Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 December 1936 — Page 10

PRODUCERS STAND PAT ON OLD FAVORITES

ERNIE RELATES FATE | OF SCREEN FAILURES|

Only 6 New Stars Added During 1936

Flynn, Havilland, Simone, Taylor, Durbin and Breen Hit Top.

BY JAMES THRASHER Year-end reviews usually come in tens—the 10 pictures, performances, top jobs of directing, photography and so on. But one can’t pick the 10 outstanding new stars,

because there weren't that

best |

many. In spite of the fact that Hollywooc's eight major studios turned

WPA Recital

Triumph for. Composers

Compositions of Indiana Musicians Are Played At Cropsey.

Artistic compulsion being |

| what it is, the Federal Music | Project is serving a two-fold |

Not only is it sup- |

purpose. |

plying many performers and | composers with the necessaries of life, but it also is furnishing them with a means

HOOFER

ber of the comedy hoofing team

Donald Duck Festival on

Loew's Bill

What amounts to a Donald |

Duck festival will be offered | by Loew’s at 9 o'clock Satur-

| many

Nine Walte Disney features have

| been selected. They include “Don-

Virginia Estes, feminine mem-

ald and Pluto,” “Mickey’s Circus,” |

of artistic expression, espe- | cially in the field of compo- |

of Barr and Estes, will be one of the stage attractions on the Lyric’s Christmas Week bill.

out more than 500 feature pictures in 1936, they stood pat on favorites of former seasons except in a half

dozen instances. These additions

to the cinematic constellations are |

Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Simon Simone, Robert Bobby Breen Before proceeding

Errol

Maybe you but you

constitutes “starring.” think you know already, might be wrong. It's of type size and billing. it means little to the average movie-goer whether Gloria Glotz’

name appears above her latest pic- | the |

ture, “Stifled Souls,” and in same size type. But in Hollywood, It means Gloria's bread and butter. Every picture exhibitor receives a sample billing which must be followed. Usually the star, and sometimes the picture, gets the largest

Taylor, | it that way. and Deanna Durbin. | further, it | might be well to find out just what |

all a matter |¢ g Probably | Was 17

i low,

The chorus . . . sometimes they reach stardom,

BY ERNIE PYLE @® Times Special Writer HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 23.—This is definitely not a sob story, although | it could be if you wanted to write It concerns what hapto a girl who comes Holly-

to a producer. He had known her slightly when she first came, knew she could dance, and he liked her. So one day he sent a message, asking if she would like to come into a big-time picture as an extra. She Pa ophutie Fortier ts wer veal | had never really yrvon up the movies - | in her heart, so she went. And now name. She always was crazy about | (. is temporarily happy, and gratedancing, even when she was a ful. ee i She's up before 5 SY JHU, yesh : ; / and nearly every night she has nd RO New York to be a | s(ay after dinner and rehearse till That wat seers nears ago. Theo |10 Of 10:30. She'll dance a little in was beautiful then, and she's beau- a she ow hale tiful now. She is short, and just te ORY ’ plump enough not to be skinny, and | she’s Sen Se 2 Souple D1 Close. she has coal black hair and coal | Jus x Sr 0 g gi a black eyes. Her voice is soft and | 1OP oi the down, BY Nobody would take her for | Everything now depends on this more than 20 (picture. If Theo's little part is : | good, maybe she'll be signed up for

pens

sition. Proof that creative effort is going on in our own state was given last night through a concert at Cropsey Auditorium. Chamber music by four Indiana composers was heard | in this composers’ forum laboratory, to give it its proper title. The concert served to bring forth two string quartets of particularginterest and considerable merit; Roland Leich’s Variations on a Theme by Johann P. Schulz, and an Elegiac Stanza by William I. Pelz, the music project’s state director. Variations, seriously and correctly done, can be among the most difficult forms of musical expression. But Mr. Leich has handled his material with skill and excellent taste. For a theme he chose a charming little folk-song by the early nineteenth century composer, Schulz.

