The New Movie Magazine (Dec 1929-May 1930)

How Joe, the Property Man, Got His Revenge — Ruining the Career of a Handsome Flying Sheik remaining alive. He didn't care for the leading man any too mtich, anyway. Besides that he had sort of fallen for the ingenious little blonde that was to play opposite the boy that had the frigid pedal extremities. And what Rose made that old crate do just wasn't in the script or in Army orders, either. Well, to get down to earth, Rose photographed pretty well, the picture called more for stunts than it did for acting, the boss would save one salary, so Rose was made leading man. Right there trouble started for one Joe Jenkins, the property man on the lot. THE leading lady showed Rose how to make up and did a fairish job of it. With make-up on he looked like a spinster's dream of the man she wanted, but was afraid to hunt. But his fatal beauty sort of spoiled that big he-man from the clouds and the aqua. Of course, the little blonde didn't help matters any too much. He was easy pickin's for her. She could steal the foreground and lens-louse the camera away from him easy, because he didn't know the tricks of the profession, as they calls it — racket would be better. Rose got so he was thinking more of his mirror than he was of his ability to juggle a joy-stick. He got so he wanted a chair of his own on the set with his name on it. Then he insisted on a rain stick over his head when they were shooting in the sun. It got so at last that Joe's little stripped flivver carried nothing but the luxurious props for the big he-man of the "first, grandest and most thrilling aeroplane picture ever presented." And the big ox was always playing pranks on the studio help. He found out that he could nearly shake the paper off a set by giving the stage braces a good swift tug. Now that didn't make him any too popular with the gang 'cause he wasn't one of 'em. He was too "valuable" for them to take chances of getting even. They did let a whole sixteen-foot piece of set wrap itself around his neck one day, but that bullet head of his was so callous that it only knocked him out for a few minutes. Of course, it was an accident. At least that's what the stage grips told the general manager, Maccaray. But we noticed he left the stage braces alone after that. Some of the scenes were laid at Rockwell Field. Rose had an old Jenny of his own that the use of was part of the contract. After the leading man's mal-de-aero with him nobody asked to play birdie with the big boy. But one day Joe had to fly with him all the way to Rockwell Field from the studio. Joe had missed the train chasing after some crazy thing that the director had decided was necessary, though not in the script, just as they was climbing into their berths. Of course, Joe wasn't crying with joy over the ride, but he knew he had to be with the director with that prop as soon as the director was on the set. They takes off about the middle of the night, to hear Joe tell it. It was about 135 miles to the location and the old Jenny could just about turn up eighty per hour if you shoved the throttle against the corner. At any rate, it was just sunrise when they spotted Point Loma off San Diego. They had played around in the soft, oozy, wet clouds for about half an hour, which was against good judgment. There was too many planes around that spot that might kiss you just as you came out of a cloud. But Rose banked the old Jenny, he rammed her up for a steep climb, did wing-over, a falling leaf and finished up with a full (Continued on page 107) heft 95