The Hollywood Reporter (Jan-Jun 1933)

Yoli Probabl;^ Won't Head This Because You Think It's Another Ad My hat is off to one guy in particular and that is Darryl Zanuck. (I suppose you think I am saying this because I am going to get another contract out of him. But you're wrong there because he can't get rid of me for at least a year) Another hat is off to Lloyd Bacon, and I don't have to tell you why. (Nuf sed). Another hat is off to Bill Koenig the guy whom I really drove crazy asking him to build me the sets that he did for "42nd Street." You probably know by this time that I am the little guy who put on the musical numbers, and I wish you would please read a little further on. You probably won't unless you have fmished your pie and are waiting for your check. My hat is off again to )ack Okey, who worked with me heart and soul to give me the production which you will all see. My hat is off again to Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Without them I probably wouldn't be paying for this ad. They are the little boys who wrote the music and the lyrics for "42nd Street " They gave me the incentive to do a little something different, possibly, than I have ever done before. It has been my pleasure to work with some of the greatest composers in New York and out here, including Jerry Kern Rodgers and Hart, Fields and McHugh, etc.. and had it not been for the fact that those boys whom I loved and knew, had the confidence in me. I probably wouldn't be able to express on the screen w^at I want to. While you're reading this you're probably saying that this is a lot of hooey, but still 1 want you to remember that having produced 31 musical productions in New York, having directed over 200 dramatic shows in the greatest school in the world, stock, I still have it on record —I don't brag about it — that this is the first time in my life I have had a chance w+iich I thought was a good one to pay for It and to me it is worth ten times the dough. (I just asked the little girl who is taking this down if she knew how to spell "dough." She said that was one thing she had learned since working for The Hollywood Reporter). I hope by now you have paid your check. You probably haven't because I have been in the same spot myself. There is one thing in this business you have always got to learn. You can profit the same as you can in every line of work by others' mistakes. When I was producing in New York I would rather let the other guy do the experimenting. What he found to be okay it was my ambition to capitalize on It seems to me that, as I am dictating, there is one person whom I have left out. a chap whom I don't meet often. (He probably won't take up the option, but whether he does or not I still think he is a great guy. 1 He is the guy that, every Wednesday noontime, when I go for my check, meets me, shakes my hand, and says "How are you Bush," which I dislike very much. But it was a little habit with him, until I finally had lunch with him one day He said: "Do you know why I call you Bush? Because you don't try to hide behind a moustache." (Page John Adolfi) Now I think I have said enough, but maybe you would like to know what my experience has been (flesh peddlers please note.) And I don't say that with any disrespect because some of the best engagements I have had in my life have been through agents. The only reason I don't have them now Is because that little man shook my hand one day and said: "I want you with us," and there was something about that handclasp that meant a great deal more than money. That's why I am today with Warner Brothers (incidentally the man who clasped my hand was Darryl Zanuck). Any time that anyone can beat this little human dynamo, I want to know. I only hope (and this is said with tears in my eyes) that I may be one of the little wires he winds around his motor that keeps Warner Brothers one of the swellest lots I have ever been on, and if, in five years from now, you see me with a great big stick, picking up papers around the lot, you will know that I am still looking for that piece of paper that notified me that my option had expired — with many thanks. But I'm going to pause now because the poor girl is getting cramps, and I am just going to say I am glad you read all this. I know you did and I think that is sufficient, but while I am dictating thisi 5,000 people are standing around me waiting to see what I arti going to say and I still haven't told you what my experience has been. Well, I am not going to. You just call me up some time or come into my ofifce (and I have an office — other studios please note) . After all, they all call me crazy, but somehow they like it when It gets on the screen. My many thanks to Sam Coldwyn, whom I have been privileged to work with for three pictures' The great boy, Eddie Cantor, who probably has taught me more than anyone in the business in 'Whoopee," "Palmy Days" and "Kid From Spain." There is a high school that it has been my privilege to go through and without it I wouldn't have been able to be the nutty guy I am. After this article I probably will keep quiet for a long time to come, and you'll probably say that I should. But my hat still fits me and always will. But if a guy has to create shot for shot of everything I do in the public liking, maybe one of these days I will be fortunate enough to do really something worth while, and it won't be dances. (All you people who call me a dance director, notice how many steps I do in pictures— NONE, because I create shot by shot everything which you see on the screen. Any time any of you will sit down and realize that everything you have seen on the screen has been created as I stage it — and I don't shoot a foot over what I want — you will realize what a problem it is to try and put a lot of beautiful girls on the screen and enhance them by real, genuine entertainment value. It IS like a guy graduating from college who still thinks of high school, and when a chap has a script of a story it is swell to know that it is all written out for you, but you' want to tr/ sometime taking three or four melodies with lyrics and say: "There it is. Beat out something better than ever done before. ' As long as Warners have faith in me. I'll have faith in them, but I am very, very grateful for the opportunity to prove to them that they have once met up with one guy who has his own methods, his own ways, and has confidence because, after all, don't forget Browning when he said: "Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." Now you can tip the girl and go up and pay your check. BUZZ BERKELEY