ARIANNAS BOOK

YULE CONCERTS

Several Christmas concerts have been booked by the Ariannas, girls’ choir directed by Miss Edith Jane Fish of the Burroughs School of Music. gagement at the Veterans’ pital; cantata, the Greenwood Christian Church; carols at the home of Mrs. Frank A. Hamilton, and a broadcast program for the Christian Men Builders Class of the Third Christian Church.

Among these is an Hosa performance of Manney’s ‘The Manager Throne,” at

mersehnsucht.”

(Why a good Hoosier can not long for summer in her

“Moving Dal,” “Grand Opera,” “Alpine Climbers,” “Orphans’ “Polo Team,” “On Ice” and “Band Concert.” All the Disney favorites will be represented in the showing: Donald, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Horace Horsecollar, Pluto and the rest, Saturday's all-color presentation is to be the longest cartoon showing yet given at Loew’s. Altogether patrons will be given an hour and a half of entertainment. Former early morning shows have presented only six cartoons. Manager Ward Farrar announces that doors will be opened at 8:30 a. m. to take care of the expected crowd of Disney fans of all ages.

Picnic,” |

“WE'RE GLAD TO

SEE YOU BACK,

you rascals you!”

++. and your new hit, the marvel. ous sequel to “The Thin Man” is funnier, faster and has more thrills than your first unforgettable suc. cess. And that's saying plenty

“Darling, which-

CTH

Last 2 Days!

25¢ fo 6 CHARLES

LAUGHTON

“REMBRANDT”

ever way | look at it, it's @ mystery to me...What makes a gorgeous dame like you love a mugg like me?”

native tongue was not explained.) In rondo form and modern harmony, the piece contained an abundance of interesting themes. It might profit from greater unity of mood and smoother connection between the various parts, but it offered many intriguing moments. “ Following the music, Mrs. Frank Cregor spoke on “Indiana Composers.” An audience which almost outnumbered the performers was present.—(By J. Q. T.)

type, which is the standard, labelled “100 per cent.” If there are costars, each receives 100 per cent billing, with the ‘super star's” name above. Supporting players, directors and producers get 75 50 or 25 per cent billings, depending upon past | performances or a box-office gamble,

Star Billing Sells Film Take Bobby Breen, for instance,

Fine Quartet Music

Both theme, announced without repeats, and variations are equally terse. Admirable invention and good contrapuntal technique are displayed. It is truly quartet music, and highly enjoyable. Mr. Pelz’ short piece was of a different nature, out equally effective. The thoughtful, somewhat melancholy and “meaty” theme eis announced by the cello and devel-

She had some good breaks in New York, She ann in five | teady work. Nothing big, of course, | musical shows, including the Scan- | but at least a new foothold. But if dals. Like most beautiful stage |10thing happens, then she’s going dancers, she got the cali to Holly- [back to New York at last, to start wood. She came two years ago, pe long climb over again, from the under a six-month contract to a | Peginning. big studio. It’s Now Verna Leslie One of (ne

Year® Ss G Pictures; eat

| Out in the Cold | Theo came to our apartment for She made two pictures, playing | dinner one Sunday night. That's the juvenile lead. I don't know | the only night she can be sure of what was wrong. Maybe nothing | Peing free. She was as gracious a

LAUREL, HARDY

p Our Relat ions

NICK a TTT the detective

whose second picture. “Rainbow On the River,” opens Friday at the Indiana, Bobby entered pictures this vear after unusual success on Eddie Cantor's radio show. Now he billed over such gifted and experitors as May Robson, Charles Butterworth, Alan Mowbray and Benita Hume, This doesn’t mean that Bobby is a better actor than | are. The producers simply | are depending on him to sell the | picture. That of course, is why | stars are born, or rather, made. Robert Taylor's sensational rise proves that new stars, if few, still | are able to click in a large ‘way. He entered pictures in 1935, was | starred this year, and wound up | 1936 by playing opposite Greta Garbo in “Camille,” Loew's

is |

enced a

they

called the envy of most of Holly-

wood's leading men.

