The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 83

(SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1930 5 I oves to sland ong 1 lollywood The Studio at Astoria Has Four Stages, One of Which Is- Sound- Proof; Silence Rules rM By Ethel Fleming ANIGHT in Venice, glamorous, romantic enraptured lovers on a marble balconnade a gondola drifting in the moonlit waters of a canal but this is an indoor Venice, designed and bilt overnight by mortal hands, not the Venice which Marco Polo sighed lor in Cathay! The office of a chewing-gum factory files, desks, stools, a water cooler this, too, is make-believe, constructed as a background for a picture in which Maurice Chevalier plays a young Frenchman bent on American big business. A slum street a higgledy-piggledy fruit stand, a group of children dancing to the wheeze of a street organ this, too, is only a "set," and the children, though they are real kids, are actors. Hollywood? No, though it might well be, to judge by the variety of scenes and action which crowd the soundproof stages. But Hollywood Is some three thousand miles away, and this is Astoria, California's famous movie center in miniature. And if there is anything in predictions, this Eastern version of Bollywood is said to have every chance of expanding to the Gargantuan size of Los Angeles' celebrated suburb.

Maurice Chevalier, who has made two pictures on the lot in Hollywood and one in the big white building across Queensboro Bridge, has very definite notions about the comparative merits of both places. He is one of the few film actors who looks exactly the same "in person" as on the screen. He is tan, with thick, fair hair and twinkling blue eyes, his rather wide mouth is mobile and smiling, and he speaks a fluent English in a pleasant deep voice with a marked Gallic accent. "Hollywood is enormous," he says in one of the pauses between shots when the embargo of silence is lifted for a few minutes. "Stars, extras, directors, scenario writers, designers, costumers drift over the lot in a constant parade.

Here it is smaller, there is less interference, less bustle and we get finished more quickly. It took only six weeks to make this chewing-gum picture. I like the compactness of this studio." The fact that fewer scenes are shot simultaneously in the Astoria studio than in Hollywood makes for less confusion and delay. In Hollywood they have ten huge stages, completely soundproofed for the requirements of the talkies. They have a whole street of dressing rooms, a long avenue equipped with luxurious star bungalows whose private showers and Interior decorations would make the average bride's mouth water.

The Paramount studio at Astoria is a large building but it has only four stages, and of these but one is soundproof. Before a scene is shot there is a loud clangor of warning bells and the doors to the studio are locked so that no intruder may add the sound of shuffling feet to the syncronization of the picture. Just before the cameras and microphones get busy a voice booms out "Silence!" from the monitor's booth, and after that it is as much as your life is worth to cough or sneeze or even breathe audibly. The cues, which heretofore were spoken, like theater cues, are now given by means of lights. "To get about on the lot In Hollywood." continues Chevalier as the big motor cranks up the camfiras, "one really could use a bicycle! Here everything is concentrated on one or two floors, and for the present at least we find it a much simpler matter to get from the dressing room to the lot or from the restaurant, which is also in the building, to the staff offices, where we confer about changes in the scenario.

In Hollywood by the time you reach the staff offices you are so worn out by the wide-open spaces between that you are too fatigued to register any complaints or ideas!" Since all the pictures Chevalier makes are bilingual, there Is a tang of Paris Juat at present la the Astoria studio. There are several peools in In far-away Cathay Marco Polo sighed for Venice; but this Venice is right on Long Island. In circle, Claudette Colbert, who has just completed the English and French versions of the "Big Pond" at the Astoria studio with Maurice Chevalier have to be made good on the chance that the player may be good material for the screen. As a try-out center for new talent Astoria is practically perfect Whether that talent is merely new to the screen or entirely new to the boards does not matter at all. It just takes a trip across the bridge and a screen test to discover whether the seasoned musical comedy clown or the newly organized Komik Kwartette will make good screen material.

