Evening Star Newspaper, December 14, 1930, Page 70

AMUSEMENTS.™ F lashes From the Screen News and Comment of the Photoplay By C.E «OOKING over ‘the picture re- ) 2:* leases for “the month to| >", come, it would seem that | the Hollywood manufac- turers are sort of marking time, widiting to see which way the cat jumps or following some other figure of speech. There is nothing especially big for the theater- goers to look forward to, in spite of tons of publicity regarding such productions as “Morocco,” “Seed” and “VienneseNights.” “Lightnin’” has turned out to be the really big picture of the early Winter sea- son, and Will Rogers, the star, has much to do with its success. Other productions have been in the average class; some of them, per- haps, a little below the average. Considerable interest is evidenc- | ed in “Morocco,” which, according to the producers, brings out a new star, Marlene Dietrich. The press agents are paying more attention to Marlene than to the picture it- self, although the latter is describ- ed as “Josef Sternberg’s superb love drama.” Frau Dietrich, by the way, was first hailed as a “sec- ond Greta ‘Garbo,” but her em- | ployers put a soft pedal on this| form of publicity. The new star| is to stand on her own feet—not | as a second Greta, Norma or Clara. She is to be the Great Marlene, according to present plans. Ho ever, as in most cases of this kind, the paying public will decide| whether she is a star and whether | she really deserves all the nice ;,lhings that are being said about er. Among the other new pictures‘l coming in for a share of advance publicity are “Painted Desert,” with Bill Boyd; “The Third Alarm,” “She Got What She ‘Wante “Danger Lights,” “The Boudoir .Diplomat,” “Alias Jane Valentine” and “Passion Flower.” * % ox % HOLLYWOOD, during the past few months, has undergone some vast changes, on account of the sound pictures. But th= big- gest change of all comer-about through the production ¥ pic- | tures for foreign consump®ion. At | first the progducers were puzzled | as to how the foreign market could | be supplied with talkies. Experi—‘ mental studios were established in many countries, but this plan | did not work out satisfactorily, | and it was finally decided that the best “foreign pictures” could be| produced in the real home of the movies. As an illustration of this, the Paul Whiteman picture, “King of Jazz,” is now going into nine languages. It is estimated that three foreign versions can be made for the cost of the original Eng- lish picture. One of the pioneers in the foreign versions was Hal Roach, the producer of comedies. He en- gaged a tutor for the comedians, Laurel and Hardy, and the funny fellows used considerable mid- night oil in learning the lines of “Night Owls” in Spanish. Then, Buster Keaton took up Spanish | and German, and three versions were made of~his picture, “Free | and Easy.” ermans, - Italians, | Spaniards have flocked to Hollywood, and entire casts have been changed for| foreign versions, but in many cases the 'sta’s of the original productions have been retained.| The stars are pig drawing cards| in the forei theaters. The| Ramon Novas picture, “Call ot‘. the Flesh,” has been changed to, the Spanish “Sevilla de mis Amores.” Thedstar retains his| leading role, but the part original- | ly played by Reénee Adoree is en- | acted byRosita Ballestero. Dorothy | Jordan’s part 1§ taken by a ”_i year-old Spanisi dancer, Conchita | Montenegro. A French version of | this picture has also been made, ! the star acting and directing. %% ' JACK ALICOATE, who writes a column for the Film Dalily,| penned a little editorial the other day, and I think it is worth re- | producing, although you may not be in perfect accord with his words. He says: “Lest we be mis- understood, let us make ourselves erfectly clear that we whole- eartedly condemn salaciousness on the screen, abhor smut. and believe, first, last and always, that the screen must be a whole- | Who left the Broadway stage production of some influence from title to fade- out. However, we sometimes won- der whether the current swing of production is not too much to- ward prigishness. Pictures, to survive, must portray life as it is, and not as some long-haired and theatrical gentry would have us believe it to be. The modern trend of thought is wholesomely liberal. We have growing chil- dren and know. Production as an art cannot be strangled by re- strictions that break down the mirrored reflections of the recog- nized actions, emotions and pro- pelling influence of our millions of humans. If production is an art, the modus operandi then is naturally ruled by the heart and not the head. One would hardly suggest throwing a sweater over | the Venus de Milo or a Mexican shawl around Goya’s ‘Duchess of Alba.’ Much of the greatest lit- erature of every decade—that which has survived the march of | time—is honestly written. From | the legitimate stage of today one will find brilliant pages of the :p{m of life, in no way distaste- Mr. Alicoate is right in a way.! But, in a way, he is wrong. In advocating freedom for the men who make our motion pictures,i this may be allowed to a certain | extent. He must remember that| he is not dealing with Shakes- | pears, Goyas and Michelan- gelos when he allows this Iree-| dom. He is dealing with men who are concerned with motion plc—l tures as a business venture—not | as an art. Too much freedom | might allow them to satisty the| box-office, but it also might kill| the industry. The men who pro-| duced great books and great| paintings were artists; the men | who are producing our motion pictures are not artists. One of the big duties of Will Hays is to form a sort of check-rein on the producers. One cannot get .away from competition, and competi- tion, m‘gp:d with unusual free- might ¥h{ hayoc with Hol- lywood’s output. . In order ’flfionu‘un-. Nelson. sorship, wise heads are needed in | ; the production end of the indus- try. Motion pictures are not an |art; they are a business. * ok ok % SHORT FLASHES. HAROLD LLOYD announces that he is one of a group in- terested in cutting down the amount of dialogue in a picture. He certainly proves this by his dialogue in “Feet First.” His cries for “Help!” just about sum up his | total contribution to the modern talkie. It is announced that Joe| Brown's next picture will carry the title of “Broad Minded.” A Rex Beach story, “Big other,” has been selected as a| starring vehicle for Richard Dix. ‘Two Warner Brothers pictures, “Illicit,” with Barbara Stanwyck and James Rennie, and “Divorce Among Friends,” with Irene Del- roy, James Hall and Lew Cody, are scheduled for early releases. ‘Wanda Hawley, remembered by older theatergoers, returns to the screen in “The Pueblo Terror.” Lew Ayres and Genevieve Tobin are starred in the Monta Bell production, “Fires of Youth.” Dorothy Peterson is a member of the cast. Janet Gaynor is to play the title role of “Merely Mary Ann,” which Henry King will direct for the Fox company. Work on the | picture will start as soon as Miss | Gaynor returns from a short va- cation in Honolulu. Cecilia Loftus and J. M. Kerrigan are the only other members of the cast se- lected. The title of the stage success, “Mlle. Modiste,” has had its name changed again for screen produc- tion. At the present time, it is known as “Kiss Me Again,” but the title has been switched so many times that no one really knows how it will finally appear on the screen. Loretta Young, who has been elevated to stardom by First Na- tional, will be featured in “Big Business Girl.” George Arliss will select the title of his new picture, which was written by Booth Tarkington. Then the star will take the lead- ing role in the Franz Molnar play, “The Devil.” FR THE STAGE TO THE SCREE ELISSA feminine role of “Squadrons,” star. a Fox Movietone picture. Screen Actors Always Fresh. HE belief held by many in the the- atrical profession that screen actors could give much finer performances if they had time to “work into” their parts is all nonsense, acc to James C. Morton, one of the actors in “‘Fouow the Leader,” an Ed Wynn pic- ure. ._“The salvation of motion pictures lies in the fact that the actors always are | ," contends Mr. Morton. “Every { one not blinded by tradition knows that {a first-class stock company can give a | more scintillating performance after a week of rehearsals than a jaded cast which has played the same show for months. |_“It's just human nature to lose in- terest after a rou S become habit- |ual. Mechanically 2 long-run show | may be perfect, but it hasn't the life and spontaneity of a motion picture or | stock performance.” Morton added that work in stock is the best training for motion picture | actors because it makes m “quick | studles,” that is, able to memorize and | understand parts in a short timé. Christmas Gift for Dix. CHRIBTMAS this year will mean the | fulfillment of a lifelong ambition for Richard Dix! The Radio Pictures’ | star, one of the outstanding personali- | ties of the silent and talking screen, is | to be both star and director of Rex Beach's “Big Brother.” This announcement has been made by William Le Baron, vice president in charge of Radio Pictures’ production, the man who originally gave Dix his greatest opportunity on the screen. Not only has Dix long cherished & desire to direct pictures, but for many | years he has had his heart set on play- | ing the “Big Brother” role. When the | Beach story was filmed as a silent pic- | ture several years ago Dix wes under contract as a star to the studio which ! preduced it. He did not have an op- portunity to play the part, however, as | “Big Brother” was mot considered a starring vehicle. He has just com- | pleted his work in Radio Pictures’ “Cimarron,” and after a brief rest he | will launch his first acting-directing | venture. ae Tl Eyes That Did It All . AY WRAY, who is featured in “Capt. Thunder” at the Metropoli- tan Theater, is sald to owe much of her success in pictures to the scintil- | lating, magnetic power of her eyes. When a high school girl in Holly- wood, Miss Wray's eyes fascinated her friends. Then they attracted attention of prominent personalities of the film colony, and the next thing she kne: she was flashing them in front of a motion picture camera. It was not | long Lefore she became a leading lady in two-reel comedies. She played after- ward as the heroine in a series of Western_ pictures, | "When Eric Von Stroheim cast her | for the feminine lead in “The Wedding | March,” Miss Wray reached the im- | portant_turning polnt in her career. | Since that time she has appeared in over 20 productions, half of them prov- | ing talking successes. | LANDI, “A Farewell to Arms” for the leading Charles Farrell is the Praises American Stage. THE future of the drama lies in the hands of American rather than British producers, and the progress made in the last 10 years on this side of the Atiantic should bring optimism into the hearts of all devotees of the theater. This is the gist of the mes- sage given to the pubiic by John Drink- wate:, whose comedy, “Bird in Hand, will be scen at the Beiasco Chris.mas night “The drama, like all other arts, must be nursed carefully,” says Mr.’ Drinkwater. “And nursing nceds money, with which the managers and producers in the United States are gen- erously provided. My impressions of the current New York theater are neces- sarily superficial as yet, since I have been on these shores only five days, and my absence from New York since mv first visit in connection with ‘Abra- ham Lincoln’ lasted nine years. How- ever, in that time I have scen many of your piays in England, and I have been vividly aware of the advance in the Amcrican theater. It is without living {any intention of flattery to my Ameri- | rise or fall because of financial factors |can friends that I congratulate this|which are easier in the United States country on the great stride ahead, at least in this art, since 1920. “The general artistic and economic conditions which exist in England are| similar to those here. But you Ameri- cans atiain greater efficiency because you have more money to work with. The best in both theaters is much the same. We have our ‘theaters of the imagination,’ in which men like Nigel Playfair, Sir Barry Jackson, M Horniman, Granville Barker and others work. You have your theater guilds, our Le Gallienne, your Actors’ Theater, your Stuart Walker and other artistic groups. You take from us the works of our Synge. and our Galsworthys, but in return you give us your Eugene O'Neill—a fair exchange. “It is not only in the realm ¢" th: intellectual artistic drams such as these men write the England and America must meet. The theater should be in- 75 DANCING. L’EGARE STUDIO | deed the home of one of the great arts he art of acted drama. But it must be ‘more; it must be the home of good | {fellowship and amusiment. That is| | where the American theater offers so much more advance to its audience. “In my own mind the advance in theater 13 a symbol of a closcr I portement in Anglo-American _rela- | t For Anglo-American aficction is| e trengthened by infermed opinion and |t the intcrchange of the best products| of the erts. Literature for people of | similar language is the best meeting ground, and drama that branch of lit- crature that most swiftly brings under- standing betwe:n people. From the | theater,” then, we must look for the/ | source of a constant and amiable ex- | change, not only between the West End |of London and Broadway but between | the wider rangesiof the United States and Great Britain, “The level of the average Broadway |and West End play is higher than it was not only 25 but even 10 years ago,” | Mr. Drinkwater declares,” “largely through the aspirations and success of the repertory and Mttle theater. These |than in England. Whether you like good theater or not, you must understand that & manager needs money to hold on to any play. Costs of production | have risen phenomenally, and only the |man with heavy reserve can hold on to even a good play. The repertory thea- | ters, either by subscription or by sub- sidy, have been able to continue pro- ductions, even though individual plays lose money. In this way commercial, managers have discovered some of their most lucrative pieces of the last decade. ‘Bird in Hand,’ you know, was first |seen at the Birmingham Repertory be- |fore a London manager would put it on.” Questions of the Hour National and International Affairs Miss Clara W. McQuown THE WASHINGTON CLUB Assembly Room Entrance. 