Evening Star Newspaper, August 16, 1931, Page 45

Stage News and Screen | and Gossip | AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star. Motdr, -Arviation, ‘ Radio Programs Part 4—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 16, 193 Story of Sav Like Our O With _t_l;l?_ Press Agents Singing Song of Joys to Come—Pro- ducirw Manaders Aw Ending Depends on Advance Subscriptions. By W. H. Fall and bits weather that enable on W reminisc ’i’n hy : with erhaps, th: hope for business, the producini will step out of his let! into something that reseml definite action productions for the coming sea- son, N in New York. Just at present his indifference doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence. True, the metropolitan journals have pub lished a great deal to indicate his intentions, but their heralding is so elusive in character that one is tempted to believe that the news from the producing offices, even the enthusiastic assurances of the “8. O. 8.” press representa- tives, & rs more like feelers of the public pulse than of definite . It is not, of course, evi- dence that the managers who heretofore have provided our en- tertainment have lost interest in their business. Not at all. Ratk does it indicate that the producing manager, like many other cautious ple in the world of business, is| 0] geenly alive to the importance of protecting and conservin his capital. In addition to all his other sources of doubt and worry the competition of the motion icture industry cannot be over- Yooked‘ Has not that ever-moving rival already lpprorrm‘.ed scores of the best actors o managers and even its play- wrights? More. Has it not even challenged and is it not desper- ately bent upon appropriating | the reputation of the theater as & producer of the drama? L ITY it is that the world of make-believe should ever be saddled with the weaknesses of the world of industry at any time! But even the world of make-be- lieve, like the Punch and Judy show, is operated by the man who plies his vocation for profit. And £s this must be borne in mind, as will as things, in the move- ment to'save-the stage, to recreate 3 of us who are m consider harsh moterial facts. ‘The reports of tre last census, recently published, showed among many interesting facts that in the savings banks of our country are stored millions | unity | he succeeds in these two jobs, the temptation to the tiveness. The pro- lucing manager, with even the men of big business, has deeply considered the possibilities offered Happy Ending the approach of the by these e P of cooler he, too, e, rainy day come now. mfortably to muse and e.c?heu is little doubt that in the theater will grow. that interest and revival of general mannueé argy an L4 bles in the matter of | ow already nominally opened‘ tHer | is the stage, its| ing Stage ther Dramas aiting Rcsu]ts—Ha)’py Landvoigt. | millions of savings. And is trying to make that! So that is! why we find the creator in the: land of make-believe sitting on |the edge of the cloud of hope | | picking petals from the daisies to| determine if the chap who owns the savings loves him or loves him not. It almost suggests an unique drama in itself. ok % % | 'OLLOWING out the line of dramatic suggestion, why may we not view the thrifty chap asi| the innocent hero; the producing manager, in a Pickwickian sense. of course, as the villain; the press | agent as the pretended friend of | the hero, but, in fact, the base| and heartless agent of the villain; the movie industry as the deep- dyed enemy of the villain and yet not the friend of the hero, and the legitimate theater as the hero- ine. Almost any one who likes to write and imagines he can write plays, as do so many of us, might weave a wonderful, a thrilling drama out of these ingredients. ‘The aim of the villains, of course, to annex the hero’s savings. The base and heartless agent of the producing villain sings the theme song. The song unfolds the joys ahead in the gh\ys that are to come out of Gotham, with their original casts, to delight the heart of the hind of the hinter- | | the alluring drama in course of construction—the press agent has been doing this very thing. He hes been writing of the wonderful plays and players and other things that aregbeing prepared for the pure delight of the road, with its tapk to and its one, two and | three night stands. But—and here {comu tl startling surprise—try to find in any verse of the theme song a single positive assurance | that this, or that, play or player |is to visit your own home town! | Yes, try to find it! Meanwhile | the villain is awaiting the result | If he lands the riches, think what |a happy ending, what a unique denouement it would be to hrve the villain happy, the