you never saw. so many, eyebrows raised, in your life. The Chamber of Commerce is in a dither about sending , a gal like that as the most popular gai in CopUcres.. Wives in the, town are buzzing about it at all the bridge parties, Aggie looks kinda fuiihy at me thinking maybe I put in a gimmick for. the gal to win, 'and I explained to her that Vic happened to put a lock, on the box that we had no key to, so we couldn't monkey with the results, , Vic and his wife, Flo, had so many battles over the thing. Uiat she. bought a scrap book." Flo thought she was set: to win and ;now thinks Vic gave her the double-X. My mouthpiece tells me that I must go through with it and send the girl to .Hollywood for a test or she can sue in« for plenty for misrepresentation^ The girl is pretty but has'no talent for acting. Wouldn't it. be funny, if she went to Hollywood and became a big star?. I've seen funnier things than that, happen—I've seen gals with talent be- come stars. Anything can. happen in a town where every rnove . Is a C picture. .She is sort of a medium-dumt> gal; she thinks a mirror is an hour glass, and is plenty easy on the eyes. She has a pair of gams, that are pass-' ports into any producer's pfficci, . If she happens to make good in Holly- wood it willhelp. clean up our town, A team by the name, of Needham and Landry, who do a triple-bar act, was passing through here and needed some gasoline dough, so I flggered I'd let th'em do their act for two. days and kinda take the monotony .off- the pictures. And, anyway, I. haven't seen a good triple-bar act in a long timie,.: So they come early in the- morning to set-.up their rigging. I was upstairs havin' my breakfast when I hear thehi yellih' for . itie. Well, I thought maybe it's a fire or somethin'; and I grabs Junior and Aggie and rush downstairs. I fliid a crowd in front of the theatre all excited and the two acrobats yellin''and telling me that -they discovered an oil well under my stage. ,Well; I follows them backstage and sure enough there's a big fountain of oil spoutin' up and. getting'the'whole stage full of oil., Well, I kinda lose my head and I'm already flggerih* up how much a day a well like that Would bring me in, but just then Aggie grabs me and sez, •Lefty, it's your oil tank under the stage, fix it quick.'' It seems the-acro- bats, while drilling holes in the stage for their riggin;' drilled too dieep and right into the big tank. We got a plumber and ;:flnally fixed it, but the stage was.full of oil and top slippery-for the boys to work on, so I gave them.a little dough and a bawling out and sent them on their way.' .The next day I got a letter from some lawyer saying- he vras gonna sue me for two days' salary that I owe the boys. ich goes-to show you acrobats will turn on you every time. Jnkier Handles Lines Well Aggie hasn't been feeling so bot lately; her 'rheumatism is playiiig a re- turn date on her feet She said the otiier -day, 'To think my own feet should be my worst enemy.' Junior is swell and talks all. day. He'sez Mama, Papa^ doggie, c^t In fact, he talks better than a lot of acrobats that put lines in-their act. We ran a . musical picture the first .half, one of them'operatic things. They sang so much and so long it broke the tubes in our amplifier. It was so bad that it made the customers wish they got a magazine. The picture has been, playing around for years—sorry I. didn't wait until the. print bad worn out completely. My best to niy pals back there and tell 'em a lot of the vaudeville houses were turned into picture.'houses because not enough'people turned into vaudeville houses, sez ' Your pal,- Leftv. P. S.: Jerry Doyle sez, "The greatest, trouble with stomachs these days is tilling them.' COUREPANDGB SET PROGRAMS Columbia is planning a program tentatively calling for a total of 56 features for 1938-39, is against 64 for the season which draws to a close in August The rediiction is expected to affect westerns, of which Col sold 22 this year. For the first time Coe will produce its own serials, scheduling four series. The company is scheduling regional sales meets to be held in,M: y,,May 13-14-15; Chi- <■ cago May = 18-20; Dallas May 23-24, and Sah Francisco ay 28-29, Abe Montague, general sales manager, who was