Evening Star Newspaper, June 16, 1929, Page 63

AMUSEMENTS. 2 The e%ll-oving By Robert E. Sherwood. o The, Q'llk of London. of andwich men parading si- O of the ¢ of the {urrent London season. One of their ‘Agns will tell you that at the New Burl'Agton Galleries you may sce latedt, exhibition of paintings by the arijsts of the Royal Academy. Other =ighs contain the even more exciting mouncement that at the Empire eater, in Leicester square. you may see and hear the all-talking, all-sing- ing, all-dancing sensation, “The Broad- way Melody.” For the strident voice of the Movie- tone is now being heard throughout England, and it is producing precisely the same weird effects on the populace that it produced on the inhabitants of North America last vear. In London and to an ever-increasing extent in other parts of the British Isles the talkies are forming a subject for fer- vent discussion. There are those who are saying. me and I shall never go back to it until the ancient silence of the screen is restored.” And there are others—hun- dreds of thousands of others, apparently —who are eagerly paying their shitlings and pence at the box offices of all the theaters where the magic words “see and hear” are displayed. Just as in the United States and Canada, every one you meet confesses that he despises the talkies, but the talkies are prospering to an amazing extent and the silent films are starving to death. All the big London cinema palaces are equipped with sound apparatus and are showing nothing but dialogue pic- tures. About 300 theaters throughout Great Britain have been wired so far. There are 200 more in prospect, and it is estimated that within the next year one-third of all the film parlors in the kingdom will have gone noisy. Tt is also predicted that large num- bers of the smaller theaters, which can- not afford the sound equipment, will quietly pass out of existence. The Brit- 1sh public wants talking pictures, and if it can't have talking pictures it prefers to stay at home and listen to the radio programs that are broadcast from Lon- don, Paris, Berlin and Copenhagen, It i& no trick at 21l to pick uo foreign lan- guages on receiving sets in Europe. * Kk K Al the all-talking pictures on view in Great Britain are American made, 101'! the good and sufficient reason that no other country has as yet had time to catch up with the startling progress of sound. “The Broadway Melody” is the biggest hit in London, as everywnere NE of the usual sights of Lon- domy, these days is a procession I'mitly up and down Regent ‘reet, bearing advertisements ‘tertainments that are features the | The cinema is ruined for | Picture cAlbum t, dog Drummond,” “Al ‘The Doctor’s Secret,” “The Letter” and others that are familiar to American audiences are enormously popular in England, where, | it was said, the hated American accent | would b taboo. As a matter of fact, the question of | accent seems to weigh very lightly with | British audiences, who have become ac- | customed to the American twang and the American idiom since the war. American jazz songs have been dinned linto English ears in the music halls ,and_on the phonograph; American plays, such as “Is Zat S0?", “The First | Year,” “Broadway,” “The Trial of Mary | Dugan,” etc., have been performed by | American actors all over Great Britain. | One may hear that wholesome word “bunk” in the drowsy bypaths of a | Surrey village. | _The flawless English accent of Ronald | Colman i losing him no votes, even in Chicago, and the Kansas drawl of Charles (“Buddy") Rogers is not inter- fering with his popularity in Londor.. * % x x As a result of the talkie upheaval, the domination of American films in England is greater than ever. It has been another supremely bad break_of luck for the British movie industry. For just when they were beginning to find themselves as producers of motion pic- tures—just when they were beginning to provide some semblance of compe- tition for their Hollywood rivals—along came the noise era to upset, their apple cart. The British producers have had a terrific set-back and are making a heroic_attempt to regain the ground that they have lost They are labo- riously building sound-proof studios at Elstree and elsewhere, and are drawing up impressive “all-taking programs.” But their funds are limited, they are forced to make use of American me- chanical devices and even American engineers, and they face the discourag- | | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 16, 1929—PART %4~ The World Stage (6] ITTLE ACCIDENT.” one of last season’s most successful produc- tions on Broadway, has been scheduled for a West coast engagement of 10 :eleksl ;na will open in Ban Francisco aly 15. “The Tucrative career of “Show Boat" | continues. To its long Broadway run, its success on tour, its talkle picturiza- tion and