FORTUNES IN TALENT

Evening Star, Issue 19764, 14 January 1928, Page 18

FORTUNES IN TALENT

BIG SALARIES FOR STAGE FAVORITES In these days of excessive taxation and high cost of living, could you manage to live on £3,000 per week? Other people have had to do so. The question is prompted by the statement that Gladys Moncricff is to receive £2OO per week for a season in musical comedy under the Fuller management. Raquel Meller, a Spanish vocalist, who sang songs in her native tongue, signed a contract to appear in New York at the modest remuneration of £I,OOO per week. After entering into tho agreement it was suggested to her that she could do much better at home. In order to have an excuse to break the contract she insisted on berths on a big Atlantic liner for five dogs, well knowing that the policy of tho shipping company was against allowing canine passengers to accompany even millionaires. A shrewd management overcame the apparently insurmountable difficulty, and New Yorkers heard Miss Heller’s mellow voice in tho theatre, while the dogs barked at the hotel.

Greek, the celebrated French clown, was another foreigner who caused an enterprising entrepreneur many anxious moments after ho had engaged him at £6OO per week. He refused to claim his option for a further term, much to the disgust of patrons of tho theatre in which he was appearing. “I-do not like ze wine I got here,” he said. “I go back where it ees magnifique!” A 1 Jolson, an American performer, holds tho salary record easily, one would think. When the contract was handed to the treasurer prior to the performer’s appearance, the worthy juggler of salaries fainted, and went to bed with “ nerves ” for a week. Five performances a day netted Jolson £3,000 per week. Two white men who black their faces and become the “ Two Black Crows ” earn as much as £I,OOO per week through the medium of their stage work, the gramophone houses, and the music sellers; and, like the brook, they look like going on for ever. Josie Collin's, who has appeared in London in many of the musical comedies in which Gladys Moncrieff has starred in this country, is reported to have received £SOO per week as her highest salary, but only for the run of one piece. George Robey has drawn a modest £6OO a week for years. Coming nearer home, one learns that Ada Reeve was paid £350 per week on her first appearance in vaudeville in Sydney; and Wilkie Bard, who was gne or the first of the really great BT.trsic hall artists to appear here, was on the pay sheet for £4OO per week.

SGREEHLAND JOTTINGS Harold Lloyd has finished the production, ‘Speedy,’ his latest picture for Paramount. ‘ Speedy ’ will be seen on the New Zealand screen during this year. , The Jean Hersholt starring vehicle, 1 The Symphony,’ by Svend Gade, has been changed in title to ‘Jazz Mad.’ This is the picture which Universal made in the Hollywood Bowl with Alfred Hertz conducting an orchestra of 150 before an audience of 100,000. The picture, ‘ Under the Tonto Rim,’ from the story by Zane Grey, is now in production at the Paramount Studios. Mary Brian and Richard Arlen are featured players. Jack Luden and Guy Oliver were the latest additions to the cast.

Raoul Walsh’s next production as a director for Fox Films will bo an elaborate Russian story entitled ‘ The Bed Dancer of Moscow.’ Miss Dolores Del Rio and Charles Farrell will have the Featured roles, two artists who should ensure a fine production. John Gilbert, star of ‘The Big Parade ’ and ‘ Bardie,ys the Magnificent,’ will bo seen next in the now famous screen success, ‘ The Merry Widow.’ The film of one of the great light operas of recent years was' produced by Erich Von Stroheim for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. with Miss Mae Murray in the title role.

Wallace Beery recently returned to Hollywood from a hunting trip to his lodge near Silver Lake, in the Sierras. He will begin work shortly with his comedy team mate, Raymond Hatton, in ‘The Big Game Hunt.’ Frank Strnyor, who will direct, is now working on the story with Grover Jones, who wrote ‘The Gay Defender.’

‘Jesse James,’ Fred Thomson’s first big one for Paramount, is to bo released shortly, and Thomson has commenced ‘The Pioneer Scout,’ with Nora Lane as loading lady. ‘His Lady,’ John Barrymore's latest picture to he released by Master Pictures. is another adaptation of Massenet’s famous opera. ■ ‘ Million.’ Miss Dolores Costello is featured opposite the star. It is the unanimous opinion of those who have seen the .film that it is more spectacular than ‘Don Juan,’ and more gripping than ‘The Rea Boast.’

Although its moving picture title has not been definitely selected, George Melford has chosen a cast for the Peter B. Kvne story designated in the studio as 1 The Freedom of the Press.’ The cast includes Lewis Stone, who has just finished his role in 1 The Foreign Legion,’ Miss Marceline Day, Donald Keith, and Robert Emmett O’Connor.

Destruction on a gigantic scale is one of the features of ‘ Wings,’ Paramount’s great spectacle . portraying the life and fancies of the air forces during the war. William Vellman, who directed the Lncien Hubbard production, wanted realism and he got it. Here is what business manager Roger Manning placed upon the hooks as total loss for the purposes of the picture;— Seven fully-equipped airplanes wrecked and burned, three regulation dirigibles and one observation balloon, two fullyequipped automobiles, one assembled German train of eleven cars, one fnllyhnilt house, one French village (set). But it was worth it, for critics agree that this story of heart and war, which brings to the screen for the first than the story of the war aviators, is a succession of dramatic spectacles. Clara Bow, Charles Rogers. Richard Arlen, Richard Tucker, Gunboat Smith. El Rreudel, Gary Cooper, and.,; Arlotto Marchal are featured players in ‘Wings.’ A costume romance of the Napoleonic period, ‘Brigadier Gerard.’ to he released shortly by First National, has Rod La Rocquo in the leading role, with Miss Phyllis Haver as the heroine. The plot has been founded on Conan Doyle’s fine novel, ‘The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard,’ and the picture is said to bo a clever and entertaining combination of artistic production and dramatic art. The suspense reaches its highest point when Napoleon, realising that the hero is about to he shot unjustly, rushes to the scene of the shooting, eventually saving him. There is comedy which relieves the tenseness of the dramatic action, and the acting of Ram Do Grass© as ‘Talleyrand’ and Max Banvyn ns ‘ Napoleon ’ should he an interesting feature of the production.