Behind the dramatization of “Midnight,” Universal’s current picture now at the Roxy, lies a story of Hollywood psychology that is worth telling. “Midnight” was adapted from the play by Paul Sifton and his wife Claire.
After the Theatre Guild had produced the play and the moving picture companies had expressed an interest in a film version, the Siftons were approached and asked if they did not want to go to Hollywood to work. Their first reaction was to start the trek.
It so happened that at the time Louis Weitzenkorn, veteran scenarist and reformed socialist was in town. He is a very good friend of the Siftons. When Paul was on the old Sunday World, Weitzenkorn was his editor. It was natural that the Siftons should go to him for advice.
He informed them in no uncertain terms that they ought to shun the alleged gold pots of Hollywood, adding that any writer who went that far West was doomed to mediocrity. Weitzenkorn intimated he was through with the capital of cinema.
So the Siftons turned down a Hollywood contract. A few days later, when they looked for Weitzenkorn to tell him they had been able to withstand temptation, they found that Weitzenkorn had signed another contract and was flying back to Hollywood as fast as he could go.
“Midnight,” by the way, is a serious picture. Its theme is the ineffectiveness and brutality of capital punishment. Henry Hull of “Tobacco Road” fame is in the cast.
THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD
Tomorrow night at the Astor Theatre United Artists will present George Arliss in “The House of Rothschild.”
LONG ON JEROME
Ray Long, who was once the editor of Mr. Hearst’s “Cosmopolitan” and who later was connected with the publishing house of Long & Smith, but whose most startling exploit was his disappearance into the remote South Seas Island, can’t stay away from enchanted places.
He is now working in Hollywood for Fox Films. According to an announcement from that studio, Mr. Long has written a screen version of the life of William Travers Jerome, New York’s great crusading district attorney.
The ghost of William Travers Jerome was heard to groan when this picture was announced. During his lifetime Mr. Jerome refused to write his memoirs and would never supply anybody with the facts of the famous cases he prosecuted.
PERFUMED LADY OPENS–OTHER NEWS OF THE STAGE
Last night at the Ambassador Theatre a play by Harry Wagstaff called “The Perfumed Lady” had its premiere.
It is a comedy. In the cast are such players as Brian Donlevy, Marjorie Peterson, Ben Lackland, Helen Brooks and June Martell.
A play is now in rehearsal which was originally called “The Flop.” The producers are looking for a new title because they are a trifle worried about what the critics might do with that tile.
Tonight at the Second Avenue Theatre a testimonial performance consisting of the first act of “A. Night in California” will be given for the composer, Alexander Olshanetzky, who composed the score for “The Organ Grinder,” which is now being played there.
On Sunday night Belle Didjah, Jewish dancer gave her first New York recital in two years at the Forest Theatre.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
