Evening Star Newspaper, March 18, 1933, Page 5

THE EVENING FIL PAY TANGLE From the Front Row CONFUSES STUDIO Figuring Salaries of Free- Lanee Players Proves Knotty Problem. By the Assoclated Press. HOLLYWOOD, Calif., March 18.— plexities in the employment sys- at Hollywood studios are giving the cademy and Producer Committees some knotty problems to unravel as the movie plants proceed in securing signa- tures to the eight weeks’ salary waivers. ‘The puzzling question of the amounts -lance players should be expected ‘waive in the all-industry emergency sacrifice was debated and finally ironed out in the lengthy conferences that on Monday produced the revised standard agreement, but casting directors are being kept busy in figuring on in- dividual cases. ‘The office of Lester Cowan, academy executive secretary, is almost constantly besieged with telephone calls from vari- ! ous studios seeking interpretation of the academy-producer agreem-, for special cases, or asking that ucn cases be referred to the standing Academy and Producer Committees for settle-! ment. An unusual case was James Dunn’s when he was loaned by Fox to Para- mount for one picture. Earlier, Fox employes had agreed to waive all salary for ope month, this including Dunn. But on loan to Paramount, Dunn would recelve cither half salary, which pre- vailed there, or none at all, which pre- vailed at Fox. This situation, however, was cleared by Fox's adherence to the uniform sal- ary waiver adopted at all studios. Another odd one is that of the well- known leading man who, just prior to the crisis, had made a deal with a stu- dio to play a role for one-half his regu- lar salary. Now he wants to know: “Already cut in half, is my salary going to be sliced again? SMITHSONIAN TOWER ROMANCE REVEALED BY VISITING MAYOR (Continued From First Page.) money running errands for the insti- tution’s scientists. ‘Those Catlin paintings and the book the National Museum printed about them are a sort of ethnological Bible, say the National Museum ethnologists. ‘They recall the story of Catlin and of the other great painter of Indians, J. M. Stanley, whom Joseph Henry sup- lied with $100 a year to keep up in- rerest payments on a debt so that he could hold his pictures until Congress could be persuaded to buy them. Lincoln Walked There. ‘Those were strange, sad days in that high, windswept tower, where the great scientist himself lived, where he pro- vided a refuge for neglected scientists and where Abraham Lincoln had come during the darkest hours of the Civil War to walk with Henry and watch the stars. Back in 1829 this George Catlin, a young lawyer in Philadelphia, with a talent for painting, who had been nursed on Indian legends during his childhood in the Wyoming Valley coun- try of Pennsylvania, saw & band of Indians passing through the city on their way to see the ‘“great white fa- ther” in Washington. It was then the practice when an Indian treaty was signed to bring the leaders of the tribe to see the President in order to impress them with the power and majesty of the United States. The sight of these Indians brought to & climax Catlin’s disgust with the law. He closed his office and went | ‘West, with little more than some can- vasses and paint brushes. He went emong the wild tribes at the headwa- ters of the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers, living the life of the red man and painting whenever he could per- suade a subject to pose for him. Out of this exile he came back to civiliza- tion again in 1838. He had found and pictured the real aboriginal Indian and preserved such a record of his appear- ance and manners as could never be duplicated. He exhibited his pictures over America and Europe. Continu- ously he added to them, especially pic- tures of famous Indians. “A Messianic Complex.” Catlin did not paint to make money. He had a sort of Messianic complex. He wanted to save the Indian—to save that whole picturesque page of history and of nature which even then rapidly was being blotted out, as troops and merchants were pushing back the wild frontier and reducing the scene to the white man's pattern. He loved the Indian. “I love,” he said, “a people who can be honest without laws or jalls or poor< houses. “I love & people Who keep the com- mandments without ever having read them or heard them from a pulpit. “I love a people who love their neigh- bors as themselves. “I love a people who worship God without a Bible, for I believe that they love me also.” That was Catlin’s creed, and the in- spiration of his work. He believed there was a value in nature in the raw which the sophistication of civilization could not replace but only destroy. The Civil War passed over Catlin's head. After it came the great demand for land and national expansion, born of the war's restlessness. The generals were let loose on the Indians. They were well-meaning enough, but they looked upon the Indian as a very in- ferior sort of white man—not as a man with values of his own which might transcend in their way any values of which the white man was eonscious. Found Sympathetic Listener. It was these other values which Cat- lin worshiped. He wanted to make the Government realize them. In Washing- ton he found one sympathetic listener, Joseph Henry. The Smithsonian sec- retary wanted to establish here a na- tional gallery of Indian portraits as part of the scheme for preserving