Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1938 — Page 5

Stage Play

iccess in One Medium |

‘Does Not Guarantee ] It in Other.

- By JAMES THRASHER Remarks about stage plays on the ‘gcreen seem to have been appearing here of late in mushroom profusion. So they might as well be gathered, served up and forgotten. . What brought it all\ about was “Stage Door’s” rapid-fire appearance here in “flesh” and film within one week. Since all of us had done a bit of carping at the picture mofor dramatic “butchery” and what not, “Stage Door” in the mov= jes was something of a surprise. Not only was it good, but Adapters Anthony Veiller and Morrie Ryskind and Director Gregory La Cava bequeathed us a yardstick to use on subsequent film translations. . When the measure was applied to “First Lady,” the screen ver= sion was found to be decidedly _ sHort. But “Tovarich,” which is at the Circle this week, came through as very satisfactory entertainment . fn its new medium.

Different Mediums ‘And that medium really is decidedly different. There is no betfter proof—if further proof is needed

—that stage and screen are of dif- |

ferent families, than to see the theater success translated directly to celluloid. Take a worthwhile and successful play, a brilliant corps of actors, and put them on the screen after a lo New York run. The result wotlld be dismal entertainment and a box-office “dud.” I imagine that even such a triumph as Maurice Evans’ “King Richard II” surely is, if filmed in its present form, would be a rather dull number. ‘Probably “personal magnetism” dsn't the accepted psychological term, but it serves as well as any to illustrate the stage’s power. With theatrical technique projected through the camera, however, we are conscious of only the three walls without the emotion. : Queerly enough, when the living actor is present, his audience is satisfied with make-believe of an ‘obvious sort. In fact, it demands ‘it. A play-goer may become absorbed, carried away, without for a moment fancying that he is ex-

-periencing reality. Reality Is Necessity

From shadowy forms on a screen, magnified to many times a plausible “size, we insist upon behavior that _gorresponds to life even when the situation does not. So the “operetta ‘fechnique” is accepted without thought or question on the stage. Yet when the screen “musical’s” romantic couple leads up shrough obvious dialog to a theme song, in midst of dramatic ‘action, most of us find our sense of reality assaulted. Unaccountable, perhaps, but true. ~ Where the screen loses in that ‘all-forgiving human contact, it ‘gains in its amazing speed and fluidity, its intimacy, its ability in “visible portrayal of emotion, its force of background music. ‘These, then, must be used as they were in “Stage Door.” Of course, the play disclosed Edna and George S. Kaufman at ‘their dramatic worst. The adapters, a flush of imagination not usucredited to movie writers, realized this. Retaining the flavor and ‘title, they built an entirely- new play—and a strictly movie play.

Film Betters Stage

Nothing in the stage production ‘approached the poignancy of the camera shot that showed Kay slowly ‘ascending the stairs to her suicide. And Messrs. Veiller and Ryskind borrowed an old stage trick to clinch the play's ending in a decisive manner. They simply employed the an‘cient but expedient of ~closing the picture with the scene “that opened it, thus completing the ‘eycle with unpretentious eloquence. made the Ferber-Kaufman finale, with the white spotlight and the quote from Queen Victoria, look like just what it was—hokum. . “First Lady,” like the Hollywood version of “Three Men on a Horse,” “managed to be deliciously funny as ‘regards lines, but it suffered from the static quality mentioned above. *“Tovarich” - introduced some outdoor scenes, and allowed Mikail and Georges to fight their duel all over the house. All this was to the picfure’s advantage. It’s only in the rare cases when talent of Paul Muni’s caliber is present that the movies can achieve “Life of Emile Zola,” which has talk and more talk, and still grips the attention. ] ‘Elsewhere, the cinema world must/ ‘move. Otherwise youll find the forming on the right—at the

ANUCK ASSIGNS TEMPLE PICTURE

BOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4—Signing Director Irving Cummings

Here’s the famous “Lubitsch touch” in action. Ernest Lubitsch, the celebrated European director (right), is showing Claudette Colbert how to look coy for a scene in “Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife,” coming soon to the Indiana. Except for the cigar, face, haircut, clothes and figure, you hardly can tell which is which, Gary Cooper, the other gentleman on the sofa, seems to be pining for his old Montana home.

the old, warm style.

IN NEW YORK —sy GECRGE Ron

Jauntiness Never Would Betray Cchan's Age; Nearing 60, and Baseball Still Is Pet Sport.

