Inside Facts of Stage and Screen (July 5, 1930)

STAGE RADIO SCREEN PRICE 10 CENTS MUSIC Only Theatrical Newspaper on the Pacific Coast ESTABLISHED 1924 EDITED BY JACK JOSEPHS Entered as Second Class Matter, April 29, 1927, at Post- Published Every Saturday at 800-801 Warner Bros. Down- Vol. XII Saturday, July 5, 1930 No. i office, Los Angeles, Calif., under Act of March 3, 1879. town Building, 401 West Seventh St., Los Angeles, Calif. PREVIEW RACKETING EXNIRS STIRS TROUBLE Publicity Public Is Press Ban Wising To Discussed B. O. Stunt Hollywood publicity pur- A revival of the practice veyors are worried over of racketeering- in pre- the rising ire of news- views- is. beiflgt charged paper editors, precipitated against certain exhibitors by an unprecedented flow in Los Angeles and vicin- of publicity into the daily ity. press throughout the The public flocks to the country during the past theatres few years. displaying the sign “Studio The situation is serious. Preview” as much Editors, publishers’ associations, to see studio luminaries, which press syndicates and associations they are told take in these show- of advertising managers are com- ings to see the results of their pleting their annual summer con- work and to get audience reac- ventions. tions, as to see the picture Itself. The name of the The most dramatic expressions picture is rarely known in advance. of annoyance with the publicity Some of these preview situation since the flood of public showings are legitimate, but the relations counsellor communica- public is beginning to find that in many tions first oozed into the news cases they are not. There are no space of the American daily press, luminaries present, the picture is have crept from the gatherings. a finished production, and often- National agencies have already times of an insignificant quality. been informed that the bulwarks Check-up has revealed that, in are going up on a free-space grab- order to keep the preview sign bing. Returning from their con- floating in the breeze, the offend- ventions, editors, inspired by lobby ing exhibitors are renting pictures and green-room discussions are for pre-release showings and run- ordering their staffs to slash pub- ning them in as previews. The licity to the bone. public is finding it out and be- Meanwhile the film publicists ginning to squawk. and exploiteers adopt a code simi- While distributors are lar to the studio production code, parties to the practice in allowing pictures promising sensational changes in to be pre-shown in this publicity policies, covering ethics, manner, they are bemoaning the advertising art and other items idea and wish it could be headed off. It is and promising the super-ultra in illegitimate business, they say, and refinement and honesty of state- so is bound ment. to bring trouble and eventual injury to the business. It all presents a complicated and “It is a box-office stimulant,” very interesting problem, and one said one exchange manager this of national import, as a number week, “and as in the case of phy- of recent propaganda investiga- sical stimulants, brings undesirable tions in Washington will attest. reaction. The offenders are chiefly Of signal importance must be neighborhood houses with more or recognized the fact that the news- ANSON less of WEEKS a regular clientele. If they paper publishers face a situation Returning from the Roosevelt Hotel, New York, reopening at are drawn out especially one night somewhat similar to the present by a preview sign they stay away impasse that stares the picture HOTEL MARK HOPKINS SAN FRANCISCO the next. The exhibitor credits the business in the face. heavy night to the preview and Like the movies, daily newspa- then figures he must stimulate the pers have become very ‘stand- slack following nights with more ardized. Big Prologue With “Nation” At Biltmore previews. And so he becomes an Like the movies, the newspapers addict. Then his competitor feels are presenting hastily hurled out Lon Murray has been signed to personally stage the prologue for the synchronized re-issue of D. W. the effect of it, and he goes after re-hashes of the same old stuff, Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” which is slated to go into the Biltmore here for a run shortly. previews.” presented in the same old way. Murray will hold his auditions for the elaborately planned presentation starting next Monday at the It is the general feeling by the Like the movies, the newspaper theatre. His production plans call for the use of 30 dancing girls who can do tap and ballet, 30 male constructive minds among both ex- (Continued on Page 3) dancers, and 20 show girls who can sing. ( Continued on Page Z) YOU’LL SEE IT IN FACTS —- PAGE TWO INSIDE FACTS OF STAGE AND SCREEN SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1930 Fox Spanish Language Gag Attacked ABSURDITY NOW ARE THE TALKIES SUFFERING Legit Biz