After playing in French pictures, | week. But it was always two months | between pictures.

Simone came to America’s West Coast to score heavily in her first season. Mr. Flynn ranked right | up with Mr. Taylor as what used | to be known as a matinee idol. Miss de Havilland has yet to be top-billed alone, but her studios explain that it simply is because the right part has not come along. Meanwhile, she continues as a popular co-star. Little Deanna Durbin, another of Eddie Cantor's gifts to the cinema, technically is the star of “Three Smart Girls,” which should be along any time now. A juvenile singer of promise, she is groomed for first picture public.

MUSEUM TO GET

Miss

this takes with

SINGER'S MEDALS

By United Press HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 23. — The Smithsonian Institution will receive medals and honors bestowed upon the late Mme. SchumannHeink, it was revealed today by executors of rer will

WHAT, WHEN, WHERE APOLLO

“One Way Passage’ © Powell and Xay Francis, st 3:51. 5:51, 7:81 Rnd 9:51.

“College Holiday." with Jack Benny Bunt and en, ‘Mary Boland, ‘11:05. 1:17, 3:29, 5:41, 7:38 and RISO rll-color carat 12 5:18, 7:31 and

William 1i:581,

with

51 1:01

at 10:15. toon

9:43.

Po eve’ eT

KEITH'S “The Pool." presented bv the Federal Players, Curtain at 15

LOEW'S

“Rembrandt.” with Charles Laughton, at MN, 1:50, 1 40, 7:30 and 10:10 Also “Our Reladons. ' with Laurel Hardy, at 12 3:25, 6:15 and 9:05.

LYRIC

‘White Hunter." with Warner Baxter, June Lang and Gail Patrick, at 11:48. 2:30, 5:22, 8.14 and 10:28 also

Sundevs lle at 1:07 3%. 6:41 and 33 ALAMO the Second,’ with Iso, ‘“Boss Rider of with Buck Jones

AMBASSADOR

“Tallent Is the Word for Carle with Gladys George and Arline Judge. Also, “North of Nome,"

Jack Holt. OHIO

“Back to Nature, with the Jones Family. Also, "Desirable.

Patsy Gun

with

MISTLETOE DANCE XMAS EVE ADM., 15¢ TILL 8:30

THE CASINO

3547 E. WASH ST. Buy Your Tickets Now! For New Year's Eve Frolic. Adv. Ticket Sale 40c. Tickets on Sale Downtown at The Morrow Nut Houses Three Downtown Stores

in the cold, cold sunshine of Cali- | { fornia—alone.

| independents.

which is | New Year's week attraction. | In that position he safely might be | She was the leading lady—at $75 a |

was; this is a crazy business, you 8uest as I've ever had. know. Anyhow, the six months were | She is intelligent and quiet. She up, and the studio didn’t take up | has been very bitter, but that is alTheo's option. She was out. Out| most gone now. Still, there is a soft, | unspoken sadness in her, like the | summer wind through the trees in | Indiana, and it makes her more happens to hundreds of | Vie as them beat it right | beautiful, and it probably will alback East. But Theo was cursed | Ways be there. " with pride. She wouldn't go back.| AS I said, Theophane Fortier is So she stuck it out, and sank down | her real name. She went for a while to the independents. They are the | PY the stage name of Frances Grant. smaller studios—the lone rangers, |And then Something else. And 4 now she’s Verna Leslie. But she Now there are independents and 5% Iti SA ha el a few who | doesn't like that, so it'll likely be some other name you see in big letare the finest producers in Holly- ters some day on the theater | marquees—if you ever see it at all.

Next—Joan Crawford.

That girls.

