Variety (Sep 1928)

46 VARIETY EDITORIAL Wednesday, September 19, 1928 Trade Mark Ref^istered PabUsliod \Vockli by VAltlKTY, Inc. Sime Silverman, Proslileht 1E4 West 4Cth Street New York City Inside Stuff-Pictures 50 YEARS AGO (From "Clipper") Judpe McAllister In Chicago re^ versed a police cburt verdict by which a saloon keeper had been fined for providing free music to hia patrons in Violation of a local' ordinance. Higrher court ruled that the audience was unconstitutional (fret this) "because It abridged the fi-eedom and rights of citizens," . One of the events of the week Just passed in New York City wa« the annual parade of the hackmen. . The Third Avenue "L". began service -as fsLr uptown as Grand Central, using the spur on 42d street, which has since, been removed. Bathing in 'the Hudson Was dan- gerous. Charles Gates died as a result of being bitten by a shark; Now the peril is a iblte from a ty- phoid germ. Record appears of a polo match In Newport,, R. I., between teams froiri Westchester. county and a group from Queens county hunt clubs, , Westchester was captained by "J. G. Bennett" (presumably James Gordon Bennett), while the 'Queens team was Headed by "A. Belmont, Jr.," probably the August Belmont who afterward built the subway. . Buffalo jSill accomplished the feat of breaking .23 out of 25 thrown •glass balls, using a rifle without Bights. Capt. Mat Webb, first channel conquerer, undertook to swim 3C hours, going with the Thames tide to Gravesend and back on the re- turn tide, but a violent storm forced him out of the water in aboiit nine hours. A younff film loading man, who had a discouraging struggle through .sovcral yoiirs before he got a break, tried his best to dodge the second big break of his career. He crashed from obscurity Into fame a year ago when chosen from the unknown to play a leading role In an air picture. He has made considerable progress since then but was greatly perturbed when the company to which he is under contract summoned him for a test for the loading man part in an African adventure film. This picture is being made by two men who have achieved considerable renown for the unique Alms they bring back from out-ofrthcriway. parts of the world after protracted, disappearances, thel? last released work having contained some exceptional wild animal stuff. The young lead wa,s.worried that he would be called upon to support another animal cast, when the dramatic sequences were to be Inserted following the return of the. film makers from Africa. When the time for the test canie, he is said to have put on as poor a makeup as. possible and to haye sh.o\yn little spirit In the action testa, hoping to lose the part. He was selected and was handed the script. He discovered,' on readlnjg it, he had been trying his best to keep out of what will be probably the only road show his company will make during the present film year, and had tried to lose one of the Juiciest leading male roles on the producers' entire schedule. . The undue haste of the' production department of one company In. insisting upon the arbitrary return of one of its contract players, lo9.ned to. another studio, resulted in the loss of the actor's salary for two weeks at a rate of perhaps |2,(i00 each week. \ The borrowing director worked his players night and day to keep his pledge to retugcn the borrowed actor at the hour named. The return was duly made, although he gladly would have carried the player another two weeks. When the tired actor reached his home studio he was told he would not be needed for three weeks. The player had the satisfaction of securing an unexpected vacation, but his employer was out .$4,000. One of the large Los Angeles dailies planning to get out a special Issue in the coming months is going.after motion picture advertising, but of a kind different from the usual. At a meeting of the advertising staff the big boss of the sheet instructed tlie solicitors to leave actors, directors and technicians severely alone and go after the companies for buisiness. He told his crew that in getting out similar editions the tactics, of some of the other local dailies had been so offensive that animosities, had been engendered Which had operated to the favor of his publication and he did not care to sacrifice that good will. An experimental 'Television play broadcast at Schenectady, N. T,, last week read as but little different in result, fro'm an attempt of some months ago, . T.he play as riead and iacted appeared lipon the small glass dial attached to the receiver. Television is working for the throw of its talking picture onto a blank wall from the transmitter. Until that Is available Television will not be of great commercial value to Its makers, . Various reports of Interest in Television are heard. Downtown New York dealers handling Television receiving seta say there's no panicky rush to buy them. With the wave of sound oli just now, It recalls that the first wired houses in the country were those of Independent exhibitors. Chains paid no attention'to the wiring for sight and sound when Vltaphone (Warners), first started to put out Its shorts. That explains why so many Indie exhibs revived their wire equipment when the Warners took the turn after their talking shOrta of . the early period had caused the exhibs to place the wire Into disuse. A land developer advertises build- ing lots "below Long Branch, N. J." for $275 each. 15 YEARS AGO (Frovi Variety and "Clipper") Frohman interests, Weber & Fields and K. & E., having gone Into picture making, the older es- taJbllshed concerns registered alarm. Nearly a score of