The Emperor Jones (United Artists) (1933)

FEATURE STORIES For Advance Publicity Campaign. Biographies EUGENE O’NEILL’S “EMPEROR JONES” REVIEWS Play Date Production and Current Stories. Shorts WON HIGH HONORS SPORTS, STUDIES Paul Robeson Took a Lot of Punishment to Get on the Varsity {Advance Feature) “Eobesoii, you’re on the ’varsity!” When Foster Sanford, head coach of the Eutgers football squad, barked out that statement back in 1915 he did it for two reasons. One was to save his first team from further battering by a giant Negro on the scrub; the other was to give his ’varsity one of. the greatest players in the history of dear old Eutgers. For that matter, Sanford was giv¬ ing to American football the great¬ est Negro player who ever donned the moleskins—one of the three col¬ ored stars ever to win a place on Walter Camp’s mythical all-America team. Paul Eobeson, winner of scholas¬ tic and athletic honors, actor and baritone singer, won his ’varsity place after a bitter fight that in¬ cluded racial prejudice. Given a place on the scrub in 191.5, when he Avas seventeen, Eobe¬ son displayed such natural ability that he soon became the backbone of the second team. The ’varsity massed its plays against him. His nose was broken, his shoulder was dislocated and each scrimmage found him badly battered. Foster Sanford watched and admired the fighting spirit of the black man who, however, was beginning to lose heart. Then came the great day when a member of the ’varsity deliberately stepped on Eobeson’s outfiung hand. When the halfback’s cleats came away they took the Negro’s fingernails with them. The incident changed Eobeson from a hard-fighting, exhausted football player to a raging demon. He brushed aside interference as though it were paper. His tack¬ ling became the most vicious ever seen on the Eutgers gridiron. It was then that Sanford bellowed through a megaphone: “Eobeson, you’re on the ’varsity!” From that day “Eobey” was the hero of Eutgers athletic teams. He was not only the buhvark of the football team, but he starred in basketball and baseball. Paul Eobeson’s athletic prowess is glorious past history, but his fame as a singer and actor is very much of the moment, with his ap¬ pearance in the title role of “Em¬ peror Jones,” screen version of Eugene O’Neill’s play at the. Theatre ., marking his screen debut. “Emperor Jones” is the initial production of John Krimsky and Gifford Cochran and is released by United Artists. Dudley Digges plays the role of the white trader. Dudley Murphy directed from the script of DuBose Heyward. “Emperor Jones’’ Realism South Carolina, Harlem, a chain gang camp and a vsdld island in the West Indies provide the background for the screen version of Eugene O’Neill’s “Emperor Jones,” a United Artists release showing. . . . . at the . Theatre. Paul Eobeson plays the Pullman porter wh.o becomes ruler of native tribes in the West Indies, and Dudley Digges is the white trader, Smithers. Genius Midst Eugene O’lSeill Turned From Adventure To Drama (Biographical Feature) No less interesting than his plays is the active and varied career of that master playwright, Eugene O’Neill, whose “Emperor Jones” reaches the screen as a United Artists release, Avith Paul Eobeson and Dudley Digges in the leading roles, showing . at the . Theatre. Mention most anything adventur¬ ous, and O’Neill’s done it. He was expelled from Princeton his first year for throAving a beer bottle through a window of President Wil¬ son’s house; toured the country in the theatrical troupe of his father, James O’Neill; prospected for gold in Central Americ.a; sailed the seas on cattle boats, NorAvegian barques and tramp steamers; Avorked at drafting, at packing and office Avork; Avas a beach comber in Buenos Aires; lived in a New York water¬ front dwe for three dollars a month; a news reporter in New London, Connecticut, and then landed in a sanatorium where he spent five months regaining his health and thinking. Thinking about where he was go¬ ing and what he was doing—and deciding definitely