its triumphs in London and Paris is now added a scheduled opening at Her Majesty'’s Theater, Melbourne, Australia, August 12. Jane Cowl's new play, “Jenny," is re- maining in Boston for four weeks in- | stead of two. It goes to New York in | October, | _The Theater Guild announces that | Dudley "Digges will tour during the {early part of next season in * | malion” and “Major Barbara,” and wil | then be seen in New York in a new play. During the Summer he will make | talking pictures. | Florenz Zicgfeld has announced that | “he doesn't intend producing any more revues, as he believes the public doesn't | want them.” His last previous word on | the revue subject was that he would | | present another “Follies” in the Spring. | His “Show Girl" is expected to open in | Boston June 24 and to go to New York | during the week of July 1 The new Earl Carroll revue by Eddie | Centor is to be known as “Earl Car- | roll's Sketch Book.” The producer an- nounces that he intends to present a series of revues by the same name each year, in addition to his former editions of the “Vanities” The new ‘“Sketch | Book” is to open in Atlantic City June 24. The opening date of “By Candle- light” starring Gertrude Lawrence, has been definitely set for the Empire Theater, in New York, September 30 It has already been produced in Lon- don and Paris. Philadelphia will see it September 16, prior to the Broadway debur. Mrs. Hilton Philipson, erstwhile mem- | ber of the British Parliament, has started rehearsals on a political satire by John Galsworthy in London. Mrs Philipson was known on the stage as Mabel Russell before she successfully stood for election to the seat vacated ing knowledge that the public in their own country regards their efforts with a singular apathy. In recent years British producers have tried hard to imitate the methods of our American producers, in manufac- turing films and in selling them. They have succeeded only in imitating the mistakes made by American magnates; they have duplicated none of the triumphs that have been achieved, from time to time, in Hollywood. It remains to be seen whether the Movietone ] be a boon to the fiim industry in England. Just at present it is assuming the proportions of a major disaster. (Copyright. 1920 Up From “Five-a-Day’. ARRY GREEN, felt to be one of the most picturesque figures in the show business today, a man whose ex- rience has embraced everything from e “five-a-day” in cheap vaudeville to producing his own show in his own theater in London, is filmdom’s latest acquisition. Green is a Jewish comedian, in addi- tion to being an able dramatic actor. He is the only man, other than David Warfield, who ever successfully and through several seasons played the title role in “The Music Master.” In vaudeville he is known as “George ‘Washington Cohn,” and as such is one of the most adroit card workers ever known. For a season he toured in a mind-reading act that is still talked of in green rooms where actor folk gather to discuss their kind. There are only two things having to do with the theater that he has not tried. He has never “worked the seals.” And he has never. sung-tenor in quartet. Green was cast-by Paramount as the small-town fight manager in the all- talking romance of the boxing ring, “The Man I Love.” Richard Arlen, featured with Mary Brian in the cast, is Green's protege. Green's stage experience began when he was a law student in New York. To gqy his way through school he “worked up” a monologue act and sold it to the subway circuit, arranging his schedule so that he had classes only in the morning and the early afternoon. The rest of the day and evening he did his five turns, studying law between ap- pearances. He finished his course, got his degree, | practiced for two years “just to prove to | myself that I could.” and then closed his office 1o devote all of his time to ths work he has come to love. Just prior to his coming to Hollywooc he made a tour of South Africa with his own company, offering “The Music Master.” A rest was his main object in the Hollywood visit, but now he plans to give all of his time to talking pictures. i O. Henry 'RODUCTION is announced to start | immediately on the first four of a series of short dialogue pictures based on the most famous of O. Henry’s short stories of New York life. This is dis- closed by Richard Currier, production head of the RCA Photophone Gramercy studios, in New York. The stories to be recorded in sound | are “A Little Speck in Garnered Fruit,” “Past One at Rocney’s,” “The Song and the Sergeant” and “Something in Rub- ber.” There is a possibility that 12 others of the well known tales will be recorded before the Summer is over. “O. Henry's stories offer a satirical, | gentimental kaleidoscope of the city| that is ideal for the short sound film,"' in Talkies Mr. Currier