hero hold- 4he ‘bag and the heroine il 1 with . Wouldn “?t be a knockout in t‘-n one-night stands! | *oxoxox | BUT even in make-believe wi | should try to be just. The base and heartless press repre- sentative really has two tough jobs his hands. One of them is to ou subscribe in advance for som ng he may or may not be able to deliver. His other job, Ern'nbly the tougher of the two, to convince the producing vil- lain, with your advance subscrip- | tions, that it will pay him to let the backwoods have something and why not the best there is. If {on stage will be saved somehow. At any rate, there will be a happy ending for somebody, and that is the great, modern desideratum in dramaturgy. Besides the stage will be saved and the theater will be, at least, revived again. “First Woman President” | . JITHIN one month, according to & startling news report, the first woman President of the United States ;II!I take her oath of office at the Wharf | ers Theater, in Provincetown, Mass. Mary Young. noted Broadway star, will be the lady in question. On the evening of August 24 in the little Cape Cod resort, {avorably known for its advance thea 1 presentations under the manag*ment of Mrs. M. E. Hew Miss Young will ereate the role of Con. stance Goodwin, sworn to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of these United States.” ‘The Phy, titled “The Woman of Destiny,” 15 by Sam Warshawsky, an R-K-O press executive. It is said t> have excited keen interest among lead- ing tagonists for women in office and for the achievement of peace and ent. The theme is that of a wealthy so- —‘Side-Swipiné nge One JFFEDERICK LONSDALE, well knovn Erity to Califo Goldwyn-Ma be expending some quired screen zeal swiping. Before leaving New York, the studio story aays, Mr. Lonsdale expressed “a elear-cut conviction that it is unethical and unsportsmaniike to accept a con- tract for work in Hollywood, without having the mtevtion of giving complete value for Fis remuneration® The siudio writer explains that “this opinion wes sponsored, perhaps, by the recent statements of M/ P. G. Wode- house regarding the money received from the movics for doing comparative- 1y Jittle.” aywright @ who bhas gone tro- to re- side is. appea. his newly a bit of of in Business Man a Genius UMPHREY PEARSON, formerly : business man, with a hobby for ™ found play writing,” has | sesame clal matron who paid & mother's p in the last great war, and had de cated herself to the organizaticn the women of the world sgainst future wars. Achieving political pow {she forces a peace plank into the na- | tional party’s platform, and, with the | | zupport of the church. jabor, the peace | | element and other leaders, is nominated | and elected to the vice presidency. The deatit of President Cumberland. h: running mate. Jeads to her induction {into the presidency on the eve of a | declaration of war by the Ugited States Almost single-handed, she engages in a lest-minute struggle with the war party in power to prevent hostilities It i3 said the author has under con- siderstion the plan of permitting the | | presentation of the play throughout the | country by little theaters and various | | organizations interested in the cau: of peace, rather than limiting its pro- ' duetion to the commercial theater “As for myself rave added up my contract Mr. Lo is said y give if T find that my serv- ices are not satisfactory 1 believe that suthors going to California should do 0 with the intention of gofng to work and not merely of joining & gold rush I fully intend to work from early | in the morning until late at night at | any picture that I have agreed to do.” Mr. Lonsdale, among many other things in this vein, states, “I have al- ways directed my plays, and I see no reason why, at some tim, direct my own pictures he i quoted as sayi sentirg a reirogressive force, has not affected him personally, but it should be combated by playwrights and pro- ducers alike State, he thinks bas its own shades of interpretation of | the go-called questionsble situations “and they riways mansge to cut up worth-while rather than meretricious work | 1 should not | Censorship, | while repre- | | that writing & screen play is as im. | portant & job as writing a best-selling | novel. i “There is more work to it than writ- | »a stage play. “They say film material is all ex- | land. And—as an interruption to|" | picture was WwILL ROGERS ana_ FIFI DORSAY Y YOUNG AS YOU FEEL” - FOX FAY WRAY : *DIRIGIBLE” - KEITHS SCENE FROM“TABU” DOROTHY MACKAILL ®THE RECKLESS HOUR”-EARLE Newman, Travel Talker. JE. M. NEWMAN, noted travel talker ~+ has just completed & four-month tour of Burope and announces posi- tively he will be seen here this season in another interesting “Seeing