Variety (May 1928)

VOL. XCI. No. 3 NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 1928 72 PAGES AUSTRALIA BARS NEGROES NOBIUTY CLUB HOLDS UPLin PARH Serious Minded Yanks. Meet Titles—And Are Entertained Friendless Jurors By BALLY KNOCKAROCKER (Variety's Own Correspondent Among the Hoi-Polloi) ' What an earful—or shall I say an eyeful?—your Bally has for his dears this Week. It was disrinctly a departure from his accustomed milieu at one of the periodic parMea of the Nobility Club. On>i might have thought it was a rignt club, but It was explained as an organi- zation of not precisely stranded no. bility, Russian, \ ienness and what- not who organize these jplifting lit- tle gatherings to provide themselves with an opportunity to nieet seri- ous-minded and cnilurcd Americans of means. They threw—pardon mc, lield the party on West street. But you'll die when you hear that Bally, that's me, walked through to the B8th street end and narrowly missed attending services at the? Church of the Truth. Fawncy! Finally found the right, door and was greeted by— you'd never guess—Mrs. TvlcATislcf Smith doing an imitation of Dame Ellen Terry as "Ophelia." If Bally isn't mistaken siie i.s one of the (Continued on page 2) Advertisers May-Bid for Radioing Show Dinners With the Sinclair acquittal arid consequent debates over jurors, the instance of Gene Buck meeting a Times Square acquaintance In the Supreme Court building In New York . was cited. "Hello, said Gene. "In trouble?" "Nope," came the answer, "I'm on the jury." "What's the matter?" re- plied Mr. Bujjk, "Haven't you any friends?" FUTURE SHOWS AUrSCiENnnc UBOR PL ON COLORED PROS Vaudeville in Antipodes Re- ceived Heavy Setback from National Scandal Brought About by Sonny Clay Bandsmen—^Theatre Managers Instructed Not to Engage Foreign Col- ored Show People BLACK AND WHITE ORGY B'way and Back by Air Col. Lindbergh's speed flight to Quebec, city, last week within vthree hours brought out a story of a young man who flew to Quebec, got a local young woman there, brought her to Broadway to see a show, and had her back homo the next morning before daybreak. The story says each flight required four hours. Aviator was the son of a national advertising millionaire. The boy spends a large portion of his time on the liong Island flying fields. All of the names in connec- tion with the flights are known excepting that of the young woman. BANTON SPIKE SQUAWK ON INTERLUDE' O'Neill's Guild Play Re- ported Pultizer Prize Winner Selling the radio rights for the broadcasting privilege of the im- portant theatrical dinners next sea- son may come to pass as a trade custom. The Friars attempted to vend the rights for their Koenlga berg testimonial dinner at the Hotel Astor last Sunday, with no takers, Donald Flamm's WMCA station etherizing the function gratis. In line with the donated Actors' Fund benefit show, lor which the "Eskimo "Ple"^'Coii)6r^ fund $10,000, the station and tal- ent volunteering their facilities and services, public functions In^ tlie fu- ture may hope to capitalize their undertaking the radio in tlie future. Theatrical dinners pai'ticularly, "With benefit talent ensuring the program, may be run in showinan- ly manner for proper program bal- ance for the benefit of the radio au- dience, and the Indirect good-will feturns to the sponsoring advertl.ser Who la underwriting the broadcast. A mechanical tlieatre a^d a scientifically-contrived amusement business is the prediction for Amer- ica within a decade. Curtailment of the present standards of amusement purveying, in the musical, • movie and dramatic stage, and the .sub.stl- tution of a mechanical era is fore- seen to dominate the busne.is of public enterfainment within a short spfice of 10 years. A combination of America's mo.<?t powerful, public utility and manu- facturing enterprises forecasts this. General Electric, Western Electric, Radio Corporation of America, American • Telephone & Telegraph Co.r and the' yatctwlh Locsinotlve Works, with their subsidiary or- ganizations, corporations and lab- oratories, and all of them intcrloclc- ing and intertwined, definitely indi- cate the not HO dis'tant scientific theatre. Important Names The new RCA Photophone, Inc., with David Sarnoff president, and Elmer E. Buchor,. vice-president, m charge of commercial activities, has such powerful industrial factor.'^ as Major General James G. Harbord, president of the RCA, .serving as chairman of the board of. directors of the new sub.sidiary corpor.'i-tion, with other jhcmber.s of tho board including Owen D. Young, Gerard Swopft. Paul D. Cravath, Cornelius N. Bliss, E. W. Harden, B. M. Herr, James 11. Sheffield . and Da,vid Sar- noff. Such names cannot be lightly taken when they invade the show "'(Continued on SPOET SPIRITUALS An athletically patterned couplet of negro sermons i.s a big Okeli record seller. The titles are "Tig- er Flowers' Last Fight'? and 'The Ball Game of Life," sermons with singing, by the Rev. J. M. Gates and hl9 congregation, The reverend earns more from the [disk recordings than from ht.