NEW YORK, Jan. 4—When your correspondent called, George M. Cohan was in lounging pajamas and dressing gown, He was in his den, a spacious comfortable room with furniture in A sliding-keyboard piano, such as Irving Berlin always has used, stood near a glass-inclosed display of baseballs, per= sonally autographed to the great G. M. by the great men of the diamond. Rare editions in handsome bindings lay about the takles and Mr. Cohan sat at an oak desk that looked venerable.

perbly elegant and tasteful house on upper 5th Ave. a long time. And he clings to it closely even new when he is Broadway's head man as the star of the musical comedy, “I'd Rather Be Right.” By his own admission, he doesn't get downtown, except for work. He rarely visits the rival shows. But he is devoted to the newsreels.

8 8 8

Morning constitutionals around the Reservoir have been Cohan rituals for two decades. He is, the legend goes, the most indefatigable walker of the show business. When he is disturbed by a notion for a new play or new role, a five-mile walk is a brief stroll for him. He will be 60 next July but his jauntiness in face, figure and carriage never would betray the three-score birth-

day Baseball still is his major enthusiasm; he is a fanatic on the subject. Singing, dancing and acting strenuously in “I'd Rather Be Right” for two and a half consecutive hours every night doesn’t tire him. He fancies feeding the pigeons on the grass of Central Park cvery morning. His domestics feel victorious when they can wheedle him through a five course breakfast. Start him on reminiscences of old, colorful Broadway characters—most of them his intimate friends, many of them gone—and he is happiest. For he tells countless ‘anecdotes racily and sparklingly.and with the inimitable gestures that belong only to him. So, over the breakfast table, which turned out to bé a luncheon, G. M. spoke musingly about old times and the new. He’s just worn out a pair of dancing shoes in “I'd Rather Be Right” and he can recall the days when it was impossible to wear them out. And he can remember the old hoofer ballad that ran, “Always hang on to your dancing shoes, if you don’t want to walk home.” He misses the old days of minstrelsy and the one-day stands they used to play across-country. He hasn't seen a dozen Broadway shows during the past three; years. For no particular reason, except that he likes the quietude of upper Fifth Ave. and the park in the evenings.

# » 8

His most devoted and best friends, he says, have been hoofers and he insists that the most pure of heart he has ever met in a crowded lifetime have been the boys who do the buck and wing. He doesn’t think much of the modern, garish Broadway; nor does he care for the orange drink stands, the gaudy neons and the hawkers. He never sees movies and you can conjecture that Holly{wood will never induce him to go out there again. One of the great pleasures of being back in a show,

dropping in to the dressing room after the performance. John Barrymore, his wife and mother-in-law dropped in the other evening, he reports, and they spent a long while

APOLLO 20D BIG WEEK!

RIT

BERL NAN BAN BERENS

he confides, is having old friends |

Mr. Cohan has lived in this su->

“chinning” about good old days in the theater. To Mr. Cohan, at the threshold of 60, the past 40 years seem like five or six. It seems like a short while ago, he muses, that he was playing a juvenile part in “Little Johnny Jones.” And he can’t reconcile himself to the long interval since he trotted around the country with the Family Cohan in plays and vaudeville. To G. M, at 60, the year skips around the maypole in a lively cycle. Before he realizes it; the ball players will be going south, and be fore he can get around to linin, the teams menfally, they wil = back at the Polo Grounds and the Yankee Stadium. He’s already begun asking his friends what they think of the next World Series.

WIG CURLS KEPT BY LARGE OVEN

HOLLYWOOD), Jan. 4 (U. P.).— Keeping the curl in 500 wigs, a difficult problem, was solved today by Jack Dawn, head makeup man at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio. The 500 sets of ringlets are used in the picture “Marie Antoinette.” Dawn installed a big steel oven near the set that bakes 35 wigs at a time, to set the curls.

LUPE REPORTED SIGNED FOR FILMS

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4 (U."P).—|. Lupe Velez, peppery Mexican film actress and wife of Johnny (Tarzan) Weissmuller, was reported to be planning to return to Mexico next month to make four motion pictures at a salary of $4500 a week. She recently returned to Hollywood from an assignment in Mexico.

HURRY to see

IT ‘MORGAN LTR ARTES

\ 1 Y Bolger - llona Massey

Io YER Ed!

The grand stage comedy recently at English’s . . funnier than ever on the

Should Tickle Motorists|

Super-Super Station With Military Drill Too Much. For Comic.

By PAUL HARRISON HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4.~All over the lot: In “The Big Broadcast of 1938," W. C. Fields does a satirical

sequence which should tickle all motorists. It's about those busy

young men at filling stations who give you everything from a shoe-

Fields, - with chauffeur, arrives at an imposing institution called the Happy Gasatorium—Super Service with a Super Super Smile. A platoon of uniformed attendants, complete with trumpeter, springs to attention and goes into a present-arms with an assortment of , cloths, wrenches and oil gauges.

for the comic, who stands up and launches into a patriotic speech. The chauffeur has to remind him that the men are not soldiers. Just then the trumpet tootles and the Happy Gassers smile in unison before swarming all over the car.

