Variety (Sep 1928)

48 VARIETY Wednesday, September 26, 1028 Trade M.irh [leRlstered rabllNlied Weekly by VAKIETV, Inc. SItne Silverman, Frosldent t64 Weat 4Gth Street New York City SUBSCRIPTION: Annual. ... . .$10. , Foreign, ..... .Ill Single Copies.......... ...... 25 Cents Vol, XCIl No. 11 15 YEARS AGO (Vfovx Vanvty and "Clipptr") The Brititfii film makers were dls- turbtjd by a . tlititres.sinR incident. Lady Dianti Manners had posed In one of these bare lepged iart dances I'or the camera and somehow the picture yvus exhibited at Buoking- ham Palace, where Queen Mary blushed at, its frankness. . Trouble was prospert of. censor ruiinfrs in cohsoqnenoe. Ajnerica w;it; in for a new inva- sion i)f foreign mu.'«ic hall stai's; Marie Lloyd was on the ocean bound for New York,, and Wilkio Bard was cxptH.tt'd to follow. . Picture houses were multiplylnpr tapidly the country over. That ^veek: plans were filed in Phiiladelr phia for flyo new houses, while* 17 were recorded Lhroughotit Pennsyl- vania. ."Broncho Billy." the Torn Mix of his day, appeared on the streets, of Cleveland and started a riot amonp tlie kids. So great was the current craze for Westerns, that cattlemen declared there was a labor pro"blem on. the ranrliew; due to cowboys iryinfjT t" i;et>inf() the movies. Francis X. KusUfnan was dpinfr a two-reolvr, ' Tony the Fiddler," for Essanay, while Trvinff Cum- mingfi switched from acting for Re- liance to directinf,' for Patho; J. "Warren lyei-riMrJin was playing for American, independent. 50 YEARS AGO (From "Clivper") Death, of William Niblo, founder of Nlblo's Garden theatre, New York, Inspires discussion of New- York of earlier times.. It is record- ed that Nlblo, bom in Iceland in 1790, had his first job in this coun- try in the Bank Coffee House at 43 Pine street. New York. He mar-, ried the proprietor's daughter and came into the business. Coffee house was freqtiented by stage peo- ple as well as writers and mer- chants, and Nlblo's attention was directed to the stage. He conceived the Idea of an open air resort and when he clio.se a site near Broadway In Prince street .(this was around .1830) he was laughed at for "going so far out of town." lie approached Kip & Brown's stage line that had its ter- minus at Canal street to extend the service'as far as Prince street, but they refused. Nlblo went ahead his scheme nevertheless and successful, the place being only during the summer. It was later that he got Into theatre operation, i-ebuildiiig the Bowery theatre when it burned down. with was open • The site of .the Prince street place, it is related, had been a part of a stork farm, the ground being used as a track .for the training of race horseSi Yellow fever plague spread, Nov/ brlejan.s -was isnlnted from the .world, with fifty deaths a day. Town of Grenada, Miss., was de- serted and people lived in the open •country in tents provided by the army. One ca-se appeared In Brooklyn and two in Philadelphia. Whole Atlantic .s(>aboard In a panic. Cremorne vaudeville theatre,' Broadway between 30th and 31.st street, advertises for acts, adding, "There is no wine business. This is the only cstnblislinient in the country (Tony Pastor's excepted) where salaries are paid Saturday evening during the performance, '?rij""aslcln}r-'ar=^w'aitin^g^^^ New York Board of Aldermen adopted a resolution adverse to the ,Bi-ooklyn Bridge prop6sfil. Idea for a w'esteni film—-Freight- ers and warlike Indians clashed Mar Salmon City, Idaho. Freight- era build breast work.«i out of sack.M of flour and .stood thf' red skins off till help arrived. I Inside Stuff-Pictures (Coiilinued from page 20) handled tlie piihlieity for ilu> national air races and Aeronautical Ex- po,sitlon- held hei-e a few weeks ago. The Mayor said that the i^ubllcity handled by Beall in his campaign resulted in such large iittendanco at the air field that he felt the advancement of aviation, had progressed further in Los .