Variations

At the first showing in Manhattan of a newsreel concerning the rescue of the Nobile North Pole Expedition by the Russian icebreaker, Krassin, yells, screams, and shouts of "Cannibal" greated the image of Zappi, Italian captain accused of eating Swedish Explorer Malmgren.

Annoyed by noises interfering with a sound-production, one William Seiter, directing Corinne Griffith, tore off his derby hat, spat and stamped on it. He received next day from Miss Griffith a new derby, black, shiny, made of tin.

Count Leo Tolstoy, dying, bequeathed the rights of all his stories to mankind. Last fortnight two groups of his legatees--Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. on the one hand, Columbia Pictures Corp. on the other--began a race to see which would be first to release the Tolstoy story, Redemption, in the U. S.

Course. Issuing last week its schedule for the spring term, the University of California listed a new course--Appreciation of the Photoplay. "Recognizing," said a prospectus, "the influence of the screen story and the photo drama as important in the cultural development of the country, and believing that photoplays should be considered in any serious historical and scientific study of art and sociology . . . the University will soon offer the degree of Bachelor of Science in Cinematography. . . ."

Fatter Cameramen. Once forced to hurry from place to place, carrying heavy paraphernalia, cameramen are now pushed about in soundproof wheeled booths invented to keep the whir of the camera from recording on the sound-device. Last week two specimen cameramen, one Ed Du Par and one Ray Foster, both of Warner, gained respectively seven pounds, 15 pounds.