Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 August 1938 — Page 15

THURSDAY, AUG. 25,

3 ‘Women in

Black” Ruin Film Legend

Mystery Visitor at Grave Of Valentino Is Myth, Agent Confesses.

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 25 (U. P.).— The treasured Hollywood legend of the woman in black who paid an annual visit to the grave of Rudolph Valentino = was dissipated today when it developed that she never had existed except in a movie producer’s mind. : She was the producer's brainchild, hired for five dollars one afternoon 10 years ago to pose kneeling at the great lover's statue while - the cameras turned. That started the whole chain of events, which reached their zenith Tuesday, on the 12th anniversary of Valentino’s death, when at least three mysterious women in black appeared at . his tomb. Photographers, who kept a dawn-to-dusk vigil at the white marble mausoleum in Hollywood Cemetery, looked carefully at each succeeding woman and finally pictured the one who looked the blondest and the prettiest under her heavy black veil.

Narrator Added Legend

«I was producing one-reel shorts a decade ago,” Russell Birdwell, now functioning as head publicist for Selznick International Studios, said.. “One of my pictures was called ‘The Other Side of Hollywood.’ In it I tried to show littleknown characters and.scenes. Peter the Hermit figured in one sequence. “The statue of Valentino featured another, only I decided that the statue alone seemed lifeless. So I hired a girl whose name I no longer remember, dressed her in black, and had her kneel at the feet. “The narrator did the rest. He did a beautiful job. He told the audiences from the sound track that this was the mysterious woman in black who always came at dusk on the anniversary of Valentino's death, to grieve. According to him this woman of mystery never had missed such a date with her beloved and never had identified herself to the mystified bystanders.

Hits Climax This Year

“I thought no more about it. The picture was widely shown in theaters here and elsewhere. It wasn’t long before there appeared in print articles about the Valentino mystery woman. “After a year or so had passed, I actually read of a mystery woman appearing at the tomb. Pretty soon her arrival at the cemetery became a regular, occurrence. This year, with several mystery women showing up, all dressed in black and all wearing veils, seems to be the climax. “In any event I am glad that my short of 10 years ago suggested to so many women, who -had black clothes, the idea of doing homage at his .grave. I feel that at long last my little picture has proven a . help in furthering the remembrance which Valentino deserves.” This year’s first mystery woman was plump. She wore a tight black skirt. The cameraman ignored her. Mystery Woman No. 2 was too slim. The photographeps ignored her. Woman No. 3 tHough, was blond and beauteous and drove up in a coupe, driven by a chauffeur. At the crypt she wept and dabbled daintily at her eyes with a black edged kerchief. The picture-makers, who had not yet heard the news from Mr. Birdwell, used 65 flash bulbs.

Detective Unmoved by ‘Dead End’ Kid’s Story

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 (U. P).—|’

Hally Repatsky, 17, one of the “Dead End” kids, announced in Hollywood that his missing twin sister had recovered her memory when she saw him on the screen (in his anew picture) and relatives here promptly confirmed the story. But Detective John Ward of the Missing Persons Bureau — with a fine disregard for the feelings of press agents—said that so far as he knew Miss Hattie Repatsky never had suffered any loss of memory, that she left home in April, 1935, because of family troubies. Like most Hollywood stories “the case of the missing twin sister” unreeled like a movie plot. Two years ago, Hally said, his sister disappeared while on the way home from school and desperate efforts to find her had failed. Then came a telegram in which Hattie said she had been sitting in a New York theater when she recognized Hally as one of the players. At that foment her past all came back to er. She sent a telegram to Hally afid told him all about it and the press .agents told everyone else about it. In New York a sister, Mrs. Evelyn Marcus, confirmed all the details and said there had been a hysterical reunion.

MERLE OBERON FAINTS IN SUN

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 25 (U. P.) — Movie studios called for dry ice and more electric fans ay after Merie Oberon and two Nthers of a film company were stricken by the heat. Miss Oberon coll#psed while working under the hot-sun in an outdoor scene on the Samuel Goldwyn lot. She quickly recovered after treatment in the studio hospital. A photographer and a property man also were stricken. -

HAS EYE ON $1,500,000

Lee Ryan, special officer assigned to guard valuable Warner Bros. sets, estimates he has protected $1,500,000 worth of property the six months he has had his odd job. UR FAVORITE SPORT

ROLLER DERBY

il} Name Reg. in U. S. Pat. Off

BUTLE | FIELD

HOUSE = This 2a Cuil admit your entire 5 rity at 25¢ r rSson. 2 “Void After Aug. 26th.

realistic for comfort.

