42nd Street (Warner Bros.) (1933)

ee Advance Feature The Staging of a Chorus Advance Feature Fashions Gorgeous Costumes in Ten for a Spectacular Movie Star ‘‘42nd Street’’ Film Weeks of Gruelling Work Follow Before Raw Material Is Whipped Into Brilliant Show T was the morning of the chorus call during the production of Warner Bros.’ big new 10-star epic of backstage life, ‘‘42nd Street,’’ which is coming to the Theatre on....... SS ae By nine o’clock the chorines had begun to gather. — The first call had been for a line of seventy-two girls. This was followed by a eall for thirty-two dancing girls, twenty-two extra show girls and twenty-four show boys. ; They came in ones and twos and threes, driving their own cars up to the stage, taking off wraps and furs and stuffing them in their little roadsters and coupes of all makes and conditions. Then a big lorry rumbled up and disgorged about fifty at a clip. Three or four assistant directors OME of the most stunning costume effects ever to be shown on the screen will be seen decorating the chorus of 150 beautiful girls who appear in the Warner Bros. dramatic production with music, ‘*42nd Street,’’ which opens at the Theatre on These were all designed by Orry-Kelly, the famous modiste, who is now designing exclusively for the Warner Bros. studios. Among the most alluring are the rehearsal costumes. A rehearsal costume, for the information of the uninitiated, is worn by chorus girls when practicing their routines on the stage before the show opens. In this case, however, the costumes will actually appear in the picture, since much of the fast and hilarious action takes=.place:* “back stace,.2= And. the = got busy herding them onto the big stage—the picture was nearly all made on a regular theatre stage set —and by nine-thirty, the time of the call, they were nearly all assembled. Ruby Keeler Watches The principals, however, hadn’t come. That is, no one thought they had. It proved afterwards, however, that a demure little girl in a plain tweed suit and a small cloche hat sitting off to herself was Ruby Keeler, wif: of Al Jolson, and who next to Bebe Daniels has the biggest female ‘part in the show. But that’s another story, and no one knew it at the time. The noises of a chorus on call filled the stage ... birdealls ... catcalls . whistles . . . snatches of song ... the rat-a-tat-tat of a tap dancer marking out some new steps much talk . .. much laughter. Off on one side of the set a pair flirting, the boy very wise-cracking, the girl taking it with downeast eyes in which, however, played mischief of their own. Another pair in another corner, very serious about something. Maybe a wedding in the offing. Maybe just the serious business of their work. Who knows? Thev nearly “1 the stage. But nee them a group of workmen, setting cable lines, adjusting lights, fixing the drops and the flies, elbowing them out of the way, unconcernedly—superior to all this laughter and froth, as serious workmen ought to be. The backdrop a gaudy scene of “shuwuays now long since gone. Gay purple ladies with platinum hair bound Greek style, but wearing the bustles of the less Greek Victorian period. A marble bridge and marble balustrade, and over all, twining through all, roses—pink ones at that. A quartette somewhere in the milling crowd began to sing. A tinny piano accompanying them. Here and there one pulled away from the group to perch on a box or chair with a book. Studious. The show for them only the stepping stone to some other vocation, or an education. And then suddenly the tell-tale sign which told you that the thing after all was synthetic—not of the stage. A camera crew wheeled a big dolly and camera on the stage and began adjusting it. The principals began to arrive. The men in overcoats, with smart hats and sticks, sometimes followed by obsequious chauffeurs or valets. The women in furs and often with dogs on leash. Smart. Ultra. The last word in the fashion show Hollywood blazons to the world. A dozen of the show boys have formed in line now and kick themselves out to the footlights. Only to fade quickly back into the crowd as the sybillant shhhhhhh! of a startled chorus girl announces the arrival of Busby Berkeley, the Broadway director, who handled the dances and ensembles for ‘‘42nd Street.’? Then the forming of the line to choose the girls who will be used. Painted faces cracking a little as the girls try to keep smiling as they dig elbows into their neighbors’ ribs to get into that front line. | Few Chosen | Phen“ You2? and =8§* Your? and. ‘*You.’