said recently. “His stories are natural scenarios for sound pic- tures—lively, amusing and colorful. The| tales are beloved by millions for their original insight and for the trick of their endings, which gives the needed fillip to a picture which most modern | writers and scenarists usually miss.” The addition of sound. Mr. Currier feels, will add immeasurably to the real- | istic value of the O. Henry series. With | sound, he declared, the noises of the city, the sounds of the elevated, of | horses on the cobblestoned streets, of | newsboys and all the hurly-burly which made famous the O. Henry vignettes of Park Row and the brownstone-front streets of the middle-town will be dupli- cated with fidelity. Their Private Lives. F what stuff are movie gangsters made? ‘The lurking figures that move across | the screen with hands on guns end fea- | tures shadowed—who and what ort of | men are they? Propelled by curiosity, Jack Mulhall, | who plays the featured lead in “Dark | Streets,” carried on 1 friendiy research into the real lives of 40 “crooks” who appear with him in the picture. * After asking a lot of guestions and reading the biographical data in cast- ing office files, Mulhall found the fol- | lowing interesting facts: | Twenty-three gangsters have been married; seven have divorces and 14 are | living with their first wives; one has| been married three times, They have | 31 children between them. Their average age is 36. | ‘Two had served short jail sentences and 15 knew what the inside of a jail was like; five had bullet wounds not re- ceived in the war; six admitted to hav- ing belonged to tough gangs. Two were college graduates and 10 claimed some college training: 18 had never gone heyond tne eighth grade. Twenty-five were born in the United States, seven in Canada, three in Eng- land. two in Germany and one cach in Brazil, Constantinople and Irelana. By trade nine had been machinists, three sailors, one a tailor, four plumb- ers, nine truck drivers, one a leather maker, two had always been actors, seven were Jacks of all trades and fou: admitted to never having had any regty. lar occupation. Nineteen said they were writers or wanted to be; some had been business men, one a cop and three “pry- moters.” Lose Real 7. A Herbert Brenan, United Artists pro- ducer-director, lose their identities un- #1 the picture they are making is com- pleted, and that's why Winifred West- ‘ over, Ben Lyon, Willlam Collier, jr.; Murtle Stedman and other members of the cast are finding it easy to forget their real names while appearing in the all-talkie, “Lummox.” Brenon never addresses a player by his or her name during the flming of one of his productions. He demands that they automatically become the characters they portray. The director never refers to Miss Westover, former wife of Bill Hart, as Winifred, either in gpeaking to her or giving instructions to his staff, and woe to the aide who violates the injunction! When an as- sistant was heard calling “Miss West over,” Brenon corrected him, saying: “There is no ‘Miss Westover’ until ‘Lum- mox' is ready for the screen. She is “Bertha,’ and no one must think of her otherwise on the set. Only by actually living their roles can characters in stories give convincing performances For instance, in ‘Peter Pan' I never thought of Betty Bronson as anything but ‘Peter’ In ‘Beau Geste' I forgot Ronald Colman and knew only ‘Michael Geste’ H. B. Warner became ‘Stephen Borrell’ to me the minute he came on the set in ‘Sorrell & Son.' " "TORS and actresses who“work for | Chita (Dorothy Janis), Ver: Identiti : entities , cpiica Neid- | ringhouse (Myrta Bonillas) émie ‘Wen- | nerberg (Lydia Yeamans /'Titus) and | Barney, the Cop (Danny Q/She: Great Flood /Scene. | ()NE of the most ‘fperesting scenes in “Noah's Ark” Ay the great flood which sweeps away the Temple of Jaghut. 7 Over 14,000 tons of water were used |to make 'this scgne realstic. Great | tanks of concrets,“were erected in_ the | hills above the éludio and, at a flash from Director Curtiz, the flood gates | were opened. / | _First the wrger began to trickle down, | then it grew/ in volume, the rain de- | scended on the lot and soon the awful | power of r{| actual flood was sweeping | across the Jand and carrying everyt ing ‘before it. / | / o “ /£ Valuable “Prop. 