those values. He took both Catlin and Stan- ley under his. wing. The Institution became their headquarters. Some of their pictures were lost in a destructive fire in 1865. Only a few of Stanley's were preserved. There are now 151 of Catlin’s in the national collection. Con- was loath to appropriate money for such a purpose. In those days it was inclined to look upon the Indian as » pest to be got rid of and wiped out of memory. Catlin _worked on and on, with Henry's encouragement. He devoted 42 years of his life to study of the Indians. In 1872, sick and discovraged, he died. His pictures remained at the Natfonal Museum. Their artistic value is some- what questionable, but as objects for scientific study they are considered in- valuable. Some of the peoples among whom he worked long since have dis- appeared or have became mixed with whites. The Indian has changed every- where, as he adopted the manners and dress of the whites. So scholars come from all over the country to con- sult Catlin’s pictures as the final au- thority on a vanished people. He was sn jmportant influence in the estab- Reviews and News of Washindton'a Theaters. By E. de S. MELCHER Violet Kemble-Cooper Stars in Bennett Film. N its day, “Our Betters,” Somer- set Maughan's comedy about American® title snatchers in England, wicked and was enjoyed both sides of the ocean. In its pres- ent version, which is currently playing at R-K-O Keith'’s, the satire seems to have run a little thin, and the situations are so antique as to be some- what ridiculous. Only those who venture to call themselves “so- phisticates” will ‘weather it suc- cessfully al- though some of it is bright, some of it is particularly well acted, and the star is not_the languid Miss Constance Ben- nett (who goes all the way through it with a cigarette drifting off one corner of her fingers) but tall, blonde, and splendidly brittle Violet Kemble- Cooper. Miss Cooper, seen here often on local stages, and one of the shrewd- est satiric comediennes, plays rings around thin, lovely, but con- stantly dopy Miss Bennett. As a flamboyant duchess, who has buried one or two husbands and is now playing around with gigolo Pepi (Gilbert Roland), she is a grand study of decaying ‘noblesse” (she came frcm somewhere west of Brook- lyn). Miss Cooper is all that her type of a duchess should be, and it is her playing of this utterly ridicu- lous role that makes the film con- siderably more than bearable, Others in the cast who behave themselves well in the home of Lady Pear] Grayston (Constance Bennett) are Phoebe Foster as a rather sen- sible and sentimental ‘“‘American” princess; Minor Watson, as the gen- erous donor of Lady Grayston's many pearls; Grant Mitchell, as the “professional entertainer”; and Gil- bert Roland, who does extraordi- narily well as the unfortunate young maf who loans himself out as the duchess’ lap-dog. Also in the cast is Hugh Sinclair, the young man who did so well last year by Mr. Shaw’s curtain speech in “Too True to Be Good.” Admirers of Miss Bennett will probably believe that her role in this 1is particularly suitable to her charms. It undoubtedly is. Around us yes- terday, excited females kept point- ing at her hair and whispering, “Now, Margle, you see, you roll it up at the bottom and then let those two jiggers stick out at the sides!” Miss Bennett's “jiggers” are certainly splendid. “King of the Jungle” Features Buster Crabbe. W’E suspect that Buster Crabbe had a better time doing his lion man act than Johnny Weismul- ler had with his Tarzan. While the latter haunted tree trunks and caves and swung himself around the jungle in minimum attire, Mr. Crabbe rlays through Lincoln Park in San Prancisco, whooping aloud his lion speech, and frightening lady pedestrians by the meagerness of his dress. A fine spectacle of man- hood, he has an opportunity of waltzing around in his bare skin and behaving himself quite nor- mally and nicely—oblivicus of the fact that even lion men outside of Africa are equipped with shirts, col- lars, “trow” and other out-of-doors necessities. “King of the Jungle,” which opened yesterday at Warner's Earle, is, on account of the lightness of its theme a pleasant picture which is guaranteed to make you laugh. ‘The sight of Mr. Crabbe’s “costume” need not frighten you from attend- ing it—and, the fact that a lion rips off the better part of a man's arm need not dismay you into thinking it is a tragedy. Taking a young man, stranded since child- hood on an African isle, who has become pals with his lion natives to a circus tent in the U. S. A, hav- ing him escape when he first lands and can only make a loud “ow-wow=- ‘wow” noise for speech, is an amus- ing theme—if an impossible one. Friends of a good “yarn” will en- Jjoy it, particularly when the lion man first uses the word “scram.” Most to be enjoyed is Crabbe’s lon bellow—not so shrill as the late Tarzan's; the way in which he eats a baked potato; his frighten- ing two old malids in Lincoln Park; how he learns to say “I see a cat,” and how suddenly uncomfortable he looks when he puts his clothes on. All hokum—it is, however, a merry tale—with PFrances Dee taking the lion man into matrimony. The stage show is only a so0-s0 affair with Ray Bolger way and Constance Bennett. above the rest—doing some of his justly famous and neat dancing “turns.” Others include a singing lady quartet, the Mullen Sisters, gentle