1928: The rise of giant merchants

August 1, the seventeenth year of the Republic of China (1928).

The past July in Shanghai has been turbulent, with countless major events happening one after another, and the most eye-catching ones are still the many major events related to the second young master Ye Luo.

The Second Northern Expedition came to an end. After the memorial ceremony, the independent regiment of the 37th Army withdrew to the north. Shanghai was rarely quiet for a while. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the month, there was an anecdote about Ye Luo cashing out 8.16 million from Citibank!

Soon there was news that he would enter the entertainment industry and start building amusement parks, dance halls and movie theaters.

At this time, Zhang Wanlin is vigorously packaging his New World Amusement Park, hoping to give Ye Luo a good look.

Just as everyone was looking forward to the classic scene of New World War, Ye Luo made a lot of big news.

70,000 yuan bought the popular movie queen Ruan Lingyu, and 60,000 yuan bought two film companies, Minxin and Mingxing. They rented a large area of ​​land with an annual rent of 300,000 yuan, and spent 500,000 yuan to carry out many construction projects!

Spending money is like running water, as if hundreds of thousands of dollars are the same as a few dollars in his eyes.

The common people in Shanghai Bund County talk about this new star in the business world, and because of his handsome appearance, he has attracted a large number of petty bourgeoisie women. Among the handsome men of the Republic of China selected by a newspaper, Ye Luo ranked second after Zhou Enlai!

Fast forward to August, and Yip's United Industrial Company, Yip's Film Company, Yip's Dance Company, and Yip's Record Company were opened for business one after another. The film company was led by Lin Ruxian as the general manager, and the dance company and record company were led by Xiao Ah. Quietly serves as general manager.

But none of these things were as shocking as the news that Ye Luo entered the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai as a Chinese consul and entered the Bureau of the Ministry of Industry as a Chinese director!

Ye Luo is the first and only Chinese person who can hold this status!

The Great World Amusement Park and Yip's Guangming Cinema at the intersection of Aidoya Road and Minti Niyin Road have also begun to take shape. Many middle-class people living in the concession came to watch, curious about what kind of new entertainment venue it would be. .

Li Fu, who was mixed in the crowd (the ordinary employee of Xianshi Department Store, the one whose wife would reward him after buying a car), has won the trust of General Manager Ou Bin for some reason since he bought a Chevrolet 490, and he has been promoted step by step, from an ordinary employee to From the office director to the deputy manager of the business department, he has become Ou Bin's confidant.

After promotions and salary increases, Li Fu's family and Ou Bin's family became more and more social. Recently I heard that Ou Bin bought tickets for the opening ceremony of the New World Amusement Park and waited to watch a group of famous actresses perform on the big stage for seven days and seven nights.

After Ye Luo announced the construction plan of the Great World Amusement Park, Ou Bin and his wife took a fancy to the second young master's new business and often mentioned it in the company, intentionally or unintentionally.

Li Fu watched and listened in all directions, and immediately groped over here quietly, wanting to find out first and see what new thing the famous second young master in Shanghai was going to come up with.

Unexpectedly, in just over half a month, the Great World Amusement Park has already taken shape. It is indeed a place ten times larger than the New World, and you can see the edges at a glance.

Just as Li Fu was snooping around, a short newsboy suddenly ran over and smiled at him: "Boss, do you also want to know about the Big World Amusement Park? I have a free literary tabloid "Big World" , do you want one?"

"Oh? Is this small newspaper specifically about the Great World Amusement Park?" Li Fu found it very novel and asked the newsboy for a copy. "This amusement park has not been built yet. Has the newspaper been prepared?"

"Second Young Master Ala said, you have to warm up before doing business~" The little newsboy nodded with a smile, and then took the newspaper to sell to other onlookers.

Li Fu curiously opened the literary tabloid "Big World" and found that the newspaper was very well-produced. It had four pages and was a weekly. The editor-in-chief was the famous screenwriter Zheng Zhengqiu, and the publisher was Liangyou Company.