picture makers assembled in a secret session and agi-eed to co-operate In resisting In- vasion from outside show interests. . Unusual outbreak of millionaire angels is noted. One of the Van- derbllts was financing Mitzl Hajos in "Her Little Highness'.'; one of the Goulds was reported furnishing capital for a. Weber & Luescher piece due at the Globe, and young Ziegler,. newly come into his lieri- tage, ATOs behind "a- musical at the Longacre. Color pictures made further ad- vances, with Kinernacolor signing on .stars. In the number were Anna Held, Richard Harding Davis, Wil- lla^n: Collier and Flora Zabelle... Eddie Foy was arrested for the second time charged with permit- ting his children to appear under legal age. This time the Children's Society took exception to Richard singing at the Union Square. A panic was on among the faat- dylhg one-nighters. It was esti- mated tliat on the layout for the new season, road production had dropped 70 per cent, in the past five years. At that time there Avere few big' pictures to take up the slacic in legit bookings. Elaine Hamnierstein, 17, waTs about to make her stage debut In •'High Jinks," produced by Arthur Hammersteln, her father. Wallace Eddinger havlngf been Injured in an automobile accident, George M. Cohan was ready to go on as the star of "Seven Keys to Bald pate." A charge of $15 to. $20 Is being made by the trailer service companies and also the Warners for the talking trailers sent ahead of the In- coming pictures. It Is claimed that through the limited nuniber of wired houses just now the Warners still lose money on the trailer's cost. 'While the trailer in most cases can act as,a talking short and save the house the expense of at least one of those, It seems funny to charge for a trailer that is issued by a firm Intending to plug Its own talking pic- ture, Exhibs apparently do not. object to the trailer charge. Some of the biggest executives who holler the most about stories and facts are the toughest to avail themselves of pre-presstlme opportunities. One who heads a big talker company, has his secretary trained so she demands to' know what questions are going to be asked before she will condescend to arrange an appointment for news folk. Observant picture men are commencing to figure that the American Telephone and Telegraph Company with Electrical Research, Its West- ern Electric subsidiary is In for a large bit of change from both sides of the film fence, producers and exhibitors, wltho'ut the lay electrics taking any of the risk. The lays furnish equipment or license and collect. It can't do a bit of harm fo A. T, & T. dividends. About the only thing undisclosed remaining on that end la whether A. T. & T. or its subs If finding out what can be made In. the- show business, won't start to gobble up the show business. They may have started already. W. E. knows the gross of every house using Its wiring. That may be a part of its partial payment installatlo'n agreement. Since United Artists abandoned its general publicity department. It has adopted the metliod of employing unit press agents. These p. a.'s are given a nominal salary and employed by the picture, remaining urrtir it IS completedi . . , ^ , ^ If another picture starts at the time the first picture Is finlshed~fhey are assigned. If not they ai'e laid off until work Is found for them. There are just two press agents woVking on this unit system, Russell Phelps and John Miles. Reversing its. policy of recent months, Fox Is now seeking directors more mature In years and experience^ especially on the stage side. The "make your own film" movement* is becoming an epidemic in Hollywood. DwIglit Cummlngs, scenarist, has Joined the ranks, stepping out and, directing the first of what he says will be a series of 12 short features, this, one being entitled "Up the Hill and Down." The series is to deal with the trials and troubles of a yoilng married coiii)le. Dorothy Yost is writing the stories. Ethel Jackson, unknown, played the leading femme part in the first. An illustration of how the operator.s* union in Chicago feels toward independent "exhibitors came to light recently when an exhib of a small neighborhood house came up for arbitration on a squabble with an oper- ator. It seems that the exhibitor had fired the man for laying down on the job. The operator denied the charges and claimed, that his employer had refused to pay him for overtime. The union official, hearing the matter decided for the exhibitor, flayed tho^porator for his action in front of his employer. The ofHcial told tlTe nian^K^^'KatrkrvoANnr^fire^^BXhl^ him wrong and tliat he preferred to take his word In the matter. The operator did not go back to work. It was 20 years ago that M. L. Finkelstclh, of BMnkelstein A Ruben, was selling Jewelry in St. Paul. He became Interested In show biz and It wasn't long hefore he took over the Lyric. That house was a suc- cess and started Flnklesteln to acquiring Other houses. Then he took in I. H. Ruben as a partner and the two gained control of most of the theatres In the Twin 'Cities. Later William Hamm, St Paul man. The chain now Includes about 140 theatres in Minnesota; Wisconsin and the Dakotaa. Finkelstein & Ruben are celebrating their 20th anniversary over the entire circuit. "The Albany Night Boat" Is a recent Tiffany-Stahl release without much of the notorious night boat stuff In It As made the picture. Is a mellcr, ' This Is said to have been brought about through the company Operat- ing the floating houses up and down the Hudson warning T-S when the title was announced not to get too fresh on the night boat