that he wanted to write. With rather more than his customary diligence in that one year, 1913-14, he turned out eleven one - act plays, two long dramas and some verse. His desire to per¬ fect his technique sent him the next year to join Professor Baker’s “47 Workshop” at Harvard, where he continued his diligent apprentice¬ ship. But it was not so much to the Avorkshop at Harvard as to a small experimental theatre in Province- toAvn, Mass., smelling strongly of fish on damp days and seating ninety people, if they didn’t mind crowd¬ ing together on benches, that O’Neill owed his great opportunity. Here, at the Wharf Theatre, that enter¬ prising group, the Provincetown Players, first saw the light of day and it Avas here that the first O’Neill production gripped the ninety. Through this group he met the pioneers of the experimental move¬ ment—George Cram Cook, Susan Glaspell, Prank Shay, Frederick Brunt, Mary Heaton Vorse and Wil¬ bur Daniel Steele. The play that was accepted by the Provincetown Players and duly produced in the Summer of 1916 Avas “Bound East for Cardiff.” Later they put on “Thirst,” AAdth O’Neill acting minor parts in both. O’Neill’s next rise to fame was in 1918 when Smart Set published three of his plays—“The Long Voy¬ age Home,” “ ’He” and “The Moon of the Caribbees.” George Jean Nathan, at that time one of the editors, took an interest in the young dramatist and later was instru¬ mental in the selling of “Anna Christie” and “The Fountain.” Two years later saw O’Neill’s first great step forward and his establishment as a regular drama¬ tist. Both “The Emperor Jones” and “Beyond the Horizon” were pro¬ duced, and O’Neill received the Pulitzer Prize for the latter. Since that time he has received Smell of Fish Eugene O'Neill auihor o/ "Empercr Jones" 5— One Col. Author Head (Mat .05; Cut .20) the same prize twice, in addition to a medal for artistic achievement given him by the American Acad¬ emy of Arts and Sciences. And his academic career, begun so disas¬ trously, Avas climaxed in 1926 when he received the degree. of Doctor of Literature at Yale as “a creative contributor of new and moving forms to one of the oldest of the arts, as the first American play- Avright to receive both wide and serious recognition on the stage of Europe.” During the years 1923 to 1927 he was associated AAdth Kenneth McGowan and Eobert Edmond Jones in the management of the Greenwich Village Theatre, and for a short time after the reorganiza¬ tion of the Provincetown Players he Avas one of the associate direc¬ tors. O’Neill—Eugene Gladstone O’Neill —was born on October 16, 1888 in a family hotel on Times Square now known as the Cadillac. He Avas the son of Ella Quinlan and James O’Neill, celebrated for his portrayal of “The Count of Monte Cristo.” He has been divorced twice and is at present married to Carlotta Monterey. “The Emperor Jones,” which has been produced by John Krimsky and Gifford Cochran, is considered one of his most powerful. It is con¬ cerned with the rise and fall of a Negro—with his rise from Pullman porter, escaped convict and stoker to emperor of a small island in the West Indies, and Avith his fall from power and his subsequent death from the very superstitions lie used to hold poAver oA'^er others. Negro Spirituals, Jazz In ‘‘Emperor Jones” (Current Story) The music that plays such an emotional part in “Emperor Jones,” the United Artists presentation of Eugene O’Neill’s famous drama cur¬ rent at the . Theatre, may be said to represent three dis¬ tinct, progressive stages in the spiritual development of the Negro race. First are heard the American Negro spirituals in the scene in which the members of the Hezekiah Baptist Church bid goodbye to Brutus Jones. Then, when Jones goes to Harlem, there is heard jazz as only the Negro interprets it. Finally there is the savage beat of the tom-tom of the jungle Negroes of the West Indies. These three sorts of music are linked by one item, the beat. Even the spirituals have it. Negro civilization in Har¬ lem, of course, couldn’t get