1010 17¢h Bt Eve Friday, 11 i:- |tact with the - THE SUNDAY 'STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C. DECEMBER 14, | . MARLENE DIETRICH, Who is being halled as a new star of the screen world. Her first picture Is “Moroceo.” No Reflection on Soup. EW there are among princes and |gering to & knockout, and if lomtbodi\;"i peasants who will sniff their noses | and turn aside from a tempting dish of soup when the appetite is demanding its own on a Winter day. And what follows must not be misunderstood as a reflection on soup. It is merely an ex- pression of opinion of the value of ser: ing soup Ingredients to the best ad- vantage. Strange to say, the story really doesn't concern soup, or even the ingredients of soup, at all. Indeed, soup has been dragged in only in an analogical way. ““The World War has played the devil | with the theater.” So writes a thinker, perhaps a philosopher, whom the sub- Ject interests. “Sometimes I think it wasn't the war, but the movies” he continues. “Ever since the movie has come into exist- ence the fellows behind it have moved Heaven and earth to destroy every other previously known form of stage enter- tainment. Not for the purpose of an- nihilation, but simply later on to try to crag it in and incorporate it as an accsssory to the flitting sound pictures. “Say what you like, but grand opera and vaudeville have been dealt a deadly blow: the stage of play acting is stag- doesn't unhinge the combination won't be long before every joy that we once knew in the theater is wiped off the face of the earth. “Now, soup”—here’s where the soup comes into this appeal to Caesar sober— “soup (repeated merely to make the idea clear) is a good thing, a deliclous thing, and evedybody likes soup. But would we want all our meals of the fu- ture to be crowded into just soup? “Well, that's just what has happened with sound pictures. Delightful things, served in style and apart from other things, in due season help to make a delightful meal. But I'll be eternally danged if I can see where the stage and screen programs of the present day | make up for the varied entertainment, each served separately and at its best, that used to delight theatergoers before the Werld War. “Why won't somebody give us back our piay acting by live actors, eur vaude\‘\)fe in vaudeville theaters that knew how to present it, our burlesque if the taste be gamey, and our grand| cpera before it has been mechanized.” Can an; He said lots more, publishing it all. but space forbids John Dri ACK in 1907 there appeared in the English industrial center of Bir- mingham a not very successful jnsur- ance agent, who happened to be stage- struck. His name was John Drink- water, and he was already known as the author of many poems of quality, which perhaps explained his fallure as an_insurance go-getter. ‘The young man'’s interest in the thea- ter could be traced directly to the fact that his father, A. E. Drinkwater, was a well known impressario, manager for Lillah McCarthy and of the Kingway ‘Theater in London. The elder Drink- water, anxious to divorce his son from any association with the theater, had sent him away from Leytonstone, his home city, to school at Oxford. How- ever, six years of class room confine- ment failed to cure the stage-struck youth. All his energies were directed toward writing and toward footlights. This accounts for John's enthusiasm when he met Barry V. Jackson, a wealthy industralist of Birmingham, whese hobby was the theater. With Sir Barry (he was later knigated) and four other friends, Drinkwater founded the Pilgrim Players, a group pledged to| crusade for the theater in a manner | calculated to be superior to that of the | regular commercial_theater, at least as ;xf‘mp]med in the Birmingham ‘of that a By 1913 the little band of half a dozen vislonary friends had developed into an exclusively professional group of actors and playwrights. Sir Barry had been persuaded to build and equip his intimate theater (which incidentally is one of the most beautiful architec- turally in England), and John Drink-[ water had given up his hated insurance business to become the director of the newly christened Birmingham Reper- tory Theater. This institution, with Sir Barry as its financial angel, and Drink- water its guiding artistic sponsor, was destined to become famous as the home | of the greatest plays by the finest mod- ern dramatists, British and Continen- During the first dozen years of its existence - 15 plays by Shakespeare, as well as revivals of other English clas- sles, by Goldsmith, Congreve