The four pages of the newspaper contain the playlists, theaters, and theater troupe schedules of various entertainment venues in the amusement park; the second and third pages are divided into "Editorials", "Notes", "Odds", "Drama Reviews", "Literary Garden", and "Novel" , "Ballads", "Laughing Forest", "Pear Shadow" and other columns.

Its content focuses on sketches, serial novels, play reviews, news about famous actors, etc. It also publishes stills and biographies of actors and actresses from time to time.

According to the catalog, the playground includes a theater, game hall, garden and rooftop garden, shopping mall, bookstore, Republic Hall, art circle, animal yard, billiard room, Chinese and Western restaurants, Middle Eastern teahouse, Yuanyang Pond, Golden Carp Pond and Grand View. There are many kinds of towers, four lookouts, Zhaohe, Tiqiao, Dengyun pavilions and Xuanluo Pavilion, which is dizzying.

The entertainment facilities listed alone are already more than the existing items of the New World Amusement Park, and this is only one-tenth of the entire amusement park!

Ye Luo spent 500,000 yuan to build the Great World Amusement Park, which unexpectedly entered every household through literary tabloids. Originally, Xuanfa and other amusement parks lagged behind the New World Amusement Park, but in just a few days, it caught up and surpassed it in terms of popularity!

The project supervision by Lin Huiyin and his wife also made many people feel relieved, and now they are waiting for the opening.

On the other side, preparations for filming "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" and "Blood and Tears of Yellow Flowers" have also begun.

I don’t know if it was because of his anger with Yip Luo, but Luo Mingyou established his Lianhua company in advance, and like Tianyi Film Company, he produced at the same time as Yip’s Film Company. It seemed that he wanted to compete with Yip’s Film Company in the silent film box office.

Previously, the news that Ye Luo "forcibly bought" Ruan Lingyu from Tianyi Film Company made headlines in major newspapers and periodicals. The Shaw Brothers were backed by Yongxing Company, which made people think that this was also one of the battlefields between Yongxing and Yip.

In order to express his position, Tianyi, who could not break away from Yongxing for the time being, had no choice but to announce the filming of the same ghost and martial arts film to compete with "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple".

The title of the film they are going to make, "The King of Fighters", is still the same story template with nothing new. However, Shao Zuiweng thinks that "The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple" will most likely be similar. Ye Luofei will just invest money in movie stars and production costs. , everyone finally competed for special effects and stars, so he also went in this direction.

The only bright spot of "The King of Fighters" is the starring role.

The heroine is popular actress Chen Yumei. In 1926, Shao Zuiweng and Qiu Qianxiang co-directed the film "Tang Bo Hu Spots Qiuxiang". Shao Zuiweng boldly cast the 16-year-old newcomer Chen Yumei to play the role of Qiuxiang. After the film was released, the response was enthusiastic, and Chen Yumei became famous in one fell swoop.

There are also pornographic tabloids claiming that Chen Yumei exchanged her first blood for her first acting role, but I don't know whether it is true or not.

Anyway, she later married Shao Zuiweng, so the foreshadowing was eliminated.

In 1933, "Diansheng Daily" held a selection of the "Top Ten Male and Female Stars", and the final ranking was Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Jin Yan, Chen Yanyan, Wang Renmei, Gao Zhanfei, Li Zhuozhuo, Chen Yumei, Zheng Junli, and Li Lili. Chen Yumei ranked eighth, she is indeed a popular actress!

The male lead is Zhou Kongkong, a famous comedy star, and the second male lead is Zhang Zhizhi, who later became famous for his role as a gangster in "The Goddess".

This lineup can be described as very luxurious.

As for Lianhua's first script, "Spring Dreams in the Old Capital", but Hu Die flew away, he had to use another script "Yuan Yan Qing Yuan", which is going to compete with "Blood and Tears of Yellow Flowers".

Luo Mingyou's ideas were the same as Shao Zuiweng's, but he adhered to the director's power system, so he didn't interfere too much.

The heroine he used is also the famous Tang Tianxiu.

Just as they were thinking about how to attack Ye Luo's Yip Film Company, Ye Luo was working with Hu Die at the Star Film Company.