Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-26

for thousand bucks, or berries.
But soon it will be canned" opera For the
great operas-hitherto accessible only to those
who possessed hard-boiled shir fronts-are
going into the talkies
Not Immediately but when they do they
will be produced on scale which will make the
Metropolitan Opera Company's Aida" look
like a fourth-rate Tom show playing What
Cheer Iowa. with local bloodhounds.
william LIE Baron, production chief of the
RKO studio believes that theater audiences
are ready now for grand opera. He has drawn
this conclusion after an extensive study of the
public's reaction to various types of talking
motion pictures. And he is confident he is
right that he has practically completed plans
for the production of Carmen" on gigantic
scale wi h Bebe Daniels playing the title role
On the other hand, Sol M. Wurtzel, general
manager of the Fox studio, is absolutely against
any attempt to bring grand opera to the screen
and says the Fox organization does not con-
template any such STEP Wurtzel believes grand
opera is cold turkey to the movie mob His
remarks are seconded by B. P. Schulberg
associate producer at the Paramount studio.
Schulberg also says Paramount has no inten-
tions of invading grand opera.
HOWEVER, studio executives cannot be
taken too seriously. Let just one studio
produce a grand opera that is financial
success and every other studio in Hollywood
win fall in line.
That was proved more conclusively during
the introduction of talking pictures than at any
other time during the history of flmdom. Even
after Warner Brothers had cleaned up' at
the box Office with Al Jolson's "The Jazz
Singer" other producers refused to take the
tal<ies seriousl~. TT was Jolson, not the talk
ing hlm which made money" they said and
enlarged their statements by adding Talk
ing films are Just fad that will not supplant
silent pictures"
Not more than four mon hs before the first
"squawkie" went into production on the Para
mount lot, Jesse L. Lasky, vice president of
the concern. told me that Paramount would
use sound effects in its pictures but would not
use any dialogue
At present it looks as though LIE Baron will
be the pioneer in this new field, since he plans
to start production Carmen" in the early
Spring However, others already are nibbling
at grand opera in the production of operettas
Lawrence Tfbbett already has completed
Rogue Song" for Metro-Goldwyn-M Mayer And
here's what Paul Bern who produced the pic
ture, has tc say:
81 EHRAND opera viii prove popular with mo-
ton picture audiences. People appreci-
ate operate music, as has been evidenced by
the outstanding success of such operas as Car
men, La Boheme,' 'Traviata' and Louise Such
operas as these will succeed providing we do
not attempt to do things audiences know are
not done, such as having the characters sing
ordinary conversations
Motion picture audiences are accustoroe5
TO putting themselves in the actors places.
Because of this we must have characters who
VIII carry on this appeal of the motion picture
ana at the same time have excellent voices
AND we VIII get such persons because of the
hlgn salaries we are able to pay
In my opinion the average motion picture
audience has far greater appreciation for
music than the ordinary grand opera audience.
fney can't go to grand opera because of the
nigh prices and the IacL If auariy,~ cJotkoc