Bill's Happy Now

Bill Robinson finally picked the right horse, and when I saw the world’s greatest tap dancer today he was delightedly repaying a loan gs several hundred dollars to a 20thX executive, Bill’s trouble is that his plaasant but wisely adamant little wife collects his pay. checks each week, and all the money Robinson ever has is what he can win. So he'll borrow $100 from Clarence Brown to make a bet. Next day he’s borrowing $150 from Darryl Zanuek to repay Brown and make another bet. A $200 loan from Joseph Schenck takes care of Zanuck and buys a $50 ticket, And so it goes. Bill's credit is practically unlimited; probably would be even if he didn’t earn $3500 a week.

Fred’s a Busy Man

If Fred Allen happens to’ speak some irrelevent lines on his radio program, don’t be surprised. They’ll be part of the dialog of “Sally, Irene and Mary,” because Allen is a very harassed and confused entertainer these days. By dint of hard work and careful ‘planning, he arranged for four weeks of freedom from his radio job while he played in the picture. Allen writes his own stuff for the air, and he was sure he’d never be able to carry both jobs at once. But pictures have a way of being delayed. For four weeks the comedian twiddled his thumbs, fumed and otherwise did nothing at all. Today his life is a welter of cameras and microphones. He has to read nine newspapers a day and 10 magazines a week to get radio ideas. He scribbles at air continuities, studies the screen scrip, dashes for the - sound stage, rushes to the broadcasting studio. The other day he jumped up from a table in a Hollywood cafe and a little later handed his check and a $5 bill to Alice Faye on the set in Culver City.

Lane Keeps Busy

In any contest for the title of “Busiest Man in Hollywood,” though, you'd have to consider Richard Lane, He worked in 13 pictures last year, and right now is appearing in two at R. K. O., hopping from the set of “Lights Out,” where he has the role of a movie producer, to a nearby sound Sage where he is playing a detective in “Women Have a Way.” Lane also manages a lightheavy‘weight pug named Denny McShain and gets a lot of fights for him. Once a week he conducts a sports program on the air from a ldcal station, and on Sundays he appears

The militaristic touch is too much

el

Here's one the boys ‘are showing around ‘the Bloomington campus.

‘And they’re nearly as proud of it as

they are of the basketball victories

over Southern California and U. C. L. A, which they also brought back

from the West Coast. Fhe young lady in the picture is Olympe Bradna.

- The athletes, left to right, are Coach Platt and James O. Birr. The gentleman on the right, as if’ you don’t know, is I. U. Alumnus Hoagy Carmichael, now writing music for the

movies.

Times Special

pictures, she disclosed that “Snooks” movies.

Everett Dean and Guards Joe

Movies Inspired Famed ‘Snooks’ Skit,

it, Fanny Says

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4 AS Fanny Brice prepared to’ present her famous radio character of ‘‘Snooks, the Baby” for the first time in motion

originally was brought about by the

“‘Snooks’ began in 1914,” she said, “I was in vaudeville apd one of my hit songs was ‘Porr Pauline,’ mildly poking fun at the then popular

movie serial, ‘The Perils of Pauline: The song made such a hit that I. began to sing it in different ways, as an opera singer would do it, and so on. Finally, I did it as a baby in a high chair, This proved so very successful that the next season, in 1915, I had Blanche Merrill write a song called ‘Poor Little Motion Picture Baby.’ This was a hit for a number of years. “Then about seven years ago we were talking about numbers for the stage show, ‘Sweet and Low. As 1 was still being asked to do ‘Snooks,’ Moss Hart wrote me the first Snooks skit for a full-length stage show. “After that I did a show called ‘Crazy Quilt’ for which the late great comedy writer, Dave Freedman, did a ‘Snooks’ in the Follies of 1934, and shortly after that I began to do the thing on the radio. I've done Snooks on the air for half a year at a time, and then for single guest appearances, such as with Rudy Vallee. Currently, of course, ‘Snooks® is at work on the ‘Good News’ radio program. No ‘Father’ in Film

“There is still another departure to the ‘Snooks’ of ‘Everybody Sing.’ It is the first time we haven't had

in the cast of the Joe Penner broadcast. As if those were not enough, the actor-commentator-manager owns an interest in a candy-bar factory and in a tire-retreading plant. Also he’s sole owner of -an automobile agency in Pasadena. Sometimes of an evening he drops out there and sells a car to a particularly tough prospect. Phyllis Denies All Colony gossipers have betrothed Phyllis Brooks and Cary Grant, and even have gone so far as to set the wedding date. On the set of “Blond Moll,” though, Miss Brooks denied everything, although a shade regretfully. “He hasn't asked me yet,” she said. “What can a girl do, anyway, to get a man to ask her to marry CGOULDENS