away in Buffalo, final plans for '38-39 awaiting huddles with him, returned to New York yesterday (Tues.). As against a cut for Col, Republic 5s upping from 52 features to 55 for '38-39, plus its usual.four serials, and Gaumont-British is announcing a total of 24, an increase of 12 for the coming season. Both Rep and. GQ are in convention now, the former in Hollywood oji a national meet which is being attended by district and' branch managers as well as others from exchanges. GB, with three regionals. New York, Chicago and Denver, wind iip in the latter Friday (6). L SAVOEY AT METRO r Hollywood, May 3.. CcraM Savory, British playwright *;;ll leport this v/eek at Metro to sta.-t his term' contract with the liuiii Stromberjg unit /.uii.ors iieVv stage play, 'Good and Viopet,' opened in.London two U-ecksftto. ■ STUDES LEARN ABOUT PIC COIN FROM TOPPER Los Angeles, May 3. George. Topper, treasurer of Fox' West Coast Theatres, addressed the' class of cinematography at the Uni- versity of Southern California on 'accountancy as applied to motion picture exhibition.' Speaker, covered the urgent need of speed in prepara- tion of statistics for house operating staff and then touched on types of film statistics compiled by the ex- hibitor. Ah interesting feature along with the address was a chart describing graphically the division of .the box office dollar in relation to expenses and profit. Practical discussion on the copi- talization of various ty s of lease- hold and property valijcs, as well as depreciation' and amortization of theatre properties was made a part of the address. rthur Ungar, Variety mugg, speaks on the subject of motion' pic-^ ture publicity aiid advertising at U. S. C, tomorrow night (Wednesr: day)^ Lecture series was arranged by Charles D, Buckley, attorney for Fox West Coast theatres, and is sponsored by Charles Skouiras, pres- ident of' the circuit. Boland's Benny Bolster Hpliywood, May 3. Paramount assigned Mary Boland to one ot the top siipportihg roles in the next Jack Benny starrer, 'Artists and Models Abi-u;id.' Frank Bu'llcr is cunently at wo'.k on the screen play. Arthur. Hornb'ow, Jr., rodiic- ing, with r.IltclicU Lpiscn as direc- tor. Bobby the Bum oily \yood. May. 3. Sol Lesser i^ building Bobby Breen into a. big, bold he-man. First step was to rig the singing moppet with his first long, pants. Next was to Order that all fu- ture Breen pictures must con- tain at least one sequence- in which Bobby wiiis a knuckle decision. Autry in Rep.'s Lineup of 55 Pix For'3y9 Season Hollywood, May. 3. Rep'i) will; announce 19^8-39 schedule for 55 features, including four anniversary specials, as well as foiir serials during annual, sales con- vention, which got under way here today (Tuesday), with Herb Yates, board chairman, presiding; While Yates is jremainiiig inum on the siib- ject of Gene Autry, until he makes his program, announcement, it is. be- lieved, that differences between thie sagebrusher and company have been patched up and that; Autry -will re- turn to the fold. , Yates, at least' .will Inform the franchise holders, salesmen and hbme office execs he ' is skedding eight Autry pictures for the.new season. ' Eastern and southern delegate's, to the sessions, which, will, be held at the studio, piilled in. Monday morn- ing aboard a special trains accom- panied by Yates and Moe Seigel, pro-, duction head, who boarded the- spe- cial at. Dallas. Coast crowd arrived Sunday, Meeting for franchise-holders only was held at the plant yesterday (Mon.) afternoon, with the general gatherings .getting under -way today. Convention will be brought to a close with a banquet Thursday night . Sidney Sutherland and Ralph Block have been added to the writing staff. Sutherland will script 'Lady in the News,' starring Gloria Swanson and Block will do a' re-write on the screen play for The Great Wall Street Mystery.' Rep is rushing stories for its new - western singing lead, Roy Rogers,, to be produced, under the supervision of Sol C. Siegel, with Charles E. Ford as associate. Paul Franklin, Luci Ward and J. Benton Cheney are working on the scripts. Autry's Song Warning Santly Bros.