<j ec clcslastlcal duties. Sydney, March 31. . Australia has closed itself to any foreign colored professionals, with Americans especially aimed at, as. a result of the Sonny Clay Band scandal. . That scandal also has given vaudeville in this country the greatest set back it has ever re- ceived- It's the first national scan- dal vaudeville has suffered and that it arose through negroes made it additionally tense. Vaudeville managers have been advised through tho Government that no labor permits will hereafter be granted to colored show people from abroad. Following the scandal, which arose "in ■ Melbourne,- -the ^band's members involved. appeared at the Melbourne Tivoli, but the Clay act was canceled the following morn- ing. That automatically acted as a revocation of Its labor permit. The Four Covans and the Em perora of Music, acts in tlie Sonny Clay "Plantation Revue" unit, were not connected with the scandal and continued at tho Melbourne TivoH,. in their own acts^ The, Covans sailed today on the "Sierra," the sanie boat also taking the canceled bandsmen. Their departure was virtually a deportation, as when the colored bandsmen arrived here (Sydney) from Melbourne, a fotoo of police met them at the de.pot to prevent , a hostile dehnonstration by tlie large crowd gathered there. The Emperors of Mu.4ic have been over here for about a year and are regarded as a first class singing act. Protests ■'The^^tntiy^unlt^ very nicely. It was to have played other Australian cities and the band had offers to play In the principal dance halls. Policemen in the theatrical sec- tion of Melbourne staU-d that they had received complaints of wiiitp girls calling at the apartment oc- cupied by the colored musician.^. After ob.serv.atlon, the police raided ,thft apartment on,a Sunday night. (Continued on page 47) COAST HLM CENTER MOVES Los Angeles, May 1. Increase in real estate values around Hollywood are forcing the picture studios to spread Out until they now extend over an area of 66 miles. This embraces one city and five towns. Yet, In spite of this, Hollywood continues to get credit for turning out the bulk of Amerl ca's film product. Studios located outside th6 boun dary lines of HoTlywood are"M&tro Goldwyn-Mayer, Pathe-DeMille and Hal Roach, all in Culver City; First National, in Burbank; Mack Sen- nett. In Studio City; Univer.sal, Universal City, and Mission studios, east Los Angeles, on the-outskirts of the city, At the ■ opposite end' of (Continued on page 62) Kend^iU Building Hou«e In N. Y. for Reinhardt Mcsamore Kendall will buUd a theatre on W'^st Cl.st street adjoin- ing the Caultol, the house to be for legitimate j)roduction3 and design- ed to hou.so Max Reinhardt's future stage activities over here. Otto H. ICahn, who spon.sored the German director's recent season In. Now York and who ha.q arranged for Reinhardt's return next fall, to ^bft-^ Inter cstrd--in--the---th/'atr-c. project. The properties we.stward of the Capitol have been In KendM.H's name since the picture house was built. It w!i.s intended to erect a bra''e of attractive lioii.^e.s on the sltf.s. One wa.i to have been ten- anted by Robert Milton, whose productions were b.aeked by Ken- dall. The latt.T is on his wny to rjermany to .^on-,'JU. over ;il.'ui:. with Reinhardt, District Attorney Banton issued a statement yesterday (Tuesday) en- tirely exonerating the Theatre Guild attractions "Strange Inter- lude". And "Volpone," complaints against which were made by Lee Shubert and William Klein, the Sl)Uberts' lawyer. Banton requested the dallies to print thfe statement Iri full. A Well authenticated rumor Is that Eugene O'Neill's play, "Strange In- terlude," produced by the Theatre Guild, has won this year's Pulitzer Prize. One of tho stipulations of the prize award is that the play re- ceiving it shall be of good moral tone and tend to raise the moralia of the land. "Interlude" la in the paradoxical situation of having been declared, if the rumor Is straight, of doubtful moral qualities by the Shuberts and of gob^ moral tone by the prize award commTttoe." '. • ^'' . 1'hc award cari-lcs with It $1,000 to the author and t>re3tige to tho producers and actors. It marks the third time O'NeiU haB been picked, first with "Beyond the Horizon," "Anna Christie" and now "Inter- lude." It la the second time the Theatre Guild has produced a play dragging down this highest of .the American dramatic honors, the flrat (Continued on page 55) Elmer Gantry" Hot Stuff Cleveland, May 1. Patrick Ke,arney'3 stage version of "J-:imer Gantry" will have Its premiere at tho Little theatre May 20. From advance reports of tno dramatization the show promises to be hot enough to bring out the fire -rlfparlment*—^- --^^^^ II- BROOKS THE NAME YOU GO BY Wdt.N VOU CO TO BUY COSTUMES 'O-Q.WIMS AND UNIFORMS 14 ;> 7 D-WAV. N y TEL. 558 0 PENN. | - A i .ij U.OOO COSTUMCS TO BIKT . .