FOX [ix

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‘Father’ as the second character. But I think folks will like the singing idalog with another child,

as ‘Little Lord Fauntleroy.’ en doing ‘Snooks’ what success we have had is due, I believe, to the fact that we have always kept the psychology that of a child. We never indulge in mature smartcracks. Whatever Snooks say$ must be a remark any 2 or 3-year-old child might have said. \And what laughs we get must come from the naivete of Snooks plus my. somewhat angular appearance in a baby’ 5 dress. “‘Snooks’ has been the most fun of anything I have done in all my long career on stage, radio and screen. It has been so much fun to discuss Washington's Birthday, the Zoo, the circus, daylight save og all from the viewpoint of a “It’s been great, of course, all this radio and stage and screen fan mail on ‘Snooks,’ but even if the character hadn’t made a hit, I'd still want to do it, for my own friends. “My own mother, after hearing

‘one of the ‘Snooks’ over the radio,

said ‘Well Fanny, changed . .. much!’ ”

JOAN IS 'JOSETTE'

Another big role was handed Joan Davis when Darryl F. Zanuck assigned the comedienne to an important spot in “Josette” in which Joan will support Simone Simon and Don Ameche.

you haven't

\ {

Tomorrow! 8 Days! Boris Karloff “WEST OF SHANGHAI” to6 P.M.

“Isle of Paradise” Warren.

beautifully done by Judy Garland

Lo.

| Keith's Seek New Tenant

; No Prospects i in Sight as

Local Theater Remains

Closed Today.

‘No propecia were Insight today

i tor the reopening of Keith's Thea-

ter, “dark” after several months of a vaudevilie-and-picture policy. Henry K. Burton, representing United Theaters Co. the owners, said the theater was available for rental, however. The new bill, which opened Fri-

| day, playeci for only three days, and

operations under Jack Kane's management cased Sunday night. The Fedaral Theater Project presented its productions in Keith's for more than a year, and closed last May. The reopening under Mr. Kane’s management was preceded by a petition, signed by Pennsylvania St. merchants, that a proposed burlesque policy be abandoned. The theater opened with two weeks of modified burlesque, after which the vaudeville and picture programs were introduced. The Indiana WPA Administration office said today that resumption of the Federal Theater Project here was doubtful, although a petition requesting the reopening had been submitted. Restrictions regarding nénrelief members made the present appropriation impracticable, it was reported.

FILM YACHT RAMS INTO BREAKWATER

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4 (U. P)— A movie company was back in Hollywood today after a bit of unscheduled action, when its yacht piled up on the San Pedro Harbor breakwater while returning from a film set on Santa Catalina Island. The 125-foot yacht, Wanda, carried Dorothy Howe and Jonathan Hale, ard others of the picture, “Her Jungle Love.” Nosing into the harbor in a fog, it rammed the coast. A Navy tug pulled i off without damage.

NEWSBOY WINS FILM M CONTRACT

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 4 (U. P).— A male version of the Cinderella story came true today in the case of Marvin Stephens, a newsboy. His acting talents were recognized by a movie scout and he went tao work for 20th Century-Fox Studios today under a contract starting him at $75 a week and rising to $750 a week at the end of seven years if options are taken.

BX with Claudette bert, Bo; 11, geri Fhacics mer s 5 YH, 8 INDIANA

“love and Hisses,” wha nie ‘Waiter Winchell, 4:56 7:20 an on DEWS

“Rosalie,” Los _ eanor Powell, at EVE 7:15 and 9:50

LYRIC

wigs ine: Foll ? 1:06, 3 Ts. 56. 6:51 and 9:34 34. os. Loved a Fora Ann Sheridan, a 5:31, 8:14 and 10:30. 3 154,

OHIO

“Prisoner of Zenda,” with fool man. Also “Life Begins

AMBASSADOR

“Conquest,” with Greta ° Also “Sophie Lang Goes West.

ALAMO “Jomething to Sing About,”

James Cagne Also “Sprin e Rockies, 7 ‘with Gene Au

Jordan Faculty to Rest Music Series.

The Jordan Conservatory of sic is to resume its series of Wed day night faculty recitals at p. m. tomorrow in Odeon Hall. <

Nabokin, bassoonist, and Munger, trumpeter, are to be loists. ; Both players are teachers at conservatory and members of Indianapolis Symphony Dorothy Munger is to be sisting pianist, and the perf ) will be open to the public Ww charge. The announced program as follows:

+400000000000000008000 00

que “Romance.sans aroles

+ Nabokin “Solo in the Ancient kin Adagio from Concerto in Er Flat..

Mr. Mun nger ; —Intermission= Andante ma adagio Rondo

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STAR CARRIES LUNGH.

Robert Young brings his lunch from home and eats in his rooni so he can study his dialogue, : Ce

Sta IOUS L/

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