'HI§ most valuable piece of furniture that has ever been used in a Billie plcture was on the set of her lat- | est, picture recently. At'1s a teakwood desk, formerly owned T4y the late Czar of Russia and present- #d to him by King Edward of England. "The desk was purchased in Europe | T | Dove Under Brenon's system, some of thrl recently by a Hollywood collector, and players in “Lummox” have acquired ur, usual personalities. Ben Lyon is Rr, Farley, & wealthy young poet who & strange love affair with his mot'asr's elf | cate brass inlays, the desk has small servant girl, and after hearing h' is valued at more than $10,000. It was built to order for the King, and is the s | only desk of its kind in the world. Constructed of teakwood, with intri- addressed as “Rollo” all day 10145, he | porcelain placques showing the coats of says he feels like going home at night, |arms of the various reigning houses in dressi like Little Lord and rolling a hoop around tr “Buster” Collier finds his nar bulletin board as “Wally W, and force of habit is cau look for his mail under Some of the other c on llenstein” [N him to ntleroy | Europe, and the members of the various block. | noble families. Because of its value, the desk was guarded day and night by special 1t was rented for the pic- that name. ture, and its debut before the cameras are cost th watchmen. .mlw‘lfl. | play “Phi-Phi” and once. many years {:’rn based on stage plays. ford and Douglas Fairbanks are casting by her husband in Parliament. She did not seek re-election in the recent poll The play, "Exile,” will open in London June 19, coming later to New York. Lennox Robinson, characterized by one critic as “the most intricuing fig- fure in the field of Irish dramatic liter- ature today,” has recently had his new play, “Give a Dog." produced at the| Abbey Theater under the auspices of | the Dublin Drama League. It is a work | dealing with “a serious and problemat- | ical” subject—a young man who is not | understood by either his family or his {riends. He meets with intolerance in | every direction and becomes more or| less a pariah at home, regarded as an| unaccountable failure. ly number of artistic offerings by native playwrights have made the year's theatrical season a success in Sweden, according to dispatches from Stockholm. Among the pleces given presentation, either at the Royal Dra- matic Theater, Sweden's national stage, | or at the Oscars Theater, have been “Rembrandt's Son,” a historical drama by Tor Hedberg of the Swedish Acad- emy: “He Who Lived His Life Over Aga! a striking modern play. by Paer Lagerkvist, styled “the O'Neill of Sweden”; “The Beast,” by Ernst Did- ring, novelist and literary critic: “Pa trasket,” by Hjalmar Bergman; “Knock- out,” by Aebergson, and two comedies about the youth of Stockholm, “Mrs. Anderson’s Kalle” and “Stockholm Lads.” Some of the plays have been taken on tour. Ethel Barrymore is to desert Broad- way for awhile next season and take a repertoire to the larger citles “on the road.” She will play “The Kingdom of God” and “The Love Duel,” presenung them in alternate weeks during fort- night stands throughout the country. Margalo Gillmore, until recently one of the Theater Guild’s leading actresses, will be under Gilbert Miller's manage- ment in the Fall, She is to be co-fea- tured with Leslie Howard in John L. Balderston's play “Berkeley Square.” due to arrive on Broadway in mid- October. Miss Gilmore had one of the Ieading toles in the Guild's play, “Man's Estate.” which closed recently. “He Who Gets Slapped” was the first Guild producton in_which she appeared. Lucille La Verne is announced for a season at the Themter MatQurins, in Paris, in “Sunup,” beginning June 21. Rose Marie” has passed its thou- sandth _performance in Pagis, a record which has been touched oglly twice be- fore in that city, once by the musical { ago. by the farce of myfllitary life, “Tir- au-flanc.” Sacha Guitry and Afvonne Printemps have taken their pgpular “Marietta” from Paris to Londdn for a visit. The operetta, based om, music by Oscar Straus, had a longrun in Paris at the ‘Theatre Edouard WII. S if Followirg Up Success. UNITED ARTISTS, having scored heavily in the talkie field with “Alibf” and '*Bulldog Drummond,” is following 1) its success with current production “of five all-talking pictures with well kpown stars and with a great Increase 4n’its studio sound facilities. What, the company says is the largest soundpfopf stage in the world is now being cqustructed at its studios. It is claimed, to be three’ times the size of any n%mdpmnf building in that studio. It 15 /225 feet long, 132 feet wide and 73 thet high. It has a stage within tse’f, & permanent theater to be used in ; photographing and _microphoning praductions that require stage or opera afmosphere. It contains a large pipe ‘srgan, ten camera booths and scores of | icrophones. | Four of the five talkies in_production Mary Pick- ‘The Taming of the Shrew.” It is their first joint production. Norma Talmadge is rehearsing for “Tin Pan Alley.” Her- bert Brenon is directing “Lummox.” taken from Fannle Hurst’s novel George Fitzmaurice’s version of Chan- ning Pollock’s play “The Sign on the Door” is being made under the title of “The Locked Door,” and “Three Live Ghosts,” Frederic Isham's stage play, is being rehearsed under the supervising eye of Max