\ng<'le.s than in any other part of the country.. Harold B. Fi'anklin advocates a system Of volume control for .sound pictures, rnade variable at. will by the projectionist, to meet different acoustical conditions. His views are embodied In a paper prepared by him ?ind read at the session of the Society of Motion Picture En&Ineera at Lake Placid, N. Y., this week; • "At thp present time and under present methods," says the West Coast circuit'.s pveSldenC "it >is difncult for the. pi-ojectlOnist to determine the correct volume control. Even though the volume control mlight be set correctly, It i.s necessary to vary it in accordance with the flow of people that either, leave or enter the theatre. It may be noticed that as the capacity of a theatre Increases with persons it Is necessary to step up the volume control in order to obtain a volume .sufRcient for certain parts of the theatre. "The only contact the projectionist ha,«f with this problem is through the Monitor horn in the projection rooni, which enables, him only to catch cues and make changeovor.s and to determine If the system Is in proper mechanicnl operaition. I wish to submit the thought that this deficiency might be overcome If an,opening werei designed In the front of the booth to which the projectionist. mig;ht enter and in that waj hear the volume in the auditorium itself." Mr. Franklin al.so reeomthendcd. that projectionist and musical director co-operate in an effort to arrive at correct volume. He likewise urges the necessity of frequent inspection of each amplifying horn to make certain that it i,*< functioning properly. iHis actual experience, he said, was that poor.' photo-electric cells made a decided coiitrast in volume in the Movietone, apparatus. Houses iising over one talking short might be a little more .particular In spotting them. Two or more shorts misplaced in position op the running order will .have an adverse effect. Where a .hou-qe .manager notes a short, he tViinks well of is not getting the applause or reception expected, its position shbuid be changed. It may have been Injured by the short ahead of it o^- it would fit in better In another spot. In a short bill recently of three shorts, the first two -were what miglit be called full stage? ensemble acts, while the other was a single girl. The girl was used to close the progr.am of shorts, forcing the two full stage .shorts to follow one another and utterly ruining the second. With the girl in between the bill wo\ild have found its value, especially as one of the short.s was a band act which would have easily, closed. *. Spotting shorts will become essential, and the sooner the better. . Western Eleetiic, from reports, is but turning out 125 units of talker (wire) efiu)i)men.L monthly. This is ,tt the pre.sent date of adding l;500 wired theatres yearly to the list. It is now claimed tiiat it is doubtful if there will be .1,000 wired houses by Jan!. 1, next. - Exhibitors anxious to be wired cannot understand the slow processes of the W. P3, plant on the wire. Some, surmise W. E. is intentionally withholding speed in the Installation for sonie iimexplained purpo.se, The "W. E. people deny that. They make no promise of increased equip- ment, however. Coast picture people will be pleasantly surprised on their first visit to the new rooms of the Moving Picture Club In the Bond building at Broadway and 46th. They occupy the entire sixth floor. Nothing is missing from tlie reception room to the gym, with card rooms and a dining room seating 250. No cash can pa.its and ho tips. All sign with 10 per cent, added to the checks. •The club has. around 300. members. Applications from 40 prospects were received last week. Initiation is at present |160, with dues $125 annually. Ladies may be dinner guests from .five until nine, daily. Otherwise stag. Guest card cannot be issued over three times yearly, for two weeks each, to the same person. Nathan Burkan, counsel to the dub, ha.s delivered an opinion that a guest card bestows upon that guest all mcmber-privilepes Of the club, including tlie card rooms. The one-price all over for evenings in the picture houses appears to have helped the ui>stairs occupancy. With a universal single price, managers report there is not the hesitancy about going upstairs formerly existing with a mixed scale. Victor Is overloaded with orders for sound records, it is said, at its Camden, N, J., plant. Now working three shifts dally and can't catch up. The Harry Rcichcnbaehs fell afoul of a fast working colored sneak thief posing as a servant. It co.st Mrs. Heichen.bach $21,000 in jewelry mostly, but her husband had an in-surance policy for $25,000. The latter was an accident, however. Day after the loss, Harry, who thought his policy had oxplred, received notice from the company that if he didn't pay the premium within five days, it would. The colored maid, after cleaning the Reichenbachs,' got another