Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 February 1941 — Page 11
‘Not Stirling Hayden but Girl of 5|
Really
Steals Show in 'Virginia'
By JAMES THRASHER
THERE HAS BEEN a lot of advance excitement about the movie debut of Stirling Hayden in “Virginia,” which. will be at the Circle Mr. Hayden is tall (6 feet 4) and blond and handsome. | § seafaring existence and plumped
tomorrow. Hollywood picked him up from a
him onto a set with Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray in a story where he loses Miss C. to the hero only in the last reel.
But once the picture has been seen, Mr. Hayden is going to take second place in favor of another unknown performer, or I don’t know a marvel moppet when I see one. The other newcomer is Miss Carolyn Lee, who is brunet and pretty and short for her age. And since her age is only 5, that makes her something of a mite. Thanks to an advance look at the picture, I am in a position to say that Miss Lee is an oddson favorite to captivate all of the customers: except a minority of the ultra-romatic young women.
» ” ”
ONE of the most encouraging traits of humanity is that, when assembled in a theater and given a child or a dog to look at, it invariably will devote its attention to these unsophisticated actors. And all the pathos and pulchritude that the adult performers | can muster, all the mugging and up-staging is of no avail. But Miss Leé did more than accept her advantage passively. She turned in one of the most authentic characterizations in the show. While Miss Carroll, Mr. MacMurray and Mr. Hayden were content to be Virginians with English, Midwestern and New England accents, respectively, Miss Lee somehow developed a sho-nuff Southern drawl and laid it on thick as molasses. Carolyn has been in only one picture before. That was “Honeymoon in Bali,” also a CarrollMacMurray vehicle. Her part was too small for her to bother acquiring any Balinese vocabulary, but she did manage to attract attention. Consequenly she got an adult-size chance 'in “Virginia,” and played it all the way.
” tJ td
IT'S IRONICAL that, with all the fond mothers and precocious children underfoot in Hollywood, Carolyn should have been coaxed there against her parents’ will, and signed for- a second picture only after considerable debate. Probably if “Virginia” had been filmed in Hollywood, it would have had to get along without Miss Lee. But it was made in and about Charlottesville, Va. And that isn’t too far from Carolyn’s home town of Martins Ferry, O., which is just across the river from Wheeling. Carolyn’s father is named - Walter Copp. He's a steel company official who‘can support his family quite nicely without the help of his young daughter’s earnings. That was one reason he wasn’t too keen on a film ‘career for her. Another reason was the fact that the Copps want their youngster to grow up normally. They thought the first trip to Hollywood could be set down as
HURRY! LAST DAY!
CIRCLE
Jerry Colonna - Lillian Cornell EIR CIE GCE! ATI IRON
experience. But as for a career in pictures, that was something else again. ” » ” CONSEQUENTLY Paramount ‘had to beg the Coops for Carolyn’s | services and, it is said, pay them a pretty penny. The latest report is that the Coops finally have signed a contract for their. daughter to make one or two pictures a year, after a holdout of several weeks. But the report hasn't been authenticated. : . Carolyn got into the movies in the first place through a Wheeling theater manager who knew Y. Frank Freeman, Paramount’s head man. The manager had been struck by Carolyn’s charm and precocity, and persuaded Mr. Freeman to have a look ‘at her. Mr. Freeman took the look and reacted with considerable enthusiasm. : Mr. Freeman has a favorite story about Carolyn’s one spell of temperament, which has heen | relayed to this department. It seems that one day she had a spell of sulking. When questioned, Carolyn complained that she was the only one in the whole coms | pany who wasn’t being paid. (Of course, Mrs. Copp was taking ‘care of her daughter’s weekly check, but Carolyn couldn't, be expected to know that). 1
2 s Ld
“WELL,” said Mr. Freeman, “if you really think you deserve money for what you're doing, how about five cents a day?” Carolyn rose. to the occasion like the true actress that she is. She frowned and shook her head. “Six!” she said, with great determination. Thus she won her first battie over salary. Every day she went directly to the big boss and collected a nickel and a penny. Already the incident has gone down in movie annals as the greatest underestimation of value in the industry’s history.
Audiences Like Asides to Them
i
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 20 (NEA) emi Remarks made from screen
0! audience, and other situations in: which players step out of charatter, | are still winning some of the ‘best | laughs. In Republic's néw musical, “Sis
Hopkins,” there's a scene in which you'll see Jerry Colonna coyly irimersed in a bubble bath. Finally the upper part of him emerges and he’s wearing an old-fashioned striped bathing suit. In an aside to the audience he explains apologetically: “The Hays Office insisted on it.”
” ” 2
The other evening, Hal Roach sneak-previewed “Topper Returns,” for which Rochester (Eddie Anderson) was borrowed for a role in which he does not play himself. The customers’ loudest vhoop came when he tells Billie Burke he doesn’t like the ghostly goings-on. “. . . doors openin’ by themselves; people talkin’ to nuthin’ . . An gettin’ answers, No, ma'am; I'm goin’ back.” “Back where?” asks Miss Burke, “Back to Mistah Benny.”
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Theater Picketed—in Fun
The cold wind was nothing te the fiery indignation of three brunet pickets in front of the Indiana yesterday. They are, left to right, Miss Marie Cosat, Miss Dean Newsom and Mrs. Erma Hulse. What caused their tempers to rise was the fact that ‘the Indiana has booked a, picture called “Strawberry Blond.” ' By merest coincidence, the
| picture opens tomorrow. This trio can take some consolation in the
fact that Olivia de Haviland, the film’s star, has brown hair,
Opening Tomorrow
Circle “VIRGINIA”—With Madeleine Carroll, Fred MacMurray, Stirling Hayden, Helen Broderick. Produced and directed by Edward H. Griffith. This is about the Virginia-born Yankee girl who reclaims the ancestral home in the Old Dominion, becomes a true Dixie belle and finally picks a Virginian over a New Yorker for a husband. “LET'S MAKE MUSIC’—With Bob Crosby and his orchestra, Jean Rogers. Directed by Leslie Goodwins. | Bob Crosby picks up a school song by a spinster schoolma’am which is so corny it’s a hit. He brings the spinster to New York, where she clicks as a night club entertainer. It’s like that.