“quickies, » the cheap pictures used in side-street theaters. When you | say “independents” out here, youy usually say it with a sneer.

a meweme wer | Indiana Roof Adds Nights

| picture. They turn out these “quick- | ies” in a week, which means $75 a |

That around $8 a week.

| small

being | solo appearances if | the |

| She wouldn't write home for money. |

( next.

Life in the independents was unspeakable. Hard, cruel work. Theo | had to buy her own make-up ma- | terials, and her own clothes.

than her $75 salary. And between

pictures she waited, and wondered. |

She bought an old second-hand | car when she first came out. Things | looked pretty good that first six | months, coupe, on the installment plan. But when the big slump came in Theo's career, she lost the car. She had nearly $500 in it.

She Took the Job! Theo was down, and up against it. |

She could have had money from a |

y ras h tl zy about | a I | Gentlemen are adding their bit to

her, but she wouldn't take it. She didn't tell me that. He did. She lived from one day to the She told me she really didn't | know what would happen. The loneliness was ghastly, She is not a | gregarious girl; she doesn't seek | friends, so she hadn't many. Occasionally she ate sandwiches | at a drug store in Hollywood. The

He heard in a roundabout wav that she was down and needed help.

So one day he talked to her, and |°

embarrassed and for you |

he Jas very around-the-bush about it, hardly

do I start?” And he said, “Right now,” so she took off her coat and started dishing out sodas.

It's All on This Piclure— SEs did that for four

LIRLLE

On | one picture she had to spend more |

| in place. | a large Australian bush tree which

know how to ask a movie | star if she'd want a job behind a | soda fountain. But when he finally | got it out, Theo said, “Do I! When |

months. | Some of her old acquaintances saw ! her in there. The word got around |

GALA HOLIDAY ATTRACTION!

Max Gordon presents A Bit of Theatrical Enchnntment |

PRIDE & PREJUDICE

JANE AUSTEN'S Great Novel Dramatired uy J Helen Jerome

Ws Has Pewitched pie

Sow | Son

| Thursday Dancing Scheduled

During Holiday Weeks.

During the holiday weeks the Indiana Roof is to abandon its policy of five-nights-a-week dancing in favor, of six. The added nights will be Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, which fall on Thursday, a night

so she traded it in on a | When the Roof ordinarily is dark.

Christmas decorations already are Chief feature of these is

| has been placed in the lounge be-

| fore the newly installed fireplace.

| Other effects are strings of red and | green lights above the dance floor, | large red Santa Clauses and holiday | greeting signs. Ayars LaMarr and his Southern

Fredy | Martin, Paul Ash and Harold Stokes.

| as well as on NBC network pro-

| grams at the Oriental Theater, Chi-

cago.

owner knew who she was, for neigh- | | borhood store owners always know | their movie patrons.

KOLKER WAS DIRECTOR

Henry Kolker, member of the sup- | porting cast of “They Wanted to | Marry,” once was a noted director. George Arliss, Vera Gordon, Alice Binay and others have acted under im

oped in the other strings. A well constructed second theme, ascending through the four instruments, a return to the original idea, and the composer is finished. In this world of discursive young composers, such economy of expression merits a cheer. Neither writer strayed far from the paths of usual harmony and succeeded in saying something in spite of it. Jules Brewer was represented twice, first by a Sonatina for violin, cello and piano, and later by ‘“‘Impressions of Spring,” for string quartet, double bass, flute, clarinet and horn. Plays Own Composition The Sonatina is merely poor salon music, but the “Impressions” were more interesting. In three movements, “Dawn,” “A Quiet Scene in the Country” and “Hills and Highways,” the work was pleasantly pictorial and disclosed sound knowledge of the various instruments’ possibilities. Heard recently in a piano recital, Miss Virginia Hitchcock opened the program as performer in her composition for piano and cello, “Som-

18.0

CHRISTMAS DAY

Open

DIANA

the floodgates of your heart to

the most appealing star and the

grandest story in years!