job -within two day.s in the same, neighborhood... She started to work at nine in thg morning and by noon had cleaned out, both herself and the place; Both the cops and Harry are looking, for the maid. A different way lo put Vitaphonc over every day in the month has been gotten out for smaller exhibitors by Warren Lewis, publicist for this depiirtment. ■ Lewis docs not advise theatre o.wners.to follow the move of a Saenger prcs.s agent in a small Louisiana toVirn, who got the phone operator there to tell the story to every subscriber, lie does stick by handshaking with the village president and getting the lo'cal editor, or printer, up to the point where he will listen to reason over a glass of buttermilk.. . With the announcement that M-G-M will start talking short production at the Cosmopolitan Studios in Harlem and Warners will gradually move their short department to the ..old Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn comes the after-thought that both studios are immediately adjacent to elevated train lines. Shutting out external sounds is one of the major problems for both movietone an<l vitaphonc. In the comparative quiet o'f Hollywood both r-'ox and Warnets had trouble from street traffic, notably trucks, passing their, studios. Dr. Lee De. Forrest says that he has the wrench in hand and ready to Jlutlj Jnto- I 'at_.P(> .w '■: r.s'_uUkei^w^rks^ ould they assuine material form. If Powers Ih doing anything on the siff«rTnTire"^'a^^ Forrest says his attorneys will soon know and wllF grab a writ to crash in. Calling I'owers" cine-iihone a 100 per ce.tit Chinese copy on his own Phonophone. llwi inventor maintains that Powers has no authority to u.s'e any of his patents, nor did Powers invest a cent in any of his talking efforts. The contract which the inventor .says Powers now holds is described as not being worth the paper it is written on. De Forrest tell.s a long story about how Piit got the paper. In "lOx'fi';..- lijiu-irime" R.iljili HyD'^ncc's litles contain a eoiipl<» of nlftiea for showfolkg. One, probably the current Hollywood curse, is: "If they cast you for talking pictures, I hope you stutter," while another is whore the flip hoofer tells the mother half of the sister team, "If it wasn't for me you would still bo playing comfort stations." A illm director, forelgnei-, who: won himself a contract with one of the largest producing companies as a result of making one of tho.«(e complete iilm dramas for two ninety-eight or thereabouts, met a young blonde beaut. She attracted his eye and interest. Hoping to. do something for her in pictures, a suggestion to wliich she proved receptive, he made a screen test. The result Is said to' have been ,such that t'lie director tucked it away and didn't dare show It to any of the company's executives. " Nevertheless, he gave the girl a bit in the picture he was directing. In due course, the picture was finished and the company's chiefs saw it. When the blonde girl appeared in her bit, the execs Inimediately de- rhanded to know who she was, with, the upshot of it, she was quickly placed undftr contract. Now both she and the director are happy and they're, seen together a good deal.: The sign over the Rialto, New York, where "The Patriot,", with Emil Jannings, is currently showing, Is being repainted for the. third time on account of protests made by . Ernest IjUblstch that his name' did not appear in sufllciently large size. It is reported Lubltsch has a contract providing that his name should be in letters as large as Jannings. The fir.st sign did not carry Lubltsch'a nrinifk. 'The; second sigh had the director's name in smaller letters than teV u-'k, Painters are doing plenty of climbing. Inside Sfuf^^audevifle Another smart ballyhoo is. reported this week by H. li. Emde, man- ager of Proctoi's, Newark,. N. J. A dozen nearly dressed girls are being separately sent into stores and factories over there, with each girl pres- ently displaying a small Sign reading "Why Girls Leave Home." Later, a bus seating 12; and a band picks up each girl wherever she may be and drives away. The bus is bannered, "At Proctor's Now. 