Convention City
Encyclopedia
Convention City is a 1933
pre-Code
comedy film
produced by First National Pictures and released by Warner Brothers, which has become notorious as a lost film
.
) is to choose a new company salesmanager. T.R. Kent (Adolphe Menjou
) and George Ellerbe (Guy Kibbee
) are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when a jealous saleswoman Arlene Dale (Mary Astor
) interferes with his attempted seduction of J.B.'s daughter and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine (Joan Blondell
). The position of salesmanager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator".
warned Hal Wallis that he may be going too far in the costuming:
In addition, several lines were ordered removed by the MPPDA censors including:
Script changes, suggested by Wingate, Jason S. Joy (director of the Studio Relations Committee), and production head Hal Wallis were nominally incorporated into the script.
The feature cost $239,000 to produce, and earned $384,000 in domestic revenue and $138,000 from foreign release, for an eventual profit of $53,000.
TIME
said that "Convention City is a glib, disorganized batch of footnotes on a familiar aspect of U.S. business." and that "Convention City is adumbrated with many a drinking scene, a company song ("Oh, Honeywell" to the tune of "My Maryland
"), and some quips which may cause some cinemagoers to wonder what Will Hays is doing."
The New York Times said that "Several of the jokes need a subterranean mind to be correctly understood. An accurate appraisal of "Convention City" should include the information that the Strand
's audiences laughed long and loud." The Times also praised Adolphe Menjou's performance while finding Joan Blondell's performances to be getting tiresome as she was playing the same irreverent character in her films.
. No copies of the film are known to exist, making it the last missing feature from First National or Warner Bros.
Because of the lewdness of the film and lack of influence of the Studio Relations Committee, which was supposed to control objectionable content, Convention City and films like it led to the enforcement of the Production Code
, overseen by Joseph Breen
. The Code had been created in 1930 at the beginning of the Depression but financially strapped studios often overlooked its authority in the want to make more risque pictures that were good box office. In 1936, Jack Warner
attempted to re-release Convention City in a censored form, but Breen deemed it beyond redemption.
In the summer/fall 2006 issue of The Vitaphone Project Newsletter, Patrick Picking questioned the version of events leading to the film's destruction. The project's newsletter reproduces a theatre advertisement showing the film on the bottom half of a double bill with Charlie Chan on Broadway
. Since the latter film was released in 1937, it would appear that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Warner Bros. still circulated the film after its initial release.
It has been surmised from surviving promotional materials that the film's Spanish language title was ¡Que Semana! The Spanish newspaper ABC advertised screenings of the film as late as August 1942 in Spain.
Studio records of the film's negative have a notation, "Junked 12/27/48" (i.e., December 27, 1948). Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives in the late 1940s and 1950s due to nitrate film decomposition.
The original screenplay still survives in the Warner Script Archives. In March of 1994, a pre-code film festival was held in South Village
, New York
. Among the films viewed, was a dramatic reading of the screenplay for Convention City.
1933 in film
-Events:* March 2 - King Kong premieres in New York City.* June 6 - The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey.* British Film Institute founded....
pre-Code
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
produced by First National Pictures and released by Warner Brothers, which has become notorious as a lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
.
Plot
The plot revolves around the convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City. Throughout the film, the employees of Honeywell Rubber are mainly concerned with drinking and sex. President J.B. Honeywell (Grant MitchellGrant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell may refer to:*Grant Mitchell , character actor of the 1930s and 1940s, appeared in Conflict*Grant Mitchell , fictional character on British soap opera EastEnders...
) is to choose a new company salesmanager. T.R. Kent (Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Menjou
Adolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
) and George Ellerbe (Guy Kibbee
Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee was an American stage and film actor.Born in El Paso, Texas, Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats and eventually became a successful Broadway actor...
) are two salesmen who both want the job. However, they both get into trouble: T.R. is discredited when a jealous saleswoman Arlene Dale (Mary Astor
Mary Astor
Mary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
) interferes with his attempted seduction of J.B.'s daughter and George attempts to seduce Nancy Lorraine (Joan Blondell
Joan Blondell
Rose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
). The position of salesmanager is bestowed upon a drunken employee as a bribe after he catches J.B. about to visit "Daisy La Rue, Exterminator".
Cast
- Joan BlondellJoan BlondellRose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
as Nancy Lorraine - Adolphe MenjouAdolphe MenjouAdolphe Jean Menjou was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies, appearing in such films as The Sheik, A Woman of Paris, Morocco, and A Star is Born...
as T.R. (Ted) Kent - Dick PowellDick PowellRichard Ewing "Dick" Powell was an American singer, actor, producer, director and studio boss.Despite the same last name he was not related to William Powell, Eleanor Powell or Jane Powell.-Biography:...
as Jerry Ford - Mary AstorMary AstorMary Astor was an American actress. Most remembered for her role as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart, Astor began her long motion picture career as a teenager in the silent movies of the early 1920s.She eventually made a successful transition to talkies, but almost...
as Arlene Dale - Guy KibbeeGuy KibbeeGuy Bridges Kibbee was an American stage and film actor.Born in El Paso, Texas, Kibbee began his entertainment career on Mississippi riverboats and eventually became a successful Broadway actor...
as George Ellerbe - Frank McHughFrank McHughFrancis Curray "Frank" McHugh was an American film and television actor.Born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, McHugh came from a theatrical family. His parents ran a stock theatre company and as a young child he performed on stage...
