Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 December 1937 — Page 18

Shifley Leads ‘Best 10 List’ Again but Crooner Crosby Provides Upsef of ‘37 Rating

Bing Lands in Fourth Place After Jump From 22d; Gable and Taylor Are Second and Third; Sonja Henie, New Star, Grabs Eighth.

[TIMES 'SEEK-A-STAR'

SILHOUETTE CONTEST WINNER

By JAMES THRASHER

Now is the time of year when critics, fans and others, in and out of the cinema swim, choose up sides, pick| their favorites and quote their odds. It’s all good fun, but there is one “10 best” list that really carries weight—one that the stars must surcly scan with breathless and fearful interest, for it is their bread-and-butter barometer. Each year the Motion Picture¢

Herald, a trade paper, polls the country’s exhibitors for the 10 best money makers of the year. Because | the results are the real acid test of popularity, you should be interested. So here they are for 1937: . Shirley Temple. . Clark Gable. . Robert Taylor. . Bing Crosby. . William Powell. . Jane Withers. . Fred Astaire Rogers. 8. Sonja Henie. 9. Gary Cooper. 10. Myrna Loy. This is Shirley's second vear as the industry’s biggest ‘“grosser.” So it looks again as if glamour weren't the film fan’s staple commodity. The George Temples can just sit back and relax for another year. Bing! The Upset You have to read down to fourth place before you find eny big upsets. For Mr. Gable took “place money” in 1936, and Mr. Taylor moves up into the payoff from fourth position last year. But Bing, the crooning turf magnate, really has made strides in the past 12 months. He was eating everybody’s dust in 1936; finished in 22d place, in fact, though probably no one but Mr. Crosby took the trouble to figure it out. You may recall, though, that he was right up there with Mae West last year when the Government published the highest salaried movie stars. Two other surprises follow on the Crosby heels. The suave Mr. Powell moved from 17th to fifth place, and little Miss Withers, 20th CenturyFox’ other marvel moppet, forged ahead from 15th. That's not bad for a little girl who gets Miss Temple’s leavings from the story department and usually is played as an also-ran on double bills.

Dancers Drop

The first drop in the list is the Astaire-Rogers team, which temporarily has parted company. Last year found them in third place. Mr. Cooper moves up from 10th position, and Miss Loy, the somewhat less than better-half of the “Thin Man” team, nevertheless was good enough to come up from Neo.-18.

There is no comparative analysis on Sonja Henie, for she wasn’t even in the movies when the last list was compiled. But the fact that she skated into the first 10 on two pictures ought to win Miss Henie a blue ribbon for the “Wonder Girl of 1937,” or something—even though she has no competition in her field, and remains the only star in Hollywood for whom they can’t hire a double. Of course, with all the shifts in the top bracket, someone had to be left behind. Half the 1936 winners

and Ginger

WHAT, WHEN, WHERE | APOLLO

“Madame 0 with Gladys George and John Beal at 11:24; 2:36, 5:

:00. Y Manhattan with Myrna Loy, Clark Gable and Wilham Pow! at 12:36, 5:48, 7 and

CIRCLE PRIL o the reat. with Anns

le, Anton Walbrook and H wal ner, at 11, 1:41, 4:23, 7:03 and

INDIANA I

“True Confession,” with Carole Lombar d and Pred at

Melodrama,”

KEITH'S | Ecstasy,” with Hedy Kiesler, at 1. 3:25, 5:50. 8:15 and 10:40. “Atlantic Flight,” with Dick Merrill, Jac mbie and Paul Stone, at 13, 2:25, 4:50, 7:15 and 9:40.

LOEW’S

and 1a * with Leslie Howard and Blondel, at 12:40, 3:50,

a, Don’t Cry,” with Judy and and Mickey Rooney, at 11:15, 2:20, 5:25 and 8:30.

LYRIC

“Missing Witnesses,” with John Jasel and Bick Purcell, at 11:50, 2:30,

128. 8:26 and 10:46. - “Gamer Girhy of 1938,” with Nils ML anlund, at 1:05, 3:45, 6:43 and OHIO

d Wooly.” ith Ja wiltla and “Love Tunder Fire.” Ale

| AMBASSADOR “Double Wedding,” with William

Powell and Myrn Lo us - fo aM a Loy. Also “Break ALAMO

“Trails Divide,” with Tom Keane. Also “Bad Guy,” with Bruce Cabot.

