Variety (Mar 1927)

. March 2, 1W7 EDITORIAL VARIETY KIETY kj VARIETY, IM. President wwi 46th atmt H«w Tork City INSIDE STUFF ON PICTURES SUBSCRIPTION: iniul 0» rtiat».. v ,. Ji M stasis Copies " esets VOL. LXXXVI No. 7 15 YEARS AGO {From Variety and" "Clipper") The Idea of the fashion show originated in Paris, where the dis- play was common, but the first ex- hibition of the kind was Just held In Atlantlo City under the sponsor- ship of Thomas A. Morris. The big New York department stores gave the show their support. Three Chicago theatres, Colum bus, Albambra and Marlowe, were tied up with stage hand strikes. At one time a producer could lift a moving picture idea without pen- alty, but a new copyright law cor- rected this. The law was being framed, but It was said the the- atrical men were trying to get a Joker Into the'amendment, limiting liability for lifting a picture story to 1100. The Columbia Amusement Co. promulgated a rule against reveal- ing box office receipts and ordered the punishment of any employe who revealed Joseph Von Sternberg earned his spurs as a director for Famous Players-Lasky recently by making some retakes of "Children of Divorce." Von Sternberg had seven scenes to take on a Sunday with members of a cast who were all in after working nearly the entire night. The work he did with these people when shown on the screen convinced B. P Schulberg that Von Sternberg had what F. P. needed, so he Immediately assigned him to direct "Underworld," the Ben Hecht story, to be put Into production this month. Von Sternberg created a sensation here two years ago when he pro- duced "The Salvation Hunters" on a short bankroll and got Charlie Chaplin Interested to the extent that United Artists released It. Since that time he has made a picture for Chaplin which the latter did not feel like releasing, due to the fact that other players are said to have shown up In it as well as Edna Purvlance, starred. The nun Is reported a good one, but on account of its not being released Von Sternberg's stock dropped as a director until Schulberg put him under contract. There's a cafe In Hollywood that is a particular rendeavous for motion picture people. Two days a week, Wednesday and Saturday, they all seem to congregate at luncheon to let the public get a flash at them and, also, to mix with each other. The proprietor of this place has been very liberal in extending credit to the screen people. However, most of them have been running bills at the establishment which have totaled from $300 to 1800 a month. The management used various means to see that these MUs were A. H. Woods and Martin Herman made their plunge into vaudeville as sponsors of the sketch. "Gam biers of the West," at stein's. The "two weeks'" cancellation clause was restored to the ard contract" used In The U. S. Department of Justice started an Investigation of the bill-posting Association) 50 YEARS AGO (From "Clipper.") v The Clipper made a feature of reprinting old playbills. This week the feature has to do with the production of "Jonathon and his Apprentices," a melodrama in three acts imported from England. The playbill for the first night was dated Sept. 12. MM, and the theatre was the old Bowery. The leading editorial of the Clip- per for the week was a plea for more American plays. "By Amer- icans for Americans." The com- plaint of the time was that most managers and producers went abroad for their material. promptly but none of them worked, ruling that if bills for the preceding month are not settled before the fifth day of the current month, service will be refused the people who are Indebted. The Roxy theatre was officially welcomed to New Tork during the current week by a trailer Inserted at the little Fifth Ave playhouse. The trailer reads In part: "Greetings from the smallest motion picture the atre to the largest, the Roxy." Another title calls attention to the ballet that Roxy is to present Stat lng that the stage at the Roxy la so big and the audience in the'last rows so far away that the girls will be recruited from Watson's Beef Trust so as to be visible on the stage. Two years ago Balto. an Alaskan husky, was the dog hero of the Nome' Alaska diphtheria serum race. He was brought to the nlted States, exhibited, sculptured for a monument, mentioned tor pictures and hailed as a benefactor of mankind. Last week one of the sob fraternity on a local sheet in a dime museum "for men only" on Main street. NELLIE REVEL IN HOLLYWOOD Hotel Hollywood. Hollywood, CsJ. Be a good little girl and you'll go to Heaven. Be an ambitious little girl and you'll buy a ticket to Hollywood. Not that It matters, for my California realtor will tell you that Hollywood and Heaven are the same. But anyway I'm In Hollywood at last And I hate to say It. but they're cheating me. The only night life I have seen has been right In my own room. And the only II—I mean stimulant—I've been near Is what I brought with me. Following which comes a bow of thanks to Harry Relchenbach tor his advice to i my umbrella, my flanellette nighties and my own dice. But the umbrella almost got worn out. It rained the first two after I came. But I didn't get downhearted. The rain wasn't so bad and If I had wanted the desert I could have stopped off there. Rain la required to make the grass, the flowers and the trees grow. And gn flowers and trees were what Induced me to come, so I'm making excu for the "climate" already. They say Hollywood has no heart. But they're wrong, my hotel la In the heart of Hollywood. And either