The Washington times., 1929-08-19
SCREENINGS.
= AND= tE
GLEANINGS|
Ry ANpREW Z. KELLEY

unionize the motion picture
studios.
President Frank Gilmore Is
returning to New York with the
movement to close the studios to
all but members Of. the Actors
EQUITY Association, temporarily
shelved. He blames Ethel Barry
more, vice president # Equity,
for the debacle. She criticized
Gillmore's conduct in the nego-
tiations with producers and di-
vided the actors house.
What eally caused the defeat
was inability of the actors chief
to play his trump card. This con-
sisted of an A. F. of =. affilia-
ton, which might have called
out on strike all of the organized
craftsmen of the studios. This
threat was held over producers,
but the results show that Win
field Sheehan, Joseph M. Schenck,
Harry Warner and the other big
producers were not stampeded
by what develops was a bluff.
The actors won their fight
with the Broadway producers
ten years go when. the stage
hands at the Liberty Theater
walked out in sympathy with
their cause and a 24-hour strike
tieing p every legitimate thea
ter in America loomed. Con-
fronted with this. the producers
yielded.
The defeat of Gilmore prob
ably means an internal row in
the ranks of Equity. Ethel
Barrymore, one of the pillars OF
the A. E. A., may be expected to
resent being blamed for the
humiliation of the withdrawal.
Meanwhile actors who have been
sitting on the sidelines waiting
until the row was settled are
free to sign the standard con-
tract offered by the producers,
Believe it or not, but the big
money on = Street for Saturday
and Sunday went to the CLAM.
orous Greta Garbo in 1.-THE
Single Standard" which is an
alf silent screen feature with
narrative told entirely by the
printed sub-titles.
Harry Jarboe, former manager
of the Gayety Theater, has been
appointed manager of the Moon :
Theater in Omaha, Neb. The
house is owned by Arthur Clam
age and will play Mutual bur-
lesque.
Both Adolph Zukor, president
yof Paramount Pictures, and ex-
ecutives Of the Warner Brothers,
have issued positive denials that
the two great companies con-
template q merger. Neverthe"
less Wall Street insists equally
as positively that the deal has
been under discussion for weeks,
the terms agreed upon and sonly.
the financial details remain to .
be worked out before public an :
nouncement of the merger is.
made. This is expected to be
this week.
The new alliance win divide
the control of the huge motion
picture industry into three fac
tions - Fox-Loew, aramount-
Warner Brothers and Radio
Keith Orpheum {RKO). Those
who claim to look even further
ahead say that Radio will within
a. year gobble up Paramount
Warner Brothers, reducing the
main competition to two great
corporations
A whiting down Of star sal
aries, which has been under way
for some time, will be one of
the immediate effects of these
financial maneuvers.
The Wall Street perspective
on salaries is said to fix a limit
of $4,000 a week as the top
notch for stars, and they will
have to be good to get that. In
exceptional cases a percentage
arrangement for outstanding
talent-such .as Jolsen-wOuld
have the recipient share in the
profits of features. Colleen
Moore has been permitted to
pass from First National Con-
troll because her weekly intake
was $4,000. The economical
era also caused Fox. to let its
option slide on Edmund Lowe,
although he is /co-star in "The
Cock-Eyed World" destined to-
be one of the company's great
est n1oney-winners.
Tom Patricola mwst have been
thrust into "Words and Music"
shown at the Fox, as an after
thought. He stomps few
steps strumming a uke and then
falls into the swimming pool.
If George White dared offer
him a tiny bit like that Tom
would probably never speak to
the producer again. Patricola's
studio efforts may have been
lost in the cutting room, and
again, his best bet, hard-shoe
dancing, is--not so hot on the
screen as on the stage.
John Kline, veteran Washing,
ton character actor, whose boom
ing voice was last heard here in
Ziegfeld's "Three Musketeers,'
has returned to the drama. He
will play an important role IN
X, Y, e." a Sam Forrest melo-
drama, which George M. Cohan
is producing and in which Leneta