Marcin, who sponsored the work on Broadway eight years ago. Compe]lmg Themes. JFIVE major themes which compel the interest of average Americans have been isolated at the research depart- ment, of Paramount through Helen Gladys Percey, expert psychologist. The themes are love, mystery, music, great disaster and adventure. The placing of mystery second on this list completely revised previous “inter- est charts, but Miss Percey's report rea “Anything pertaining to mystery or unusual criminal exploits wins a high rating in public interest “The United States is becoming de- tective-minded. Newspaper readers are avid devourers of news occurrences with a mustery background, and apparently enfoy forming hypothetical solutions. This interest has found outlet in the moving picture. ‘The Canary Murder Case' had an overwhelming success, and ‘The Studio Murder Mystery,” all- telking thriller, also responds to the blic_interest in muvstery.” Oth Bet. F & G Film_Arts Guild Presents FIRST WASHINGTON SHOWING EMIL JANNINGS “OTHELLO” Shakespeare’s Immortal Drama with ‘WERNER KRAUS, LYA DE PUTTL, ICA LENKEFFY | homet, BEFORE THEIR TROUBLE STARTED DOLORES DEL RIO In the new Edwin Carewe production, “Evangeline. | | | | AND ROLAND DREW New Camera Technique. UST as unusual camera angles, or UFA chots, as they were called. in recognition of their exiensive use by the German UFA studios, were beginning to appear acceptable to the American tech- nicians, the talking films came along and changed the situation, Because of the impracticability of moving the tre- mendous sound-proof camera booths necessitated by ths new development, camera angle shots vanished. One company brought the mountain to Ma- 0 to speak, and built angles into its sets, photographing them with a “straight” camera and achieving the same effect, but at a prodigiously greater cost in time, trouble and money. The Pathe company announces now that unusual camera angles will again come into play in its sound production of “Paris Bound” from the Philip Barry stage success. The resumption of the UFA technique is made possible, the company states, by the perfection of a sound-proof camera hood which not only houses the camera but also the motor that drives it. The photography of dialogue scenes | on huge sets. including the entire inte- | rior of a Fifth avenue church, has been | accomplished, Pathe states, due to the installing of the latest developments in sound technique on its sound stages. These include draping the whole stage in heavy monk's cloth or velyet. Exte- rior scenes, fon, such as those at a sea- side resort, have been “sounded” for the picture. Double and triple exposures, showing two or three scenes simulta- neously, have been employed. “Paris Bound,” after its New York and London showings, brings Ann Hard- ing to the star role for the picturization. Miss Harding. so the press agent states, was vacationing in California and had no professional interest in the idea of talking pictures. Bowing to the will of a close friend (it's always like that) she broke down and consented to having a sound test made and so delighted was she that she further consented (still under polite duress) to accept the lead | in “Paris Bound.” “It's such a grand part that I can hardly bear to think of any one else | having it,” she is quoted as saying. | ¢ REMEMBER," said Bradley Barker, E at the Pathe Sound studios, “the days when Richard Bar- thelmess, then a schoolboy at Trinity, and young Douglas McLean used to hours, and try to get jobs as bell hops in the pictures. Barthelmess’ mother was in pictures, too, and she used to say to me. ‘Wait: you'll see some day my boy is going to be a big star.’ “I remember, too, when Rosemary Thcoy, a big star in hop day, used to make the draperies on the sets, and throw aside her needles and cottons to play the leading roles in the same pro- duction. “I remember when Dorothy Phillips and Priscilla Dean used to_haunt the studlos for extra work, and I remember when Charles Ogle became so incensed because Horace Plimpton refused him a raise that he took all the pleyers he could induce to leave with him and went over {o Universal. “1 remember when we used to work in Coytesville on a set that we thought gigantic—a portion of the lobby of the LUPE VELEZ, turtles. The latter bear the initials of Lupe and Gary Cooper who are engaged CAROLINA "' fietits® ™ WOMAN." with DOROTHY MAC- LL. MILTON SILLS ANTON “8,8.8 Matinee, RONALD_COLMAN in e w PRINCESS ridiafn REDEKIN" _(Evnchronized) SENNETT COMEDY SYLVAN o= sy BT L . ALLTALKING COMEDY. other added JESSE THEATER ™% &ne COLLEEN_MOORE in “WHY BE GOOD?" CIRCLE 317 in Ao nOarrt AMES, SYLVIA FIFLD, “THE VOICE CAMEOQ THEATER ™* & Tomorraw-Tuesday— THE _ FLYING BT St E ACT. St. N.E DIX in MACK )4 VITAPHON] ERS.’ Rutternut Sts. DUMBARTON RENEE, 1348 Wisronsin Ave CONRAD NAGEL ADOREE in_ “THE KID”~ COMEDY. “AT MICHIGA] AG. ‘Today-Tomorrow, L “HIS CAPTIVE WOMAN." (Most beauttful woman n Vienna) Cont. Pert. Pop. Prices BIDNEY LUST'S HIPP 535 Ath St S.E. NEW 1007 "GiBSON K _near th LIBERTY SMILING GUNS." “i Remember _\_{Vhen” come around to the studio after school | Waldorf Astoria. It had a cheesecloth roof, and every time it started to rain, each player had a routine job of grab- bing certain decorations, and dashing | to cover. The whole thing was so per- | fectly organized that in two seconds | | the set would be completely barren of | | any furniture or decoration | “I remember when a star used to feel | like Rockefeller when she could say her | | salary was two hundred dollars a week, | | | and Mary Fuller's was— | | "“I remember when days were so slim | | that the actors were glad to eat the | | props. Mary Fuller 400k a great fancy, as did all the company, to a little suck- | ling plg who appeared in the picture. | | One day he disappeared, and when Miss | | Fuller inquired about him from one who passed for an efficiency man in | those days he replied. | ““That suckling pig? Why we had | | him for Junch!"* [ Twenty for One. “IT takes nine tailors to make a man.” | Ten men behind the lines for one |at the battle front. 1 | "And 20 people back of the camera | | for one in front of it. | ! en First National's company mak- |ing “The Creat Divide” left for loca- tion in Zion Canyon, Utah, it numbered 42_people, including only two players. Dorothy Mackaill, who portrays the featured role, and Ian Keith, who ap- pears opposite her, were the players. The 40 people included Director Regi- | nald Barker, cameramen, property boys, | clectricians,” Vitaphone 'crew, photog- | raphers and others. | 'Talking pictures have ‘“raised the |ant®” of persons per player, as it made necessaty the sound engineers, mixer and added technical men. An Unusual Dancer. R “BJARIETI'A.“ whose dancing, in its i wild, free grace and charm, is said to suggest the faun, will make her |appearance in the John Murray Ander- | son stage production at the Palace this | week for the first time in the East, it is | announced. This exquisite young dancer, a prod- uct of the West Coast, began her terp- | sichorean career at the age of 13, and, |1t is said, was an attraction in one of |the theaters for an entire year. In her | dancing apparel and ornaments, as well as in her terpsichorean interpretations, Mexican nim star, with her pair of pet | New Dramatic Screen Star Comes to Over- whelm You Together They Present Human Heart That . THE by 2 Tear-Filled Eye VALIANT with PAUL_MUNI Great Genius of the Stage. Whos and Bouiful Voice Make Him America Personality of the Talking IAM FOX Productio WILLI 1 rom the Play by R H ANOTHER NOTAB] NTERT \INMENT FEAT| JOHN IRVIN A truly unique master of ceremonies MARIO AN Triumphant third week for these singing stars FEXETTES BEMIS & BROWN MABEL A MARGARET GREEN JAZZRRANIARS T |to play was in Richard Dix's new pic- |gious rather than political. oleworthy Hall Tibetan Lama. 'HE most difficult role Nigel de Bruller has_ever been called upon ture. De Brulier is cast as a Tibetan 1ama, or high priest. The picture 3 from James Bernard Fagan's play “The Wheel of Life. Tibet, the small, mountain-locked country nestled on the high plateaus north of the Himalaya Mountains, re- mained a land of mystery until ths early part of the nineteenth century, and ever since that time few traveler:, comparatively speaking, have pene- trated it. The Tibetan lamas, of the Buddhist faith, are tae supreme rulers of the country, the control being wholly reii- Through generations and centurfes—in fa* since the sixth century before Christ they have made superstitious Tibeta: believe that only through earthly per- fection could they aspire to the various | carnations that lead up to Nirvana. Buddhist heaven, and the lamas alone | possess the secret of the path. Because such an exacting perform ance is demanded of De Bruller as the lama, he spent weeks in careful re-! search pertaining to his role. Much | valuable information was supplied I/ Maj. Fairbanks Smith, technical direc- | tor of “The Wheel of Life,” who spert 14 years in the British Army in India and Tibet as a soldier and sfudent. Thanks for ti’!e Alibi! JFILMING of a recent picture at First National studios, in Burbank, Calif., was halted last week, when Burbank policemen and detectives appeared on the “set.” They were seeking witnesses in_connection with a sensational pay roll robbery at San Diego. The records of seven extras were in- spected by the officer in charge of the investigation. Director Irvin Willat and | assistants, Ed Berry and Al Alborn, substahtiated the evidence that on the day of the robbery the seven men were before the camera. The unusual procedure was due to the fact that in the picture the whole water | front from San Diego to San Prancisco | was combed by Willat's scouts for tough-looking characters. 