because of or in spite of that tact. It la or haa been at one tune or another the favorite stopping place of everyone In movie land. Just now It's tenanted by more or less permanent guests and reminds of the old Colonial summer hotels with wide porches, studded with divans and comfortable rockers and bridge entertainment and the profit and loss of the guests. But so far I havent caught anyone knitting. Perhaps It has gone oat of fashion. Or It's too warm here to wear knitted Edward W. Orrln returned from Havana, having made arrangement for taking his first show into that territory. He repeated this enter- prise so often in after years that he became Identified with Cuban tented enterprises and at length operated there with his own top entirely. Times were hard in Canada. In Ottawa the Ucense fee for operating a billiard hall was only $S0, while In England the usual fee was $250. A baseball player had been ex- pelled from organised baseball for some Infraction of the rules, mak- ing one sport scandal. Now a prizefighter named Joe Coburn was charged with the killing of a New Tork policeman during a street al- tercation. The Board of Appeal of the Na- tional Trotting Association held Its spring meeting in New York and considered a number of oomplalnts - over "ringing" horses—entering trotters under false names. Jsck Hartley returned to the cast of "Lulu Belle" at the Belasco Mon- day after recovering from laryngitis. George Mence, agent, has re- turned to Chicago and opened an office in the Loop End building He haa a W. V. M. A. franchise. Joseph Maxwell haa severed con nections with Fox's Audubon a manager. D. Bromberg |j One of the greatest newspaper tie-ups the Twin cities have ever known was effected by Finkelsteln * Ruben when it got the St. Paul "Dally Newa" to Issue a complete eight page rotogravure section boost lng the St. Paul Junior League Style Show and Cabaret which formed part of the program at the Capitol theatre in St. Paul. Leading St. Paul society girls, members of the Junior League, posed as models to Illustrate the advertisements of the sented in the section. With this unusual style show as Its and aided by a record-breaking amount of publicity of the city's foremost social sets, the Capitol had t week in Its history, grossing more than $16,000. ON LEGIT •'Crime," the Sammy Shipman-John B. Hymer melodrama of Broad way banditry. Is based on the depreciations of the notorious Whitte more gang. The story of the play does not attempt to follow exact details, but Its Jewelry store scene, one of the high-lights of the play, resembles an upper Broadway robbery when the proprietor was killed. That crime was never definitely fixed upon the Whittembre gang. The storekeeper ran from his shop and, kneeling, started shooting at the bandits' car. Return fire pierced his heart. The killing within the store in "Crime" to,not visual. Shlppy and Hymer, In collaborating on the play. Joined together after a long lapse following their successful teaming in "East Is West" The play was outlined in New York and when the writers bad agreed on the scenes with A. H. Woods they went to Atlantic City, writing the dialog in 10 days. Shlpman and the late Aaron Hoffman completed several plays in the same manner, notably "Friendly Enemies." Before he went on the stage Leo Donnelly, appearing In "Money from Home" at the Fulton, was widely known as a reporter In Philadelphia and knew nearly all the newspapermen there. When the show opened in Phllly there were several other premieres. The second and third string reviewers, sent to the Frank Craven show (first called "Coal OH Jen nle"), didn't know Donnelly. He got no mention In the reviews, not even being listed among the -players. But Clem Congdon, editor of the well known Sunday exposure sheet, the "Transcript" went to the bat for Leo. In an article panning certain prominent organizations and blaming them for an "enervating blight put upon the greater activities of the city. Congdon took occasion to point out the case of Donnelly, rated "one of the brightest and most popular newspapermen Philadelphia ever developed." He stated that Don nelly "easily shared honors with the star" (Craven) but though "every newspaper writer In Philadelphia who knows enough to sign bis name on an iVo. U. or the location of City Hall knows Donnelly Intimately and favorably, not one even mentioned his name In the review ef Honey from Home'." Frank Martins haa denied his connection with the co-operative revue, "Tunes and Topics," now In rehearsal claiming to hare w the managerial end with Murray Phillips, easting dlreotoi the production. Martins claims that Phillips was the accredited producer of the mln- ature revue and that he had been connected only In a managerial capac- ity until last week, when he resigned. A blind adv in the theatrical columns of the Sunday Time s attr acted considerable attention on Broadway. It invited — - invest $6,000 in a planned production of a play. The adv read: "I have $8,000 DoUars toward the production on Broad- way of fine, clean play by a well known author. I want an additional $$,000 in order to give the play a fine production. I will sell an interest (or Interests) to one or more persons having from $600 up to Invest" Reports are that the principal persona concerned to the proposed pro duction Is Frank Lee Short, managing editor of the Christian Bclence Monitor. Some time ago he was mentioned as being Interested In a group called the American Players' Association and be 1* also Interested In the little