as Will Goodwin - Patricia EllisPatricia EllisPatricia Ellis was an American film actress of the 1930s.Born Patricia Leftwich in Birmingham, Alabama, Ellis began her stage career after leaving school. Given a film test while appearing on stage in New York, she was put under contract by Warner Bros. In 1932 she had two small parts, both...
as Claire Honeywell - Ruth DonnellyRuth DonnellyRuth Donnelly was an American stage and film actress. Her father was the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey....
as Mrs. Ellerbe - Hugh HerbertHugh HerbertHugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
as Hotstetter - Grant MitchellGrant MitchellGrant Mitchell may refer to:*Grant Mitchell , character actor of the 1930s and 1940s, appeared in Conflict*Grant Mitchell , fictional character on British soap opera EastEnders...
as J.B. Honeywell
Production
During production the film had MPPDA censorship problems. Jack WarnerJack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
warned Hal Wallis that he may be going too far in the costuming:
- "We must put brassieres on Joan Blondell and make her cover up her breasts because, otherwise, we are going to have these pictures stopped in a lot of places. I believe in showing their forms but, for Lord's sake, don't let those bulbs stick out."
In addition, several lines were ordered removed by the MPPDA censors including:
- "No, but it won't be marriage. I'll guarantee you that. A traveling salesman needs a wife like a baby needs a box of matches."
- "Now you take off that dress and I'll take off my toupee, huh!"
- "Girl's voice: 'Listen, sister, if they tire you, you better leave town before the Hercules Tool Company gets here.'"
Script changes, suggested by Wingate, Jason S. Joy (director of the Studio Relations Committee), and production head Hal Wallis were nominally incorporated into the script.
The feature cost $239,000 to produce, and earned $384,000 in domestic revenue and $138,000 from foreign release, for an eventual profit of $53,000.
Reception
Dr. James Wingate, chair of the Motion Picture Division of the State of New York Department of Education — which oversaw the state's censorship board — described it as "a pretty rowdy picture, dealing largely with drunkenness, blackmail, and lechery, and without any particularly sympathetic characters or elements." When Convention City was released, it averaged twenty cuts per state board.TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
said that "Convention City is a glib, disorganized batch of footnotes on a familiar aspect of U.S. business." and that "Convention City is adumbrated with many a drinking scene, a company song ("Oh, Honeywell" to the tune of "My Maryland
My Maryland
My Maryland is a "musical romance" with book and lyrics by Dorothy Donnelly and music by Sigmund Romberg, based on the play Barbara Frietchie by Clyde Fitch....
"), and some quips which may cause some cinemagoers to wonder what Will Hays is doing."
The New York Times said that "Several of the jokes need a subterranean mind to be correctly understood. An accurate appraisal of "Convention City" should include the information that the Strand
Strand Theatre
- England :* Royal Strand Theatre, London* Strand Theatre , London in the United States...
's audiences laughed long and loud." The Times also praised Adolphe Menjou's performance while finding Joan Blondell's performances to be getting tiresome as she was playing the same irreverent character in her films.
Later status
The film was later banned by the Hollywood Production CodeProduction Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
. No copies of the film are known to exist, making it the last missing feature from First National or Warner Bros.
Because of the lewdness of the film and lack of influence of the Studio Relations Committee, which was supposed to control objectionable content, Convention City and films like it led to the enforcement of the Production Code
Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral censorship guidelines that governed the production of the vast majority of United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Hollywood's chief censor of the...
, overseen by Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen
Joseph Breen is an American soap opera actor.He played contract parts on both Guiding Light and Loving before being offered his most front-burner role to date: that of Lisa’s long-lost son, Scott Eldridge, on As the World Turns...
. The Code had been created in 1930 at the beginning of the Depression but financially strapped studios often overlooked its authority in the want to make more risque pictures that were good box office. In 1936, Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
attempted to re-release Convention City in a censored form, but Breen deemed it beyond redemption.
In the summer/fall 2006 issue of The Vitaphone Project Newsletter, Patrick Picking questioned the version of events leading to the film's destruction. The project's newsletter reproduces a theatre advertisement showing the film on the bottom half of a double bill with Charlie Chan on Broadway
Charlie Chan on Broadway
Charlie Chan On Broadway is a Charlie Chan film. This is the 15th film starring Oland as Chan and produced by Fox.- Synopsis :It starts out with Chan in this exotic locale . He's there on business, but before he can do anything about his business, someone shows up dead...
. Since the latter film was released in 1937, it would appear that, contrary to conventional wisdom, Warner Bros. still circulated the film after its initial release.
It has been surmised from surviving promotional materials that the film's Spanish language title was ¡Que Semana! The Spanish newspaper ABC advertised screenings of the film as late as August 1942 in Spain.
Studio records of the film's negative have a notation, "Junked 12/27/48" (i.e., December 27, 1948). Warner Bros. destroyed many of its negatives in the late 1940s and 1950s due to nitrate film decomposition.
The original screenplay still survives in the Warner Script Archives. In March of 1994, a pre-code film festival was held in South Village
South Village
The South Village is a largely residential area in Lower Manhattan in New York City, directly below Washington Square Park. Known for its immigrant heritage and Bohemian history, the South Village overlaps areas of Greenwich Village and SoHo...
, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Among the films viewed, was a dramatic reading of the screenplay for Convention City.