but nice; Long Tack Sam and a Chinese pot-pourrl which includes everything from toe-dance ing to plate juggling, and s trained seal who does a well enough trained seal act. The orchestra strikes up a lively Irish medley in honor of the season, too. “Rasputin and the Em " At Popular Prices at WHAT is likely to be the one and only Barrymore film in which Ethel, John and Lionel take part, “Rasputin and the Empress” 1is being revived this week at Loew's Palace, having formerly played at heartbreak prices at the Columbia. A long, tense and fundamentally tragic account of the fall of the late Romanoff’s (which, incidental- ly, has been banned in England), the film is notable for the fine performance of all the Barrymores (most particularly Ethel—who has doubted her cinema effiicacy) ; for the scene in which John rips his brother up and down the back; for the splendid work of little Tad Alex- ander, and for the last pathetic se- quence which is likely to plunge m into tears. Although history been made light of, and facts distorted more often than is com- fortable ifto fiction, there is no ql.l!:S:ionr buthfl!lt fl:’k i‘a“ux achieve- ment of a heavy, brutal type—and that it is worth seeing—due to the exceptional work of all concerned. “42d Street” Thrives at Metropolitan. WARNER‘S Metropolitan is doing better tham prosperity business with the film, “42d Street,” which it borrowed from the Earle and which goes along nicely in its third week. The best musicale that has come out of Hollywocd, and one which will probably have a fleet of imitators, it is rich in music, hand- some in scenery and capably played by a group of popular stars, among whom Ruby Keeler should be the most popular. ~Although the humor is not what it should be (particu- larly with Una Merkel at hand), and although the camera makes quick work of George Brent, the songs and dances keep up a lively pace, and you will be very much pleased at the sight of Miss Keeler’s dancing feet. This young lad decidedly new ‘“personality,” head and shoulders as well as the feet of this musical piece, and should go far in any medium which Warner Brothers are wise enough to prepare for her. Others in the cast worth noting are Bebe Daniels as a temporary inebriate; ‘Warner Baxter as the hardworking producer; Ginger Rogers as a monocled soubrette; and Guy Kibbe as e rich and naughty gentleman of leisure. “The Big Cage” At Rialto Second Week. TH’E presence of Nero the lion in the lobby of the Rialto Theater gives you a rough idea of the enter- tainment which takes place behind the theater’s doors. Large banners, indicating the spirit of the circus, surround Mr. Nero, and the general lobby appearance is nicely equipped, s0 that you can almost imagine yourself locked in the heart of a big tent, with the calliope blurting out in the distance, the fat lady grinning amiably from her chair in the sideshow, and the lions making considerable hey-hey running around in their small cages. “The Big Cage,” the film attrac- tion, gets you nearer to this circus life than most other pictures. As a result of the presence of Lion ‘Trainer Clyde Beatty, the spirit of circus chivalry is very much in the air. Although the 8. P. C. A. prob- ably groans every time Beatty cracks his whip and advances fearlessly with that chair and that blank- cartridged pistol into the lion cages, spectators may be thoroughly excited by the goings-on, and will marvel at the way Mr. Beatty sub- dues his lions and his tigers to gentility under the same tent. ‘While the story is mild and the hero and heroine needless, the pic- ture is stolen by the performance of another one of those boy wonders and by Mr. Beatty, who repeats his feats of lion-taming skill before an obviously interested camera. “Follow Thru,” with Penner, On Fox Stage; Fine Play in Film. PROVIDING & nicely polished frame for the unexampled ra- diations of Joe Penner, “Follow Thru,” rated as a stage fixture, is it- self indebted to that happy come- dian for an appreciable portion of its total musical-comedy effect. ‘There is additional merit in the ar- rival of Olive: Olsen, co-featured member of the company, for she is entitled to much credit in displaying her own unique qualities. Both have the ability to pound out pop- lishment of the Bureau of American Ethnology. He was the first to advo- catea great national park in the West, of which dream Yellowstone is the real- ization. Reverently the mayor of Cedar Rap- the hand of his grand- ter as hé walked slowly around the room. gazing on those old pictures. He was glad he had left them at the of the stairs the old tower he was & littls boy. thriving source. ants. ing historic parades. NATION'S fLocate your Business Headquarters in the Evening Star Building; the key position to the new Government Building Group—many occu- pied and others nearing completion. fLocate in the center of Washington’s all- important Business Activities—leading Bank- ing Institutions, Hotels, Theaters and Shopping District—in fact, all vital points feed from this SUITES AND SINGLE OFFICES fSpace and rentals conforming with small or large Business Budgets at rates consistent with existing ‘conditions, available to desirable ten- fAn attractive corner suite now available. Ideal location for entertaining clients in view- APPLY SUPERINTENDENT’S OFFICE ROOM 610 OR NA. 5000 STAR, WASHINGTON, rlety ‘. Mr. Penner is a Washington visi- tor who