Opening Tomorrow Alamo “KING OF THE NEWSBOYS"—Lew Ayres, Helen Mack,

Alison

Skipworth, Victor Varconi. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus. About a slum dweller who builds up a news-stand monopoly, loses

his girl to a wealthy man,

and falls for a society girl.

Then he loses

money and society girl, and gets his original sweetheart back.

«HEROS OF THE HILLS”—The “Three Mesquiteers”: Robert Livingston, Ray Corrigan, Max Terhune. Directed by George Sherman. A Western about paroled prisoners, crooked construction bosses

pnd cowboy heroes.

Apollo

“GIVE ME A SAILOR”—Martha Raye, Bob Hope, Betty Gable,

Jack Whiting. Directed by Elliott Nugent; based on a play by Anne

Nichols.

Concerning an ugly duckling who turns into a graceful swan with the most beautiful legs in America (she wins a national contest). There are also a beautiful sister and two wooing brothers to complicate matters. But Cinderella turns up with the right brother at the fade-

out.

N Circle (Second Week) “ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND”--Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman. Directed by Henry King; screen play by Kathryn Scola and Lamar Trotti; words and music by Irving Berlin. Not the story of Mr. Berlin’s life, but embellished by some two dozen of his songs, the film is a story of a band leader, his piano-play-

ing song writer and his featured singer.

It follows their triangular

career through 20 years to the present, with true love triumphing over

‘a rebound marriage.

Loew’s : «] AM THE LAW”—Edward G. Robinson, Barbara O'Neill, John

Beal, Wendy Barrie. serial by Fred Allhoff.

Mr. Robinson, on the other side of the fence, goes

Directed by Alexander Hall; from a magazine

after a city’s

lawbreakers, first as a special prosecutor, later as a private citizen. “BLOCK-HEADS”—Stan. Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Patricia Ellis. Di-

rected by John G. Blystone.

Perhaps your last chance to see the Laurel-Hardy team in action, “Block-Heads” again takes up the theme of Mr. Hardy, a nagging wife, and Mr. Laurel as the unwelcome guest. Billy Gilbert gives additional

ballast to the cast.

Lyric HORACE HEIDT AND HIS ORCHESTRA (On Stage)—Larry Cotton, tenor; Jerry Bowne, singing ccmedian; Alvino Rey, guitarist; the

Three Trumpeteers; Bob McCoy,

bass; Art Carney, impersonator;

Three Kings, singers; Agnes and George, dance team; others.

“SPEED TO BURN”-—Michael Whalen,

Lynn Bari, Marvin

Stephens. Directed by Otto Brower; screen play by Robert Ellis and

Helen Logan.

The first of a new series, this picture is about a race horse an the efforts of a gang to get it away from the owner. :

IN NEW YORK —s cores ross

Hollywood Replica of

Manhattan Slums Too

Realistic for Visitor's Comfort.

EW YORK, Aug. 25.—More paragraphs from this returned tourist's Hollywood notebook: We arrived on the 20th CenturyFox ground a day after the completion of “Suez” and only a barren sandpile stood as mute and desolate evidence that a-thousand turbaned sheiks had stormed over the desert scene 24 hours before. The most disillusioning experience a novice in Hollywood can have is a tour to the back lot of any major studie where settings for numberless pictures give the vicinity the spectral aura of a ghost town. On the Warner lot, for example, they have constructed a replica of four or five city blocks in New York's lowest East Side Ghetto, and wandering through them, in the broad sunlight of a warm California day, is an eerie adventure. The reproduction of the slums is too The crowded pushcart mart, the unswept filth, the grime, the cluttered fire escapes, the washlines and the grim and dirty little shops, might have been transported - bodily from that part of Manhattan nearest the Williamsburg Bridge. They worship authenticity on that set to the extent of sticking papiermache flies on the store windows and littering a decaying bookstall with magazines of recent vintage.

8 8 8

HE novice to these sights strolls through lanes of elegant mansions and high-stoop brownstowns, through cobblestone alleyways, verdant parks, or through a strip of

WHAT, WHEN, WHERE

APOLLO

“letter of Introduction,” with Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, Edar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy and orge urphy. at 12:34, 3:41, 6:48 and 9:55

“The Devil's Party,” with Victor William n, Paul y. frank Jenks, at 11:29, 2:36, 5:43 and 8:50.

