THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPHI, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1938,
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D83302
DA1586
Played by Heifetz and Rubinstein.
Ponchielli Ciclo e mar (La Gioconda). O Paradiso (L'Africana). Moyerbeer
Sung by Jussi Bjorling.
(a) Lachen und Weinen (Schubert) (b) Meine Liebe ist grun (Brahms) (c) Dio Forelle (Schubert)
Sung by Kirsten Flagstad.
C 2977
Music of the Spheres. Waltz (J. Strauss)
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The
Hongkong Telegraph.
C
And now Hollywood has got the Jitters
RISIS, like a mon-
strous crow, flies up
and hides the sky in
Hollywood.
Yesterday, the sun was shining, every one boasted
rumours.
-by-
PAUL HOLT
of million dollar grosses; he stops all future plana and Pick a picture, No, no, any ple- to-day, it's black, men talk takes quite a slice off Miss Carolo ture; I don't want to force one on
you. "Lost Horizon"
"High, in whispers and pass on Lombard's "Scandal," due to wide and Handsome.""
The start this week.
Garden of Allah." Yes, "The Gar- World's greatest film studio, den of Allah," that will do nicely. They know crisis in Holly- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, acts too. Illustrates nearly every detail of the problem, while offending wildly wood. The scandal. crisis. Norma Shearer's comeback film, in none. Talkies. The Great Depression. "Marie Antoinette," is allowed
But this one beats them all. I to go ahead with a budget of David Selznick with borrowed stars.
"The Garden of Allah" is made by
he borrows Merle Oberon from Goldwyn; then he borrows
At which Miss Oberon says, but politely, "Ol! You can't do things like that. Whatever may be the reason, it's going to look to the great big world as it I'm not suitable to And that, Mr. Selznick, colour Almo. is less than the truth." At which the sues him. And he pays her a lot of money.
have a cable on the table; a £400,000. phrase stands out:—ONLY
This may be due to sentiment, Sam OSTRICHES HERE DENY IT. a last tribute to her husband, quite rightly, that Merle Oberon and Charles Boyer. Then he decides This is what's happening in Irving Thalberg, the greatest Charles Boyer are not ideal roman- the picture is producer Hollywood has known; tie folls, in that Hollywood to-day.
So he asks Miss Oberon 10 excuse There's a major box-office it may be due to the fact that planned in colour, and both are dark.
Miss Shearer is a large stock him and hires Marlene Dietrich. slump. 1937 stars, pictures, aren't drawing as they should. holder. I suspect the former.
All other films are stopped and The foreign market, on which trimmed. producers depend for 5d. in their FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1938. shilling, is vanishing like summer THE great studios stop
snow. Britain, worth £10,000,-
work while executives PUBLIC STILL
000 a year, threatone to take fly to the coast and argue-men that profit away.
with names like Nate Blumberg, GUESSING
Phil Reisman, Barney Balaban, Whether he has done it de-
Leo Spits... grand old Holly traffle holder-upper, but liberately or not, Mr. Neville
wood names. They book berths this Selznick is not only will on transcontinental 'planes and to pay Miss Oberon all that money Chamberlain has indirectly
fly west to catch the crisis NOT to appear in this picture, 50 that I may, and, in addition, will hire offered a further explanation
young,
me away from my own company, it for the action of 'Mr. Anthony This year, they make the story Again, do I hear a customer must be worth more to him that I Eden in resigning from the again, and pay out something office of Foreign Secretary, Heike £320,000. The star, Ronald has frankly declared that the Colman, gets £30,000. League of Nations cannot be
Trade unions adopt a dictator piece of labour boss George Browne, boasts that their or ganisation has cost the producers £1,200,000 a year since they
Costs skyrocket. An exam- ple. In 1912 they made "The Prisoner of Zenda" and paid out K £2,400. The star, James Hackett, got £600.
So. Mrs. Dietrich, who is a good a better business woman, reflects to herself
Played by Viennese Waltz Orchestra. depended upon to preserve the attitude. William Bioff, mouth. still there, and the demand. ut Armour is £70,000 and then
also a fine selection of Danco Records by Roy Fox & His Orchestra, Jack Harris & His Orchestra and others.
Complete supplement sent on request
S. MOUTRIE &
York Building
་
started.
pence of the world or the Becurity of any nation, large or small. The implication is that the former Foreign Secretary quarrelled with this assump- tion. And since Mr. Eden him- self has said that his disagrec- Pat Casey, hired by the pro- ment with the Prime Minister ducers as their go-between with went beyond the matter of the labour, admits that his yearly Anglo-Italian conversations, and salary is £17,500. Minimum was concerned with the funda-wage for studio workers is 78. an
policy, it is quite possible that
you were
•
say. So what? There are films SHOULD act in his photoplay than to be made to keep the cinemas that Miss Oberon should not. open. There are the stars to And the asks plenty. And, know- make them. The man power's ng that her price for "Knight With
asks same, and that she
Herbert Wilcox enough to cover £80,000 to How can I suffer?
