Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20
MOVIES AND MOVIE PEOPLE
BY MoLLIE MERRICK.

Dx MOk<AA
Special Dispatch TO The Star.
HOLLYWOOD, Calf, April 10 CN.A
N.A.).-The place of sheer novelty anc
greatest financial result is sort Of
paradise.
Hollywood has novelty and financial
result.
Therefore Hollywood is q sort OF
paradise.
arrived at this somewhat syllogistic
conclusion after luncheon with oscar
Straus. (Not related to Richard
Strauss or Johan Strauss and spelled
with one $50 The great composer sets
YOU at ease about this almost with the
first breath.
You expect terrific temperament from
the composer of THE Chocolate Sol
der" 1.-THE Waltz Dream" Marietta
and endless other examples OF the art
opera bouffe at its best. You find a
vague and charming gentleman wno'
having set himself and his spelling
straight. is quite content to study the
menu and leave conversation entirely
to you.
Strange Transplanting Of Genius.
All the way to Culver City it had
heen striking me that here was q
strange transplanting Of genius. Inc
viennese Straus, continental to his mn
Sertips. of late years Of Paris, where
most of his recent successes have been
composed, installed in a studio ounga-
low ready to grind out airs Tor tne
gelatin gods. He had written oeaCh-
less thing in that waltz hit from Ine
Chocolate Soldier" let's see
Come, come love you only, my neart
Is true,
Come come, my life is lonely, long
for you;
Come. come, naught can efface you'
My arms are aching now to embrace
you,
Thou art divine! ,o
Come, come, love you only, come hero
minel
And here in a studio commissary,
with Jack Gilbert at the next taple,
DIR. Marafioti and Julia Faye across the
room from us, Roland Young, IN laun-
dice-colored paint gravely inspecting q
salad, on our left, sat the genius OF
opera bouffe with only one worry !"
EAe world. :,
"Your American food perplexeS me,
he confided with q slow wave OF ms
hand. ct order something and 1t looks
entizely different from what ex-
pected."
Life in Hollywood a Surprise.
"Then, life in Hollywood is a continual
EXACTLY" oscar Straus frightened.
"'Exactly." he supplemented in salts
fed tone and turned back to the walt
ress. Now this stuffed pigs knuckIe:
do you think I'll like it?"
The stuffed pigs knuckle came. It
didn't look as Mr.. Straus had anticl-
pated. But on second thought perhaps
it looked bit more attractive than Inn
agination had painted it. My aspara-
gus vinaigrette came In Tor extensive
admiration. And so we settled down.
But not to conversational the pigs
knuckle and the vinaigrette.
Come, come" said I, half to myself
q was about to add, this won't do')
when saw light in the eyes OF the
Straus:
"Now that was a lyric. A man can
write music when he gets a lyric like
that. A man can write music in no
time. Why I did the entire score Of
Danube Love Song" in a fortnight
when I got the book. 1t flies, tell
you. The book is everything. Just now
I am waiting for the book. I can do
nothing until the adaptation of Arthur
Schnitzler's novel "Daybreak" is COM
pleted. Until get my lyrics. Then the
music will come. 1t will fly. You shall
Another disastrous interlude, but ]
am not q woman to be beaten by a
pigs knucle. And Hollywood? You
like it?'
Prefers City TO Paris Atelier.
It seems Oscar Straus not only likes
Hollywood, he adores it. He would
rather write music In a concrete cucible
on q studio lot than in his Paris atelier.
He cannot write unless the sun Is shin
ing. The sun shines every day in Holly
wood, so much work is done. The music
just flies. His son Irving has already
received acclaim for his modern work.
Irving Straus, it seems, does excellent
jazz But father and son do not discuss
music. They are Of different composing
worlds. Irving Is coming to Hollywood
to compose for the pictures also. Irv-
ing is II.
''Tonal production is magnificent,
especially as heard in Hollywood" says
Oscar StrauS. And there Is no saving
where we will 60 with talkies, because
they open the f1eld Of opera as well as
opera bouffe to the entire world. Writ
ing for talkies is more demanding than
merely composing the music for, say,
The Waltz Dream or Marietta
Marietta, now-that was done with
Sacha Guitry and Yvonne Printemps.
An artist, Guitry; and Printemps was
never so alluring, but one needs only
q couple Of big hits and the rest Just
carries along. In talkies that is Diff
ferent. All the music must be hit mu-
sic. In the screened version the music
must have more quality to survive than
on the stage"
May Explain Failures.
That Is an idea other composers have
not put forth about talking pictures.
Perhaps 1t explains the failure of GER
tain stage successes to strike the same
pitch in celluloid that they had
achieved in the legitimate. After rs
years Of composing-25 years of
achieved success in his feld-Oscar
Straus should know something of what
he says.
Director Fred Nibio and Joan Craw-
ford scraped their chairs back at a
nearby table The waitress bore away
the remains of the stuffed pigs knuckle
with the naughty swing of Salome.
Black coffee and camembert replaced it
and again claimed the attention of
genius.
Oscar Straus surveyed the scene
slowly. On the fourth finger Of his
left hand he wore a broad gold band
with six letters in black enamel ranged
on either side Of an imbedded square
emerald. The genius smiled slowly as
II coming out of deep sleep.
1T Is new-and different" he con.
hded. Therefore valuable. 1t sets
new measures running in my head.