and Sheri- dan, were presented there. Six plays by Ibsen and 12 by Shaw, including the full cycle of “Black to Methuselah,” were seen at this playhouse before any | Tondon manager would acknowledge | * greatness “The Immortal Hour” and “Abraham Lincoln” were refected by countless managers, until Sir Barry produced | them at Birmingham. Plays by the younger English and Irish dramatists, such as Synge, O’Casey, Yeats, Mase- field, Abercrombie and 'Bottomley, St. John Hankin, Wilde, Galsworthy and Drinkwater, had their premieres at this theater. The Continental dramatists shown to audiences at Birmingham, who otherwise might not ever have been exantples of their work, include Calderon, Griboyedov, Dumas, Zola, Bjornsen and Strindberg, Although Drinkwater's official con- Birmingham Repertory Theater was discontinued in 1924, he still retains his old interest in it. When nkwater. Hand” at the Royalty Theater in April, | 1928, flocking to it for a year. Lee Shubert acquired the American rights and brought Drinkwater over to superintend the New York presentation. “Bird in Hand” only quitted Broadway recently, after running up a total of more than 500 consecutive perform- ances. - Talks British. N American girl whose enuncla- tion (on the stage at least) gives cne the impression that she is a native Briton plays the leading female ro- mantic role in Cyril Mande’s “Grumpy,” the current screen attraction at the Co- lumbia. The girl is Prances Dade. Miss Dade gained her acting experience on the stage. She was brought to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn to appear in “Raf- fles” with Ronald Colman and Kay Francis. She also hu"glayed the Jead- ing ingenue lead in the audible film, “He Knew Women.” EVER SEE 1930—PART FOUR.’ AMUSEMENTS. Ernest Torrence's Songa. TWO of Ernest Torrence's songs will be sung on the concert stage by John McCormack during ¢he coming season. ‘The veteran actor was so notified by the famous' Irish tenor in a cablegram received while in Sonora working in Paramount’s “Fighting Caravans.” The two_songs, “Machree” and “God Gave Me wers,” were composed by Torrence during the past two years. Although known primarily as an actor, Torrence began his career as a musical student and a singer in operettas and musical comedies. For many years he has been composing, an art he learned at the Roi.l Academy of Music in Lon- don. ‘These songs are only two of many compositions he has completed since entering motion pictures. From his home at Moore Abbey, Mon- asterevan, Ireland, McCormack cabled: “Can you send me immediately coples of your songs, especially ‘Machree,’ as I want to do them on tour? Will see you in January.” Upon receipt of the cablegram, Tor- rence had the two songs rushed from his Hollywood home to the singer, GTVB. and Ceorge. JACCE WILK, head of the story de- partment of Warner Brothers, is the subject of an interview by Gray Strider in the October 1ssue of Screen- land. Entitled “How About the Au- thors?” it confines itself to Mr, Wilk's impressions of his recent visit to George Bernard Shaw. In commenting on the changed attitude of the writer, Mr. Wilk says: “Another reason for Shaw's friendli- ness toward the screen as It now is, is because of the fact that George Arliss is one of his closest friends. He admired Arlis very much in his picture, ‘Dis- raell’ and at pres°nt Arliss is trying to persuade the great dramatist to write for him, taking the life of Vol- the hero. In this connection, I ecently sent Shaw a working cript of our version cf ‘Disraeli’ to let him read it and see how the pic- ture script varies from the play. I look {?rwlrd with much interest to his reac- ion.” one help the complainant? | . JANET GAYNOR In her new photoplay leaves the lighter | attractions and plays a serious part. | With Charles Farrell she stars in “T) Man Whe Came Back.” g Colman's New Foil. CONSTANCE COMMINGS, a com- | parative stranger to the films, has been selected as leading lady to Ronald Colman in his next picture for Samuel | Goldwyn. Miss Cummings has reddish blond hair. She was born in Seattle May 15, 1910. Her education was at Coronado, and her first dramatic and dancing ex- | perience was in the high school of that Californian resort. | During her work as a chorus girl in “The Little Show” Sem Harris saw in her a possibility as an actress. And | o when “June” Moon” went into re- hearsal he ‘engaged Miss Cummings as | understudy to Miss Linda Watkins. | Constance had only one cpportunity to | “emote,” but she did_her work well. | And s0, along came Ronald and the Sam Goldwyn staff and snapped her up in the twinkling of an eye. OF THOSE SOUND CAMERAS? Well, here is the newest in cameras used in making the talkies. The girl handling the apparatus is Raquel Torre he completed “Bird in Hand"—his first comedy—in 1927, he gave Sir Barry the first reading of it, which resulted in its production there a few months later. Written in a completely new vein ird in Hand” instantly placed Drink- water high in the list of modern com- edy writers. London saw “Bird in TOSCANINI Wil open the series of the PHILHARMONIC SYMPHONY Orchestra of N. Y.CONgTITuTION TUESDAY, DEC. 16—4:30 £ Tfit;l.lx!!l—.c ctor ! u BRCH RECPIGNT. Fasene Symphony Neo. 1. Ticke! 