CIRCLE

“Alexander's Ragtime Band,” with Tyrone Power, Alice. Faye, Don Ameche Ethel Merman, Jack saley Jean Hersholt and Helen Westley. at 11, 1:10, 3:25 5:35. 7:50 and 10:05. “The March of Time,” including ‘Man at the Wheel” and ‘The Threat to Gibraltar.” at 12:55, 3:05, 5:20, 7:35 and 9:45.

LOEW'S

“Rich Man, Poor Girl,” with Robert Young, Lew Ayres. Ruth Hussey, Lana Turner, Virg and Guy Ribbee. at 11:10, 1:55. 4:35, 7:25 and

“The Chaser,” with Dennis O'Keefe, Ann Morriss, Lewis Stone, Nat i‘endleton, Henry O'Neill and Jack Mule hall, at 12:30. 3:15. 6 and 8:40.

~ LYRIC

“Keep Smiling,” with Jane Withe Gloria Stuart, Henry Wilcoxon, Helen Westley and Jed Prouty. at 11:36. 2:10, 5:05, 8 and 10:34. Vaudeville with Oswald, Ernie Stanton, Ida Lind, Flo Holt, Doug Leavitt and Ruth Lockwood, Sheng Ambassador, Jans and Ly! on, Frank Brooks and the Titan Trio, at 1:07, 3:41. 6:36 and 9:31.

Parisian Montmarte, and he will know they are fake. : But it makes him suspicious of other sights. He hesitates twice, after roaming through the back lot, before he ascends the steps of the administration building for fear that the whole: structure will collapse under his tread and the mountain in the background looks as if it can be hauled down over night by the men in the carpenter shop. Even the actors become intimidated by the expert counterfeiting. We stood awhile with Pat O’Brien the other day while he waited for the cameras to click in a solemn church scene. The mellow shades of light from the stained glass windows cast soft illumination on the set, and the Irish film star ground a cigar stub under his heel. “Sometimes,” he said, “I look around at this place and am afraid to smoke. Too sacrilegious.”

8 8 = OME of the New York streets on J the 20th Century-Fox lot solace the homesick writers when nostalgia bests them at their scenarioscrivening chores. Gene Fowler has perfected a temporary cure for those depression periods when he is brooking about New York, and he has found emulators among many in the writers’ cell row. It seems that in those glum moments Fowler retreats to

the back lot, saunters through the New York streets a while, strolls under the phoney structure that passes on celluloid for the Sixth Ave. YL” and after a quarter of an hour of these peregrinations he feels fine. - He has been heard to say that he feels comfortable in California only when he is walking along that papier-mache replica of Gotham. ® # 8 HIS is Hollywood, and so when the driver, who is pointing out the sights, remarks that on the left of the boulevard that connects Beverly Hills and Los Angeles is Poverty Row, you don’t cast your eye around for tumbledown shacks, illnourished children and debris on the pavement. Instead you will see a rickety picket fence tapering off on a narrow alley and behind it a building that looks as if it might be a pants factory. It is a factory, turning out celluloid fiction at sweatshop speed and on a shoe-string budget, for in Hollywood, Poverty Row is the name of the place where nondescript producers turn out “quickies,” the films usually included in the nether end of a double feature program. A squalid looking place, too, this

Poverty Row, and an eyesore, lik any sium, ‘

Berl in Film Held Over ~ At Circle

Composer Real: Drawing Card of 'Alexander's Ragtime Band.’

By JAMES THRASHER

Irving Berlin has been packing them in: at the Circle this . week,

tion, “Alexander’s Ragtime .Band,” is to be held over for a second week, starting tomorrow. ; Mr. Berlin doesn’t appear in the picture, nor is the plot based on his life. The story, in the beginning, actually comes closer to matching Paul Whiteman’s early career than recounting any of the adventures of Tin Pan Alley’s dean. Yet, with all respect to Tyrone Power, Don Ameche, Alice Faye, Ethel Merman and the rest of the stars, Mr..Berlin doubtless is the big drawing card.

As you know by now, he wrote the

|28 songs sprinkled at intervals through the picture. The title comes |.

from his first big hit, written 27 years ago and, along with “St. Louis Blues,” one of the real “classics” of the 20th century’s popular music.

