Variety (Dec 1940)

14 IMTERMATIONAL TARimT'B' LONDON OFFIOB • Bt, MMTtln's Phtce, TrafalRar Square Mex lln IVoducers Ask Ouster Of Union Chief, Charge Violation Of , Mexico City, Dec. 24. That Mexico's struggling, picture Industry is being hanipered because Jt .is Just :the plaything of Enrique Solis, secretary gieneral of section 2 (producers) of the riatibnal cinemat- a^-aplHC-.AWorkeis!-^uniDn^_JiJhe_^ Mex Film Censoring Gets a Face-I Harley Delays Trip F. L. Harley,. 20th-Fox managing director in Great Britain, has de-^ laycd his trip to the U. S. until after the first of the year. He originally plahnecl arriving in N. Y. in time to spend the year-end holidays here; but failure to obtain the. necessary bookings on the Clip- per forced- the postponement. cusation the Aissociatioh Of Produciers und Distributors of Mexican Pic- tures, made in an open letter to the union official. The missive accuses Solis of being a despot and flagrantly violating the capital-labor principles President Manuel: Avila Camacho (expressed in his inaugural address Dec. 1. Solis, said the letter, is exerting an 'odious tyrarinyV which is 'fast killing this highly important national industry so that it is. being far :outstripped by other Spanish-speaking countries ■which are not afflicted by problems with which Mexico has to contend and which are duie . tO labor leaderT Ism.* " 'We have bieeri compelled, to ad-, dress you this open letter beciause you have never answered our per- sonal commtinicatioris,' the letter, said. 'Wc* have repeatedly protest- ed against the actions of your sec- tion of the union wHich has incited all kinds of difficulties between the workers and the employes. Not only have you not attended our just com- plaints but you have wilfully dis- torted our attitude to. serve your Own Jiersonal interests.. That action has harmed the interests of members of your own section. 'The only way for our Industry to get ahead is to have complete har- mony between its two principal fac- tors: capital and labor.* 'Deliberately Blocking Prod.' The . letter accuses Soils of delib- erately blocking the production of a Mexican picture, 'Lo que el Viento Trajo' ('What the Wind Brought') by reversing his approval of B. J. Kro ger to.serve as soxmd engineer.- • 'You deliberately rejected Mr. Kroger,' the. letter charged,''and in- sisted that the only sound engineer -■■ for this picture must be Jose Perez, who, it is notoriously known, tisies exclusively sound | apparatus of which you are the owner. 'As the policy you are following is contrary to statements made ^ the presidential message of Dec. 1, that the federal government intends to give private initiative full guaran- tees for the benefit of national econ oniy, this association precisely asks you to immediately. solve the prob leiii you have created for our mem ber, Alfonso Sanchez Tello, in the production of the previously men- tioned picture. Unless you immedl . ately correct this situation we must advise you that we will be obliged to suspiend the production . of pic- tures!* a suspension that will last as . long as you insist upon maintaining your hosikile attitude toward the pro- ducers and members of your own union. Seek Onster 'Inasmuch as you are the owner of picture-making equipment, including sound and light apparatus and cam eras, articles which the workers' union recognized on April 12, 1938, as the property of tin employer, but not .of a worker, we must endeavor to haye you oiBted from, your uiiion position because yOu; are an employ er but not a worker,' the letter .coh'< eludes. .! Though the war continues stronger, it does not seem that that the pro- ducers iritend to quit cold. "They are building high hopes of copping juicy biz in Central and South Amer- ica in 1941. \ Two of the- biggest makers, Jesus Grovas, former Par exec here,. who is prez of the Association, and Mi- guel . Contreras Torres, who has worked in Hollywood,: have about bought their tickets for a tour that wiU end in the Argentine. They in- tend to open exchanges and other- wise get down a>jchors for- Mexican pix in key Central and South Amer- ican cities. • This junket i§ scheduled .. to begin in January and will occupy. ' fiboUt three months; The pie workers union,, in art open lietter to Avlla Camr.cho, defeiiSs ^ Solis and calls the producers a lot of names, besides classing them with the 'enemies of. Mexico and those , who crio^nally strive to bring about ■ rebellion In the republic.' was formerly, the. headquarters of the late C. B. .Dillingham, who staged many musical successes tth—ff-^end—toward—fed-4^there. .Understood that any turn^ over of the .jproperty could not be Mexico City,. Dec; 24. Faceliflting of pic-censoring, regu- Tati6ns7 eraiizatibn, hais