Indiana
| “STRAWBERRY BLOND”—With James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, Rita Hayworth. Directed by Raoul Walsh. i Concerning a dentist who loved and lost the strawberry blond and, 10 years later, gets a second look and decides it’s just as well. “CONVOY”—With Clive Brook, John Clements. Directed by Pen Tennyson. A British-made drama with the current sea war providing the plot and background. :
Loew’s (Second Week) “THE PHILADELPHIA STORY”—With Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Ruth Hussey. Directed by George Cukor; screen play by Donald Ogden Stewart, from the stage comedy by Philip Barry. This, of course, is the screen version of Miss Hepburn’'s successful stage vehicle about the Philadelphia socialite who ‘changes from a snob . into something decidedly nicer, and winds up at the altar with the right man. “GALLANT SONS”—With Jackie Cooper, Bonita Granville, Gene Reynolds. Directed by George B. Seitz. A sort of “Junior Thin Man” arrangement in which three high school students solvé a murder mystery. < Lyric VAUDEVILLE—With Maxine Sullivan and John Kirby and his orchestra; Six Tip Top Girls, acrobats; Lester Oman and His Little People, puppet show; Hickey Bros. and Alice, comedians; Eva Fields. “ROAD SHOW”—With Carole Landis, John Hubbard, Adolphe
Menjou. Directed by Hal Roach. About a young millionaire who is committed wrongfully to an insane
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES -
Pat Rooney Files Bankruptcy Plea
NEW YORK, Feb. 20 (U. P.)— Pat Rooney, one-time star of vaudeville and soft shoe dancer, has filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in Federal Court. He listed assets of $252 and liabilities of $8112, most of which represents loans from leading radio, stage and motion picture entertainers. Mr. Rooney said that in 1939 he earned $5000 and in 1940, $7339. Included among his assets was a contract to perform at the Diamond Horseshoe Night Club and an inferent in “real estate” in Southold, Among his creditors Mr. Rooney
listed Ben Bernie, $200; George M. Cohan, $200; Harry Richman, $100;
{That tiny, terrific little stan iof “Honeymoon in Bali," CAROLYN LEE. back
WHEN DOES IT START?
CIRCLE “You're the One,” with Bonnie Baker, Orrin Tucker, Jerry Colonna, : 3 :05 and 10:15, * with Kay Francis, 20, 2:30, 540 snd
INDIANA “Western Union,” with Robert. Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger, at 12:40, 3:55, 7 and 10:05. “Golden Hoofs,” with Jane Withers, Buddy Rogers, at 11:33, 2:48, 5:53, and 8:53.
LOEW'S “The Philadelphia Story,” Katharine Hepburn, C James Stewart, at 11:10; nd 9-45
a . “Gallant Sons,” with Jackie 2 Granville, at 1:15, 4
LYRIC Vaudeville—With Will Rock, 8id Tomack and Reis Bros., Charlie Althoff, on stage at 1:03, 3:56, 6:46 and
9:36. . “Tall, Dark and Handsome,” with Cesar Romero, Virginia Gilmore, at 11:25, 2:15, 5:05. 7:55 and 10:35.
opt T' n 3:40. 615
Cooper, :45 an
Ole Olson, $25; Bob Hope, $25; Victor Moore, and Al Rogers, $8000.
$100; Al Dowd, $1000,
LENORE LONERGAN GETS MOVIE PART
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 20 (U, P.).— The youngest member of the famous Lonergan family of Irish actors, i2-year-old Lenore Lonergan, has arrived in Hollywood to become an actress. She had been appearing with Katharine Hepburn in the stage version of “The Philadelphia Story” when she was hired’ by RKO to
appear in a new Ginger Rogers
picture. - The Lonergan family has been prominent.in the Irish theater for more than 300 years.
From
SAY IT WITH FLOWERS
Allied Florist Association
of Indiana
THURSDAY, FEB. 20, 1941
‘CONNIE GIVES RECORDS
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 20.—Connie Boswell, film and radio singer, has presented the officers and men of the new Air Corps base at Anchorage, Alaska, with 200 records of her songs.
HURRY! LAST DAY!
ROBERT YOUNG - RANDOLPH 5COTT VIRGINIA GILMORE
RHE A JANE WITHERS Hoots”
soi
RECKLESS VIRGINIA!
«where ‘every, maii lsrever ready for a fight.or-a’romancel
Never before such a thrilling [background for a fast-moving
story’ of
% romantic.
& \
a girlkwho, istages a
invasion of the South!
A Paramount Picture. / Produced and Directed b
? In Glorious New TECHNICOLOR!
ling Hayden - Helen
y EDWARD H. GRIFFITH - Screen Play by Virgin
STARTS
asylum, makes his escape with an eccentric oldster, joins a carnival and, of course, falls in love with the girl who owns it.
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TOMORROW ©
in the new Warner
-~RITA
ALAN HALE « JACK CARSON
Julius J.&Philip G-
Directed by RA
Screen Play by
——
CIR
Theres never been a.
Bros: hit
AYWORIF
. GEORGE TOBIA
Epstein ® Froma Play by James Hagan
OUL WALSH
CLE -
BOB
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packs
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CROSBY. I Let's Make Music”