1 Fifty-two of them, the toughest-look- ing, broken-nosed, caulifiower-eared, tattooed boys who could be found, were finally secured. Many of them had been extras_and bit players in many pictures, THey expressed their grati- | tude to Willat for hiring them and es- | tablishing miles of celluloid alibi. A Lucky Break. BREAKING a leg is one way of get- ting into the movies successfully. Richard Arlen, who started his bright career with successes in “Wings,” “Beg- gars of Life” “Ladies of the Mob,” “Manhattan Cocktail” and, now, “The Man T Love,” broke in that way. Born in Charlotteswille, Va., he attended St. Thomas' College and the University of Pennsylvania before enlisting in the Royal Flying Corps in New York in 1917. He trained in England, received # lieutenant’s commission and served in the air force on the battle front. After the war he was instructor of swimming at the St. Paul Athletic Club, worked on the Duluth News-Tribune as sports writer, took a fling in oil in the Texas fields and then headed for Hollywood. _Finding studio doors closed to him, he took a job as mes- senger and in ' this capacity he had his Jeg broken in an accident. met a cast- ing director in the hospital and started on_his acting career. COOLED BY REFRIGERATION F St. at 13th—Cont. from 11:00 ——NOW PLAYING: A United Artists Picture VILMA BANKY as an immigrant sirl in THIS 1S HEAVEN with JAMES HALL TALKING SEQUENCES —ON THE STAGE— HERBERT RAWLINSON in s satire on Hollyweod “THEME P_F LOVE” wit DON BARCLAY LOEW’S CoLumsIiA F 8t. at 12th—Cont. from 10:30 NOW PLAYING— A Paramount Picture mSTUDIO MURDER MYSTERY ALL-TALKING with Neil Hamilton Warner Oland Doris Hill ADDED ATTRACTIONS New Kind of Talking Picture ‘1 Comes to Over- power You 2 Tale So Close to the 0 One Need Be Shamed Dramatic Fervor Foremost Screen MOVIETONE Hit obert Middlemass and EVENT IN STAGE URING G FISHER D LAZARIN LBERTSON AMUSEMENTS. Colman’s Stage Career *[HE voice of Ronald Colman, now be- ing heard through the movieton film version of “Bulldog Drummond. was heard in several New York theaters prior to Director Henry King's discov-| ery of Colman for films. That event| transpired at the Empire Theater in | New York during the Fall of 1922, when | Mr. Colman was appearing in support of the late Henry Miller and Ruth Chat- | terton in “La Tendresse,” the play by | Henry Batallle. ‘ Coiman had the role of Alain Sergyll, and It is interesting to read in the New York Times of Tuesday. September 25, 1922, this comment by Alexander Wooll cott, then reviewing plays for that news- | paper: “'One fine, direct and enthusiastic per- | formance s given by an actor named Ronald Colman.” | Mr. King, the film director, was cast- | ing “The White Sister,” which was to be made in Italy with Lillian Gish as| its star. The director saw Colman in | “La Tendresse” and_promptly offered him a job in motfon pictures. So it was that an actor who had come to America from Eufope in 1920, after ex- perience in British films and iheater went back to Europe for his first mo- | tion picture assignment from an Amori- can company. Again, for his next film, Ronald Colman went to Italy. This time he was directed by Mr. King in “Romola.” the picturization of the George Eliot classic. Colman appeared as Carlo Bucellini, a painter. An actor who_subsequently became one of Col- man’s closest frieds appeared as Tito Melema, and an elderly performer, with whom Colman later took up lodgings in California, acted the role of Baldassarre, the scholar. William Powell was the Tito and Charles Lane the Baldassarre of that production. Prior to his appearance in “La Ten- dresse,” Ronald Colman had appeared on the New York stage in “The Night Cap,” a play by Max Marcin and Guy Bcfmm presented at the Thirty-ninth street Theater on August 15, 1921, He had the role of Charles, a comedy but- | ler-crook. The part of the policeman was acted by John Wray quently wrote “Nightstick,” the play from which “Alibi” was made. The ‘Theater Magazine critic thus comment- ed on “The Night Cap”: onald Col- man and John Wray succeed in making much of two smaller parts.” On Broadway Mr. Colman had a very | small part in support of Robert War- wick in “The Dauntless Three,” an un- successful play. The star of “Bulldog Drummond” also acted in the out-of town tryouts of Cosmo Hamilton's play, “The Silver Fox,” in which Vivienne Osborne, William Faversham, Violet Kemble Cooper and Ian Keith appeared at the Maxine Elliott Theater in New York on September 5, 1921. Colman had, too, a role in out-of-town produc- tions of “The Green Goddess,” George Arliss’ play, that had its New York premiere at the Booth Theater January 18, 1921. Finally Colman went on tour in support