Picture Play Magazine (Mar-Jul 1929)

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The Spell of the Calliope 23 eloping in her second-best reseda sateen, with its basque and overskirt, and her Milan hat with pink roses to match her cheeks. A rather incoherent, indefinite Magnolia of the Chicago reverses, dramatically striking one day, letting misfortune snuffle her into phlegmatic melancholy the next. And Kim — whose name is made up of the initials of the three States in which she chanced to be born, Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri, on that night when the tawny river, that somnolent tiger of a river, snarled into life with a stormwracked surging of its mad, yellow waters. They fling about them, as a spray, a carefree, vagabond spirit that the stolid yokels gape at uncomprehending, denouncing, half envying. A floating circus. Carnival of the broad, wet highway, knowing no home, only ports-o'-call for country shekels. Likewise, to a screen made ponderous by epics of battles and machinery and panoplies of history, "Show Boat" will bring the gayety of a river-roving life heretofore' unfilmed. A very costly carnival, for all its spontaneity, streamers of gay moods laboriously woven after many hours of studious research. Discounting press agentry, "Show Boat" still will be an expensive production — nearly half a million on the debit side of Universal's ledger \ book. It has, together with its novelty, all the elements that the seasoned fan demands — thrill, action, picturesque atmosphere, a love theme, obstacles. Indeed, the latter, which in the book serve to separate Magnolia and Ravenal, and which consist of Parthenia Hawks' eagle eye and Ravenal's weakMuch o£ Magnolia's childhood is spent with congenial companions, played by Stepin Fetchit and Gertrude Howard, in the kitchen of the show boat. Emily Fitzroy, as Parthy, Jane La Verne, as the child Magnolia, Alma Rubens, as Julie, and Otis Harlan, as Captain Andy. Light ness of character, will be overcome, true to movie recipe. "A happy ending for Magnolia and Ravcnal, please." Thousands of letters bearing this plea reached Universal. It is rare, nowadays that fictional characters are as greatly loved as these two. The Edna Ferber story cost sixty thousand dollars. For five weeks the company was on location on the Sacramento River, where fifteen boats of the sort that plied the Mississippi during the '80s and '90s were reconstructed. Steamboats, stern-wheelers, strange craft of the period, were found in the vicinity, the only difference being that they bore single smokestacks, those in the South two. Another smokestack, a few additional touches and, presto, they were read)'. Because of the Mississippi's temperamental uncertainty, as well as the expense of working so far away from the studio, it was deemed unwise to film the scenes actually on the Mississippi. Experience