been started by Jose Castellot, chief counsel'of the Ministry of the Interior. . .This work is to be Completed late in January.' Enforcement of the new regulations is looked for some time during February. •. CUBA IN 3-MO. Globe Legit? jConUnued from page Although no official notice of. change has- been, received by the Hays, offices, it is. understood, in ir. .Y. that a fhree-mbhth extension has been granted by the, Cuban gov-, ernment Oh its anti-block booking decree, scheduleoi to become effective Jan. 1 next. American distributofs had indicated they had no intention of selling under terms of the de- cree..' Whether spot bookings would be made by U. S. distribs in the mean- time while the Cuban decree is re- vamped in line with practical work- ability still was questionable. Ex- tension was granted in order that such revision could be made, with- out hurting exhibitor interests. effected -without six months notice, Change in Ownership of the Ipir perial,.; which has 'Louisiana Pur^ chase,' Wjas. recently made. First mortgage! of '$373,849. was; bought in by a group which holds certificates on the. mortgage and they are now the o\yh€ris. Alfred j. Callahan, rep- resenting the bondholders, offered $5,000, which was accepted by Ralph W. Long, formerly general m^anager for the Shugerts. Latter have an operatinff-agreement on the Imperial which is riot affected by the sal.e. Another theatre deal' concerns the Ambassador, also formerly on the Shubert string, house being leased for five years by Samuel Curhmiris, film distributor. First picture; to' be shown is !Ecatasy,' which opens to- day (W€d.). Pictiire was banned for some time. little Czars* of Hollywood gContlnued from page .Is FORCED VAUDE WITH PK SOUGHT BY MEX GROUP Mexico City, Dec. 24. Enforced stage shows for all cin emas in Mexico is the objective of a bill the National Theatrical Workers Federation has presented to con gress. The Federation is demanding a law that will make it obligatory for the pibture houses to present at least one vaudeville act a day. ' This is ihe only remedy for re ducing the number of jobless thespi- ans, the Fed argues. Cinemas dropped stage shows some time ago because they were such poor b.o. Mexican public no like mixing pix and vflude, AlmyV N.Y. Visit Clifford Almy, Philippines' man- aging director for Warner Bros., has arrived .in New YOrk on his first visit in nearly four years. ■He plans returning to Manila early In January after home office .hud< dies. • W. C . ^Continued from.page i- very beginning. They don't want hihi to smoke in his room. There's a woman there that he's married to. She thinks he's a bum. Anc^ there's! this woman's mother. She thinks he's a .bum, too. And th<)ri there's this Woman's two daughters, •which are also his own. They are ashamed of him. He's very courteous about the whole thing. There's a bank president, tgo, who gives him a calendar for. capturing the bank robber who tried to get away with $50,000. He gives him a job, too, and a firm shake of the hand. And Souse, he watches, and listens to everything. Sometimes when they say, something particu- larly sickening to a man with his understanding and. sensibility he smiles and tells them that he sees. Oh yes, he says, I see, I see. He doesn't, say, .'Is this calendar all I get for capturing the robber?' He grows to be grateful for the picture of the naked Ojibway girl On the calendar.-. Suppiose it was a pic- ture of a banker at his desk? « Well, anyhow, you're laughing all the time the picture's going On. The Modern Museum . in New York might just as well talte it right out of the first-run picture houses and show it to the serioiis-mind people who study motion picture art with- out waiting for 20 years to go buy first.. It's. just as funny now as it will be 20 years from now, and there's no need to wait. The world may change, but not this comedy. Time Magazine will go on picking The Man. of the Year every year, but the guy' who will make you Jaugh just to remember him will be W. Ci Fields any year. The only thinjg to rriake sure of is that old Mahatma goes on writing the. sce- narios for W. G. Fields. Lid (m Reli^oiB F$ns revious ; » Mexico City, Dec. 24. Demonstration of a decided; change of attitude toward religious pix,. In accordance with President Manuel Ayila Camachp's declaration that he favors religious liberty, is. the exhi- bition here of church-theme films in public for the iftrst time in several years/' • . The past government had main- tained a heavy lid on religious pix and even those of a churchy tinge. The censors in that .administration either banned outright all pix of re- ligious plot or background and or- dered cut from any other film all .references io religion. But times have changed, yet with- out, any governmeht fanfare. Two pix, purely religious—'La Reina de Mexico* ('The Queen .of Mexico'), Mexican - made, and 'St. Theresa of the Child Jesus,' a French film- which were .poison i6- the previous administration because they are thor^ bug-going religious, are being exhib- ited here to big biz.. Makers and backers of 'Queen,' which depicts the apparition of; Our Lady of Guada lupe; Mexico's patron saintess, 400 years ago, failed in all their efforts to induce the old/government to al- low exhibitions of their pic, even in part. 