The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, October 2, 1929, Page 15

He THE BI MARCK TRIRU WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1929 - Adolph Zukor Made His Own Motion Pictures to Insure Quality SUT MACHINE DEA | HesstarametGomeny STARTED NERGETG HAR TO MOIELAD Head of Paramount Company Came to America From Hungary 37 Years Ago STARTED IN FUR BUSINESS Drew Daniel Frohman, James K. Hackett and Ethel Bar- rymore From Stage Many contend that the industry which today exerts the greatest direct influence upon the people of the Unit- €d States is the motion picture. It is estimated that 20,000,000 people go to the movies daily; it is the coun- try's fifth largest industry; and its acknowledged leader is Adolph Zukor, president of the Famous Players-Las- ky corporation, who came to this country a little more than 37 years ago—a 16-year-old immigrant boy from Hungary. Mr. Zukor today is at the head of @ corporation whose assets total over $60,000,000; as a boy he landed at Castle Garden, New York, with just $25 in his pocket and without know- ing a single soul in the new world. Moreover, his little knowledge of Eng- lish made it at first difficult for him to secure employment. When his money was about ex- hausted, he finally located a job in a fur store at $2.00 a week. His duties consisted of sweeping the floors of the store. He not only toiled diligently during the day but he spent his eve- nings perfecting his knowledge of English and studying American busi- Ness methods. Four years later when Zukor had a working idea of the fur business, he took advantage of an opening embracing an opportunity to 0 to Chicago and embark upon the fur trade for himself. Invented Fur Snap There two things happened that made him more ambitious than ever. ‘He married and he invented a patent enap for furs that increased his in- come considerably. However, he ‘wanted to be something more in the world than a successful merchant. He kept his keen eyes and mind open for a opportunity. The op- portunity came—from a rather unex- pected source. Mr. Zukor’s business took him back to New York. Those ‘were the days when the pennies in the slot machines were in their heydey. ‘Thousands crowded around these ma- chines securing a little entertainment for a copper. On his way to and from his office, Mr. Zukor surveyed these crowds curiously. Then he began to see something big in them; he saw that the man who could satisfy this intense craving of the masses for the entertainment at a small price would not only be something of a public benefactor, but would make millions es well. He confided his idea to Mar- cus Loew, one of his business asso- ciates and a life-long friend. Mr Loew agreed with him. So the two became co-proprietors of a penny areade in 1905. Soon they owned a cain of penny arcades extending all over the east and the Marcus Loew enterprises were founded with Marcus Joew president and Adolph Zukor treasurer. Then Mr. Zukor discovered the mo- tion picture. The movies were, in those days, a novelty and rather un- popular. The pictures were bad and flickered so that people could hardly look at them. The theaters where they were shown were small, dirty and badly ventilated. But Mr. Zukor saw in the motion picture a huge form of public entertainment that might rev- olutionize the amusement world. Started Showing Pictures He installed motion pictures in his theaters. The films were disappoint- jy. Mr. Zukor decided to Decome a motion picture producer on a scale oat heretofore had not been dreamed EE ip ture company and induce the greatest stars of the stage, who had hereto- fore looked askance at pictures, to appear in his films. He contemplated making pictures Sp Sleboraie and ex- 8 g a2 5g if Ey di § E : ! [ [ i 1 i i E ee af ul ; 8 5 re ity ES 8 E i E . i lf e i : . i i Fat ui i re’ self. Hollywood — Whatever “Marianne” does at the nation’s box-offices, and | Whatever clse may be deemed sig- nificant in Marion Davies’ first all- talking vehicle, it is probable that in the yet unwritten chronicles of talkie | Progress the picture will rate as a; landmark. For it is the first filmusical to dis- card definitely and «absolutely the ball-and-chain of a “backstage” sct- ting. Yet “Marianne” is musical comedy, replete with songs and comic situa- tions. It has numerous reprises, ro- mance, and a brand of pathos which stage musical comedy seldom attains, and a happy ending. The rather thin plot concerns the deviltries and pranks of a company of American doughboys billeted, just after the armistice, on the farm of a | French peasant girl, Marianne (Miss Davies). Three of the soldiers, Stagg (Law- rence Gray), Soapy (Cliff Edwards), and Yom (Benny Rubin), are the par- ticular