Inside. Otherwise or else..... .1; Inside Stuff-Legit The Boston musicians had no difficulty In enforcing their clause where- by 27 musicians had to be carried at $72 a week by the Tremont theatre to allow Count Bernl VIcl "arid his girls' Orchestra ih the pit to play Morris and Greene's new musical, "Just a Minute," > It meant that 27 musicians in the Boston local would merely report for each show and then leave. The nearest to reyengei that was possible came In the selecting of 27 girl members of the union as the theatre's choice for the iglfts that were being handed out. Al Jolson's billing at the Winter Garden where "The Singing Fool" opens tonight (Wednesday) is the most elahorate ever given the star at the house where he appeared regularly as the Shuberts' bl&eest box pfllce attraction. Electric signs and banners on three sides of the house are all Jolson. The huge sign facing. Broadway, formerly used by the Shuberts to exploit their productions at other theatres, has also been given to JolsOn. . The "angel" spo'hsorihg the resumption, of the Miller and Lyles* "Keep Shufflin'",which played in Brooklyn last week Is reported as Nicky Arnstein. .Take it from a Variety reader, Who spent Sunday afternoon gathering statistics on the subject, Hannen Swaffer Is an extreme repressiohlst in the use of the first person singular. For real free, hand spreading of the "I" St. John Irvine can spot Swaf four ems and eight italics and then breeze in under wraps. Variety's reader clocked St. John's first Sunday contribution in the World and counted the "I's" that made the lines look,, like a hair .comb. 'Tota.l of first persoh singular pronouns wa;s 154. In communlcatinff: this data Variety's reader observes, "If this isn't a world's record, then Maio West Is a reincarnation of Little Eva." Harry Wardell, whom Al Jolson regards., as his good luck charnu brought the films and records of "The Singing Fool" .oh frOm the coast to make sure that they were safely delivered. Wardell, since arrival, has told friends that there Is. pathos in the new Warners' picture that will bring the tears to anyone.. He amplified the, point with a story of what happened when the film was run off after arrival here. Getting in one morning last week Wardell went to the Warners' pro- jection room, having telegraphed to have an operator ready to run the picture. When about three-fourths through, the picture suddenly stopped and Wardell called out: "Hey kid, keep It. going. 1 wanta get out and tie on the breakfast bag." "I can't, miste^r," replied the operator, "I'm crying." Jolson, when asked If "The Singing Fool" has much pathos, said: "I cry myself when looking at it," A manalger who has the Southern rights for a small cast Broadway success, of last season, started his troupe out In a Pennsylvania town 10 days ago. Business for the three days was so bad that he didn't have money enough for himself to g:et back to New York He wandered down the.main street, and hearing of a dice gatne decided to take a chance Touching the treasurer for ten he got into the game and ran the saw-buck up to $600 With that coin he paid off and got transportation to the next stand, Norfolk. , The manager returned to Broadway telling of the bad business and also saying that the show would have to make its own wiay out of Nor- folk. A giveaway tab called the Morning Milk has been gotten .out. by Tom Van Dyck, of the Sam Harris office, for "The Big F*Ifi:ht," the Jack Dempsey-Estelle Taylor show at the Majestic. Stories with by-line phonies are in a humorous vein and several columnists, are kidded. Inside Stuff-Vaudevifle Show people in Saranac Lake, N. Y., cannot understand the* delay and slowness of construction on the highly publicized N. V. A. Sanatarium in that heart of the Adirondacks. Excavation was started over a year ago,''with "constiTietiOH^nxfw One alibi slipped out was slow deliveries of building material: That was made especially emphatic to account for the non-work last winter. Meanwhile and also during last winter a couple of tall buildings, one a hotel, were erected in Saranac, without stalling or alibi. It is said that the estimated co.st of the N. V, A. Sanitarium is around $150,000. The Sanitarium has been emplo'yed as the object of a couple of N, V, A; di-ive^ in the Keith and V. M. P. A. vaudeville theatres, both fostered by E. F. Albee. Over $800,000 is claimed to have been drawn down throu.gh passing the hat to vaudeville aiidiences. Who were in- formed how badly the vaude actors are In need of charity. What the Saranac bunch can't fathom Is that If the delay In con- struction is through shortage pf funds, what is the matter with that $800,000? ... While awaiting the hew sanitarium, N. V. A. patients are housed In the present limited institution called this N. V, A. Sanatarium, with others of the o'verfiow placed elsewhere in the village. One of the N. V. A. patients currently in the sanitarium is reported to be paying for the room £>.nd board provided. That is contrary to understanding of the operation ot the N. V. A. and its publicity-choked charities. It has greatly surprised the show folk hearing of It In and out of Saranac. ^--WJtLenJ[5z_ IS^ojigh^^ agent, left that town to make his headquarters in New ibrk his comeHy cTiib'1^^^ and presented him with a $4,000 Cadillac. When Sam Kiihl stepped out, in Chicago an effort was made to present him with a watch but the boys couldn't raise enough Jack. Clark and McCuUough's contract with William Fox for talkers is for two years. It calls for 40' weeks' work a year at $3,000 weekly the first period, and $3,600 the second.