'St.-Theresa,* is story p£ the lifo of the saint, Theresa -Martin, . Screening of these, pix is construed to Indicate that the Avila Camacho government will permit -the exhibi- tion of all teligioug filrt$, provided they do not disparage ia any way any other faith or creed. '-. which forced the fan books to give greater, consideriation to candid art, and thie .photogs assumed an im- portance. ' filmdom's scheme of thing? iar in excess of that ever ac- corded the chatterers. ■ There was an! iera when: the bldb boys w;ere barred from the better' niteries-and from parties gi-ven In' the homes V of the stars. . But that day is'ldng since forgotten, isihd how they are welcomed in iwha^ was formerly Iforbidden territory with, open arms., . That' the shutter clickers can work untold harm! on a talker thesp's ca- reer is. admitted by the owners of even the most thproUghly-eritcenched of the ma^rquee names, fpr publica- tion of one uncorhplimentary photo, they will "tell you,! can; bring about broader public condemnation of an actor or actress than .50,000 printed ■words. Ready and W-illing to'testify td the truth bf this finding are Greta Garbo, Sylvia Sidney, Katharirte Hepburn, Miriam Hopkins, Jean Ar- thur, Cary Grant, Frances Farjper and Firanchot Tone,: all of -whom hive felt the;sting of the Hollywpod photogs' figurative lash. Miss Farm- er and Tohe have been given the roughest treatmeht, with the former still pccupying; the doghouse in spite of-! her seripus efforts to make amends. . . ;. Proieottng Their : Jobs. The photogs insist that punishment of an uncooperative .thesp Is not ah indication of vindictiveness. on thfeir part, but rather the Only means, they have, of; pirotectirig 'their own individual futures; When their boss- es, the editors, order a candid shot bf a personality, it is up to the lehsers to come through, the latter argue. If the player responds willingly, theirs is an easy job, and-the sub- ject is treated Svith consideration. But for those, players who try to- dodge, well that's soniething else again. For years newspaper and mag edi- tors offered their photogs bonuses for informal art on Garbo, but the bulb- ers were unable to accommodate, for Ciarbo kept herself , toa well hidden. Later Came a few forays by the Swedish star into the Hollywood riitery belt, and, tirapped, she made the best of the situation and stood still long enough to be snapped. Having shed her cloak bf mystery, Garbo viras hp longer a quarry, for editors lost interest and today she can roam about filmto\yri undis- turbed by! the lensers. Wheii Miss Sidney came to the Coast from Broadway in 1928, she was a willing subject for the pho- togs. She soon found romance, how- ever, and began to put up a fight agaiiist being shot by other than studio-employed cameran^. The newspaper and mag boys voted to ignore her,: a policy they. were still pursuing when she deserted Holly- wood for New Y"ork in 1938. But when she again invaded Celluloidia a few months ago, she sent out word that she ..had learned her lesson. Since then,- she has gone out of her way to be gracious to the-photogs. Katharine Hepburn, who«.imitated Garbo in her treatment; of the lensers throughout her stay at RKO and her ensuing one-picture deal at Columbia, also discovered the error of her ways before she had finally shaken, the dust of Hollywood from -her lofty heels. Returning last sum- mer to do the film version of .'Phila- delphia Story' for Metro, she placed heirself at the cameramen's beck :md call, but there were no takers.. They decided;to let her wait and fret a while longer, finally giving , her the nod of forgiveness just before: she headed .east in September. >; ; ; Miriam Hopkins always lias been and ;still is a camera-baiter,' but she has been permitted to get by with It beicause, when snared, , she neVer tries to^ fight back. Too, she's good copy when they get her, for; as one ,6f the photogs expressed it, 'she does ; the nuttiest things, develops the screwiest expressions which do her no good professionally,, but news- paper and mag readers eat 'ehi up,' War On jean Arthur . Jean Arthur, like an earlier Sylvia Sidney, has for some time demanded that all outside photogs be