'Port of .Missinir Girls.'" . Emde has frequently ditiplayed uncommon ingenuity in putting out- catchy and inexpensive ballyhoos. Walt-iU' C. Kelly Is back on the Keith Circuit. Last week he played the Now Bokton, the Keith house in Beantown. "The Virginia Judge" wa.s one of those "blacklisted" acts under the Albee reign of the Keith office. The Judge held too niuch independence and spoke lils mind too freely, at the same time refusing to obey orders that Jiad nothing to.do with his current stage engagement, to please the old Keith crowdi Two fa.CtIbnK .seem apparent; in the Keith New York olHce. It's a condition that i.s working again.st the welfare of the Keith Cii'cuit. I'robably It Will be V^uickly corrected upon the return of Miu-dock, Casey and. Kennedy this week. The internal strife appears to h.ave reached the point where one side is speaking di.^paragingly of the other. The factions could be listed as. with Albee-Heiinan or Murdock- Ivcnne.dy. • , \. Vaudeville actors, unable to make their next Jun>p out of Milwaukee have a standing. Invitation for a free aeroplane ride to wherievor they want to go within Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and'Ohio. Gilles Meisenheimer, son of a wealthy Milwaukee business man, is the avlaitor with the amateur sta,tus and the friendly disposition toward show folks. Meisenheimer was an ace with the British .Plying Corps' during the war. He lias played Boy Scout from time to time .to a number of acts in need of rapid transit. Inside Stuff—Legit Whether "The Big Fight" and "Ringside," two prize flght plays, which opposie each other .in adjoining theatres on Broadway, are. authentic or no, there is plenty of ringside stuff pertaining to both. Tex Rickard is reputed to be the. principal backer of "Ringside," a rather interesting angle because of Tex'^ flght promotion career. Joe Humphries, the best known figlit announcer, act"S in tliat capacity in "The Big Bight." Last Friday he hurried to the theatre from Ebbet's Field, when the card was half flnished, being a good Equity member. Then there is Nick the Greek, Dempsey's trainer, and Jack himself in the "Big Fight," both also new Equity members. The referee, Joe Bernstein, is a former scrapper. It required mounted police to keep the crowd of curious in order out- side the Majestic the opening night, but since then specs on the side- walk were offering tickets as late as 9:30. Business after the premiere, however, could have been much better. Through the idea of inviting 'sports writers, fight managers and so forth' to the premiere of "The Big Fight," the Jack Dempsey-Estelle Taylor show secured 25 columns of comment in the New York dailies last Wednesday. That was in addition to the regular critical reviews. The Evening World made the biggest spread, Ed Van Avery reporting the show as a fight expert and ghost writing for the following pugilists: .lackTD'etaheiC'ToTTy^"^ and K. Q. I*hli. Kaplan. The Sam H. Hai^rls :press department, handled by Thomas Van Dyck, Is credited wltii the stunt. Reports that Estelle Taylor would withdraw from the cast of "The Big Fight" have been denied by the management of the show. Miss Taylor has a run of pjay contract with the. piece and will stick. She is co-starred with Jack DemEisey, her husband, in this drama of flstiaha, current at the Majestic, New York. . Reports of Miss Taylor's withdrawal were precipitated by the bad notices the screen star received from the reviewers, with a private press agent crashing the dallies with a yarn one of his clients Would be the successor. When Flo Zlegfeld arrived in New York after his private Pullman had been held up at Rouse's Point on the way . back from Canada and- sev- eral hundred bottles of booze seized, he admitted it was true. In Pitts- burgh a few days later he presented a cute alibi.. Zieggy said the stufT really belonged to Dr.. Jerome Wagner, his friend and physician, who wanted the liquor for his i>atients, which meant nothing to the customp men. During the first performance of "Cross My Hefu-t" at tlie Knicker- bocker, emergency program covers were used. On the bottom of the "CgViiOT'Ht'^^as'Tit^ted-'that^the^house=j\vaa^undeiL;iJie,^ m Shuberts. The error was not explained but the covers were ciuickiT changed. The house lias always been under Erlanger direction. Sam IL Harris, througli his booking connection with the Shubcrt.s. has been unwittingly forced into their argument with the Tyson-United ticket office. The latter agency has been .shut out from buys in Sliubert houses sine© January, when the Shuberts insisted they take a large- buy on "Lovely Lady" than they cared to use. The matter came to Harris' attention when the buy. for "The Hu- (Continued on page 51)