-Joy, Inc., was put. on notice by counsel for Gene Autry, in connection .with the' firin's publi- cation of 'Dust! Tune is from the Re- public production, 'Under Western Stars.' Herbert S. Huebner, Autry. lawyer, wired that his client held the copyright to 'Dust' and that Republic with which Autry is feuding, had no right to dispose of the song's pub- lication rights. Republic contends that while Aut- rey does hold the copyright the song was written by Johnny Marvin, from whom the picture producer had bought it. Santly Bros, had hesitated about putting the number out until Republic agreed to indemnify the firm against any judgment resulting from litigation. Cast of 'Western Stars' is headed by Roy Rogers, whom Republic brought ;n after Autry had staged his. walkout Lorasclii Now Par's Censor I-iollywood, May 3. Luigi Luraschi, head of the for- eign department at Paramount, has been made censorship editor, to han- dle problems' on both domestic and foreign releases. New job will be carried on in ad- dition to the foreign department duti . He succeeds John Hammel, who resigned after 17 years with the company. 'SUEZ' CREW RETURNS Hollywood, May 3. Director rower and the 20th- Fox camera cara,fan returned from the Arizona desert , where they shot 10,000 feet of battle scenes for 'Suez.' Action rcrjuircd 200 men and a troupe of cnmels and. Arabian horses. Remaining location ^hols will be made at Lake Elsihpre. Tbe Girls' Eye View B:^ Marian Squire 'College Swing* Gi»efl Clambake 'College Swing' starts out with an original idea but the thought giels pretty much lost in.the shufHe by the time Grade Allen collects a 'facility' consisting of-Bob Hope, Martha Raye, Ben Blue and the Jerrys,. Collonna and Bergen. .The iSIm,.a campus scramble with the usual bevy pf chprus cci-eids,. has some , of its best moments wi the teaming of Miss Allen and E, E. Horton. Despite persistent rumors that Martha Raye is turning giampur gal, her faiis will be glad to, know that she is hcr 'pld hptcha self in 'College Swing.' She wears a number of exotic gowns but she doesn't let the haiidsbme wardrobe, cramp the Raye style. First entrance is in a sweeping cape Burrpunded by .fiuffy fiir, with a cone hat and dark veil. For a rhiimba with .Ben. Blue she wears black sequin gown sleekly fitted and bursting Into ruffles at the hem. Skiirt is slit to the knee and outfit accompanied by shoulder-lengthi black lace gloves. Betty Grable does her bit of swing in a fitted dressmaker blouse with, full skirt,'and in a foamy white tulle evening gown. Romance is in three sections—Miss Allen and Horton, Miss Raye aiid Hope, ith a minor hieart-throb falling to Florence George -and John Payne. Miss George rbmances. in a sheer embrbldered white \go>vn, ruf- fled around the square neck, . 'Dean' Cecil Cunningham'is trim in black with touches of white. George Burns, connected with the 'college'in some unidentifiable capacity,- shows up occasionally for. scenes with Miss Allen. As so often happens with a large collection of first cabin names, inore attention seems to have been paid to the cover than the Contents of the book, Swing-Sillies at the. Par kay Kyserj in his initial New York stage appearance (27), id a good Job of keeping early Parait)punt s\yihg-sillies in order, for his musical qiiestion bee. Six contestants selected, from, the audience by . numbered tickets. Kids in the audience gleefully shouted answers when contestants; miiiTed, but Mr. Kyser kept them from contributing until asked, which ii an achievemeriti: Harry Babbit tenors and handles the much dispiited islnging titles, low- down, warbling is. iled to Sully Mason, Ish Kabibble head; a well done novelty-and Virginia Sims is the femme angle, ' Miss Sims wears, an oddish gown which looks-like it was draped with flags when; she is sitting do>yn. Top is long sleeved fitted basque of gray, blue, then there, is a full-gathered skirt composed' pf a section of .dark red, band. of. bright yellow and finished off with lighter-tha'n-navy blue, Undoubt ly designed, but it looks like an accident Archery and Trallcrlzing 'Kobln Hood' For liie honor of dear old Music Hall (and the. for coming "Rpbi. Hood'), ttiie Rockettes and the Ballet shot it out with hows arid arrows on the. Muisic Hall-roof Friday, (99).' ith an audience of members of th^ press, photographers and window gazers frorn nearby office