of Fay Bainter in “East Is West.” That tour took him as far West as Los Angeles. All these theatrical ex- periences antedated his appearance in “La_ Tendresse,” which remains his final American stage work. Mr. Colman has told the story of his arrival in New York: “I bought @ second-class passage to | three clean collars. who subse- | America. I arrived in New York with $37, two letters of introduction and All the picture stu= dios were closed as the result of a bad slump in business. Some one told m= it was cheaper to live in Brooklyn than in New York, so I went over there and located a cheap rooming house. When - I had spent my last dime for coffee and had gone hungry for two days, I got a part in a Shubert show, which con=- sisted of my stepping out and speaking two lines. The show flopped after two weeks. But I got two weeks’ pay at $75 a week. Then I went down again to my very last quarter, then a dime, and finally to a nickel, which I used for car fare fo New York, where I succeeded in obtaining a part in ‘East Is West.'” The Long Road. ITTER remiscences of the hard road they traveled in the early days of their theatrical careers frequently are | recalled by actors who have won high places on stage and screen when they foregather in leisure hours around well- laden supper tables. Scanty fare, infrequent and often un- | paid engagements in dilapidated small~ town theaters and actual “counting the | ties” of railroad lines back to the hope- | ful zone of the cXies make up the bur- { den of many absorbing stories of those | whose names now are blazoned in elec- tric lights over the theaters, and among these is Paul Muni, featured player of | character roles. Muni relates that he played a violin at the tender age of 6 with his parents in traveling shows, following their ar- rival in the United States from Austria, and experienced all the vicissitudes of tough luck and poverty. There were times when he and his mother slept in railroad stations, after his father's death, when the theatrical companies | went “broke” on the road. and it was | only after a long, hard struggle that he climbed to comparative comfort that was followed by recognition of stage | success His latest characterization in *The Valiant” is that of a confessed mur- | derer who stoically faces execution re- | fusing to acknowledge his identity in order that his family may be spared | disgrace. | Talkie Dress Rehearsal. : N innovation in talking picture preparation was introduced at the United Artists’ studies when the entire |cast of “Three Live Ghosts” went | through a final dress rehearsal of the | comedy drama in scene sequaice ex- | actly the way it <l be seen and heard | on the screen. ; In producing the screen play in stage | form,” preparatory to launching actual camera and microphone work, Thornton Freeland. director, and Max Marcin, playwright and stag> producer, who adapted the storv, inaugurated what is said to be a brand-new technique, designed to have a wide effect on future talking picture methods. A unique feature of the dress rehear- sal was that instead of changing the | sets for the audience, the audience had | to move from set to set for the various sequences. > : ATTEND THE MATINEES Crandal THUEATERS You'll find chaice seats if ycm come to the early show. The 11 A. M. to 1 P. M. show; is only 25c. s cold” € and Try It Sunday. 2to 11 p m. HEAR MARY BRIAN sing her love to this young hero-aviator of “Wings.” Hear Bacianova’s delicious appeal. Hgar Richard Arlen avow ‘his devotion. Hear the screaming Harry Green—Jack Oakie fun. In_Paramount’s 100% all-talking romance. COMPLEMENTARY FILM FEATURES Concert Overture “Chocolate Soldier” Earle Concert Orchestra Daniel Breeskin, Con. VITAPHONE Presents The Varsity Three Oklahoma Bob Albright TMETR For Washington to See th e Screen Greatest Spectacle Ezactly as Presented in Other Cities at $2 Ad AMBASSADOR s TODAY and TOMORRO! STHE MAN [ LOVE" TALKING PICTURE) APOILO ¢ ¥ 5t NE TODAY and YOMORROW_DOUG- LAS FAIRBANKS in “THE TRON MAFK' (SYNCHRONIZED MUSIC- CCOMPANIMENT) AL “AVENUE GRAND TODAY and TOMOR! and TOMORROW-—ANITA CHARLES KING _and Bar Rudony'" (AL SINGING. DANCING "AND TALKING PIC: misston. The World's Most _Glori- ous Lovers Brought to the Screen With a Splen- | dor and Mag- nificencs Never Before Attempted. COLONY G* Ave. & Farragut st. TODAY and TOMORROW-—_COLLEEN SRR hIzED MUSICAL® AG- COMPANIMENT). = 1230 © st N.E. TODAY 'ands TOMORROW _GEORGE BANCROFT in ""THE WOLF OF WALL STREET' (100% ALL TALKIE) SAVQY !4b & Col Rd. N.W. TORAYSBELLE BENNETT in ML LY AND ME' %A TALKING SINGING PICTURE). TIVOL] b & Park Ba. N.w. TODAY " and TOMORROW-—-LAURA LA FLANTE and JOUN FOLES in A ALL TALKING Pt IMORROW- m!AIfls 9 __THE IRON (SYNCHRONIZED MUSIC- ACCOMPANIMENT) YORK G Ave & Quebes st NV TRAT i JRHORRONG000 MASK" (8 M MUSIC- AL ACCOMP.