Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday GABLE'S RANCH ADVENTURE Clark Gable's career as a rancher almost came to a disastrous end when one of his herd of prize cows on the Gable-Lombaid ranch in San Fernando Valley suddenly went bereerk and knocked Gable down as he attempted to check her rampage. Carole Lombard, who was nearby, screamed for the ranch manager, and he dashed to the rescue, saving the star from being trampled to death. The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star got up and, with the ranch manager's help, pro- ceeded to subdue the cow. It was found that the trouble had been caused by a burr which had lodged in the animal's eyelid. 342 YEARS' ACTING EXPERIENCE Paramounfs "Untamed" company has set whfit certainly is some kind of a new record. At one time there were eleven actors and actresses in a scene—which in itself is nothing unusual. But the fact that the acting experience totalled 342 years, an average of nearly 32 years apiece, stands out. The players and the years they have been on the stage and screen were: James Gordon, 50 years: J. Parrell MacDonald, 49; Sibyl Harris. 40; Clem Bevans, 38; Eily Malyon, 30; J. M. Kerrigan, 28: Roscoe Ates, 25; Lillian Ten Eyck, 25; Jane Darwell, 22; Esther Dale, 19; Mary McLaren, 16. TWELVE-DAY-OLD PLAYS DUAL ROLE Although Marion Lois Hopkins was only twelve days old she earned £15 a day as a film actress when she appeared in "The Man in the Iron Mask," the new Edward Small production of the famous Alexandre Dumas classic. The story begins with the birth of twin sons to King Louis XIII of France and his queen, Anne of Austria, and little Marion Lois played both roles, even though she is a girl. She weighed only a little more than five pounds at birth and her tiny size qualified her to play the roles of the new-born twins. Wlien '/Assistant Casting Director Jack Murton started to fill out the baby's social security form, as is stipulated by law, he designated that the child will be sixty- five years of age on March 15th, 2004. Marion Lois got special attention, since California law provides that she could work only two hours a day and that she could not be under the lights for more than thirty seconds at a time. Producer Edward Small provided his youngest actress with a special nurse and the law provided that a special welfare worker be in attendance at all times when she was on the set. Each morning she was called for by a chaufleur-diiven limousine and after her day's work she was chauffeured home again. ROBERT TAYLOR GETS REALISM INTO FOX-HUNT SCENE Robert Taylor, who Is an expert horse- man, with blooded and show stock in the stables of his Northridge ranch, had the greatest difficulty in a scene for "Re- member," in which he was called upon to play the part of a novice in a fox-hunt. Having ridden since he was Spangler Arlington Brugh back in Beatrice, Ne- braska, Taylor looked entirely too capable in the saddle de.spite his efforts to be clumsy as he rode alongside Greer Garson, his co-star in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer pictm'e. In a medium shot, Taylor was to ride up to a water hazard and fall off when his horse balked. A rehearsal dissatisfied Director Norman McLeod BOY'S CINEMA "You've got to let yourself go, Bob," he said, "or else it's not going to look right." For the "take," Taylor got a running start. Just before he came into camera range, he was observed to sway in the saddle. He almost fell, recovered his balance and hanging on to leather and the nag's mane managed to keep his seat until he reached the water hazard and then took his spill. "You really made that look real," con- gratulated McLeod. "You're telling me," answered Taylor. "I lost a stirrup!" THIS IS KNOWN AS THE MIXING- BOWL SPIRIT I 23 Santa F6, New Mexico, played hivoc with the Hollywood Uoupe filming outdoor se^iuences of Paramounfs "The Light That Failed," starring Ronald Colman. Reaching an estimated velocity of fifty miles an hour, the blow carried a portable dressing-room a distance of filtv feet, and scattered reflectors, props, costumes and box lunches over the surrounding country- side, adjacent to the Rio Grande, which is serving as the River Nile in the film version of the Kipling clas.sic. Walter Huston and Dudley Digges, play- ing in the production, received numerous brui.ses and scratches, as did numerous other members of the troupe of 658 men and women. International complications really become complicated when Hollywood starts^hrowing nationalities around. This is especially true in filming a pic- ture that has some unidentified Conti- nental country for a background, such as the Bob Hope-Martha Raye comedy, "Never Say Die." Hope, Miss Raye, Andy Devine and Paul Harvey are the only ones to appear as Americans. In choosing other players. Director Elliott Nugent got into the mix- ing-bowl spirit in a big way. Gale Sondergaard, a Danish girl from Minnesota, appears as a Continental European. Sig Rumann. a Geiman, plays a Danish innkeeper. Alan Mowbray, an Englishman, becomes a Russian, and Ivan Simpson, also English, is also a Russian. Nugent is unable to explain how it hap- pened, but Ernest Cossart, an Englishman, appears as an Englishman! SCREEN BOY MEETS GIRL DESERT " TWISTER " CREATES HAVOC A desert " twister," sweeping across Black Mesa, thirty-five miles north of Twenty-five years ago Pearl White started the cinematic boy meets girl busi- ness in a way that made the public's hair stand on end. A villain had tied her to a railroad track, in the path of an onrushing train. Nearer, ever nearer came the thundering death—there seemed no hope. The audience screamed—Pearl screamed in pantomime—but wait! Suddenly from out of some "prop" bushes sprang a curly-haired boy. With one hand restraining the sixty-miles-an- hour locomotive he calmly picked up Pearl with the other and so achieved the most thrilling screen romance of all time. This melodramatic type of meeting has gone the way of the moustache cop, the nine o'clock front parlour curfew and bashful hand-holding. And so, ever since the first early days, Hollywood script writers have suffered headaches concoct- ing new ways for the boy of the story to meet the girl of his dreams. Out at the Samuel Goldwyn studios they practise a unique course in respect to this Why, it looks like . . . yes, it is! . . . Mickey Rooney. Looks pleased with life, doesn't he ? Maybe he's got a copy of BOY'S CINEMA ANNUAL ? Anyhow, that's just how you'll fee! when you buy your copy ! It'll thrill you ! Who arc your film favourites ? You can meet them in BOY'S CINEMA ANNUAL, where you can see magnificent new photographs of the film stars, and read all about them. There are some grand film stories, too, such as ," Old Bones of the River"; " Suez," and others, also " Gunga Din " in pictures, " How Talkies are Made," —altogether i6o big pages. 4^- Buy yoiiy copy now from your Newsagent or BookseUer. If he has not a copy in stock he can order yon one ! BOY'S CINEMA ANNUAL Xovcmber istli, 1939. 1 rrrrTST-TTas