buildings, the lower roof became Sherwood Forest for the length Pf tinie it took to get some good niewsreel shots. Scribblers spent most of the time ducking arrows and Ipoking for a place to sit dpwn. Neither Vvas successful. Arrows flew through the air with reckless abandon—even standing in front of the targets wasn't practical, as they occasionally, got hit, too. The only parking spots were several inviting green benches—freshly paint , making archery very hard on press arches. Rockettes-wore the regulation practice clothes of-bliie trunks and blue and .yellow blouses, and the ballet topped their stage 'World of 'Tpmprrovl'' costumes with Robin Hood caps for the ancient sport. While newsreel cameras immortalized the historic event, anagihg Di- rector W. G. 'Van Schnius presented two golden arrpws to the two winners. They were Marjorie Matlin of the Ballet and Dorothy Meacham of the Rockettes—the two who hit- the targets. A Haut Cautore Whodonit A good cast and ,!«me bright dialog save 'There's Always a. Woman' from being j.ust another ho-hum haywire who-shot-Jobn, At that H la more than reminiscent of 'True (Confession;' Bodies and clues are apt to turn- lip anywhere, but so are laughs. Joan Blondell is obviously having a marvelous time—a little -too obviously. She enters into the spirit of the thing with both feet^ where a bit cl restraint might have been more effective. Miss Blondell is siire she's being terribly funny, and confident that her opinion Is shared, r. Douglas, on the-other hand, has a nice touch of leaving the reaction to the audi- ence, without waving imaginary ''laugh' arid 'applause'signs,' iss Blondell sleuths in nefat dark suits with light lapeils, and In a very becoming nightgown. Tries out the new high hair style with an evening outfit—hip-length, fur-bordered wrap over a backless, drop-shoulder, black gown, Mary Astor, who appears to be responsible for the muirders, one ordered and one personally conducted, favors black for her nefarious adventures. One light suit has a huge bow under the chin and fur sleeves. Frances Drake, one-time suspect (and why should she be an exception) wears a fur-sleeved, white evening wrap over white satin sheath gown decorated with paillette bolero. Gets out of her difficulties in a light tailored dress with silver fox scarf and cossack hat 'Impressions' of the World's Fair The Music Hall stages the World s Fair, with a chorus of 'Grover Whn- lens,' and the ballet posed on the side .stairs bearing transparent banners in pfficial W. F. colors. Girls dance in short flared black and white satin dresses with Silver helmets, symbolizing-the 'World of Tomorrow.' 'Song of Steel' has a blueprint back drop and is accompanied by an occasional terrific 'machine age*^ clatter from the orchestra, Stewart Morgan dancers have an impressive set pf Perisphere and Try- Ion, and. denote architecture. Femme member of the group wears while satin leotard as usual, 'Agri<:ulture' note being carried out by ."several dancers iiv'flowing robes and bearing sheaves of wheat. -"^ Rockettes are 'Amusementj' in ruffled rhinestone sprinkled short white costumes, with bright red.vests, red gloves and tall cone hats. Stamps for Refief Hollywood,. May 3. Motion- icture Relief Funds stamp committee was raised to five by the addition of Jean Hersh'oll and Sherman Lpv/e. Other members .are Adplphe^ Mcnjou, Jack Cooper and F. Hcrrick-HerrickV Committee plans to rai.se funds through the sale of .stamps from Ian mail.. No Involuntary Petish Against Chesterfield Hollywood,- May 3. Federal court on Monday (2) dis- missed the involuntary bankruptcy proceedings against. Chesterfield Pic- ture Corp, Indie outfit, headed by George Balchelor, petitioned for a. wsshup, after effecting a 50% scllle- ment- with creditors. Firm was thrown i ,i\Iaich 11. GUV WILL LOOK ON Hollywood,. May 3. James Alhed, governor of Texas, will be a gue.st of Republic when the shooting ot 'Wagons Westward' starts May 12. Picture, based on the life of Sam Houston, deals, with the history of Texas. PA KNOWS BEST Hollywood, May- 3. Alj-iia Lloyd will.play the second feinme iead in 'If I Were King' at Paramount produced and" directed by her father, Frank Lloyd. Ronald Colman will star i film, slated to sUrt May 9.