“Wi

have dropped out. They are Joe E. Brown, Dick Powell, Joan Craw-

ford, Claudette Colbert and Jean-

ette. MacDonald, who finished last year in that order. Popularity Is the Test Evidently it isn’t superior acting that pulls them in, or out-and-out comedy. One doesn’t see any Paul Munis or Luisé Rainers or Ronald Colmans in either year’s list. Or Spencer Tracys, Charles Laughtons or Fredric Marches. Last year the above named, plus W. C. Fields, Edward G. Robinson, Norma Shearer, Jean Arthur and Lionel Barrymore finished outside the first 25. Such gifted performers as Miss Rainer, Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Bob Burns and Burns and Allen didn’t even make the first 85. It will be interesting to -see the complete 1937 ratings and make comparisons. And after we have

done that, Dale Carnegie probably will remain the only person who

really knows the secret of popularity.

IN NEW YORK —s GEORGE ROSS

New Hit, "Vieni Vieni," Has Song Peddlers in Tin Pan Alley Nervous; They All Overlooked It.

EW YORK, Dec. 20.—There are a number of song pedtilers in Tin Pan Alley who are nervously biting their nails in time with a tune entitled “Vieni Vieni.” They are defacing their manicures out of sheer

frustration. For here is a valuable property around & couple of years like an abandoned waif. Don’t say that you haven’t heard

the tune, because if you spin a radio dial now and then, you wowld have heard little else the past few months. Around Song Row, they predict that “Vieni Vieni” is only on its way, and that, in good time, it will drum into the national ear as persistently as “The Peanut Vendor” or “The Music Goes”—you remember—clockwise. That's why the boys in Tin Pan Alley are blue because any one of them might have owned such a fortune as will #crue to “Vieni Vieni” before it fades out. Rudy ‘Vallee owns a stick of its royalty money— and well he should—for it was the curly-headed crooner who nursed “Vieni Vieni” along to its present popularity. And even he spent two years convincing himself and the public that it was a good song.

As Vallee, in an off-moment between croons at the Paradise, relates the history of “Vieni Vieni,” . it 'seems that this Corsican chant - has enjoyed a checkered history. Vallee first heard about it from John Royal, who is an executive of one of.the major radio networks. While Paris, Royal had been impressed with the French enthusiasm for Toni Rossi's singing of “Vieni Vieni”—on the air, on phonograph records and in concert.

Rossi, who is the Rudy Vallee of the continent, had. been plugging the tune since as far back as 1934 with consistent success. And he also learned that Vincent Scotto, who composed it, freely admitted that it wasn't entirely his idea, for the Italians have been revering Vieni Vieni as a folk song since the middle of the 19th Century.

- Vieni to Vallee

Anyway, Mr. Royal brought back a copy of this lilting melody on the theory that if it served a Gallic crooner well, it deserved to fall into

TOMORROW HENRY Bo and His 14 Artists Ladies’

that has been kicking

the hands of Maine’s most prominent ex-undergraduate. To put it to the test, Vallee had his arranger orchestrate it for the Connecticut Yankees and at the first hearing, decided to forget the whole thing. Neither nor his musicians liked its twists and turns and they threw the sheet music to the bottom of the heap of their musical library. The song publishers were equally indifferent; if Vallee did not toss his homburg into the air about the tune, Why should they? And “Vieni Vieni” lay dormant several months until a certain night when the Vallee air show was being arranged. The program for the forthcoming Thursday was shy of one song and in thumbing through his catalogs the crooner picked out the hapless tune from Corsica, He decided to give it another chance and the reaction, after he sang and played it across the ether, was not terrific. There was a satisfying pile of fan mail, but not enough to warrant a rumor in Tin Pan Alley that a new star song had been born.

After Vieni, the Deluge

several music publishers and they politely rejected the. song again. But by this time the crooner had taken a lively interest in the melody that had harried him since its

INDIANA

Daughter of Shanghai

With Anna a Wong

p72

RN WRRE

Meanwhile, Vallee had solicited |

‘Never H

I had such a grand time out

my life.

By MAXINE VIC (The Times “Seek-A-Star Silhouette” Contest Winner)

Miss Maxine Vice, The Times “Seek-A-Star” Contest winner, alighting from an American Airliner at Municipal Airport Saturday afternoon after her; tour of the film capital.

ad So Mu

ch Fun in My Life, Tech Senior nior Says as Prize Trip Ends

: <

Maxine Vice Watches Movies Made at Two Huge! Studios; Sees Betty Grable's Glittering Diamond, Talks of Indiana With Marjorie Weaver.

there in Hollywood that half the

time I just couldn’t believe it was me. I never had so much fun in all

3 Am I glad that I won The Times contest even if I did have to work so hard! I'm just a senior at Tech High School and never had traveled much and vas I thrilled when I boarded one of those American Airlines

luxury plares at Municipal Air-& port on Dec. 4! I'd never been on an airplane before and that one was just too luxurious for words. It was a grand, smooth trip as far as Tucson, Ariz. Then the weather got bad and the

little jumpy. We had to make overnight stops at Memphis and Fort Worth, but that was a treat for me, too.