"That is the reason," explains Chevalier, that you 1 see so many interesting experiments going on here all the time. This is a sort of film laboratory. One day we have a group of dancing girls from one of the Publix stage shows, the next day we have a character actor whose comeback to fame and fortune the talkies have made possible. There is something new going on all the time because we can afford to try out every possible kind of material here. It means also that there are fewer tragedies connected with breaking into the movies.

New York is a big city. If a boy or girl spends the family for-tune to get here and make a try for the movies, it is not so hopeless if the camera says, 'Thumbs Everybody can make a living at something in New York. That is not true of Los Angeles." The proximity of Manhattan to the Astoria studio also has an effect on the scenario writers. Instead of maintaining a staff of twenty or so plot and sequence tailors, the Astoria studio has a limited staff. When they want a snappy comedy situation worked out.

or some convulsing dialogue thrown into a story, thejr call on one or more of the professional humorist who make New York their headquarters. Short story -writers, dramatists, vaudeville experts, are usually available at short notice, and this use of consultant specialists ought to have a vitalizing effect oh screen literature. "There is less of a sense of isolation here than in Hollywood," explains Chevalier. "A pre-eminent comedian who used to be on the vaudeville stae was offered a contract on the Keith circuit a few months ago between pictures. It was great fun for him to get out in front of the footlights again and to know the thrill of a direct contact with his audience.

It pepped him up wonderfully!" At the end of the next sequence we said goodby to the smiling star and both little slaveys, and went down to the next level where, in a soundproof room, they were shooting a short comedy picture. Some sailors, leaning against a faithful replica of the Riverside Drive wall, were singing lusty chantey. Cameramen and technicians were wheeling the camera booths around. Girls in sleeveless summer frocks strolled nonchalantly back and forth, waiting their cues. It was hard to believe that outside the snow was skidding through the bleak wintry air.

This world of makebelieve was realistic, with that serious, earnest atmosphere which people eoocectrae bS the suns job usually engender. the cast who can speak, both English and French, but for some of the roles there are two players each. Among these there are two Uttle girls about 10 years old who play the part of a ragged, sympathetic boarding-house slavey who makes friends with the lonely young Frenchman portrayed by Chevalier. During the French sequence the little American sits with her face cupped in her intent on her rival's work. And when the camera and microphone are eating up the English version the small Parisian actress keeps her watchful eyes on her American counterpart.

Professional jealousy knows no age limits! Between the sequences Chevalier teases both his delighted friends impartially. He has a charming way with children. 'T do not know whether I really prefer working here or in Hollywood," confesses Chevalier, adjusting a shirt stud. His evening shirt, by the way, is yellow, though his tuxedo is the conventional black. White has too high a sheen to photograph well, hence many things in the hall bedroom set, such as the bedspread, are yellow.

"I have many friends in Hollywood and California is a wonderful vacation place. But New York Is nearer to Paris!" New York's accessibility to places other than Paris are tending to make the Astoria studio popular with film folk. Even movie actresses have one weakness in common with other members of the fair sex. They love clothes, and shopping to them is one of the major delights this side of paradise. Fifth avenue and that other enchanted realm of the modistes.

Fifty-seventh street, are within easy reach of the Astoria studios, thus making it easy for feminine stars of the silver sheet to combine work and pleasure. Another factor which gives Astoria a headstart on Hollywood has to do with the New York theater. As everyone knows, the little strip of real estate north of Forty-second st. and west of Sixth known as the Great White Way. Is the theatrical center of the United States.

Every great comedian, every pretty star, every expert hoofer, every sweet-voiced musical comedy favorite, may be viewed at some time or another In that brightly-lighted thoroughfare. Since the advent of the talkies legitimate stars have hearkened to the golden voice of the microphone. It is not difficult for an actress like Helen Kane or Helen Morgan to combine stage work with screen work when the two centers of operation are only half an hour's distance apart. It Involves no risk either on the trouper's side or on the film company's. So expensive trip to the Coast, no brafcn contracts.