flies in the ointment of the Peppery daughter of Gaul, who has troubles enough with her several adopted war orphans, Stagg seriously falls in love with Marianne, and she ual obstacle. brief. Typical musical comedy. Just Natural footlights-nnd-curtain plots a most delightful feature of the talkie is that not once is a figurative or actual spotlight flashed as an excuse for bursting into song. There isn't even @ cabaret scene. The songs are introduced as natur- ally as though the characters are simply continuing dialog, and the doughboys’ chorus work never seems “cued.” The nearest approach to a stage is the rough table on which Marianne sings her songs and does her impersonations of Maurice’ chevs set and Sarah Bernhardt for the Ss. Miss Davies throughout her first ‘alkine picture speaks with an as- sume® French accent. “Marianne” is unusual, too, in that Miss Davies con- stitutes the only feminine adornment therein—but then “Marianne” is as- sertedly a starring vehicle. A New Voice Lawrence Gray, hitherto known in wood aS obscure silent film actor, garners bright laurels in his debut as a singing star, while Benny Rubin, a former local master of cere- monies, also debuting, shares comedy about evenly with Cliff “Uku- ” Edwards, world premiere here of “Mar- irked the con- theater entertain- ment of 20,000,000 say 7 er BS in a4 United ge alone, greet you, you are prenie’ re to discover thet he fs little more than five feet tall—a little man of dynamic energy. [Unusual Film N Film Notes | Lenore Ulric, Frag nig foster gael forth in “Frozen Ji tice” to the tropics, is to starred in “Bouth Bea Rose ud Allan Dwan will direct. ail Son ibe ‘The second of a series of 12 cman: cal featurettes” being produced Hugo Reisenfeld and William Cam- at last with him, but there is the us- | There's the plot in, But for any audience satiated with | —— ADOLPH: ZUKOR Mr. Zukor today is at the head of a corporation whose assets total over $60,000,000, the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation; 37 years ago he was a 16-year-old immigrant from Hungary with only $25 in his pocket. came financially independent in the fur business. machines attracted him—then the moving pictures. would not furnish his theatres good pictures, he decided to make them him- It was Zukor who attracted Daniel Ethel Barrymore from the legitimate stage to the films. ge Hol He be- Then the penny slot Because producers Frohman, James J. Hackett, and ! Hollywood—One of life's little iron- ies: Myrna Loy is the screen symbol of j all that is exotic. Mention of her name conjures up visions of mystic temples of Buddha, of flaming sets in Mandalay, of caravans to dustan, of Turkish harems stuffy with incense ...“... somewhere east of Suez. . East of | uect Myrna Loy has never | been cast of the Mississippi river! “I'm almost ashamed to say it, but —but I've never been even to New York,” she confesses. This freckle-faced, titian-haired girl who on the screen becomes an exquisite siren, a passionate daugh- | ter of some far-away land, was born in Montana, and has spent most of her young life in California. |" Yet in the movies she has been a Burmese maiden, a Moroccan, 2 Mo- hammcedan, a gypsy, a desert cnchan- tress, a Spanish senorita, and even, |once in a comedy, a Fr galese! In her next talkic em, | William Powell’s Art Heads Paramount Company ithe best actors on the talking and ¢ jing together of a characier’s back- jeround, building it up from birth, so; |that when the screen story involving { der the joint direction of the Fox Case | shortly {portrayed sccm like old friends now ‘Still Awkward Woman! {also has just completed a talking pic- Called ‘Depth’ Acting |, William Powell, considered one of | lent screens, is what is called a “dept! actor.” By this is meant the imaginary pic the character is made the actor knows just exactly how this character would react to any given sct of cir- cumstances. “This is cne think I learned in dramatic school,” says Powell. “I at- | tended an academy in New York before going on the stage. And some of the characters I have because of the intimate details of their lives agination. His rise in the moving picture firmament of celebrities has been very rapid. Since his recent appear- ances in talking films his fan mail has increased by leaps and bounds, He has become one of the great favor- ites of the “New Show World.” Charlotte Greenwood T built up in my own im- Hollywood, Oct. 2.