20 Million Sweethearts (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Musicals Better Now Than Ever Says Noted Songster Joe Cawthorne Broadway Musical Comedy Star Now Playing In “Twenty Million Sweethearts”’ ae USICALS today? Screen musicals?’’ Joe Cawthorne, veteran of a score of song-anddance hits on Broadway, beamed. ‘‘Don’t expect me to drop a tear for the old days—and cay that musicals were better then. Not on your life. They’re doing things now that we couldn’t even touch. Why not ad Dick Powell Always Has Had Song For Everybody mit it?”’ Joe Cawthorne is playing in the First National production, ‘‘Twenty Million Sweethearts,’’ now showing at the ..........5... Theatre with Pat O’Brien, Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. Cawthorne was in the famed co-starring trio —Julia ‘Sanderson, Donald Brian, Joseph Cawthorne—which any prewar playgoer remembers. In such musical shows as ‘‘Sybil’’ and ‘<The Girl from Utah,’’ they were as much landmarks on Broadway as the Knickerbocker Theatre— and the Knickerbocker Bar. It was in ‘‘Sybil’’ that Cawthorne sang the immortal ‘‘I Can Danee With Everybody But My Wife.’’? They were grand days, he won’t deny that .... —‘‘They’re just as good today. So far as spectacle is concerned, they’re better. I played in many spectacles. For a good many season, Klaw and Erlanger imported the Drury Lane pantomimes each year. I played all the Dan Leno parts. ‘‘Dan was principal comedian in the original London versions.’’ When “Spectacles” Began ‘¢Erlanger brought over ‘Mother Goose,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ and ‘The White Cat.’ In ‘Mother Goose’ there was a flying ballet that was town talk for months. It was the biggest thing that had been attempted in extravaganza and people couldn’t get enough of it. ‘“One girl ‘flew’ from the footlights to the gallery. That was a sensation. Imagine, one girl on a wire! And now you have two or three hundred girls sliding down waterfalls and diving into a tank in a single number. Spectacular ensembles of the kind you find in such films as ‘Footlight Parade’ and ‘Wonder Bar’ weren’t even conceived of. How could they be? ‘Oh, no, I’m not doing any mourning for the old days—so far as musical comedy is concerned. After all, the fun you can give is the important thing in that type of entertainment. And it’s lots more fun watching them today.’’ The comedian agrees with many present-day producers that the American public must have more —and ever more—in the way of spectacle. He cited the Drury Lane pantomimes again as an example. American Desires Change ‘<Tt’s the tradition that counts in England. They stage the Christmas pantomimes every year—and today they have diverged hardly at all from the spectacles of the nineties. ‘‘But by the time America had seen the four I mention, interest lagged. They wanted something ‘bigger’ each time, or ‘more novel.’ We gave ’em the flying ballets, new people—and even elephants. But each production had to offer more than the last or they didn’t want it. ‘¢The public is the same today. So far the movie producers have managed to give ’em something new each time in musicals. But how much longer can they keep on raising the ante?’’ ‘«Twenty Million Sweethearts’’ is a comedy romance rather than a spectacle though it is sprinkled with catchy music with songs sung by Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers and written by Warren and Dubin. The Four Mills Bros. also appear us do Ted Fio Rito and his band. Page Twenty-six “Flying Trapeze” Song Revised by Powell In “Twenty Million Sweethearts” the First National picture which opens at the .............. Sie ees geo EMOOUNC “Ole say Dick Powell revives that famous ballad, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” It is now the most popular air at the “Brass Bowl,” one of Hollywood’s swanky night clubs, and bids fair to becoming popular everywhere. He _ also sings several new, catchy airs written by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. “Twenty Million Sweethearts’? Star Bases His Success On Desire To Please HERE’S a reason, says Dick Powell, for every career in pietures—one fundamental reason that tops all the other less important ones. Dick himself got where he is today, he believes, because he had a song for everybody. Dick went straight from climbing telephone poles to climbing seales. The poles came early in his life, when he was working for the telephone company in Little Rock, Arkansas, and found out what it’s like to be a ‘‘trouble man. 9 The scales came almost at the same time—but they’ve lasted a lot longer. Dick not only took a quick stride from telephone poles to singing, as a means of livelihood—but he stayed there once he had taken it. Dick found out early what he wanted, and then overlooked no opportunity that came within his reach. ‘‘When I decided I was going to be a singer,’’ Dick says, ‘‘I also decided something else. I would sing for anybody and everybody who so much as asked me. It didn’t matter what kind of sit ging they wanted. It didn’t matter if it was a church service, a funeral, a lodge—or a beer picnie. “‘Tt didn’t matter what they paid—or even if they paid at all. I made up my mind I’d sing for everybody, from Masonic meetings to Hungarian weddings. I’d sing for friends in private and enemies in publie—or it could be the other way around. I’d sing, you see, at the drop of a hat.’’ Always Ready To Sing Which is precisely what he did. From Little Rock—and telephone poles, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where the lodges, the funeral parlors, the churches, the concert halls all came to know him. He sang for Germans, for Seotehmen, for Swedes. He sang for Baptists, for Catholics, for Presbyterians. ‘‘Whether I got paid or not,’’ he says, ‘‘there was always the possibility that one of these songs might lead to something better. The start of a career? Well, I don’t know. But whatever it is in the way of a eareer, it came my way because I never refused an invitation to warble. ‘<Tf you want to get from New York or from Los Angeles in a hurry, and you’re hitch-hiking, you don’t turn down a ride and say, ‘I’m sorry, but I planned to go by way of San Francisco’. ’’ Dick’s service-to-all policy was soon justified. Through a chureh engagement, he was offered a job at a Louisville theatre, singing popular tunes with orchestra accompaniment. Dick became the first master of ceremonies the city had known. The Kentuckians went for the idea with gusto. He had whatever it takes to register. behind the footlights. From then on, the offers were much better. He started singing for the radio, just as he does in ‘‘ Twenty Million Sweethearts,’’ his latest First National picture now show: Wise b. TO x elewascsajosteue Theatre. He made some phonograph records. He became the toast of Louisville. Then he was lured away to Pitts burgh, where for three and a half years he presided as ‘‘m. e.’’ at the largest presentation movie house in the city. Success In Pictures Hollywood came next, with ‘“Blessed Event’’ as his first picture. In this film, he played a crooner. After that, a quick succession of personal hits in such pictures as ‘‘42nd Street,’’ ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1933,’’ ‘‘Footlight Parade,’’ ‘‘The College Coach’’ and ‘‘Convention City’’ put him in an ace spot—even for Hollywood. He has plenty of songs in ‘«Twenty Million Sweethearts,’’ a delightful comedy romance of the radio written by Paul Finder Moss and Jerry Wald and adapted to the screen by Warren Duff and Harry Sauber. Music and lyrics are by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. Others in the cast include Pat O’Brien, Ginger Rogers, Grant Mitchell, The Four Mills Brothers, Ted Fio Rito and his band, Allen Jenkins and Joseph Cawthorne. Pat O’Brien The fast-talking, wise-cracking radio scout of “Twenty Million Sweethearts” at the Strand. Mat No, 11—10c Brother, Fan Mah Brow! Dick Powell just sizzles when he warbles with the Four Mills Brothers in First National’s ‘“‘Twenty Million Sweethearts,” coming to the Strand Theatre soon. Mat No. 17—20e Ginger Rogers Refuses to Give Up Art to Be Bride Leading Lady Of ‘‘Twenty Million Sweethearts” Denies Engagement To Lew Ayres INGER ROGERS and Lew Ayres are not in love. Hollywood news hawks who pride themselves on unearthing romances among the cinema celebrities very definitely ‘‘came a cropper’’ on the Ginger and Lew situation. At the point where Hollywood rumor had Ginger and Lew on the point of pulling an “‘ off to Yuma”’ at almost any mo ment, the red headed actress was bluntly asked about the matter. It happened on the “Twenty Million Sweethearts” set at First National Studios where Ginger was working with Dick Powell, Pat O’Brien and others on the radio romance which comes to the. s.69.5.. omen Theatre on .............. ; The supposed romance between Ginger and Lew isn’t that at all. They happen to be engaged in the same profession and because each has the same objective— success—they have many common bonds and interests. Their’s is a grand friendship, nothing more, according to both. Ginger feels quite certain that neither of them is going to marry for two or three years and then —they’re more likely than not to find other mates for that stroll down the aisle. Lew is a grand boy, in the opinion of the actress, and she has found his friendship and advice to be priceless. Has Success as Objective The vivacious hot-cha girl has very definite and concrete ideas on marital subjects. She talks with a sensible and clear cut attitude that belies the playgirl characterizations she portrays so convincingly on the silver screen. “Marriage is the ideal pattern of living,” she exclaimed, “but it isn’t fair to the man for a girl to enter it unless she is willing to accept it as the primary interest of her life. “Right now I’m interested only in making a success of my screen eareer. It’s everything to me. Were I to get married now it would really be under false pretenses and when the man discovered that—-and he surely would — unhappiness would be sure to result. “Tf I marry before two or three years have elapsed it will be only because I’ve met some man who can cause me to place my ambitions secondary to my love, and if I may be honest, I’m afraid I won’t be able to ‘recognize’ the man, even if he does appear before that length of time has passed.” Ginger, looking at the matter of a career in the picture business, has remarkably clear vision. She knows that the average motion picture career is, at best, a short one. The earning power of a screen favorite is usually short-lived and Ginger wants to prove her faith in her ability to advance before she turns to any other interest. Longs for Romance The girl doesn’t claim that her career means everything to her. In her heart she longs for the romance of marriage, a home, and children. Right now, however, she’s determined to get to the top in her acting profession and until she has attained that goal everything else must stand aside, even her dreams of love and marriage. Being the determined person that she is, it’s quite the foregone conclusion that when she does marry, her marriage will be of stability and permanence. In “Twenty Million Sweethearts” Ginger “gets her man,” in the person of Dick Powell and when she does “get her man” in real life, it will be at the conclusion of her cinema career. The picture is taken from the sparkling comedy drama by Paul Finder Moss and Jerry Wald, and adapted to the screen by Warren Duff and Harry Sauber. There are several catchy songs in the picture written by Warren and Dubin and sung by the new romantic team of Dick Powell and Ginger Rogers. Besides the principals, featured parts include The Four Mills Bros. and Ted Fio Rito and his band. Ray Enright directed.