This way, air. They've been be Madame Tussaud, I feel I am bo-
Mr. Selznick at £60,000, existing for a year past out there ng reticent in putting her price to Mr. Boyer and Now Colman, Carole Lombard, Claud- saw all this going on, what would on borrowed star-power. Ronald ette Colbert have been bartered you do about it? Mind you, I'm not between studios at fantastic saying he did it; I'm just putting prices. There
'aren't enough myself in his place. money-making names to
Add to which the fact that "The go Garden of Allab" is an old story and round.
therefore needs rewriting more than CO., LTD. mental principles of foreign hour; average is £4 a day.
There aren't enough stories to a new story (don't ask me why) and that it is a desert "location job" and go round, either; so that you in colour, and you may join me in this is the true explanation of So what? you say (hav- find adult producers playing understanding why this film cost
ing acquired the ex- swops....one "Hunchback of quarter of a million, instead of Maybe it'll make a pro- this is still conjecture. The clear pression from film-going). How Notre Dame" is worth one Rotate250,000, but not such a big mut reasons for Mr. Eden's disturb- does that affect me? I cannot bert Montgomery and £25,000. pront as it would make at £100,000.
ing action, for some reason or see how Hollywood's domestle Frantic, they are, to get now
DOSTSCRIPT: 1 feel that twists, new moneymaking com- other, have not been brought problems are my worry too.
all this has been a bit de- binations. forward. One naturally wonders
pressing. So here is a man on the Let me try again. The slump why. The British public is left is one.
Are you going to like Claudette telephone to say that M.-G.-M. have The panic is approach- to guess.
ing peak. The old hands are Colbert and Charles Boyer to- bought the screen rights of the Lon- don play hit Balalaika," that Nelson Mr. Lloyd George's probing saying they've never seen any cost the Warners, who
they Eddy and a new Hungarian song- gether? You'd better;
team bird Ilona Maasie will lead, support- questions in the House of Com- thing like it in the quarter-cen- them in "Tovarich," £50,000, ed by Roy Bolger and Edna May mons, and the characteristic tury history of the place. (It's
purchase price somewhere between charge that the Prime Minister just like pub talk of the black and the story cost £30,000 more. Oliver. That, if I like, I can fix the had done something not quite frost of 1897.)
Perhaps you are a simple soul, £25,000 and £30,000, At once, a des-
I like to finish on a happy note. with Claudette Colbert or Char-
Chater Road.
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COUNT THE "TELEGRAPHS" EVERYWHERE
the Cabinet split.
However,
fair in dealing with Mr. Eden's perate economy wave is started. like me, and are content just case, give an indication of the
A few more facts of the mo- les Boyer; but they don't trust suspicions that exist in some ment:-
Hence "Tovarich" quarters that Mr. Eden's re-
Most 1938 epies, planned to us any more.
costa £300,000. signation was not wholly of his coat £250,000 to £500,000, are
Hence the own seeking. The suggestion cancelled.
crisis.
I HAVE 4 friend in Hollywood (who hasn't,
town
has been sending me EOMO figures. Dull things they are, figures, to be sure unless they are big enough, and these are more than big....
is that Mr. Chamberlain, in The Warner Brothers start the spite of his friendly regrets ball rolling. Jack Warner, to which followed Mr. Eden's de-1 cision to resign, was anxious to whom I was talking a fortnight it is the most friendly get rid of his Foreign Secretary. ago at Teddington, hurries home when business is good) and he It would appear that the Prime with bad news from Europe. Minister realised that as long as It's too late for him to shave Mr. Eden remained in office the budgets on "Robin Hood," with Flynn, or "Hollywood success of negotiations with Errol Italy, and possibly with Ger- Hotel," a radio-musical, or "Gold many, would be jeopardised. is Where You Find It" (all peg- Thus the Labour charge that ged at the £200,000 mark), but Mr. Eden's resignation is w vic- tory for the dictators of Europe is explained.
Mr. Lloyd George charged
that Mr. Chamberlain was aware, on Sunday, that the Italian Government would agree
THE "VERY: IDEA"
Ed. Kelly As Has The Jitters (See Above)
By Eddie Kelly, Crawler
SPEAKING of marriage reminds us that Hong- kong has never had a "Be Kind to Worms" weck.
We know a man who was so cruel to worms that the Magia. trate sent him to prison for a week. He used to put a' worm's tall la Its mouth and watch It swallow itself.
And to think that that man was once an innocent little babe, lounging about on his mother's knee!
As for us, we can guy with a certain amount of pride that we have never had worms.
There are two kinds of worms. Long worms and short worms.
The long worms are dis- tinguished from the short worms, because the head of the short worm is invariably closer to the tall than the head of the long
worm.
It has long puzzled scientists how the worm finds a hole to it in.
Nature in its awful wisdom has provided holes of various sizes in Hongkong. All the worm has to do is to tramp about until he finds a hole to fit in.
the
The grub is
very close worm, and can quite easily be mis- taken for a worn by anyone who has never seen a worm.
The only difference between the two is that one has more legs, anıl more hair on lig chest, than the other. The grub is also better upholstered.
