The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 74

a a a a a a in ESTHER RALSTON GETS DARK, AL JOLSON The languishing beauty is neither the dark lady of the sonnets nor the Sennetts. Newman. The next picture shows Al Jolson as Jack Robin, May McAvoy as Mary THE KANSAS CITY STAR. SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 1928. 16 MOSQUINI GETS PRESSED, ALL FOR THE SAKE OF THE MOVIES.

She is Esther Ralston, wearing a brunette wig, but still arousing the interest of a Dale and a genuine piano player's back as a genuine piano player's back in "The Jazz manager frowns on the match, but love finally produces golden lining of Esther's wig, and the manager is left to console himself with the fact a little brunette he knows will make a great "Swedish sensation," if they can just get her a bottle of peroxide. Neil Hamilton, who did such good work in "Ten Modern Commandments," again is the leading man. The rest of the cast includes the droll Arthur Housman, Arlette Marchal and Nicholas Soussanin, a good actor with a bad name. Girls Wanted." at the Pantages. We can't imagine why two girls were wanted if Janet Gaynor was one of them.

This is the same Janet who was so lovely as Diane in "Seventh Heaven." "Two Girls Wanted" is by John Golden, the same writer who gave us the other play. It concerns a friendless youngster who is obliged to make her' living in New York and who makes an impression on a young business man she chances to hit with a ripe tomato. This seems to be a simple and effective way of attracting attention. It doesn't cost so much as an expensive wardrobe and it is quicker than developing a personality. However, it is a type of coquetry best suited to the great outdoors.

In the course of the plot Miss Gaynor gets jobs as a modiste's slavey, as a stenographer, as a secretary and as a parlor In all of them she manages to cross the trail of the young man who was hit with the love apple (appropriate As she was unable to hold any of the jobs, he decides to make her his wife. Here she succeeds. although we don't know how he would have discharged her had she been a failure. The supporting cast includes Glenn Tryon, Ben Bard and Marie Mosquini. of the Movies." The film offering at the Capitol theater this week is a picture called "Polly of 'the Movies." Gertrude Short is the featured player.

You know as much about it as we do. The Tattler ECENTLY we mentioned in these ring columns Hollywood that the was a humane certain constantly horse societies stir- in up of the land through his ability to do death scenes. Letters pour in to the studios every time this "poor dumb animal" falls off a cliff or topples into the ocean. One of the horse's antics last week convinced the Paramount company he isn't so dumb. Needing him for a Bebe Daniels picture, the company rented him to take out on location.

They agreed to pay $100 for every fall he made while in their possession. The canny horse fell three times on the way to the railroad station, though no cameras were turning, and the horse is trying to collect from the "fall guys." The affable Mr. Lew Cody, who was with us recently, is back home in Hollywood. Lew, who undertook his vaudeville trip "to prove earthquakes and scandals do not happen in California," was indignant. "While I was stumping the country as an anti-scandal speaker," he said, "somebody started the story I was to be divorced from my wife.

that cOoperation?" Mabel Normand, who is Mrs. Lew, met him at the station and seemed equally indignant. But despite the reassuring words of Mr. Cody, Doug Fairbanks is building an earthquake-proof beach home for himself and Mary. It's something of a cliff dwelling, being located at Solano Beach, 100 miles south of Los Angeles.

It will be built to the side of a cliff and will be supported by the leverage created by its own weight. The garage will be on the top floor and there will be a boat landing beneath the lower floor. The firemen were overcome by smoke last week in the basement of Marie Prevost's home. The fire originated in 8 gentleman, Neil Hamilton. The scene 1 is from "Spotlight," at the Singer" at the Globe.