theatre movement The Times adv was in extra space, running TO line* double column Dolly Tree, English costume designer who has been la New York for some time, is creating the costumes for the new revue due at the Am bassadeurs theatre, Paris, In the spring. Arrangements were made by Miss Tree with Jacques Charles the Am bassadeurs producer, who sailed for Paris last week after a visit la under the direction of Prom the manner in which my 'phone rang for the first several I was here, it seemed that all my friends were trying to honor me by getting the first call la. But our own Frank Vincent now permanently located here, was the first one to) get through. And among my first callers were Mr. and Mrs Edward Hayman. Once upon a time Ed was a booking manager in the Western Vaude- ville Managers' Association and later became owner of the Kedsle the- atre, Chicago. But now he does nothing less than spend his winters out here, where be has large real estate holdings. The most Important one in Mrs. Hayman's estimation is the bungalow three blocks from the hotel. That's their home. If anyone wanted to stage a show out here—and some people do—they wouldn't have any difficulty In getting a Broadway east and a Broadway audience. In the short time I have been here I have seen such confirmed or erstwhile Times Square!tee as Harry Jordan and his daughter. Banks and Winona Winters, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Crane, Mr. and Mrs. Roy McCardell. Mrs. Henry Miller, widow of the late Henry Miller, and Charles Kenyon. Fart of the campaign of welcome took the form ef a luncheon with Mary Pickford where my companions were Joseph Schenck, Joseph Medlll Patterson, Fred Beetson. Morris Gest Fred Nlblo. Roland West. Albert Laaker, Kent Panott, Douglas Fairbanks and Edwin J. Loeb. What do people like these celebrities talk about when they lunch? Well, Mary Pickford talked—and wouldn't let anyone else talk about anything else—of her favorite plan for the care of the less fortunate In the picture Industry. Just to prove her belief. Miss Pickford now baa Dennis O'Brien, of O'Brien, Malevlnsky and Driscoll, out here to draw up a new will and Incorporate a provision to care for, the needy of the movie world. "The Chief" is the fastest and most expensive train between Chicago and the coast. At any rate, it's the most expensive and the Santa Fe admits that It is the fastest and finest So one wonders why they allow pullers-ln" on It when Broadway and the Bowery chased them out years ago. Even the fact that these "pullers-ln" are Indians, peddling Indian rugs and other very early American novelties, doesn't explain why they are allowed to go to the doors of compartments and solicit trade. Even third-rate apartment houses hang out-signs reading, "No peddlers al- lowed." Who was it said a prophet la without honor In his own precinct? If Shakespeare said It he might have been quite chagrined If he could have attended the opening performance of Trixle Frlganza at the Orpl here. With all due respect and approval of the rest of the bill, the i Just started when she came on. And dived when she went off. Popularity la in Itself a tribute but one of the finest tributes paid to popularity In my recollection occurred last Sunday when, in a drenching rain, one hundred of the literary, dramatic and artistic lights of the nation went to a tea given by Beulah Livingston In her apartment at the Garden of Alia. Beulah Is as much an Institution here on the coast as she la In New York and her teas are even more popular. One can always be sure to meet there the people most worth meeting. Of this number Beulah heads the list. INSIDE STUFF ON VAUDEVILLE Yaude acts playing Union City. N. J., have run Into local vanity. For a long. long time it haa been known as "Union Hill" and the "city" change Is a hard one to acquire. Every time a vaudevllllan In Union City says "Union Hill" the localtte Is quick to make the substitution. Even the burlesque trunks must now be checked to "Union City." Tho "city" has Its own mayor and everything. A lay member of the Friars, assigned a bit for the mid-winter Frollo at the Century, took it seriously. He took three weeks of dancing les- sons from a professional and two weeks' dramatic training from a coach In the gestures, expressions and diction for his lino—it wasn't even a line, it was a single word. Albany's (N. Y.) Rialto was greatly surprised to find vaude being left out of the Grand ads (Proctor), these frequently carrying the picture only. After Installing an organ, the house put the relief pianist on it and patrons squawked. So Proctor had to get an organist While the Proctor house Is trying to build up business, the rowdy element Is being allowed to run wild, with performers bawling out the noise-makers In an effort to effect silence during their acts. It Is reported on good authority that an Important Chicago politician was given a tip some time ago from several Orpheum officials to buy Orpheura stock. The Idea was that If this politician bought and held the stock for $0 days he would make a tremendous profit The city diplomat bought $600,000 worth. After waiting for $0 days, and then another 60 days without the re- semblance of any profit be 'phoned the Orpheum officials and In un- mistakable terms said that If they did not take the stock off his hands fas would' throw it on the open market The heated conversation Immediately called for a conference the Orpheum ofllce holders with a Jack-pot being raised to $100,000 off the public official's