Arrives in Hollywood

And then for the big moment of my life—arrival last Tuesday at Hollywood airport! Right in the film capital of the world—and I've always been an admirer of the film stars. I registered at the Plaza Hotel and then got all set to see “just everything.” And I really did. I went to the Music Box Theater on Hollywood Blvd. and sat and listened while Cecil B. DeMille directed ‘stars in a Columbia network broadcast of “Your Witness” on the Radio Theater of The Air. That was nice, but I was waiting more to visit the studios. I did go fo a studio and had just one grand time. I saw them making a scene in “Bluebeard’s Eighth wife” with Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. They were too busy to shake hands with visitors, but I was very close to them.

Gary Really a Giant

Claudette is captivating and Gary is very big. and tall and handsome. He's really a giant. Between scenes Claudette was explaining a new kind of cigaret holder to Ernst Lubitsch. He’s one of the thrze great directors that I saw. The others were Darrell Zanuck and Adolph Zukor. While Claudette was talking, her big, black French poodle ran about the stage and refused to let me pet him.

. \ They had the most gorgeous fixtures on the set. They amazed me. Then one of the bright spots of this “Hollywood dream” of mine was lunch at one of the studio cafes. Seems like there was no end to the movie folks who came in there whil2 I was eating—and very fancy lobster, too.

Pictur: Taken With Betty

There wire Mr. Cooper, Miss Colbert, Cecil Cunningham, John How-

export from Paris. He had devised an English translation of the lyrics and in a Florida engagement last winter sang those to the great delight of the Southern clime vacationists. ; He repeated it on the air four or five times and soon a music publisher came forward and said that he would take a chance and bring it out. Shortly after Vallee returned North, rival bandmasters were playing “Vieni Vieni” consistently and it was caching on. It has caught on ever since. Two years of trial by error have rewarded ‘Vieni Vieni” with a national vogue. The expertly attuned ears of Tin Pan Alley are down, though; - “Vieni Vieni” _ slipped through the fingers of the song peddlers through their own fault. Their prije is hurt. A haphazard business, Tin Pan Alley, wkich is why the boys now are thumbing their files of old folk songs of almost any country.

THOUSANDS ITURNED AWAY AT LYRIC

pac Riotous Comedy Stage Show ' Draws Huge Crowds to the Lyric!

N. T. G. AnD His “Glamour Girls rls of 1938" * THE THREE S SAILORS

Sensational al Oumedy Tria

. LINA | BASQUETTE #Hovie Star—in. Person

'§ © JANIS ANDRE During Semi-Nude Dancer

Today

trip from there to Hollywood was a ble.

|CINEMA

- Come Early in Order {3 To B¢ Sure of Getting Seats §|

ard, Anna May Wong, Olympe Bradna, Reginald Denny, Lloyd Nolan, Director Lubitsch, Mr. DeMille, Porter Hall, Anthony Quinn, Louise Campbell, Akim Tamiroff and Jackie Coogan and his wife Betty Gra-

Betty had on a diamond that just glittered. Miss Campbell told me she used to visit friends in Lafayette and they took my picture beside her. At another set I saw them making “Dangerous fo Know” and got very close to another star Anna May Wong. The next day when I went to the same studio I watched them shooting some scenes for “Bulldog Drummond.” Working in that set were John Barrymore and some of the others I saw in the restaurant. They retook Barrymore in one scene four or five times just to get it exactly right.

Poses With Marjorie Weaver

It was awfully nice at another studio. They were shooting scenes for “Sally, Irene and Mary,’ There I saw and heard Alice Fay, ‘Joan Davis and Marjorie Weaver. Miss Weaver posed for a picture with me and we became friends. She said She used to go to Indiana University. I had lunch at the studio and saw a lot more stars, too. The “lot” is ‘a mere matter of 126 acres. I saw some scenes from Shirley Temple's pictures there, too. There surely is a lot to see on these sets. How they make everything seem so real is marvelous. I saw wardrobes of Marlene Dietrich and Mae West and models on which the stars’ clothes are fashioned. There are just roomfuls of jewelry. Of course it’s “stage” jewelry, but it certainly looks like the real thing. There’s lots to see outside the

studios; too. I saw homes of some of the stars in the hills off Sunset Blvd., the Grauman Chinese Theater, Eddie Cantor's Gift Shop, Clara Bow’s “It” Restaurant, and the Brown Derby. It’s warm out there and doesn’t seem like December, but every night on Hollywood Blvd. there appeared a float with Santa Claus and different stars. Boris Karloff and Freddie Bartholomew were on the float one night. Oh, yes, I saw Wallace Beery on the street. : I went through the stores, but it was hot for Christmas shopping and rices were pretty high. Guess that’s because movie People have oodles of money.