Little Janet Gaynor presses her suit in "Two Girls Wanted," but it is not so romantic for Marie Mosquini, who The Week's Movies Welcome a New House and Inspire Morals for Moralists In Which We Consider the Beauties of the Uptown and the Possible Consequences of Mr. Chaney's Expert Face-Making at the MidlandEsther Ralston Is a Darker Girl This Week at the Newman. Irresistible Lover." HIS week we welcome into the happy tractive The theatrical stranger, has the been family Uptown. an described atUptown as an antique Italian theater, which makes us wonder if there are enough antique Italians in Kansas City to support a theater. However, there is no reason to exclude the remainder of 11S from a place so pleasant, and it will be an unromantic patron who does not feel like strumming a guitar and speaking in blank verse while sitting in the new theater's auditorium, surrounded by the rich atmosphere of the Italian Renaissance.

So the breaks are all with Norman Kerry, who stars in the first picture to play the house. This film is called "The The Thousand and First Face. Lon Chaney, "the man of a thousand faces," springs a new one this week in "London After Midnight," at the land. Conrad Nagel, Henry B. Walthall and Marceline Day also are in the cast.

Irresistible Lover," and most anyone should be irresistible when given the atmosphere of the Uptown. Lois Moran is the pretty leading woman whose resistance is broken down. not any way interfere with the The, story is modern and light and will thoughts of those who are trying to decide who the Democrats will run for President. The picture presents Mr. Kerry as a handsome loafer.

If love is what makes the world go round, Mr. Kerry in this picture might be considered the master of the turn table. He loves them all until there happens along an irresistible little minx for whom he really falls. But Fate had planned an ambush. The girl's father is a police who had seen Mr.

Kerry's picture sergeant. outside of a scandal sheet. Before he is through the scandal sheet almost becomes a winding sheet, but a sergeant's daughter may be expected to have a will of her own and the hero winds up in front of the altar instead of the bar. After' Midnight." At the Midland this week we see Lon Chaney in his own type of detective story. As might be supposed, Lon captures the mysterious criminal by using disguises and subjecting the suspect to various eerie influences.

One of his disguises is that of a hypnotist, a characterization reminiscent of John make- in "Dr. Jekyl and and in parts of "Sherlock In the end the real criminal brought to justice and pays for his crimes. We would like to emphasize that last point. The criminal is brought to justice. In almost every picture we can think of, justice works surely, Movie police departments are more swift than any others in California.

Yet only the other day we read Canon Chase in New York attibuted the crimes of Edward Hickman to his being a happens to be in it. The picture is courts. where France continues to aid Americans in their wars for independence, Here, by a strange and sophisticated series of coincidents, the former house guest becomes the friend of the wife and a philandering bachelor becomes the friend of husband. The two home wreckers succeed in patching up the home, which allows time-honored characters a new occupation. in Paris." The at the Liberty this deals second battle of Paris picture, "Hinkey Dinkey Parley Vous." The arrival of the American Legion convention delegates for the second battle of Paris is the theme of the picture at the Liberty.

Al Cooke and Kit Guard are shown as the conquering heroes. as, it was staged last summer under the auspices of the American Legion. Al Cooke and Kit Guard are starred in what has the possibility of being a new angle on doughboy comedy. The two are discovered as the proprietors of Ye Hotte Dogge Shoppe, who are sent as delegates to the convention. They remember that in the brave days of the A.

E. F. they had fought Paris police almost as much as the Germans. When the boat docks they see the Paris police force lined up, and how are they to know it is to do them honor? They slide down a convenient hawser and make for an American, bar, the last oasis to fly the Stars and Stripes. Their adventures are numerous and humorous.

In the course of the action they meet a couple of "Mam'sells," who prove to be quite helpful in acquainting our heroes with the Paris not in the guide book. These parts are taken by Louise Lorraine and Virginia Sale, a sister of Chic Sale, the stage comedian. It is interesting to know Mr. Guard really was in the army. He served in the intelligence department, a fact which proves the army doesn't take a man at his face value.

Spotlight." The leopard cannot change its spots, but then it would be hard for a leopard to get in a beauty parlor. At the Newman this week Esther Ralston blossoms out as a brunette in a story of stage life that should be as entertaining as was the highly successful "Ten Modern Commandments." Wherever Esther goes there is considerable blossoming. This time she undertakes to razz the American penchant for believing anyone can be more talented than the home folks. We first see Esther as Lizzie Stokes, the leading woman of a tenth rate stock company. Lizzie has so far been able to be one of the four out of five who have "It." A supper party is planned and Lizzie is left out.