along AAdthout it. JOHN KRIMSKY and GIFFORD COCHRAN present PAUL ROBESON in “EMPEROR JONES with DUDLEY DIGGES From the Stage Play by EUGENE O’NEILL Screen Version by DU BOSE HEYWARD Directed by DUDLEY MURPHY Released by UNITED ARTISTS The gorgeous baritone of Paul Robeson is heard in “Emperor Jones” in “Water Boy,” “Now Let Me Ply” and “I’m Travelin’.” Singing in Chain Gang Robeson Hardest Concert (Current Story) Paul Robeson, heard in concerts here and abroad, never sang under such trying, exhausting conditions as for the thrilling chain gang scene in “Emperor Jones,” United Artists picturization of Eugene O’Neill’s famous play current at the . . . . Theatre. The chain gang scene was staged in a real stone quarry on a blazing hot Summer’s day. Eobeson, as Brutus Jones, sings “Water Boy” in this scene. He had to SAving a huge iron hammer against the rocks with every beat of his song. The formation of the quarry, with high cliffs on three sides reflecting the sun, generated a temperature remin¬ iscent of Death Valley, and Eobe¬ son had to break rocks and sing all morning and most of the afternoon. When that was finished, he had to make his escape running and climbing among the rocks, with his legs shackled by a heavy iron chain. Chains once used in a prison gang were obtained for the picture. Although Robeson won fame as a Negro athlete at Rutgers and was picked by Walter Camp as a mem¬ ber of his All-American football team, he AAms in a state of collapse at the end of the day. Big Stars of Harlem Many well-knoAvn Harlem night clubs provided talent for “Emperor Jones,” United Artists’ picturization of Eugene O’Neill’s famous drama showing .. at the . Theatre. Director Dudley Murphy, who has studied Harlem for years, engaged Nicholas from the Cotton Club, the Dancing Ladies from Small’s and other well-known colored enter¬ tainers to appear in “Emperor Jones,” which marks the screen debut of Paul Robeson. LEADING LADY IN LESS THAN A DAY Ruby Elzy, Music Assistant, Plays Sweetheart of Emperor Jones (Advance Feature) It takes a heap of hunting, some¬ times, to find what’s right under your nose, and that is what hap¬ pened Avhen John Krimsky and Gif¬ ford Cochran, producers for United Artists release of Eugene O’Neill’s famous play, “Emperor Jones,” tried to find a suitable Negro ac¬ tress for the important role of Jones’ southern SAveetheart, Dolly. Casting the other women whom Jones meets—the Harlem high-yal- lers—Avas an easy job in Noav York, but Dolly seemed impossible to find. Rosamond Johnson, best-known ar¬ ranger of real Negro folk songs, engaged to arrange and direct the music for “Emperor Jones,” had as his assistant a young girl named Ruby Elzy. She had been a school teacher in a small Carolina town and had come North to play in “The Green Pastures,” and had be¬ come a leading member of Rosa¬ mond Johnson’s chorus. The colored actor who had been engaged for the role of the preacher in “Emperor Jones” could not at¬ tend rehearsals of the church scene because he was playing in “Run, Little Chillun” on BroadAvay. As tlie actors only entered enthusias¬ tically into the spirituals when the preacher roused them to it. Miss Elzy substituted in the role of the actor and made them sing their hearts out as they bade Brutus Jones goodbye. If this young girl could do such wonders in the part of an old preacher, what couldn’t she do AAdth Dolly? And so little Ruby Elzy was given a screen test and cast as leading lady opposite Paul Robeson —all in less than a day. “Emperor Jones,” directed by Dudley Murphy and adapted by DuBose HeyAvard from Eugene O’Neill’s play, is the attraction . . . . at the . Theatre. CAST Brutus Jones Smithers _ Jeff _ Undine _ Dolly _ Lem _ Marcella _ Treasurer _ Carrington _ Stick-Man _ _ Paul Robeson _ Dudley Digges _ Frank Wilson _ Fredi Washington _ Ruby Elzy George Haymid Stamper _ Jackie Mayble _ Blueboy O’Connor _ Brandon Evans _ Taylor Gordon Assistant Director . Scenic Designer Cameraman _ Sound Recorder _ Joe Nadel Herman Rosse .. Ernest Haller _ J. Kane SYNOPSIS