—Awkwardness and angularity didn’t hinder C! lotte Greenwood from doing what she wanted to do. Although she stands 5 feet 9 inches, taller than the average woman, M! Greenwood has been a musical c tur Miss Greenwood’s spontancous and ability to sing, or course, something to do with overcomi! wit ad he from 4 stage career. obstacles which would bar most girls | ic *Tilusion Developed | The first public exhibition ot a fie claimed by its producers to actually | create the illusion of depth, the long- sought stereoscopic effect, was given cently in New York. It is the prod- uct of three years of experiment un- corporation and General Theaters Equipment, Inc. Much of the credit for its development is given Earl I. Sponable, one of he inventors of movictone. Its name is Grandeur Film The process is described as not merely a magnification of small film. The pictures are made in specially constructed cameras on film 70 milli- meters wide, twice the width of the ordinary strip, and require new lenses and a new type of projection machine. The film is flashed on a screen as wide as the whole proscenium of the theater, 40 feet wide and 20 fect high. Definite enthusiasm from the critics and special guests invited the New York showing. Some felt that the process was destined to revolution- ize the technique of motion pictures as completely as did the addition of the sound dimension a little more than two years ago. It was generally conceded that “the production was the most successful effort in this new field of film exploration that has yet been managed.” For Hollywood visitors: More film notables may be seen at one time at sporting events than any place else in Holtywood. Scores of screen faces are among those at boxing and wrestling ches and at football games—in ny, Many more than one sees urants that announce to cur- tourists that theirs is the place jto meet filmdom’s great. ~ *| Big News Stories Are Bases for Scenarios’ » j mirror life as {% ‘s printed on the front pages. There seldom is a big news story that isn’t made the basis of a movie scenario. Lindbergh's flight brought an ava- lanche of air stories, and the first voyage of the Graf Zeppelin was in- directly responsible for two forthcom- ing Zeppelin stories. ‘The Catalina island-mainland swim | was followed by a picture with a swimming title, and there is almost an | epidemic of sports pictures at times of the year when the nation is sport- minded. The reason is simple: Hollywood can sell its fiction best when news- paper readers are thinking and talk- ing about the subjects in the pic- tures, Continuity Developed Hollywood, Oct. 2—Motion pictures in the last few years have leita continuity, at least. At a revival showing here, the op- erator forgot reel 13 of “Intolerance,” and apparently not a spectator missed it because none complained. Even the sleepiest of spectators would notice the omission of a reel from a picture made nowadays, al- though he might not give a hang. led “Creation,” although it will have a modern background, | historic days. | directed the fantastic pi | Lost World,” has written ‘The “Creation.” Clara Bow’'s closest friend is her secretary, who was once her’ hair- dresse! Escape,” she is to be a ‘Hawaiian charmer. Going Places Other Ways Ang it is uniikely that she ever will resume, on the talking screen, her real status as an American girl, normal and wholesome. She does not like to | play “straight,” and while her am- bition naturally is stardom, she | would rather play a small good role than a stellar poor one, But if she has been confined to Hollywood in body—for since talkies came she has missed scarcely a day under the microphones—she has traveled much in mind. For every exotic part she undertakes, she says, requires much study. delving into books for atmospheze, for mannerisms and social background of the type of character at hand. “Bome day I'm going to travel in | person,” she says. “I do get restless, reading these books about strange places, and I can’t sce how peopie can be content to stay in one place all the time. Some day, after I've made my mark here, I'm going away on a long trip. Here in Hollywool we talk shop all the time, forgetting often that there is anything else in se. world. I don't want to become tha: way.” Valentino Helped Myrna, by the way, got her movie “break” through the late Rudolph Valentino, the anniversary of whose death was observed with services at his tomb here recently. Winnifred Hudnut, then Rudy's wife, used Myrna in a picture she directed, and Myrna stayed on in the films. But she was “just another actress” Pap the aes cane alone. ree she scarcely ¢ to play al parts offered her. Lillian Gish will be surrounded by po Neg cops cast in Molnar’s play, “The Swan.” Rod LaRocque, Conrad beyid Fal Marie Dressler are includ- eron Menzies at the United Artists’ studios is called’ Glorious Vamps” and cocerns the amatory conquests of such sirens as Eve, Salome, Cleopatra, De- Mah, Lucrezia Borgia, Madame Pom- padour, Carmen end the