barred from her picture , sets, and re ligiously dqdges the night spots where . they might be snooping about. So the lertsers decided to give- her the; silent treatment, which, -it is s^id, has only served to increase hef bitterness toward them.'; The result is that, the Ar- thUr-photdgs feud ^s^nO■w one of the really hot Hollywood wars, with the bulbers sacriflciijg sleep in their efforts tp-camera-catch her in moods and attitudes that will disillusion theatre-goers and further fuel her fighting. Spirit Cary Grant played the same to the limit until six months, ago, when he became: a camera-dodger follow-. ing the bustup of his romance with Phylliis BrbokiS it was either side's fight for a while, but the- lensers finally won out by constantly keep- ing Grant in hot 'water, and he hoisted the flag of. surrender,. He^s back on ..a palsy!^walsy level with the bulbers how. Frances Farmer was an . okay lens subject until she marriedlieif Erickr son and', developed. ■ ;distaste for everything Hollywood, including;! the camera boys.; Immediately, the lat- ter. started a campaign of hate via the lenses, photographing her when- ever she could be mkde to appear to disadvantiage,. and openly - ignoring her when hews stills might be help- ful to her. It became- a battle royal that will long be.r*n>e™li?red by the lensers, as wias demonstrated recent- ly when she returned to the Coast and sought to make peace with them. They told her, and bluntly, it was no dice. ' - ■ ■'. . ■ ^^'i. Franchot Tone took it oh the chin from the photogs for twO years, then finally sighed a treaty, and now he's once more in good standing;v Tone . had always .been - cooperative Until the crash of his mirriage to Joan Crawford, for years hailed as the pal of all the cameramen, studio and. out- siders, alike. Tone insisted the lens- ers. were persecuting him because of Miss Crawford, and went to extremes to block! their efforts to shap-him. There was the night when seven of. the top photpgs cornered. Tone in the Seven Seas, a Hollywood cafe, and sent one of their number to his table to pick a fight They were hopeful he would strike the first blow to give them the opening for a mass assault; but "Tone knew when he was licked, and left the place by a side door. Shortly thereafter he left for Mart- hattan, but the clampdown was still Oh him. The Hollywood lensers, be it known, have a working arrange- ment with their New York colleagues Qnder which a personality who wars on either group dtaws penalties from both.; TonSe Finally Gives In 'Tone finally saw the light and upon his recent return to Hollywood, admitted defeat. The. lenser^ right now are going out of their- way in their efforts to show him the material. value of their friendship. Standing oiit in contrast to balkers, past and present are 10 players who lean backwards in their Willingness to aid the photogs. They are Joan Crawford, Joan Bennett, Barbara Stanwyck, Ann Sheridan, Binnie Barnes, Rosalind Russell, Clark Gable, Mischa Auer, Victor Mature',/ and Bob Taylor. Another, who went the limit in cooperation was the late Jean Harlow. Each year the Association of Na- tional Magazine Photographers of Hollywood, which has eight mem- bers, select by ballot the most co- operative star and award a properly- inscribed trophy.; First one went to Harold Lloyd and his wife jointly, with the second to Arlenie Judge, and the third to Joe Penner. Joan Craw- ford was the winner In 1938 and 1939, and this year's competition is be- tween Barbara Stanwyck and Binni Barnes, with the odds favoring the former. Members ;of» the . association ar» Earl Theisen, Look; Peter Stackpole, Life; Charles Rhodes, Fawcett jPub- lications; Jules Buck, Dell Publica- tions; Leh Weissman, Silver Screen; Bob Wallace, .Street &. Smith Pub- lications; IHyman . E'ihk, Macfaddeh Publications; Jack: Alhin, M. I* An- nenberg Publications. Working at their side,, though nOt.holding' tickets in the organization, are Art Cairter, who'divides his time between the NBC publicity department arid'Movie Life and Movies, and Gene- Lester, who represents Screenland. . Lads have many methods of gain- ing, revenge on the. balky stars, one pf the mpst effective, pf which is to catch the victim in an unguarded ■moment and, through application of lights and shadows, make he or she appear Intoxicated.. This has been done more than once ■with even tee-^ totalers. -' V Another Is to shoot over the: head of the offender at theatre openings or in niteriei.' Effective, too, is the idea of walking up to the player's table when studio execs and pi-oducers are watching, giving the thesp 6 qarefUl 0.0 and moving on without pressing the bulb; ' On the other hand, the boys neyer photograph a friendly player at an embarrassing moment