The “Tsar of
All Rushes,” Will Hays (president of the Motion Picture Producers
and Distributors of America from 1922 to 1945) congratulates MPPDA member
Fox Film Corporation, and improvises a stentorian speech about the “universal
language” of motion pictures.
I’m very happy to be here and participate. I extend my compliments
to Mr. Fox, the very great head of this very great organization, busy
in New York; to Mr. Sheehan, responsible for the moment and this situation,
and for the great success which this great company is making; to Mr. Wurtzel,
his splendid assistant; and to all of you. That because of this occasion
and what we have about us and that because of the pictures which you,
for Fox, are making . . .
[Jump cut]
Great as is the value of motion pictures as the principle amusement
of the great majority of all the people in the world and the sole amusement
of millions among them, great as is that essential service -- for service
essential it is -- great is as that, I’m not certain but that the
yet greater usefulness of motion pictures is in its capacity to carry
in its universal language the message of good will to all the people of
the world.
June Collyer, a 21-year-old actress who had broken into films as a Fox leading lady in 1927. Her movie career lasted a decade, although she appeared on television throughout the 1950s. She starred in five Fox movies in 1928. When this footage was shot, Collyer was in production with two John Ford silents: "Four Sons", with Margaret Mann, and "Hangman’s House," with Victor McLaglen (and John Wayne in his first bit part). That fall she starred in Raoul Walsh’s "Me, Gangster."
Ladies and gentleman, I consider it a great honor to have been made hostess here this afternoon at the dedication of Park Row on the Fox lot. We all know that the original Park Row in New York has been a molding ground of a great many world famous personalities. Well, I’m holding that wish for our Park Row here.
Tom
Mix:
You know I knew that they’d bring something into this industry
that would put a kibosh on my activities. Now they got Movietone. You
know there’s just one job that I know of that's left where
silence is a virtue, and Mr. Coolidge happens to have that.
[Cut in to closer view]
Now that I’ve convicted myself, I suppose I better get ready for
the sentence. Thank you.
Boris Charsky, actor, as 'Leon Trotsky' [speaking in Russian]: “Comrades, by the irony of fate I play the role of Trotsky in the new Raoul Walsh production by the Fox studio. In this production, he will show the very best anyone has ever seen. Raoul Walsh is famous for this staging of "What Price Glory?," and in this production he'll show something truly special.”
Outtake:
You will be very grateful, comrades. This is the first time that Trotsky will be shown on the screen, who . . . .