Burope” series of travel talks The subjects chosen by this master traveler are “France and the Colonia Exposition,” “Spain, the Republic” “Berlin, 1931 London Life” and “England and Wales By a happy coincidence, Newman says, he was an eyewitness of IMany exiting scenes from the abdication of King Alfonso to the ensuing riots. Also that Berlin was in a turmoil while he was there and the great change that has taken place in the German capital was photographed for our better under- standing. Navy Families in Film. JFRANK CAPRA. director of “Dirigi- now at R-K-O Keith's Thea- rst tim popular prices uch of authenticity to es of the picture children of th as well as the en Air Station at Lal the picture was Navy day sequ by using the wives an officers and mer staff of the Nava hurst, N. J, whe made The greater knowledge of naval ethics and procedure of these people is sald to have made them much more suitable than “extras” would have been The ball given by the naval officers in honor of Jack Holt before depart- ing on the dirigible for the South Pole made a brilliant scene of the picture The naval officers, most of them young and randsome, are dressed impeccably in white. The young women are miore htly costumed with a briliiant va: g in their evening gOWNs “no make-believe” ~about fiying in “Dirigible.” The made at the Naval Air at Lakehurst, N. J. with the yers who have made aviation is stu; Statior vel Organ Program. THh organ program presented at the Fox th tllustrates, 1t is said, strange things, that no less different pations snd prine either have used or are utilisng “My Country "Tia of Thee™ as, of in, their that adorn | hausted. Yet I find all sorts of human | national anthems. situations that have mever becn dealt with In the way it is possible for talkie N h “It s possible to get new and hight S ithin the rounds Mr. Hamilton also fincovers how melodies by man: lar Bave been “borrowed rom | of the classics; how the famous 'fi ute Waltz” can be played in less a minute; how 8O at the COLUMBIA MADGE EVANS anq VSPORTING BLOOD” - PALACE Late New York News BY MARK BARRON. EW YORK. August 15 (A).— After dozing quietly through most of this month, the theater is to arouse itself and actually cpen a new season after another week. It marks the latest premiere of a new season oa Broadway in more than 15 years A drama is scheduled fo be the open- ing, with Brock Pember(8n, the Kansas boy who made nearly a million dollars on “Strictly Dishonorable,” bringing in a new comedy called “Three Times the Hour." On the following night, the twent) seventh, Earl Carroll plans to open his luxurious new playhouse with the new edition of his “Vanities.” “The new theater is an extra large one and the top price of ad Vanitie will be heads Cas John G first week of t which he wrot tion with Hu Charlotte W nge. It will have the leading role this being her L appearance on Broadway since she retired to the Pacific Coast several years ago. MARGARET ANGLIN'S tour in AV1 - glizabeth the Queen” will com- prise only & small part of her activi- ties for the season. She is to follow this Wwith an engagement in “Henry VIIL" and after that will do Euripides’ Medea” iu 8 special production at the Metropolitan Opera House ‘This will not be thy first tim Anglin has played a Greek tragddy at the M In 1926 she produced “Electra” there for three performances. The gigantic settings demanded by the Greek plays makes it almost necessary Miss |to have them on the ample stage at | | the Me t ? { HRYSTAL HERNE is another of | those prominent actresses Who find it difficult to discover & role sulte to their particular talents. “Cralg's | Wife” of dive years ago was & perfect | vehicle for her, but there has been no | startling success since then. | She will try again this season in | new comedy, “Ladies of Creation” which_Gladys Unger has written for ner. It will have its first performance a week from Monday at the Cape Cod Play House and comes to Broadway next Monday. THE Shuberis, unusually idle Summer, are getting back into tion with the oroduction of two musical shows. One is _“Best Wishes,” with & Harry Tierney &ore. First will come this Everybody's Wel- come.” which will have in its cast Frances Williams, Osear Shaw, Ann Pennington, the Ritz Brothers (who | dance in their bare faet) and Harriet Lake Somshow or other the Misses Wil- liams and Pennington always end up in the same show fogether. For several vears they, were teamed in the “Sean- dals.” Last season thev were both in “The New Yorkers.” Now they are still united in “Everybody’s Weicome.” Dreiser as Screened JHAT is said to be “the most inter- | for Paremount's Tragedy.” This seript contains 34 sequences of | tion as the only explanal the work of | s2quences have Josef