Some grubs may be found under- neath logs, although how the devil the little chaps balance these great, big trees has got us puzzled.
We cannot aprak with any authority, but we presume that the grub lies on its back and then pulla the log over Itself.
The centipedois really an armour-plated worm, equipped with
a knife and fork at one end.
It has an incalculable number of legs, and how it keeps in step? We won't bolter about trying to explain thai. Onco you start thinking about such things, you go mad, and run round in circles barking like a dog..
PROPHETS OF DOOM
A FAVOURITE device of those
gloomy prophets who fortell the doom of our present civili- sation is to create the lone figure of some tourist from another part of the world who gazes sor- rowfully on all that is left of our once great age.
This "one tourist" has quite a
long and respectable literary pedl- gree, the example which. comes most rendily to mind being Macaulay'a "New Zealander." Macaulay; con- cludes a fine rhetorical passage on Ranke's "History of the Popes" as follows:-
There are eighty-eight com- panics making films there; eight big flens, eighty little flens upon their backs. In the past year, What is certain is that the June 1936 to June 1937, they Prime Minister is following a turned out 688 feature pictures coursc which he believes will which cost them just about £33,- appease Europe, even though by 000,000 to make. his manoeuvres Britain has al-
Man power totalled 28,000 ready lost Д great Foreign workers on a weekly wage in the to the British formula in con- Secretary, and may lose some studios and that weekly wage take his stand on a broken arch of nection with the proposed con- versations, aimed at a general thing more.
canto to £335,000. Multiply appeasement. Ho suggested Mr. Chamberlain probably that by forty (that's the averago that the Prime Minister did not justifies his actions with the working year out there; they lander" achieved wide popularity,
Although Macaulay's "New communicate this information contention that perce, if it can have a twelve weeks, holiday, the idea was by no means new, to Mr. Edon, Mr. Chamberlain be won, is worth much greater mostly without pay) and you get declared he had given the facts sacrifice. Unfortunately It is
an annual wage bill of £14,200,- to the Cabinet. Mr. Edon rose | by no means certain that ap-1000.
in the House to say that as long peasement is the right way to Probably higher. as he was in office he had not permanent security. It too fre When Winfield Sheehan was been. Informed of the Italian quently requires retreat and communication. This exchange my involve surrender. It may boan of Fox and making pictures leaves an unpleasant doubt in be good enough for the protec-like "Seventh. Heaven," "What the minds of those who admire tian of one generation. But Frico Glory ?" and "Cavalcade" Mr. Chamberlain and sympathise what about the next? There is he reckoned to spend not more with Mr. Eden,
a limit to compromise, Mr. than £2,750,000 a year on forty- Did Mr. Chamberlain yield to Chamberlain has something big-eight pictures. Now, he says, pressure, directly or indirectly ger than England and a general the price of that number of ple- brought to bear from abroad 7 election: to remember. He is turcs is more than double. Perhaps it does not matter very largely responsible for an Em- much; though it would be in-pire of several hundred milliona, teresting to know the truth, and its future,
I
game.
AGREE! I'm trod of Agures too. Let us play a
And she (the Church) may still 'exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller from New Zealand- shall, in the midst of a vast solitudo,
London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's."
Zer-
This picture of coillary stranger sadly gazing on the ruins of the civi Hsation we know and think so per- manent has exercised a strong fos- cination over many writera, Transatlantic Commentator
Shelley, for example, in dedicat
Moore writes:-
ing "Peter Dell the Third" to Thomas
"In the firm expectation that when London shall be a habitation of bit terns, when St. Paul's and Westmins ter Abbey shall stand shopcless and nameless ruins in the midst of on unpeopied marah, when the pics of Westminster Iridge shall become the- nuclel of laleis of reeds and oslers- and east the jagged, shadowy, of their
broken arches on the solitary stream, como Transatlantle commentator &c.** Horace Walpole, in a teller to Sir Horace Mann in 1774, says;*.
"For my part, I take Europe to be worn out. When Voltaire dies we may say, "Good-night'. The next Augustan age will dawn on the other.
the side of
Atlantic. Theru will perhaps be a Thu- cydides at Boston, a Kenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At Jast some curfous traveller from Lima will visit England and give a descrip- tion of the ruins of St. Paul's like the editions of Baalbec and Palmyra."
Readers to-day will find these 150- years-old, references Europe being played out oddly familiar, and per- haps even comforting. For what has survived the gloomy," forebodings of 'so many prophets, may perhaps survive even anticipations of Mr. H. G. Wells, Goldsmith's
Dream
Goldenih, also, in his "Citizen of the Work," refers to London fading away come day, and, oguin, "The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins."! per moderna
TE
Nowadays, of course, this solitary surveyor of our ruined civilisation comes from another planet,. Now Zealand, Lima, and other Tronaatiun- tic places being much le mote than they were, The of this melancholy observer 10 doubt tulla its purpose of jog- Into Some 118
Bort of Κίτιμ realisation of the evils of our time, but one cannot help feeling that the -writers seem to enjoy depleting our future downfall and describe", "the particulars with unpardonable gustof
A. 13. D.