always finds the welcome sign out when he arrives. and in his strongest numbers on the operfing day he received flattering recogni- tion. The substance of his reper- toire gains force from the fact that he has ‘a partner who measures up to the task of creating a strong team, while there is a new touch in his work, arising from intimate as- sociation with a whole plot, in which he becomes a casual figure. It may be said that in broadening his stage horizon he has gained in effective- ness. The monologue artist becomes & player of action, and in his busy moments he is able to make the Penner style veneer the story that is being presented. “Follow Thru” has a large cast 6f singers and dancers, and plenty of tuneful music, although the welght D. C., SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1933. Rogers Ames are well cast as associates, and a child role is well done. High Price of Soot. Annual damage to the extent of $15 per inhabitant of the United States is caused by soot from poorly adjusted furnaces. DERN SAYS PRESIDENT|' NEEDS UNIFIED HELP Assails Idea Liquidation Is Only Way Out of Nation’s Economic Troubles. tored proper methods are employed. \ He assailed the idea that liquidation was the only way out of the Nation's “There s little logic,” he said, “in the common that recovery must be E;olpemyunbe ick speed- . But if we permit ourselves to be fettered by the traditions of a dead past, which tell us that liquidation is the only n%om., who can tell when we have reached rock bottom and when t is time to buy. “Who can_doubt the stimulaf ef- of the President’s program of re- Minute Mysteries Solution to CLASS DAY (Bee Page A-3) Adams got half a day off but YOU'LL have to do home work! EACH DAY IS THE SCHOLAR OF YESTERDAY. —Publius Syrus. stored confidence, rehabilitated credit systems, sound business methods in Government, and putting peop'e to work? These will be reflected in re- viving business operations, a : cady di- minution in the scale of unemployment and a rising price level.” Secretary Dern said the President needed the unified support of the Na- tion in carrying forward his program. History Society to Meet. Pn'fin on “Francis M. Scale, & Leader of Band, United States Marine Corps,” by Allen C. Clark; “Washing- ton Topham,” by J. Eliot Wright, and “James Franklin Hood,” by Mr, Clark, will be presented at the 270th meeting of the Columbia Historical Society Tuesday nx:lflxt at the Cosmos Club As- ly The meeting will begin D. C. ‘BLUE SKY’ BILL OFFERED IN HOUSE Represéntative Harlan of Ohio In- troduces Measure Similar to That in Last Congress. A Dbill to supervise and regulate the | sale of securilies in the District was | introduced yesterday by Representative | Harlan, Demoerat, of Ohio. | In substance, the measure is similar | to the proposed “blue sky” law, which !failed of enactment in the last Con- | gress. Harlan, however, made several changes in the new bill, the most im- | portant of which includes a provision ! for supervision of the sale of eecurities by banks as well as all other authorized | dealers. ‘The bill provides for the registration of all dealers in securities and specifi- cally forbids a sale by “deception, sup- pression, fraud, false pretense or false promise.” A penalty of a maximum fine of $5,000 or two years’ imprison- ment or both is prescribed for any violation. Registration of security dealers or | salesmen would be placed in the de- | partment of insurance of the District. | The department also would have con- trol over the nature of all securities advertising. WoODWARD & LOTHROP IOTHHTHEF AnD G STREETS i Pnoma DisTricT 53300 The Manufacturing Division Will Help You Make Your Hom More Comfortable —and this season’s prices since this division has been operating prices are our lowest c CONVENIENT TERMS of payment, extending over periods up to 18 months, may be arranged. BUILDERS AND CONTRACTORS are especially invited to make use of the many serviées offered by our modernly equipped plant, Let the Manufacturing Division modernize your home, bring it “up to the minute,” build in it some of these restful, helpful, sanitary, and “playtime” features— Custom-made window, door, and porch screens (using our Lock Strip method). Porch enclosures and game rooms (completely screened, if you desire). Awning and slip covers (custom-made to fit correctly; using fine materials). Special cabinet work*(extra closets made; antiques reproduced and refinished). ‘Weather-stripping and caulking (effecting fuel economie: and keeping out dust). Re-upholstering furniture, and making window shades to individual measurements. Draperies made to order—closets lined with cedar—specially designed radiator covers. Metal plating of all kinds—silver, brass, nickel, gold and chromium plating. ‘The work will be done by our highly skilled Manufacturing Division employees —using only first class, perfect quality materials, and in the methods that our years of experience in many of the best Washington homes and apartments have taught us are the best. It will e custom work throughout—nrade to har- monize perfectly with your home’s architectural and structural requirements. Phone DlIstrict 5300—We Will Call to Estimate Above View of “our cus- tom-made slip cover, awning, and drapery section. Note the abun- dance of mnatural lighting. Left Partial view of the section that specializes in re- upholstering fur- uiture,