Act Like Ordinary Folk

The way movie people dressed struck me as peculiar. There is no convention at all. They wear most anything. On one side of Hollywood Blvd. I saw a star in slacks

and on the other side one wearing |

a fur coat.

But movie people just seemed to act as ordinary folk, even if they do have a lot of glamour. - They do have to work pretty hard.

I had a nice trip back on another American Airlines luxury sleeper ship. And I had a nice quiet sleep in one of its berths. Got back here Saturday afternoon. \ Well, after seeing it all, I. still like the movies, but I don’t have any ambition to get into them. I still want to be a commercial artist. The whole trip was lovely—just too grand to describe!

PIPE CONNOISSEUR

A thief, connoisseur of pipes, has made away with a number of Jean Hersholt’s finest meerschaums, the latest, one the son of the actor recently brought from Denmark.

TAT a e— 1

Tonight's Presentation at Y our

Neighborhood Theaters

NORTH SIDE

16th and Delaware Double Feature e

UPTOWN _ 42nd and College

Double Feature Zasu Pit tts “FORTY NAUGHTY L Shirley Temple ** Po.

8st. eR $ Fr ane ST. CLAI LA Nurs «piFBISONER oF TERDAT TALBOTT Tomi ¥asy’ ' “BRIDE WORE E RED Dick Powell NARGTY SHOW”

R E X Double rn “100 MEN AND A GH » Bruce Cabot “BAD GUY”

8156 Be 10th hy Doers 48

RIVOLI doves Onsen 5:

= «CHABLIE CRAN ON BROADWAY”

TACOMA “2442 E. Wash St.

Double Feature or ald Colman “PRISONE

Bruce pall BR GUY”

TU XEDO “Dousie ie Feunre in pr. vivian VEIN LR BoNGALow"” IRVING ‘Holi feb “THAT CERTAIN WOMAN” WEST SIDE a HOW. ARD "Double "Fe and Blaine

“RIDIN Dolores Del

OLANGER SPY”

GARRICK “asim

Double Feature “100 MEN Ds Sanus Durbin “GOOD 00D OLD LD Sok »

Nsble s and id Mame.

S sky “McFarland a" NERAL “003 MEN uw A GIRL

Stratford : Deus py “THEY GAVE HIM A GUN»

DREAM.

; Mae Oliver “ Mae 0 ___ Sys’ Sidney Miss 5 ALoRice’ R | RIT. Z _ Miinols as ald | d Sith “i able Fea “od “CHAN ON BROADWA a

Hollywood ne Eon

“IDOL OF THE CROWDS”

EMERSON Ee Marian A TURDAY'S HEROES”

| SANDERS

2702 W. 10th St. Double Feature Warn

S ST ATE NY MY DEAN MISS ALDRICH

BELMONT W. Wash, & Belmont

Detble Feature “THE PERFECT : ‘Piek Powell VARSITY ble Feature

[DATSY 3

Oat CE IN CIRCULATION’ NE WON'T FORGET”

SPEEDWAY SE

“THE PERFE “on SUCH SUCH A ™ + SOUTH SIDE

New Garfi eld in i FOUNTAIN SQUARE

gE Bn

at Fountain Double Feature “LIFE BEGINS IN ; Jean Mulr SO

GROVE pio & Churchman

ow” nb 3 Mich. St.

BONDAGE” SIDE

on Lyric Screen | "MISSING WITNESSES”

RA RENE RE ERE RA RA RE IER RI AA RE RA

; 5 . . [na

"Betty Grable autographs a sheet of the music from her next picture, ‘College Swing,” for Miss Vice during luncheon at the Paramount Studio Cafe.

Ex-Local Girl in Hollywood Weds

HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 20 (U. PJ. —Priscilla Lawson, brunet screen player formerly of Indianapolis, and Alan Curtis, picture actor, revealed today that they were married secretly Nov. 14. They eloped to Las Vegas, Nev., with a taxi driver and county clerk as witnesses. Miss Lawson is the daughter of Mr, and Mrs. Elmer Shortridge of Indianapolis. She is employed cur-

rently at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |:

Studio,

The Times contest winner chats with Louise Campbell, featured with John Howard in Paramount’s “Bulldog Drummond” series. Miss Vice also visited the 20th Century-Fox studios,

USING REAL GOLD

Because he was able to find no substitute which would “pan out” realistically, Producer - Director

Frank Lloyd used rea] gold dust for ‘primitive mining scenes in es Fargo.”

Only

Four More Shopp

ing Days

"Til Christmas

STORE OPEN 'TIL 9 O'CLOCK .'TIL CHRISTMAS

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