13.50, $3.00. $2. 1. at %’ Arthur Smith, or Homer L. Kith . SHuserT-BeLasco T MGMT. MESSRS. SHUBER’ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer featu Continuing “Through New Year Week to Jan. 3 EATER “==csu XMAS NIGHT MATINEES—Saturdays and New Year Day at 2:30 MR. LEE SHUBERT Presents: John Drinkwater COMEDY HIT IN HAND ALL ENGLISH COMPANY—ONE YEAR IN LONDON 500 PERFORMANCES Nights—Orch., IN NEW YORK CITY 83 Mesz., §2.50, §2; Bal, $1.50, $1; Gal, .!'unll NDAY 90e. Matinees—Orch., §3; Mens., §2, $1.00; Bal,, 1) Gal., 600 “BIRD IN HAND"—Christmas. URNING from serious biographi- cal studies, such as “Abraham Lincoln” and “Mary Stuart,” the brilliant English dramatist, John Drinkwater, three years ago wrote a comedy, “Bird in Hand.” Since then this piece has been played for more than a year at the Royalty Theater, London, and has recently con- cluded an engage- ment of more than 500 performances in New York. This same com- edy, with its origi- nal cast, will come to the Shubert- Belasco on Christ- mas night under the sponsorship of Lee Shubert. In a picturesque inn in rural Eng- 1and it has pieased the author to as- semble a group of home-spun, identi- fiable and likable John Drinkwater, ~Characters, He starts a conflict between the old regime and the new, between youth and age. The keeper's pretty daughter revolts when her tr dition-bound father objects to her com- Elmonshlp with nobility. The mother drawn into the melee, also the lover and his father. Presently, casual oves night guests at the hostelry find thes selves hopelessly enmeshed in the do- mestic conflict. PFrom such premises Drinkwater proceeds to evolve an_eve- ning_of sheer robust comedy. “Bird in Hand” is reputed to be at once witty and wise, mellow and trenchant. The company to b» seen here and ERHAPS it is because the spires and | pinnacles of New York, representing many varied interests, stand out so| clearly just across the East River that| few people stop to think of Astoria,| Long Island, as the second Hollywood. Yet nowhere else in the world outside of the Pacific Coast motion picture | center can one find stars of such mag- | nitude as Nancy Carroil, Ina Claire,| Mary Brian, Maurice Chevalier, Prederic | March, Claudette Colbert, Ed Wynn and | dozens of others working on produc-| tions of such importance as “The Royal | Family” and “Follow _the Leader.” And| nowhere outside of Hollywood is there such a Mecca for screen ambitious girls. Outside the Paramount studio in As- toria does not look the place of dreams and enchantment that in reality it is. Its severely plain entrance does not at all seem the door through which so many have entered to fortune and world-wide fame. But _down long corridors of offices— Just like offices the country over— through a door, and you are in the land of make-believe. On = queer, long arm reaching out| from the side of the room a cylinarical object, perhaps a foot in length and half that in diameter, is suspended above the actors’ heads and moves with them. It is the microphone which picks up their words and transiates them to the film. JFROM the sixth century to the twen-) tieth, from the Basque country to | | Shanghai—this is the span of the seven production units now driving at top speed at the Fox film studios in Holly- | wood. Wil Rogers, with Director David But- ler and a notahle cast, is bringing Mark Twain's classic, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,” to life on the telking screen. Maurcen O'Sullivan is | the prinerss, William Farnum is King Arthur, Myrna Loy is Queen Morgan Le Fay, and Brandon Hurst is Merlin. “East Lynne,” the emotional drama which made hearts ache and tears flow agas and ages ago, is being brought to | a'close under Frank Lloyd. Ann Hard- M;SSCS Audience. ARJORIE RAMBEAU, whose suc- cess in pictures has brought her an enviable contract with M.-G.