While she sits at home she gets a letter from her mother saying she knows "her girl is safe," and poor Lizzie, who realizes just how safe she is, sits down cries about it. Anyone who goes out with the crowd on New Year's may doubt whether there is safety in numbers, but there are numbers in safety who feel the same way about it that Esther dick Eventually she meets a theatrical producer who transforms her into a brunette and by means of sensational stories about her past assures her of a future. A handsome young man falls in love with Esther, who fears to let him know she is a blonde. She must not have considered him a gentleman. Her faulty gas burner.

The was rented to Ruth Chatterton because reminded Marie too much of her happy married life with Kenneth Harlan. Miss Chatterton rented it because she wanted forget her previous happy wedded life with Ralph Forbes. Now Miss Chatterton has decided to stay in Hollywood and work in pictures. The studio that wants her services already employs Mr. Forbes.

With all these complications it is small wonder something blew up. There have been so many girls, winning bathing beauty contests lately Mack Sennet had to build a larger studio. The new quarters, on the other side of the Holly- Fair and Warner. Lois Moran and H. B.

Warner as they appear in "French Dressing" at Mainstreet. wood Mountains, will be ready in March. They already have started to pack the 1-piece bathing suits and trick derbies. The Warner Brothers studio has shut down for eight weeks while California has its annual spell of unusually rainy weather. It must have been a warm picture.

The prints of Ben Lyon's and Gretta Nissen's new production, "Hell's Angels," ignited at the Metropolitan studios the other day and caused a $150,000 fire. Following the recent conference of the more important movie executives in Hollywood comes the rumor the screen soon will be free or the recent horde of young, inexperienced and low salaried talent that has monopolized it for several months. The producers hoped to sell the public on new faces in the interests of economy. Many were advertised but few vere acclaimed. The Fox company's youngsters, Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor, and Paramount's juvenile, James Hall, are about the only ones of the newcomers to whom public has taken.

Florence Vidor has signed a new contract with Paramount which will enable her to play opposite Emil Jannings in "The Patriot." In this picture Jannings plays the part of Czar Paul I of Russia, the cruel and demented son of Catherine the Great. The cast supporting him will be a formidable one. Lewis Stone will have the role of Pahlin, the friend and counselor of the czar, who finally murders him as an act of patriotism. One just can't stay cold in the movies. "Leatherface" will be known as "The Passionate Adventure," when Samuel Goldwyn releases it at an early date.

This may be the reason why it will be the last picture co-starring Vilma Banky and Ronald Colman. Vilma's husband, La Rocque, may have voiced a protest. Vilma has applied for passports to Hungary. It will be her first trip home since she entered American movies three years ago. Word comes from Paul Remley.

a good-looking blond youth from Kansas City, who has been struggling for recognition in the studios, that he is to play the juvenile with an Australian company in "Driftwood." If you are a collegiate sheik you may not wear a cap on the campus, but you probably will wear a hairnet when you get in the movies. The ten First National took to the coast are doing it. What's more they are doing it for a (Continued on Following Page.) A Critic Believes We Will Soon Be Unable to See the Movies for the Movie Theaters Robert E. Sherwood Believes Intensive Programs of Theater Building Are Tending to Divert Attention From the Production of Pictures to the Operation of Places for Their Exhibition--The Movie Houses Are ing Vaudeville and the Vaudeville Houses Are Turning to Movies. patron of the movies.

The canon has thundered, but we doubt if he has hit anything. What specific picture did Hickman see that bent his thoughts on such terrible activities? He has admitted getting his idea for the perfect crime out of a book he read in the Kansas City public library. He tells the police he desired money to go to Park college, a religious institution. And there are ample evidences he was an honor student at Central high school and an active member of his Sunday school class. Yet no thinking person for one moment blames the public library, Park college, Central high school, or the church for what has happened.