At Low Ebb ENTERING INTO FROM OVERSUPPLY OF GENIUS Last week saw legitimate theatre At a time when, despite general business depression, the activities at the lowest ebb of many MAHER -CLAIM talking screen should be just reaching the zenith of its pull- moons. ing power it is, instead, hitting the skids and turning franti- At the Hollywood Music Box, “The Glory Declared” declared in- The Fox Film announcement cally and hastily to stage revues and presentations to help glorious defeat for its now sadder, that they had “surmounted the dif- keep theatres filled. wiser and poorer idealistic author. ficulties’’ encountered hitherto in It’s an old axiom that the theatre is one of the last to feel The show opened Monday, closed Spanish speaking countries by de- business depression. When people are troubled and worried, Wednesday, reopened Thursday ciding to use the Spanish of the they seek diversion for a few hours in the theatre or film and closed Saturday, with a large Madrid stage appears to have palace. There sublimated ambi- marking the spot where the body awakened hearty laughter among X tions are given free reign for a was found. Spanish-American leaders here. of semi-realism to an imaginary spell. Boxoffice returns were no asset, In an exclusive signed article world of recent talkie development Yet theatre receipts are drop- and the players have filed salary printed below, Jose Rodriguez, that exists only in the minds of ping all over the country with claims with Equity. They had widely known writer and musician, the “geniuses.” It has little ap- dizzying rapidity. And lavishly waived the protection of bond. Ill- intimates in diplomatic language peal to the rank and file of the produced musical talkers are ness of Mr. Ralph Culver Bennett, that Spanish-Americans are pre- citizenry, who plunk down their scarcely bringing in their produc- author and producer, was given out pared to institute a complete boy- dollars to keep the “geniuses” go- tion and distribution costs. as the cause of closing, but ac- cott against Fox and all other pro- ing, but 'of late Have failed to run is simple. cording to the daily press Mr. ducers who embark on all-con- The answer The mo- true to form. tion picture business is suffering Bennett had strength enough to sidered Spanish language policies Thus we find the current talk- from too much ’’genius,” too much his leading lady out of his The controversy, according to ing screen suffering from pseudo- push “wizardry.” There are too many car when she asked him for car- Rodriguez, has descended to ab- sophisticated drawing-room com- master-minds, whose ideas of en- fare back to York. Perhaps surity; Hollywood is making itself edies, with quasi-realistic “heavy” New tertainment have been warped by he invoked one of the miracles his ridiculous before the entire, world. dramas, with voluptuously anti- years of constant association with play called for. Drama loses a Following is the article: quated musical productions and the same routines, songs, gags, playwright and college boys get an increasing absence of public By JOSE RODRIGUEZ ideas and sensations. example. patronage. back a shining Motion picture producers, more While they have been living in The Music Box is now dark, We find stage playwrights and noted for energy than for learning, their little mental padded cells, with nothing immediate in sight. directors piling their conception of have been a'ff to adopt the super- the world has gone past them and The Vine Street is now dark and another person’s conception of the stition that there are only two they find themselves grinding out will remain so until about July 15, dramatic themes and techniques kinds of Spanish: First, the Castil- their same old stuff in the same when “Oh, Judge” is due to open. that pleased the audiences, who fian, which is correct, and second, old way while the live-wires have This is a new musicomedy credited raved over Pinero, Wilde, Thomas, the Mexican, which is incorrect. been busy elsewhere. to Gwen Meredith, Lucien Denni Boucicault, Guitry and others of We will waste no words on this Thus the motion picture has and Edward Eisner, with the latter their time. particularly stupid superstition. progressed from its pre-talkie air directing. Producers are Strong Let us consider, instead, the Grover C. O’Day We find the same playwrights and Wilson, owners of the house. English language in the same man- and directors joining with the George Fawcett’s production of ner that the producers appear to . the popular young juven- screen colony, ever-increasingly “Under a Virginia Moon” closed be considering the Spanish. ile comedian of St. Claire Sis- “art” conscious, to produce dra- there June 28, taking a gross of kinds of Eng- RACKETING TO mas of “tremendous conflict,” There are many ters and O’Day, now at the that $4700 for the week.

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