von Sternberg, director of the |dialogue, the shortest being a scene in | picture. and Samuel Hoffenstein, au- | which only two words are | various lengths and is thor of “Poems in Praise of Practically Nothing." The entire alphal { hausted once- and the esting motion picture script ever | P! written in Hollyweod” was constructed | o smooth execution of the dramatic production out of story. In several of them no word of Theodore Dreiser's play, “An American | dialogue is spoken. le lettérs | length and co more territory than the majority of roductions. f Two of them em- | rty invita- | don. ” several | a - few lines oll\ ploy written notes and a only The BB sequence, which carries lhe1 t was ex- | trial of Clyde Griffiths, is 4x pages in ntains 301 specches of jearried to HH in designating the se- varying length. in this unusual scenario. Most talking pictures are made up of from 4 to 10 sequences. - iries no more film material” the average de luxe p’tur. but covers ‘The entire script «l L of hapter znouu " car | novel. The author wrote . Tragedy” in 100 chapters, pages. The 34 sequences are blended to give | 2 CLARK GABLE First Peep of Burlesque. HE New Columbia Burlesque Asso- ciation’s 30 companies started re- hearsals last Mondey in New York More than 1,000 players, inc! cherus girls, make up the la and 30 theaters. employing approxi- mately 900 persons, constitute the burlesque “wheel.” 1. H. Herk, president and general manager of the Columbia, is authority for the statement that this division of amusements never before has been 50 perfectly organized to meet the demands for this type of entertainment. “While burlesque is distincti occuples a field all its own,” Y Herk, “it is our purpose to Keep in step with the advancement that is being made in all other forms of amusement Old-style burlesque would not appeal to present-day theatergoers any more than would old-style moving pictures or musi- cal comedies cr dramas. There will be from the established t will be brou sented more scenic, costume lighting effects “It will be burlesque, but burlesque without a blush The regular season -of Columbia burlesque will begin Labor day, with a few tompsnies opening the preceding Saturday or Sunday. elaborately in respect of embellishment and Harkmg Back to Valentino. A LMOST before the universal roar proclaiming Clark Gable the na ural-born successor to Rudolph Valen- tine has quietsd down comes a pierc- ing shriek from the R-K-O studios that it has a finer candidate. Ivan Lebedeff, the Russian actor, it is claimed, really wears the mantie that fell from the clouds, beyond which “the Shiek” of other days now looks down admiringly. William Le Baron insists that Lebe- deff has long been “the answer to the screen maiden's prayer,” but the un- observant screen public did not recog- ise it. Now, he says, “letters and cards fairly frenzied in their adulation’ are just pouring in. Ivan is lauded as devastation personified. Maxine on the Job. MAXINE. DOYLE the popular " gir, Wl as RTel ‘Ceramonies fer the. Earic Progri thirty-ninth week at the shows, but the features | ht up to date and be pre- | RuthChattert A Symbol o OLLYWOOD. Calif, August 15, —Ruth Chatterton is the most H wood chess game. playing to keep cordiale which has existed among studios during past years, have come to this actress as the symbol of good will She is the hostage which Warners of- fer back to Paramount to insure further co-operation in the field of artist mak- ing. The great raid on Paramount artists has become past history. And that studlo, suffering suddenly an almost complete change of personnel, has found its feet and carrled on very creditably. It has been resigned to ail losses apparently, save that of Ruth Chatterton. Producers find it difficult to allow stars an active volce in the choice of vehicles. A splendid acting part, from the point of view of the performer, is often not a popular vehicle so far as the completed picture goes. Nothing finer from the standpoint of acting latitude could be found than Ann Hard- ing’s role in “East Lynne"-—the star could emote all over the place. It has scenes of gayety. Scenes of 1ysteria. Mother scenes. -romping with little golden-haired kiddies on the lawns. Then on down into the always excel- lent material of the tragic gentlewoman fallen through sincere love. Couple all this with the sort of cos- tumes that made Ann Harding too beautiful for words and you can easily Producers, with the picture. ‘The producer’s problem is to find & picture which agrees with the star's concept of a good role. but a picture which will also fulfill the public’s idea of good pictures. Match these things weeks and months of struggle which a big name. Whatever terton—and studio keeps Ruth