It would be silly to do so. But the poor old movies- -they have their hokum, a hokum sometimes blatant, but why make them the scapegoat? A warped character may find its inspiration from a variety of places. It might be mentioned there is a hokum of the pulpit, the hokum of expertizing anything and everything. While criminologists ponder the California crimes, Canon Chase gives a diagnosis in less time than it takes to clear his throat and put on his spectacles. It is glib, but it may not be convincing.

There always will be hokum. And because of the effects it may have on the weak-minded, honest movies and honest preachers will continue to abstain from it. All of which has not much to do with "London After Midnight," except that this engagement affords an opportunity to speak a defending word for all movies. If any little boy makes a face at his teacher next week, we hope the educational societies will not start a movement to hang Lon Chaney. We once sank our mother's best washtub in a nearby pond, but that broadminded lady still is an enthusiastic supporter of the United States navy that inspired this deplorable incident.

Jazz Singer." It only is because we are so fond of you, dear public, that we keep insisting you get down to the Globe theater and see "The Jazz Singer" before it departs for other and less melodious halls. To properly appreciate this picture, you must see it with the Vitaphone accompaniment. In fact the visual part of the picture is only part of the story and part of the production. The vocal offerings are not in the nature of an accompaniment. They are not extraneous, but are so necessary a part of the completed production that without them "The Jazz Singer" scarcely will be "The Jazz Singer." At present Globe is the only theater in Kansas City equipped to present Vitaphone numbers.

Until you have seen and heard this offering you are in no position to appreciate these words of ours. The climax of the entire production is as much vocal as dramatic. It is an effect unique upon the screen. And it is fine. So if you will forgive repetition, permit us to remind you "Go to the Globe and see 'The Jazz Dressing." The picture at the Mainstreet this week is a happy sort of domestic comedy about wife who picked up so many things about the house she almost dropped her husband.

A clever cast, headed by Lois Wilson, H. B. Warner, Clive Brook and Lilyan Tashman, present the story against backgrounds of Paris and Boston. The players are at home either munching beans and brown bread or sipping champagne, so both sequences are carried off with an air of urbanity. Miss Wilson has the role of a meticulous housekeeper, who keeps her husband's matches in a cabinet where he can never find them to light his cigars.

The upshot is the house is so much better kept than he is, friend husband meets a house guest in the kitchen, and while he slices her some cold turkey takes care to get a little neck. His Wife drops in. and there is a moment when even the Frigidaire seems warm and uncomfortable. The wife departs for the Paris divorce The accompanying article is by Robert E. Sherwood, motion picture editor of Life and a commentator highly regarded for his shrewd commentaries on the photodrama as an art and an institution.

In the following paragraphs Mr. Sherwood attempts to diagnose a situation unprecedented in the amusement business and one which is provoking many in: quiries from the theater-going public. His words are not offered with a belief in their infallibility, but with a feeling that his comments will be of interest to all who are interested in the movies and the movie theaters. THE movie industry, as everyone knows, is a great, glorious and intensely powerful institution. In it are invested a great many millions of dollars, or maybe it's billions (I forget the exact figure and, anyway, who How it make all this money? The answer appears to be obvious: from the manufacture and sale of motion pictures.

Mr. Marcus Loew, Mr. Adolph Zukor, Mr. Jesse Lasky, William Fox, Mr. Joseph Schenck, Mr.

Louis B. Mayer and Mr. Carl Laemmle are all very wealthy. They live in gorgeous homes, they ride in only the most expensive cars, they take trips to Europe, they acquire valuable collections of rare antiques, their women folk wear costly jewelry and furs. They, too, derive all this from the manufacture and sale of motion pictures.

Not much more than fifteen years ago, a movie theater was a small and unpretentious place--a converted shoe store, perhaps, in which chairs rented from the local undertaking parlor were placed in rows and at either end of which were an asbestos projection booth and a wrinkled sheet. There might be as many as four employees required operate the theaterone to sell tickets, another to take them at the door, a third to run the projection machine and a tourth to play on the tinny piano. Aside from this piano, was no attraction to lead people theater there, except the picture which happened to be on view. Nevertheless, the picture was a strong enough attraction in iteself, the people lined up at the box office and the bell on the cash register tinkled merrily, Thus it has come to pass that the movie industry has started to drift away from its real, legitimate base. In every city in America, you will find elaborate movie theaters in which movies themselves are the least important feature the program.

