Talking Screen (Jan-Aug 1930)

In Reply Would Say Here are the answers to those hurning by talkie fans everywhere. Answers are TALKING SCREEN Fan Service Bureau A RAMON NOVARRO FAN — You will not be disappointed in your favorite's voice. By now you must have heard him in Devil May Care. Ramon also sings in In Gay Madrid and The Singer of Seville. He was born in Durango, Mexico, on February 6th, 1899He's grown a lot since that happy day, now measuring five feet ten inches, and the scale indicator points to one hundred and sixty pounds when he stands on it. His first stage appearance, in 1919, was with the Marion Morgan Dancers. We doubt whether he will ever entirely forsake the screen for opera. Ram6n could not live in Hollywood and not attend its brilliant premieres. JACK — ^Karl Dane once answered "Here" to the name of Rasmus Karl Thekelson Gottlieb in a little school in Copenhagen. Karl's father was connected with the theatre so that Karl was everything from an infant in arms to curtain boy in his father's productions. HANNAH — Besides Mary, there were six others who called Mr. and Mrs. Eaton their mother and father. Today, four of them, Charles, Doris, Mary and Pearl, find themselves rather well known questions asked prepared by the BILLIE — Galyac is the name of the flat fur that trimmed Kay Francis' traveling suit which she wore in The Street of Chance. Galyac is a soft kid fur that is something new in the fur trade. Kay made her first screen appearance as the female menace in Gentlemen of the Press. LEILA — Clara Bow and Buddy Rogers are with Paramount while Joan Crawford and Ukelele Ike, who is really Cliff Edwards, play on the Metro Goldwyn Mayer lot. Janet Gaynor is a Fox star. Janet's latest is High Society Blues opposite Charles Farrell, of course. Well, Leila, it takes a little more than mere good looks to get on the screen these days. Just glance over the qualifications for girls applying for positions as dancers on the Radio pictures lot: Age limit, twenty years. Height limit, five feet two inches. Weight must not exceed one hundred and ten pounds. Full figure must be almost perfect. Experience should include the following forms of dancing — tap, toe, adagio, hula, gypsy, Russian, ballet and ensemble. Even so, Leila, despite these rigid requirements, girls still flock to Hollywood, with an idea they'll get ahead with their beauty, whereas study of the new conditions brought about by talking pictures would show them they haven't got the goods. The Month's Best Question Please explain the method used in reproducing a dual talking scene. Who was the first to use one player to talk for tu)o? —C. W. The first dual talking role was played by Jack Mulhall in Dark Streets. As Pat McGlone, a cop, he had to trap his twin brother, Danny, who had commited murder. This was accomplished in this manner — the picture portion is shot just as in a silent, the camera focusing only on one side of each scene in which the dual characters appear. When this side has been taken the film is rewound. Then the other side is exposed while Jack plays the brother on the opposite side of the scene. In scenes where the two characters appear on the same side, one of them always has his back to the camera and is a "double." Getting the dialogue in is more difficult. Timing is an important element in recording it correctly. Mulhall rehearses, speaking Pat's lines while someone else reads Danny's lines. In the filming and recording, the sound expert in his booth allows only Pat's lines to be recorded, leaving gaps in the record sufficient for Danny's replies. Then, when Jack steps to the other side of the scene to play Danny, the same procedure for timing is followed and the lines he speaks as Danny fall into place on the wax disc. BELGIAN ROSE— Do you know that Belgium, your native land, celebrates its one hundredth anniversary as a nation this year? Sorry, but we, too, cannot name one movie star that claims your little country as his birthland. SUSAN — So you're a hound for the original monickers of movie stars. Well, here are the family names of those stars you listed; Jack Oakie is the son of Mrs. Kesterson; Myma Loy comes from the Williams family; Jack Gilbert was once John Pringle; June Collyer is better known to her Pelham friends as Dorothea Heermance and Doug Fairbanks really is Douglas UUman. Sue Carol is now legally Mrs. Nicholas Stuart, Nick having had a court order changing his name. both on the stage and screen. GENEVIEVE — Don't you know, old thing, that you are supposed to take it for granted that Jack Oakie really played the clarinet in Street Girl.'' This is one kind of information that producers are very reluctant to give out. Frequently there's grave doubt whether a star actually does the thing he's portraying, and sometimes not without reason. JOHN — Antonio Moreno played the grandson and Warner Baxter was the nephew in Romance of the Rio Grande which was made by Fox Films. EMMA — The Bennett sisters are Constance, Barbara and Joan. All three have been married at one time or another. Constance and Joan have found life more tolerable without their husbands and are now divorced. Barbara is Mrs. Morton Downey and 'tis said an interesting event is imminent. SCHOOL MA'AM— Although Lois Wilson studied to be a school teacher, Thelma Todd actually taught school in Lowell, Mass. Her pupils were of the sixth grade, elementary school. A theatre owner persuaded Thelma to submit her piaure to the Paramount Picture School and she was called to New York for an interview which was to change the course of her life. Thelma is five feet six inches and weighs one hundred and thirty pounds; has dark [^Continued on page P8} 10