Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-29

Nh AhEtCO OF SOu1lQ pictures nave llhu
AVA a shock. The Authors League
has announced that when the screen
rights to a play are sold to the movie
it doesn't carry the right to reproduce
the dialogue in sound.
Contrary to q decision recently rem
deTed by Judge j. w Martin, Presiding
Judge Harry S. McKevitt of Philadel-
| phia has ruled that state censors must
not censor dialogue in sound pictures.
| for to concede that power the censors
might censor all speech. even that OF
| the President of the United States,
which is not being done just yet. The
| Maryland censor board however. dis
agrees. and Is censoring accordingly.
Mayor Jimmy Walker says he has
| not been correctly quoted. but admits
| that some one told him that Louis 3.
| Mayer, film producer, had announced
at the Kansas City convention that ne
| would deliver the motion picture indus
| try to the Republican party or its can
didate. and the mayor retorted, he says,
II want to say that no producer or
! group of producers can do that They
/ do not own the screen" And that's
! that.
/ white Shadows in the South Seas"
which has been five months in the
making in the South Pacific, and is
| the first Metro Goldwyn Mayer picture
with sound effects and synchronized
score, is booked for its premier at the
| Astor Theater New York. July 81.
| Lillian Gish is reported to be con-
/ ferring in Vienna with Max Reinhardt
with reference to the picture he is to
direct her In for United Artists.
Joseph p. Kennedy, that wizard OF
| finance. organization ana the movies,
| it is announced. has about completed
| the reorganization of the ith-Albee-
| Orpheum executives and booking de-
partments and the coordination OF the
| Keith Albee personnel in the East and
| Of the Orpheum in the West.
AL Woods is the accredited prime
mover and originator Of the idea OF
sending sound pictures OF big New
| York stage hits to the country at large
at so cents or whereabouts while the
| hits are still holding forth in New YORK,
/ and OF running the sound limitations Tor
six months at a clip.
The West Coast is getting ready to an
nounce its greater movie season" with
everything which that means. These
new seasons generally break in August.
Fox is said to believe that silent COM
odv has outlived its usefulness, and to
have jtlnked 26 such comedies origi-
nally planned for the new season.
The Cleveland (Ohio) Public Library
| ia reported to have presented an exhibit
in an attempt to show the public now
talking and sound pictures are made
and operated.
Wells Root, Ernest Pascal, George
Marker Waters and Florence Ryerson
have been designated as dialogue writ
ers to prepare speaking lines for sound
pictures by Paramount.
Joseph NJ Weber. president of the
American Federation of Musicians, IS
quoted as saying: THE movie business
has already, to an extent, destroyed
what was formerly known as ref1ned
vaudeville. and has practically driven
1.-THE road show TO the wall. Now 1t would
substitute photographs OF vaudeville
acts and talking screen drama for the
two Older forms. If they succeed in
this. why may not even Broadway be
greatly deprived Of legitimate drama?"
Ernst Lubitsch is to direct John Bar
rymore for United Artists In sound
picture, Conquest" adapted from the
European novel Der Koenig der Ser
nina" production to start In September.
The stage device of substituting one
color of light for another has been util-
lied by colored camera filters in First
Nationals picture SHOW Girl" whereby
a cubistic motif in the decoration OF a
night club. which figures in the picture,
is changed automatically into wood
land scene, without lessening the eff
fectiveness Of the original scene.
/ Herbert Brenon. the noted screen
director, among other objections stated
by him to screen drama with sound,
says: THAT situation on the silent
screen can be convineingly registered In
two minutes. while the talking film
would take six times that long"
Reginald Barker, another prominent
director. advances another difficulty
with sound pictures: stage directors
for years have had to combine the APP