There are symphony orchestras, jazz bands, elaborate ballets, black bottom contests, vaudeville headliners, atmospheric prologues and all manner of acts and stunts to entertain the patron. The three grandest, largest and most pretentiou- film parlors of all are the Roxy theater, controlled by William Fox; the Capitol, controlled by wyn, and the Paramount. All three are in New York, but they are typical of the situation that obtains throughout the United States and Canada. These are nominally movie theaters; actually, they are nothing of the kind They are gloried vaudeville houses, with motion pictures thrown in as a sort of afterthought. Why do the managements of these theaters spend so much money on nonmovie talent? (I seem to be asking a great many rhetorical questions in this article.) The answer here, too, is obvious, because they know their movies aren't good enough to make their vast theater interests profitable.

It's a strange problem, and its solution will be interesting to watch. Personally, I believe that the film producers will eventually be forced to realize that they are off on the wrong track; they are where they are today because they made good and salable moving pictures. They can only retain their present positions if they continue to make good and salable moving pictures. That is where the money came from. Today the cheap movie nickelodeon is a forgotten memory, and the gentlemen who were made rich by it are spending their gains in the erection of gorgeous palaces, temples, cathedrals and so forth.

The movie has moved from the squalid tenement which once was its home and now resides in the royal suite at the Ritz-Carlton. It is probably the most phenomenal rise from rags to riches in history. But where does it all lead to? What is the next Where do we go from here? These are questions which are worrying a great many better minds than that possessed by the writer of this column. For the movies are rapidly reorganizing themselves on an economic basis which to casual observer appears to be fundamentally false. The movie producers, in an effort.

10 provide channels for the distribution of their wares, have gained control of the theaters, thereby eliminating the troublesome middleman. Thus the corporations that make the pictures are also the corporations that show them to the public. And how has that worked out? It has developed about as follows: the departments of selling, distribution and theater, have management become far in more the big important comand far more powerful than the department of production. Gentlemen who are supposed to make the better pictures have been dedicating their brains and their energies to the buying, building or manipulation of theaters. Hence, the quality of the films has gone down, just as the quality of the theaters has gone up.

Alarmed at the low drawing power of their pictures, the movie geniuses have tried harder and harder to find other means of luring the public into their gigantic palaces, temples and cathedrals. If they fail to do so--if they continue to devote themselves to elaborate architecture and high-priced vaudeville, they will find themselves in the embarrassing position of that celebrated farmer who looked for golden eggs in a dead goose. A good many of us who frequent the movie palaces are wondering how long it will be before feature pictures are eliminated entirely from programs in the bigger theaters. From week to week, the films are steadily decreasing in importance in the film parlors, while the attendant vaudeville shows are becoming more and more impressive. There is another and side to this story.

The rise of vaudeville in the film parlors is causing the death of vaudevilie itself. While the Capital, Roxy and Paramount are rolling up huge profits in New York, Keith's Palace, the foremost vaudeville house in the world, and the last stronghold of variety, is coming close to the red ink side of the perilously ledger. The Keith, people can't find their programs, or artists enough patrons to fill their orchestra and balcony seats. So it comes about that the movie theaters are turning to vaudeville, while the vaudeville theaters, in order to survive, are turning to the movies Verily, it is a weird, inexplicable bustness, in which neither rhyme nor reason is to be found. This is entirely rumor, but it is interesting rumor A report circulating in Hollywood has it Louis B.

Mayer, studio, has invested large amounts of gold in the Tiffany Film Corporation and 1 preparing to change his affiliation. If your theater shows Tiffany pictures, you must be aware of the improved quality of the photography and direction. This indicates the presence of some mysterious stranger with a bank account..