Name Draws Crowds

So, with this film, Mr. Berlin approaches the stature of an opera composer, at least in popularity. For, like a Verdi or a Wagner, his name draws more crowds and comment than the story that unfolds in the movie or opera house. : Perhaps some day we shall have a picture based on the Berlin career. It wouldn't be bad screen fare. Some of his biography is well known—for instance, that he was born in Russia, grew up on New York's East Side, and began his life’s work as a song plugger. = And probably no story about him ever was written that didn’t tell you that he is unable to read music, plays the piano rather badly in only one key, and changes key by a mechanical device which shifts the keyboard. But there are other stories, like the one concerning Mr. Berlin's runin with gangsters. Back in prohibition days, one of the early “Music Box Revues” had a comedy song which referred to some noted gangsters by name. One night he received a threatening phone call from a voice that objected to his “going around making cracks.”

Invitations are Accepted

The composer, much as he loved life, hated to change the song, for it was one of the show’s hits. So he sent a formal invitation and tickets to the mob’s headquarters. To everyone's surprise, they came. They included Dutch Schultz whose name is popping up again in the Dewey prosecutions, Waxy Gordon and lesser hoodlums—and in dinner jackets. Next morning Mr. Berlin received another phone call: “It’s okay, see? Your show’s all right.” Then there was his meeting with Ellen Mackay, the socialite heiress who became Mrs. Berlin. The song writer had gone to a night club opening to help a friend who thought the Berlin presence might help business. One of a party of debutantes came over to his table. She began talking about his songs. Three hours later they still were there. And six months later they were married. :

Unchanged By. Popularity

More surprising than any of his adventures, perhaps, is his modesty, vouched for by friends and interviewers. Being an object of public adulation for some 25 years would do strange things to almost anyone. Fame drove such people as Chaplin, Maude Adams, Belasco and Garbo into almost complete social retirement. Many another has retreated to an ivory tower—or at least a penthouse. But Mr. Berlin, according to witmesses, is without affectations of speech, dress or living. He seems continually surprised that the. public should be interested in his doings. Newspapermen don’t make appointments for formal interviews through secretaries. They knock on the door and walk in, or catch up

less he’s working. Mr. Berlin, at 50, is as busy as ever. He wrote two new songs for “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” and he has tiree more in the forthcoming Astaire-Rogers picture, “Carefree.” Nor does he dash off a song at a single sitting. Although his words and music are simple, it may be that they satisfy the composer only after a month's work,

SWIM—DANCE

WESTLAKE Chuck Haug Orchestra

MARY BETH—Soloist EVERY NIGHT EXCEPT MONDAY

LAST TIMES VOOAY- ‘CHARLIE McCARTHY® and E06AR BERGEN

@ : STARTING TOMORROW!

® - MARTHA CETS THAT

CALL TO

ARMS . . . AND THE NAVY MANS

THE GUNS!

Heaven help the sailors when Martha gets a yen

for Navy romance and ‘battles

orgeous Be Grable tor the honor of lovin’ the Foot "ny

as Ry a

BETTY GRABLE JACK WHITING - J. C. NUGENT

“Letter of Introduction” ©

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

~ ROBINSON RELAXES WITH MUSIC

A shy little man by the name of |

and as a result the feature attrac-|-

with him on the street. That is, un-

Foon $F

Despite the ardors of packing (and rounding up : racketeers) which beset Edward G. Robinson in “I , Am the Law,” he finds time for a little restful accor-

dion playing: before a.somewhat quizzical audience consisting of Barbara O'Neill ‘and an unidentified dog. The film opens at Loew’s tomorrow.

'$20,000 a Year Plenty,’ ‘Says ‘Highest Paid’ Carole

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 25 (U. P.).—Carole Lombard emerged today from a welter of Hollywood complaints about taxes to say that she was content to give the Government more than four-fifths of her $465,000 annual income, and was happy on the remainder.

She earns $150,000 a picture. She¢ made three last year. She also appeared in three radio broadcasts at $5000 each. That made her the highest paid movie star of 1937. “Funny ' thing about all that money,” she said, “was that I got only $20,000 of it for myself, directly I mean. ; The Government spent most of the rest of it for me on genera! improvements on the country. I really think I got my money's worth.”

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (U. P.). —A Government tax official said today that Carole Lombard has a lovely figure but that she’s apparently way off whgn it comes to

figures. He did some lightning calculation after hearing that Carole claims she paid $397,575 in Federal and California State taxes on her $465,000 income and concluded that either she had generously overpaid or that her press agent got tangled up in a surtax. The expert estimated that her Federal tax totalled approximately $280,024, and estimated her state tax at a maximum of $50,-

Miss Lombard, formerly of Pt. Wayne, Ind, and one of the first movie stars ever known to praise the tax: collector instead of blame him, said that State and Federal

income taxes took 85% per tent of her wages. She returned $397,575 of her $465,000 to the State and Federal - Treasuries. That left her $67,425.