-M., misces her audience—the audience she can sec and whose applause ever has been music to her soul. With years of sensatlonal success on the stage, where she had the advan- tage of reaction of audiences to her work, Miss Rambeau misses that ad- vantage. “The technical movie staff is the only audience we have while acting before the camera,” says Miss Rambeau. “Nat- urally one wants as large an audience as possible—so I'm for biggsr technical staffs. “The attitude of the staff toward me, what each says to me and how he says it, even when concerning casual things, and what I sense in their attitude while doing a scene are my ‘stop’ and ‘g0’ signals. “The staff is the most difficult audi- ence to impress, but I have found it amazingly accurate on the stage. The motion picture staff on the set helps a_lof 4 ALFRED O’SHEA INTERNATIONAL TENOR KURT HETZEL. Accompanist O'Shea s an artist. skilled in making the most of a beautiful voice.—N. Y. World. MAYFLOWER HOTEL This Aflarnun!ll at 4:30 P.M. TICKBTS——L%D:! “IA‘Y"I.QN“ GAYETY—BURLESK Jean Bedini and His “Peek-a-Boo” Revue Georgette Ross Howard | Current Topics Carlton Hotel, Tues. Mornings 11 to 12 promised as the original one that was chosen and directed by Mr. Drinkwater himself includes Walter ®4win, Daphne Warren Wilson, Eliot Makeham, Olga Slade, Frank Pettley, John Warburton, Ronaid Dare and Arthur Ridley. NEW GEORGE KELLY PLAY. AURENCE RIVERS, producer of y, “Philip th" to the National Theater for four days only commencing Wed- nesday evening, January 7. ‘The announcement of a new Kelly play is always regarded as of social and theatrical interest. The advent of “Philip Goes Forth,” however, also marks the return to the local stage, after several seasons, of a play from the pen of this talented dramatist. Mr. Kelly's latest cffort deals with the story of a man who is cut out for the world of commerce, but who tries to make an artistic career. Other plays by Mr. Kelly are “The Torch Bearers,” “The Show-Off,” “Behold, the Bride~ groom” and the Pulitzer prize winner, “Craig's Wife.” Mail orders for tickets will be ac- cepted now by the management. BURLESQUE fans will have a pre- Christmas treat at the Gayety fiext week in the one and only Ann Corio in “Girls in Blue.” Hap Freyer and Clyde Bates care for the comedy honors; Ruth Bradley is the prima donna, and Lew Petel, Joe Delano, Mijton Hamilton, Fred Sears, Buddy Nichols and Je Gaskell are other top-notchers who are expected to make burlesque history. Especially bautiful are said to be is chorines. “GIRLS IN BLUE.” ~ Another Hollywood. High above the actors, where the ceil- ing of the room should be but isn't, men are stationed at numerous huge lights, and at the side where the room's fourth wall should be are two cameras mounted in soundproof boxes and used for recording the scenes which audi- ences throughout the world will see on the screen a few weeks later. On the floor below this main atage are five others, soundproofed from each other. On these stages similar scenes are taking place, many of them for short comedies. Behind soundproof doors carpentry shops, machine shops, scene painting departments and devel- oping rooms ere humming with activity. Paramount has inaugurated a new policy which will bring its Eastern plant to greater prominence as a pro- ducing center, for it believes it is good for both directors and stars to get away from Hollywood and to absorb new ideas in New York, and so they plan to rotate their productions, making 17 big pictures in the East this year. Emmest Lubitsch, Paramount's greatest director, who never before has worked in New York, is to make two or more pictures and at the same time to act as super- vising director for the studio. Because of its nearness to New York it is planned hereafter to make the more sophisticated and adult comedy pictures at the Astoria plant. Doings at Fox Studios. ing, Clive Brook and Conrad Nagel head the cas John Ford is rapidly finishing “The Seas Beneath,” the first “he and she" romance revolving around submarine warfars to reach the screen. The beau- tiful blond Viennese player, Marion Lessing, is the heroine, with George O’Brien, Mona Harris and Warren Hy- mer prominent in the cast. The effect of Latin love on Saxon beauty is illustrated in Modern World,” which presents Warner Baxter as a handsome Basque and Dor~ othy Mackaill as an English girl visit'ng in the Pyrences. Chandler Sprague is directing this story, adapted from Elea- nor Mercein’s novel “Basquerie.” ‘That there are woman haters even in modern colleges is shown in “Girls De- mand Excitement,” featuring John Wayne, hero of “The Big Trall” and Virginia Cherrill, for two years Charles Chaplin's leading woman in “City Lights.” Raoul Walsh has given all but the final touches to “The Man Whq Came Back,” the story of the climb by a rich man’s son from the bottom, with Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor co-featured. The Shanghal sequences, high lights of U’]\e s‘t’ory and play, have just been com- pleted. i COLIYER 9he FASHION« $TYLE PICTURE of TODAY ! ACAST of WORLD FAMOW /TARS A T E HUNDRED# FIFTY ORCHESTRA C SYMPHONY RETURN ENGAGEMENT—NATIONAL THEATRE Tues. Eve., Jan. 6, 8 p. m. 24 baleony, 83, et ‘sdodt “Don Juan” L