TOPICS IN WALL STREET.; News, Comment and Incident, On the Stock Exchange and In the Financial Markets. Volume Increases. Money Market Balance. The Bear Party's Stature. The Northern Merger. A Gain in Stock Financing. Trusts and Managements. Improvement in Exchanges.
Date: 11 March 1930
Trading on the principal financial and commodity Exchanges today will be suspended at 12:30 o'clock instead of 8 o'clock, the usual closing time. This shortening of the business hours was ordered by the governing authorities of the Exchanges out of respect to the memory of former President Taft, whose Funeral is to be held today.
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TOPICS IN WALL STREET.; News, Comment and Incident, On the Stock Exchange and In the Financial Markets. "Floating Supply" Reduced. American Bill Holdings. How Much We'd Lose. Oversubscriptton of New Treasuries. Shifts in Bond Prices. The Psychological Factor.
Date: 12 March 1930
12 listed on N Y Stock Exch
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JOHN M'CORMACK A HIT IN MOVIETONE; Irish Tenor Hears and Sees His Shadow Perform in "Song o' My Heart." A DISTINGUISHED AUDIENCE Fox Film a Remarkable Production --"Little Boy Blue" Is Sung With Pathos.
Date: 12 March 1930
By Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall
John McCormack, the Irish tenor, last night heard and saw his shadow perform in the William Fox Movietone production, "Song o' My Heart," which was presented before a distinguished gathering, including former Governor Alfred E. Smith and Mrs. Smith, Mrs. James J. Walker, opera singers and jurists, in the Forty-fourth Street Theatre. The unusual audience that had come to witness this motion picture enthused first over the sound news reel subjects and finally over the excellent reproduction of Mr. McCormack's appealing voice.Never has an audible film been recorded as flawlessly as this feature. The tone is subdued throughout, and when Mr. McCormack, as Sean O'Callahan, sings, a reason is offered for the melody. The story is charming and sensitive. It has been singularly ably directed by Frank Borzage, producer of "Street Angel," "Seventh Heaven" and other worthy screen offerings. Every scene is pictured in good taste and photographed with truly artistic lighting and shadows.The comedy is gentle and natural, really Irish. It evoked its reward of laughter from the spectators. Considering that the hero of this adventure is no longer in his youth, it is a narrative suitable and adroitly handled. Aside from the distinctly pleasing and inspiring melody, it holds the interest, and all the players do their share to make it a huge success. It is something from which a reporter bounds with glee to write about, for it is wholesome and human, with several nicely imaginative scenes.Sad as it is, Mr. McCormack's rendering of that beautiful song "Little Boy Blue" is something to be remembered for many a day, and also the manner in which it is pictured. Sean is singing then in a New York concert hall, and as he renders the melody there comes to the screen a glimpse of a little boy playing with a woolly toy dog and his soldiers. The child kisses the dog and each soldier good-night and then comes the day when this little soul passes away, which Mr. Borzage shows in a brief, sympathetic scene. Then one perceives the woolly toy dog and the soldiers covered with cobwebs.The perspective of sound has been accomplished better here than in any other production, for when Mr. McCormack sings in an empty church the voice is fainter as a scene is shown a few yards away from the open door of the edifice.It may be a simple story, but there is so much to the picture that one is apt to forget some of its entrancing scenery. Most of the exterior views were taken in Erin, several of them near Mr. McCormack's home and the River Barrow. A constant flow of winding roads, gnarled trees and mirror-like lakes appears on the canvas.Some of the participants in this picture were discovered in Ireland. Among them are Maureen O'Sullivan, who plays the romantic girl Eileen, and Tommy Clifford, a youngster, who won the hearts of the audience last night in the rôle of Tod, Eileen's manly little brother, who is rather like an Irish Tom Sawyer.In the opening scenes, Sean is a singer who has been disappointed in love. Mary, played by Alice Joyce, returns with her two children, Eileen and Tod, to the hamlet in Ireland, her husband having deserted her. Sean is still devoted to Mary.To lend a touch of levity to the film there is Farrell Macdonald, who figures as Rafferty, a man who dreads elderly females and particularly widows. He is usually spatting with Peter, a driver of a jaunty-car, whose weakness is that he imagines that he can sing. His criticism of Sean's vocal efforts is that Sean does not get the necessary "nyar," a twist of the tongue, in his vocal efforts. These two blithe Paddys are never at a loss for swift repartee and even when Rafferty is on a sick-bed, Peter reminds him of another man who died just when he thought he was getting well. On that occasion, as he is leaving, Peter halts at the door of the chamber and when asked by the ailing Rafferty what he is doing, Peter replies that he was just wondering whether they could get a coffin by the door!In the Irish sequence, Mr. McCormack sings, "Then You'll Remember Me," and, to a group of children, he renders "A Fairy Story by the Fireside," which is wonderfully appealing and charmingly pictured. After that Mr. McCormack's songs are "Just for a Day," "I Feel You Near Me," "Kitty, My Love" and that lovely ballad, "The Rose of Tralee."In the New York episodes, at the concert, where Sean is greeted with overwhelming applause, he sings "Loughi Sereni E Cari," "Little Boy Blue," "Ireland, Mother Ireland" and "I Hear You Calling Me." Then when he returns to Ireland he lifts his voice to the lilt of "A Pair of Blue Eyes." All these songs issue from the screen with stirring effect, so great that, although one becomes interested in the incidents of the narrative, one always looks forward to Mr. McCormack's (or Sean's) next song.J. J. McCarthy, that renowned manager of pictorial productions, who was responsible for the excellent presentation of "The Big Parade," deserves great praise for the highly successful mounting of this current contribution. As supervisor of this picture he went to Ireland and later to Hollywood. He has been with it since the very engaging of Mr. McCormack.
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