‘Plenty for Me’

from that,” she said. “I also had to give my business manager a good salary. I had to spend nearly $10,000

“Only I had to pay my agent|

’

on fan mail, parties, publicity and

I got through I barely had $20,000 left. ; * “But I have no kicks. Fact is, I'm pretty happy about the whole thing. Twenty thousand a year is plenty for me. I don’t need $465,000 a

year for myself, so why not give what I don’t need to the Govern-

ment for improvement of the coun-

try?” Miss Lombard has lived in a

| rented house since she came to

Hollywood from Ft. Wayne, but now

she’s building a home of her own.|

It’s different in that its costing her $9500 cash, in contrast to the mortgaged mansions owned by most other stars. It will have two bedrooms, one for herself and the other for her cook, her only servant. In honor of her new home, Miss Lombard has had her automobile —built by Henry Ford in 1935-~re-painted. ‘That cost her $30. .

ELSA MAXWELL TO WRITE SCRIPT

Times Special HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 25. — Elsa Maxwell, society hostess, has been nigned by Alexander Korda to write an original story for Merle Oberon. The film will highlight the activi-

ties of the “smart set” of America, |.

England and the Continent, and Miss Maxwell will appear in the film. It is expected that the story of how Miss Maxwell became a

‘figure in the social world will be

in the script.

- LAST TIME SEE IT TODAY

5 . 'AUL M The Life of Emile Zola” MARY CARLISLE—LLOYD NOLAN “HUNTED MEN”

other incidental expenses and when

TOMORROW! AT 10:45 A. M.

ON OUR STAGE TOMORROW at

12:40, 2:55, 5:10, 7:25 and 9:40. - Come Early! Doors Open 10:45 A. M. on Weekdays During This Engagement! Attend 'Matinees and Save

SKY LAURELS

Robert Cummings is the only noncommercial pilot licensed to teach flying in this country,

PAGE Carliles Return ! From Study Trip

Ernestine and Joe Carlile, baci from their annual summer vacation study tour, are ready for the sixth year of instruction at the Carlile Dance Studios. :

The Indianapolis dancers. covd

| ered approximately 7000 miles .durs

ing their recent trip, visiting Yels lowstone, San Francisco, Los Ang geles, Mexico and the Southwest, New dance steps and: ideas for fue ture dance creations were picked up en route and will be introduced to students during the coming season. Personnel at the Carlile Studios includes; besides Mr. and Mrs. Care lile, Rosemary White, ‘Joe ‘Warner, pianist, and Mrs. Bessie M. White, costumer. YR te ;

BASKETBALL ARRIVES !

Basketball as a background fom a movie story comes to the screen for the first time in “Campus Cone fessions.” The picture . featureg Hank Luisetti .and his three-timq champion Stanford teammates.

STARTING TOMORROW!

IN COOL COMFORT

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Tonight's Presentation at Your

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EAST SIDE

T A 2442 E. Wash. St. A Double Feature Warner Baxter FIONA mew “SPY RING” 4020 E. New York Duuble 1 ature

TUXEDO atricia Farr

“ALL-AMERICAN SWEETHEART Jack Holt “UNDER SUSPICION”

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“LET TI 1332 E. “ARTISTS Carole Lambard—Fred MacMurray

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Doo Onan 5:0 and All-Star Cast AND MODELS" TRUE CONFESSION”

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Paramount = hk Gave Nallace Beery

“HELL D Novelty and Cartoon

114. E. Washington Nouhle Feature : Shirley Temple “REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK F. .

Bob Steel “RED ROPE”

RIVOLI EZ&dies Barbara, anweck Herbert Marshall John Loder “TO

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“WRONG ROAD” “OVERLAND EXPRESS” "Double Feature

G R Oo v E Fred MacMurray

“COCOANUT GROVI “ISLAND IN THE SKY”

AVALON "5d, Paichmes “TWO-GUN Chas; Starrett

“START CHEERING ORIENTAL ‘Sh Yager START.

LINCOLN ‘Biase “KENTUCKY MOONSHINE “MY MAN GODFREY”

FOUNTAIN -SQUARE Double JFeature—Robert Paige “SHOPWORN ANGEL”

_ NORTH SIDE bi Dither iy

Hollywood to the Ladies “HS ManIAGE BUSINESS” ZARING

Cent: : AIL ‘hia Weer “HAVING A WONDERFUL TIMES “THE SAINT IN NEW YORK”

CINEMA ~~ '0h3 Dimmers

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