Chat- her fate will undoubtedly be decided for her as = matter of inter-studio policy and & precedent for amicable relations between producing factions—will try its best to give her what it considers great pictures. She is too fine an artist and too important a star to be handled negligently. She is one of the few artists of the stage BY DONALD H. CLARKE. "CERTAIN type of screen acting, during the time of silent motion pictures, was labeled the monkey art. Now, however, since sound has come to lend alarms and clamors to the cinema, one might call this same act- ing the monkey-parrot art. An actress was given lines to mouth and move- ments to follow. The lines were con- ceived by & playwright, her movements by a director. Few actresses of that “art” than & childish ease at mimiery. ‘There are, of course, exceptions to prove this singular rule. One exception is Gerta Garbo. Gerta thinks! The very fact that she expends thought of her own on the roles she pl makes her a mystery to the non-think- ing, “monkey-parrot players.” It was pure thought that established world's favorite motion picture actress feature photoplays only, including one not generally shown in this country, ‘before she was acclaimed a star and & leading box office attraction. It is safe to spyv that no other player rose so quickly to stardom and then re- mained so long a favorite. Even now, after six years, there is no wane in her popularity. 1f anything, she is more popular than before. What, then, is the secret of this ap- | peal? Her beauty? True, Miss Garbo has a strange, sometimes unearthly beauty. Her wide mouth and the sweep ing arch of her brows suggest some- times the Mons Lisa. Yet she cou not stand comparison with the supe ficial beauty of one of Zeigfeld's glori- fied ladies. It is not her beauty, evi- dently, that has made her popular. interesting queen in the Holly- | the entente | see where the star could find no fault | all up and you will understand the | precede the purchase of a vehicle for | Secfet; of Garbo’s A;t caliber bring anything more to their | s is what | this young Swedish woman as the| so quickly. She had appeared in four | on Becomes f Good Will Between Movie Studios Famous Star Is Now the Pawn of Rival Factions in a Ho“ywood Chess Glm‘e Wh;ch Must Be Carried Out to the Finish. By Mollie Merrick. possessed of first-rate caliber. who made no concessions in acting type and who has built up a large fan follow - ing notwithstanding. This fact alone makes Ruth Chat- terton a ploneer in talking picture fields—beyond the fact that she put over the first talkie to regisier largely with the American public, “Madame X" We had already had some good talkies, notably “Alibi"—but the world in general regarded the talking picture as an experiment which migh’, at any moment, be relegated to the dust bin for the silents which “ad preceded them. Ruth Chatterton's art as shown in “Madame X" revealed to the public & possibility in the talking pictures which nothing else had shcwn them. Her continued high standaid of work proves that there is a ficld into which talkies will gradually pass—a fleld to- tally different from the initial ventures or even the ventures we have had up to six months ago. Ruth Chatterton is far more beauti- ful than when shs came to Hollywpod. Here the standerds are more severs than other parts of the world and the crueity of the camera is historic. The slimness which was outstanding on th stage was weight before the camera but Ruth Chatterton is wonderfuly slim today in a colony where figure. reach unbellevable perfection. She ha ieft nothing undone to make her career before the camera the outstanding suc- ceas it has become. And with ail the battles which have raged from time to time between one | faction and another-—Ruih Chatterton is the first player considered sufficiently valuable to bring two large studios to an impesse. The fate of the screen's most_satisfying star is not in her own hands. She quite rightly resents this. Not actively, for Ruth Chatterton 8 100 much s diplomat to war with ele- ments which cannot be handled. But way down in heart, any star would re- | sent being the piaything of big busi- { ness—the pawn of rival factions—the hostage in a good-will game which must be carried out to the fnish. The great- est compliment Warner Brothers could pay Paramount was their offer to Ruth Chatterton. But state politics inter- vening. will undoubtedly leave the sic- cessfull lady with the studio which con- | tributed so largely to her success. | _Clarence Brown. the director who guided some of the Swedish phfi:‘a | greatest tells & story which this it - He el that | in Hollywood, to save Misy from | the fll::le of playing before the | camera_during the long