Did You Know That—

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 25

Did You Know That —

Movietone announces that it has orders for talking equipment for 103 theatres in England.

Paramount net profits for a period of nine mouths are announced as £1,200,000. * * * Florence Vidor has formally announced her retirement from the screen and will devote herself to being the wife of Jascha Heifitz, noted violinist. A fully equipped cinema theatre is to be installed in the Blue Star liner Arandora, which is at present under reconstruction in Glasgow hipyards. * * • -nam Fox announce that he will build the largest cinema in.theworlu in New York. It will seat 7,000 persons, which is uuO more than the Roxy. * w * Mae Murray is appearing in New York vaudeville theatres at a reported salary of £I,OOO weekly, which is more than she ever received during her motion picture career. Word has been received in America that “Ben Hur” has been banned in Canton, China, on the grounds that it is Christian propaganda. * * $ The Blue Halls, Hammersmith, is to be rebuilt. The new building will have a seating capacity of 3,509, and when completed will be one of the finest cinem: s in Great Britain. * o Recently on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios pay-roll there were included 50 negroes, 100 Filipinos, 65 gypsies, and 90 midgets. Special productions required the services of these people. Renee Adoree. the piquant little French actress, has her present contract written in both English and French. It is legal under the laws of America and France. Yet they say actresses are not business-like. Greta Garbo's entrance into motion pictures resulted from her falling over a wire on a stage in Sweden and attracting the attention of Director Mortiz Stiller. She is a recluse, but despite rumours, is not at all temperamental.

The man behind Lon Chaney Is Tod Browning. Browning has directed nearly all of the Chaney pictures and shares the fame of “the man with a thousand faces.” He is a pioneer of the motion picture, although Ire toured in a carnival company when a boy, later becoming a vaudeville contortionist.