Cantor's wonder

Andonthe boy singer of the alr!

Some Program!

EDWARD EVERETT HORTON in “LET'S MAKE A MILLION”

INBOW| RIVER"

with MAY ROBSON CHAS. BUTTERWORTH

TALKS CHINESE...

Tonight’s Presentations at Your

NEIGHBORHOOD THEATERS

SINGS SWELL NEW SONGS WITH ALICE, TOO

STATE BELMONT

DAISY “Suh

RITZ ZARING UPTOWN

GARRICK ST. Cl CIR * gal Fatt UDELL TALBOTT REX Stratford | MECCA

DREAM

WEST SIDE EAST SIDE WV Cag 3155 EB. 10th

oi Br ne | R | Vv Ol Li Doors ¢ Open 5:45 | G | “VALIANT IS THE WORD FOR n CARR | — w |

IVE YOUR RT “G OUR HEA WE “WIVES N EVER KNOW

And Added Attraction 2482 E. Wash, St. Dotible Feature |

= Sone cimont | TACOMA mes Gleason

Guy Standing “MURDER ON THE ARIDAL PATH’ pe ATH” I'D GIVE MY LIFES “TRAPPED BY TELEVISION”

“THE MAN 1 MARRY” TU) 402 E. New YorsUXEDO

2540 W. Mioh, St. Tonight Only “KING

Double Roasure Also Selected Shorts

‘STATE FAIR Topen on as LSB E. Wash, St. at Rural

“POSTAL INSPECTOR”

NORTH SIDE’

linois and 34th Miginols Feature William Powell “MY _MAN “GODFREY” Jane Withers— PEPPER" “Central at Fall Creek Bounle Hature wn EANHENRY THE TRACTORS”

E OF A

AK = © 5507 E, Wash, St, IRV IN ic Warren iim THR Tr CHEERS Yor NE 4630 'E. 10th St. EMERSON _ Hhh¥ghit Wallace Beery OLD 5 pon 8 2116 E. 10th St. HAMILTON rae: Bony “CHARLIE onAN. AT “ray RACE TRACK” PAR KER oul int

“TAMING HE W “THE LAST ~

STRAND °

1332 ash. a. John Boles “CRAIG “MAGNIFICENT

BE WIYE” i N' on “Uden wt ‘Olitton Paramount Frearic 30 Wa 2 fontent, font “THE a 2 Grow Always the Best SE

of Pletures BLJOU

Sian Fx RE BT ry Te So coo x = nap 1 rl FOTN Sounre

SANDERS R

mire | ANON EE Tn

2nd i lege Double Feature John Boles

‘CRAIG'S “GIRL oN THE FRONT PAGE” “30th and Tlinois

“FORGOTTEN FACE

ET PAY ROL"

Wayne

ro enry Hunter

wom E TROUBLE”

Joan

TR Ya, CROWD” a Pen ARATE,

or [a J

“If you can't figure out why I'm nuts about you, then you're not the detective | thought | married!” SONGS, TOO!

You'll getan extra thrill when you hear

"SMOKE DREAMS”

and ‘Blow That Horn’

Say “hello again” to Mr. and Mrs. Thin Man and Asta the Pup! Come onl See ‘em kicking the gong around...in &@ rowdy, rousing sequel to the grandest entertainment the screen has ever seenl.. New thrills! New fun...in the inimitable “Thin Man” manner! a W. S. VAN DYKE Production with JAMES STEWART ELISSA LAND]! JOSEPH CALLEIA JESSIE RALPH Alon Marshall « Teddy Hart

From the story by Dashiell Mammen Directed by W. 5. VAN DYKE Produced by Hunt Strwberg A Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Picture

Watch

this coming M.G-M hit! in hve Robert Taylor

~STARTING-—

CHRISTMAS DAY!