Song of India (Columbia Pictures) (1949)

No Guns Used to Train ‘Song of India’ Tigers Only woman tiger trainer in the world, Miss Mabel Stark served as technical adviser and “trouble-shooter” in the savage jungle sequences of Columbia Pictures’ “Song of India,” starring Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey at the ...... Theatre. The animals used in the film, five male and two female tigers, were being trained by Miss Stark in the World Jungle Compound, near Los Angeles, at the time production on the film began. According to Miss Stark, who has trained both tigers and lions, “a tiger can whip anything but a gun. And me!” She herself has been mauled by tigers “about fourteen times,’ once suffering 372 stitches on numerous claw wounds, two broken legs, and a ripped-out deltoid muscle. Doctors predicted she would be in the hospital for a year, if she lived at all; she was out and back on the job in six weeks. A former nurse in Louisville, Ky., Miss Stark turned to tigertraining after she had gone into one of the cages with a tiger . on a dare! Since then she has appeared with various circuses around the country, working with as many as 30 tigers in a single ring—for Ringling —and with lions and tigers together. This last is probably the most dangerous of all wild animal routines. Miss Stark rarely uses a gun, and then only in the most extreme emergency. Guns fired at close range, she says, burn the hides off tigers worth as much as $5,000, and make them useless for further training. For pretty much the same reasons, she uses only the lightest of all possible chairs to protect herself from any type of an excited animal. Sabu Gets Girl “Song of India” marks the new maturity of Sabu, the erstwhile “elephant boy.” In the film now at the ...... Theatre, Sabu “gets the girl” for the first time in his screen career, the girl in the case being lovely Gail Russell. Turhan Bey is also starred in the new Columbia jungle film. Song of India Mat 1-A; Prod. Still No. 48 Sabu and Turhan Bey fight for the hand of Gail Russell in “Song of India,” Columbia Pictures’ story of a forbidden jungle, which opens sreieerts at the ............ Theatre. Prefers Movies About Homeland Like the elephant he once cared for in his native India, Sabu hasn’t forgotten. He prefers to depict his homeland in pictures, as he does in “Song of India,” the Columbia drama at therne. ere Theatre with Gail Russell and Turhan Bey also starred. Living in Hollywood, Sabu has become thoroughly Americanized, driving his own car, fishing and bowling for sport, dancing jive or rhumba at parties. During the war, he served as a belly-gunner on a B-24, rolling up 42 missions with 472 hours of combat flying and winning such honors as the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters and Presidential Unit Citation. On the screen, however, the young actor will gladly abandon his Americanisms for a chance to wear a loincloth and brandish a knife, as he does in “Song of India” in his “prince of the jungle” role. TWO PRINCES AND A PRINCESS Song of India Mat 2-E; Prod. Still No. 11 A prince of India and his fiancee (Turhan Bey and Gail Russell) confront the prince of the jungle, portrayed by Sabu, in this scene from Columbia’s “Song of India,” now playing at the .......00....... Page 4 Theatre. Stars of ‘India’ Won Film Breaks Without Trying How do people become film stars? “Song of India,” the Columbia romantic drama at the aye Theatre, stars Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey. All three were given their screen opportunities without lifting a finger; all three made good on their own. Sabu was “discovered” by Alexander Korda, who needed a native Indian boy to play the title role of Korda’s “Elephant Boy.” Sabu was given the role when he was noticed by one of Korda’s assistants while going about his daily duties as a reallife elephant boy in his native Mysore, India. Later brought to England and privately tutored, Sabu continued to make pictures both in England and in America. Turhan Bey was visiting California with his mother. Hoping that he might improve his English diction more rapidly, he entered a dramatic school to study. Eight months later, Bey was playing the lead in an amateur production, was promptly “discovered” and signed to a contract. Miss Russell took the first step towards stardom without even knowing it. A Santa Monica high school girl, she was headed towards commercial art when two of her friends did some hitch-hiking. They were given a lift by casting director William Meiklejohn, supervisor of talent and casting at Paramount. The teen-agers raved about Miss Russell’s blackhaired, blue-eyed beauty and Meiklejohn hunted her up, insisted she take a screen test and promptly signed her to a long term contract. Sabu Knows His Tigers! Sabu, who learned about elephants when he was an honestto-goodness elephant boy in India before he became a movie star, also knows’ something about tigers. He is the only person outside of famous tiger trainer Mabel Stark who can get a response from Billy, the giant tiger used in important scenes of “Song of India,” the Columbia picture starring Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey at tne et at Theatre. Whenever Sabu spoke to the tiger, in his own native tongue, the huge beast rushed furiously at him, stopping only in time to prevent himself from smashing into the wire which enclosed the compound. Asked by the curious Miss Stark as to what he said to the tiger, Sabu stated, “I just tell him I know an elephant in India who ean lick him!” Gang's All There In addition to the giant Bengal tiger which figures prominently in “Song of India,” the Columbia picture starring Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey atthe: ..\.75 Theatre, the jungle film’s wild life included other tigers, four panthers, three leopards, a couple of bears, assorted elephants, crocodiles, cranes, vultures and other denizens of the Indian landscape. About the only thing omitted, and this was omitted purposely, was the insect life which sometimes makes jungle living unpleasant. ‘SONG OF INDIA’ Song of India Mat 2-B; Prod. Still No. 27 The rich splendor of exotic India and the wild savagery of the roaring jungle are brought together in Columbia Pictures’ “Song of India,” which is coming separa to the .............. Theatre. Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey are co starred in the adventure film. Turhan Bey "Heavy In "Song of India’ Turhan Bey, currently starred with Sabu and Gail Russell in Columbia Pictures’ “Song of india, cat. the 3). 4a Theatre, isn’t too sure whether he is back where he started from, or whether he has progressed in the Hollywood scale. When Bey first appeared in Hollywood films, he was invariably cast as the “heavy,” and killed about mid-way in the film’s action. When fans protested at Turhan’s too-frequent untimely demises, Bey was handed sympathetic roles. Currently, in “Song of India,” he’s back at being a villain. He even gets killed off. But, as he quickly points out, “not until the end of the picture!” "Song of India’ In "Song of India’ “Song of India,” N. RimskyKorsakoff’s haunting melody of that colorful nation, gives more than a name to the Columbia picture, “Song of India,’”’ which stars Sabu, Gail Russell and Turhan Bey at the ...... Theatre. The Rimsky-Korsakoff composition provides the basis for Alexander Laszlo’s film score, Laszlo’s music in the film captures both the rich splendor of exotic India with the wild savagery of the Indian jungles, in keeping with the picture’s theme. The composer’s major work, prior to his “Song of India” assignment, was his “Hollywood Concerto” which was played in the Hollywood Bowl. JUNGLE ROMANCE Song of India Mat 2-A; Prod. Still No. 37 A kidnapping to save the royal beasts of his jungle kingdom soon turns into a romance between Sabu and Gail Russell in Columbia’s “Song of India,” now at the .............. Theatre. Turhan Bey is co-starred.