The Exhibitor (Nov 1938-May 1939)

• HELLO LOLKS! This is WARREN STOKES speaking to you over the facilities of the JEP network from our observation post aboard the 20 th CENTURY-FOX SPECIAL, a 16-car hook-up which is literally Hollywood On Wheels. Attention Mr. Lew Mentlik our New York correspondent! I was beginning to envy you getting so much bold type for having a good time at those swank Eastern parties. Now I feel better. It’s my turn to rave about some really big doings. San Francisco Bound • SAN FRANCISCO BOUND, we are getting a late start from Glendale, (this is where GARBO used to get on and off the train to escape autograph hounds). Now the hounds have discovered Glendale. Thousands of movie fans are congregated here to wave farewells and gather more autographs from the celebrities. I have already signed three. Two for CLAUDE RAINS and one for RONALD COLMAN. Perhaps the long shadows from the depot lights create the illusion. Perhaps its my mustache! Now there is much cheering as stars arrive in large groups, the hounds let go of my coat tail and I am hurrying aboard to escape further manhandling. From where I now stand I get a complete picture of excitement and confusion, the toot-toot of the train whistle screams above the roaring crowd, comes the familiar cry of "All A-b-o-a-r-d!” and we are at last on our way for a visit to California’s World’s Fair on Treasure Island and the world premiere of "The Story of Alexander Graham Bell.” I raise my arm to check exact time of departure. That is impossible but not for the lack of elbow room. My prized wrist watch which survived the World War, has failed to survive the Glendale invasion. Never before have I seen time fly so quickly. Two Hundred Guests • TWO HUNDRED GUESTS have now settled down (temporarily) in their respective compartments. Contact men from the studios check their individual groups and in no time at all everyone learns, that by pushing on a little button, refreshments of their particular choice, liquid and otherwise, can be ordered and received with lightning dispatch. Comfort and courtesty is the keynote of the moment. We know that our Hollywood On Wheels will carry us through 3 6 hours of deluxe travel, food, fog and liquid refreshments. It is now nearly five o’clock in the morning and the 16-car special is rolling along at a merry clip with stars, executives and members of the Fourth Estate, warbling in their best voices while GORDON and REVEL pound out melodies on a midget piano squeezed into a corner of the elegantly appointed club car. Who’s There • THE STAR-STUDDED CLUB CAR is further brightened with the presence of DON AMECHE, LORETTA YOUNG, SALLY BLANE, TYRONE POWER, ANNABELLA, RICHARD GREENE, SONJA HENIE, GREGORY RATOFF, LYNN BARI, ANITA LOUISE, CONSTANCE BENNETT, NANCY KELLEY, SIDNEY TOLER, SALLY FILERS, and MARY CARLISLE. With the coming of the dawn we begin accumulating a few interest ing facts. This gala affair took a lot of expert planning. No detail was overlooked. HECTOR DODS, head of the studio film editorial department, was sent ahead to install special sound and projection equipment for the preview of the picture. HARRY BRAND, publicity department head, was waiting in San Francisco to receive the guests with a perfectly timed schedule of events, leading to the preview, dinner at the Palace in San Francisco, and the return trip, which was a continuation of the festivities with everyone aboard agreeing that this was Hollywood’s outstanding affair. Zanuck Host ® DARRYL ZANUCK was a perfect host. Running around with the crowd the whole day long in San Francisco, he registered the biggest laugh of the trip while addressing the crowd at luncheon. Finding the microphone out of order, he was quick enough on the trigger to say: "I could use Alexander Graham Bell here today!” Zanuck and his entire organization can take a lot of bows for the picture. On "Bell” • "THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL” is undoubtedly one of the finest pieces of celluloid entertainment to reach the screen in recent years. It will be hard to top in the present biographical cycle from any viewpoint. In fact, it will be hard to top at the box office because it has everything that goes into the making of entertainment to draw both mass and class patronage and no theatre could ask for anything more than that. Many will consider it the greatest love story in the annals of celluloid and few will be able to check the tears with one pocket handkerchief. Its comedy moments are just as brilliant as the emotionally dramatic interludes. Don Ameche and Loretta Young are exceedingly fine in the romantic moments and Henry Fonda comes through with a perfect score in a role that draws a very fine line 20th Century-Fox Scoop Word reaches Hollywood that to top the gardenias 20th Century-Fox gave the lady guests on the "Bell” trip to San Francisco, Warner Brothers dished out orchids to the femmes making the trip to Dodge City. 20th Century-Fox has already received orchids for the picture from all of the reviewers who had the good fortune to see it. One radio commentator didn’t see it. He just wanted to see San Francisco. Too bad! He had a chance to say something good for a change. Understand he checked right onto the Warner special following the San Francisco junket. Maybe he saw the sights of Dodge City, too — instead of the picture. This radio commentator can rate without difficulty the size of his unseen audience and the studios apparently believe it. How he can pin a rating on pictures without seeing them, however, is one of the mysteries we shall never be able to solve. "Hunchback” Colossal RKO-Radio’s next picture to be made on a scale comparable to “Gunga Din,” will be “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” scheduled as the biggest screen spectacle on this studio’s 19391940 program. Young On "Shoestrings” ROLAND YOUNG, droll comedian of "Topper” fame, has been signed for a leading role in P a r m o u n t ’ s PAT O’BRIEN-OLYMPE BRADNA co-starrer, "Heaven On A Shoestring.” Picture was formerly titled "Happy Ending.” Top Names For Capra Three of the important stars in FRANK CAPRA’S Academy Award winner, ’’You Can’t Take It With You,” will again be seen in his latest Columbia picture, "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.” JEAN ARTHUR, JAMES STEWART and EDWARD ARNOLD have been signed for leading roles in this new Capra film. Bert Wheeler Back BERT WHEELER returns to the screen in the Warner picture, "Lighthorse Harry,” a football story in which GLORIA DICKSON replaces JANE WYMAN in the top spot. Miss Wyman is slated to succeed GLENDA FARRELL as Torchy in the "Torchy Blane” mysterty series. Bing, Dot and Bob BING CROSBY, DOROTHY LAMOUR and BOB HOPE have been assigned the top spots in Paramount’s "The Road To Mandalay,” scheduled to go before the cameras in June. between comedy and tragedy. A sage once said, "If you can throw a stone into their hearts and then make them laugh, you have perfect entertainment.” In selecting this story for the screen, Darryl Zanuck, through a cast of sterling performers and capable production aides, has accomplished this feat; a credit to his production genius and to the 20th Century-Fox organization. We have been to a grand party and we have seen a magnificient picture. Take a bow, Mr. Zanuck. This is WARREN STOKES saying, "So Long, Folks.” April 12, 1939