modern girl. Lupe Velez is going Irish. She is to play the chief feminine role in Donn Byrne's Celtic romance, “Blind Raf- tery.” True enough, she maintains _, |e actual nationality, for her role is that of the Spanish wife of a blind bleccosiengdr ig but the whole back- end the legitimate. The trio, having | Fegistered a success in Hollywood, | have returned to New York to do a by | couple of musicals en Broadvay. but | hale westward in. January. fect presentation their premier runs on Musical Screen Entertainments. It will bring to you not merely talking pictures, but the in- dustry’s great Super-Specials, direct from THIS FRIDAY is the day! Then opens Bis- marck’s amazing new home of Supretne En- tertainment, named the..... Hollywood, Oct. 2—Motion pictures | In Silver Sheet Field! ” Making 63 Pictures 4 A survey of the production plants in Hollywood shows that 63 pictures are being made at this time, which is a ‘record for studios. Mac Murray has {started work in “Peacock Alley” at the Tiffany-Stah! studio. Lenore Ulrich, who recently com- pleted work in “Frozen Justice,” un- der the direction of Allan Dwan, has started her second picture, “South | Sea Rose.” Lois Wilson and H. B. Warner are starred in “The Furtes,” which Alan Crosland is directing. This story is taken from the work of Zoe Akins. Natalie Moothead has an important part. Dorothy Mackaill, Warner Rich- mond, Sidney Blackner and Kather- ine Ward have parts in the First Na- tional picture “The Queen of Jazz.” Irving Berlin is putting the finish- ting musical touches on the Harry Richman picture “Play Boy.” Among those in the cast, aside from the star, are Lilyan Tashman, James Gleason and Joan Bennett. Lillian Gish will make “The Swan" her first sound movie. will produce, and Paul L. Stein will direct. in the film came into American fame years when she replaced Maxine Elliott op- posite Nat Goodwin in “The Altar of Friendship.” She played with him } two seasons without marrying him—a ieee record, her friends used to ay. Joseph Henaberry, veteran actor | who portrayed Abraham Lincoln in D. W. Griffith's “Birth of a Nation,” still in Hollywood. Griffith now plans a talkie based on the life of the civil ; , War president, and there is much con- H | Jecture as to who will get the role. United Artists | 1)"THE COCOANUTS IS SAID MOST COMICAL OF TALKING MOVIES Marx Brothers, World’s Four Funniest Men, Call This Their Greatest Work Praising “The Cocoanuts” is like giving an endorsement to June sun- shine. Beyond question, it represents one of the greatest accomplishments of the talking screen. “The Cocoanuts,” which will open soon at the Paramount theater, is the first film musical comedy as such. Here ts the method of musical comedy brought to the screen, all-talking, all- singing, all-dancing, all-laughing. If the lovers have a song in mind when they are in conversation, they sing it. If the chorus feels like interrupt- ing the action with one of their dances, they skip right out. And through it all, the Marx Brothers, the world’s four funniest men, the most high-powered and popular comedy team on the Broadway stage, twist a gay threat of laughter. “The Cocoanuts” is the Marx Broth- ers’ great stage hit which played New York at $6.60 for one year. The music was composed for the original stage show by the king of composers, Irving Berlin. Berlin added a rtew theme song, “When My Dreams Come True,” for the screen presentation and Oscar | Shaw and Mary Eaton, in the romane tic leads, sing this tuneful melody. “The Cocoanuts” is a laugh-show rom start to finish. It is all the dise tinctive Marx brand of humor, turne | Ing from the absurd to the ridiculous, from semi-: ity to complete lunacy. Bismarck’s New Publix Theatre! A NEW ERA will dawn in the entertainment history of Bismarck with the opening, on Fri- day, October 4th, of the marvelous Para- mount Theatre. Beauty, Comfort and Serv- ice will await you . . for in its construction and furnishing no detail has been overlooked to make this magic showhouse the finest thea- tre North Dakota can boast. A GOLDEN VOICED SCREEN . . so natur- al. . so perfect . . that you will actually feel the presence of the entertainers whose voices and instruments you hear! This miracle will be yours starting Friday through the marvel- _ ous new inventions, installed at enormous ex- pense, bringing to the living screen of the Paramount Theatre the most life-like talking pictures ever produced! DEDICATED to the highest ideals of com- fort, service and quality, the new Paramount stands alone as the first theatre in North Da- kota to be specially constructed for the per- of the Talking, Singing, Broadway! Beautiful The Greatest Name in Talking Pictures Now Becomes The Name of J B