shots, he dis- covered s “double.” A finger- | print expert only could tell them In almost every detail of face and they were glike as the proverbial peas. ‘Yet, Brown says, the “double” could never be a success in pictures. He | sums the matter up tersely: “Greta Garbo's beauty is back of her yes. She thinks." I was vflvfla&d to see & “rush” one day of Miss rbo’s picture, ‘‘Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise.” A “rush” is what they call the incomplete scenes and sequences taken during the day and shown to the director, star and other interested persons at night. This particular “rush” showed one scene which had been taken twice. The first time Greta Garbo went through an emotional bit of acting with what seemed to your reporter as exceptionally fine work. But, as the scene ended. and before the camera could be stopped. she turned, snapped her fingers. and said, evidently to the director, although it was recorded on the film: “I am sorry. This was not good. I wasn't thinking. bad not noticed any flaw in her art. It was not until the second “take™ of this scene was shown that I realized the tremendous difference between Garbo's art when she thinks and when | she doesn’t think. Thought gave life. feeling and warmth to the entire mood | of that single scene. Miss Garbo has few tricks of act- ing. Notice her work. It lacks man- nerism, forced emphasis and apparent deliberation. She works hard, I im- agine, to conceal the tremendous amount of work which sctually into her parts. That way of W 8 might very well be called true art: the | masters labor, but their masterpleces flow. e BY PERCY HAMMOND. NEW YORK, August 15. ARIETY, the drama’s most alert lookout, predicts that we are nesring the twilight of the stars. In one of its keen prognostications it foresees & dimming of the stage’s fixed luminaries. if not a total disappearance thereof. It | notes that of 116 plays already an- nounced for production next season, only 17 will bailyhoo their principal ac- tors. Producers have been warned Variety says, by experience that stars are but ineffectual glimmers in the theater's sad and solemn night, and that the brightness or dullness of & play is seldom magnified by their presence. 3 *x ko Observers less vigilant than Variety have noticed also that the supply of stars has diminished with the demand. I 'am reliably informed that last year no players, boy or girl, gave evidence by their performances that they de- served promotion to the skies. Many competent interpreters were at hand to elucidate the problems propounded by the playwrights, but none of them was of a caliber sufficient to establish them in what Mr. Belasco used reverently to call “the firmament.” good, run-of-the-mine and mimics in proficient displays of knack and personality. Of course & number of potential Ethel Barrymeres and Grace Georges may have been hid- den in the jungles of bad plays; and for all that I know another Billie Burke or Luille La Verne will emerge eventually from the prevailing Broadway darkness. It is possible that Miss Helen Morgan will soon succeed Miss Margaret Anglin in the stellar convulsions of Greek tn ; and that Mr. Broun will be & well known ort audiences to is esp any theater ff or Calibal ist of next season’ tars les Alice Brady, The Twil_iglli ‘They were just | exhibitionists, | haracter- | n the | of Wthre Sfars | Larimore, Miss Mae West, Mrs. Piske, | Walter Hampden, Otis Skinner ang I hope, Miss Laurette Taylor. % % % ’I‘}fl: Catholic Theater Movement's fa- ventory of plays salubrious or gyn- wholesome is depressing in its sugess: tion of the drama’s insignificarice. It seriously considers 21 recent Broadway entertainments, inost of which were of an ephemeral, insect nature, dying an early, if occasionally a lingering death In this solemn index one finds the names of shows that one has not sesn or heard of, 5o trivial was their appear- ance in the halls of the drama. Puny, little Broadway gestures, they did not deserve attention: and they did noi et it until the Catholic Theater Move- ment tardily denounced them a3 not | good. | * k% The New York Times, in its descrip- tion of the Movement's attitude toward the Broadway piays, said that “Alison’s House,” a Pulitzer prize winner, was especially commended to churchmen as inspirational and undefiling. The New York Herald Tribune’s report proclaimed that “Alison’s House” was unequivocally irowned upon by the Catholic Theater Movemenpt as a morbid and gloomy pretension, ignoble in purpose snd ef- fect. It was the impression of the Herald Tribune newsman that an in- ebriate comedy entitled “Old Man Murphy” was selected as the Move- ment's favorite, not the copy “Alison’s House.” * k% % After investigation I discover that } |