? The fortunate are chosen and walk out, happy and a little superior, to their places at the side. Commiserating, too, a little, over the plight of their fellows who haven’t been so fortunate. Page Sixteen _,often there”éddied through | ‘‘See you tonight, honey!’’ they call after the unfortunate ones. ‘‘All right! Places!’’ the assistants call. The big line writhes itself into the semblance of a form. Dancers in front. Back of them show girls. Back of them show boys. Three long lines. All anxious. All a little thrilled and excited as the big picture gets under way. It’s enough to put new life into a chorine. FASHION LAYOUT costumes must have been similar to those Kipling had in mind when he described them as ‘‘nothing much before, and rather less than ‘arf 0’ that behind.’’ The flaming red tresses of Ginger Rogers, when set off by the artistry Ginger, too, will stand out from the rest, because, screwed into one of her sparkling blue eyes, she wears a monocle! Ruby Keeler, famous Broadway dancer, who is in private life Mrs. Al Jolson, makes her screen debut in ‘42nd Street,’’ wearing for re of an Orry-Kelly creation, will appear the more colorful when she wears her new dancing costume of vivid green contrasted by black. She is the only one who wears full length pajamas, but they are cut in one piece to reveal her perfect figures as well as to enhance her lovely coloring. hearsals a brief dance costume of white satin with a black patent leather belt and wide collar of white starched chiffon. Una Merkel, who is very blonde, wears trim shorts of dark blue velvet with a satin blouse of lighter blue, and many other im portant players will be found in the ranks of the chorus, wearing equally modish costumes. Besides showing authentically what manner of clever, if abbreviated, creations the “chorines” wear in rehearsal, Orry-Kelly has designed dozens of gorgeous costumes to appear in the finished production, also an important feature of ‘42nd Street.’? He believes that in sheer beauty as well as force of numbers, they put such famed stage productions as the Follies to shame. Kelly, moreover, knows whereof he speaks, for it was he who costumed that Broadway success, the latest George White’s ‘‘Seandals.’’ Modern fashions, for every day— and evening—wear, also abound in ‘“49nd Street,’’? with Bebe Daniels as well as Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler and Una Merkel wearing a lavish array of gowns of Orry-Kelly design. Others in the all-star cast of ‘42nd Street’’ include Warner Baxter, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks and Allen Jenkins. ‘(49nd Street,’’? a dramatic pic-: ture of theatrical life, is taken from the novel of Bradford Ropes and adapted to the screen by Rian James and James Seymour. The dance numbers and ensembles for the 150 chorus girls were created and staged by Busby Berkeley. Special songs were written by Al Dubin and Harry Warren. Lloyd Bacon directed. FOR WOMEN’S PAGE There’s music, romance, comedy, oodles of stars and—of added interest to the ladies—there’s fashion, and lots of it, in “42nd Street,’ which opens at the Strand on Friday. Ginger Rogers and Ruby Keeler (Mrs. Al Jolson, you’ve undoubtedly heard) are shown here in some of Hollywood’s newest. Ginger Rogers wears. an evening dress of flesh-colored satin with two tiers of the dropped shoulder line edged in sable. The hemline. same detail is repeated at the A white three-piece rough crepe dinner gown with a flamingo red blouse of self material, is modeled here by Ruby Keeler. A tweed hat on the “overseas” type with a bow added at the back, is Ginger’s favorite bonnet. Out No. 27 Cut 60c Mat 20c An entirely different effect is presented with the dress at the left, when the jacket is removed, as Rulyy shows below. It was like the old chorus calls in the haleyon days when Ziegfeld’s was the only name with any meaning for one of the line. This was the staging of the chorus, the start of Busby Berkeley’s work which was to continue for weeks and weeks to whip into shape the raw material for the gigantic musical comedy spectacle which is a feature of the picture. The picture is a powerful dramatic spectacle which includes the musical show, contained in the story of the theatre backstage, loaded with brilliant comedy, taken from the novel of Bradford Ropes. The screen play was written by Rian James and James Seymour, while Lloyd Bacon directed. Special song numbers were written by Al Dubin and Harry Warren, who play their own parts as song writers in the picture. The picture carries an imposing ray of talent in its all-star cast which includes Warner Baxter, Bebe Dan iels, George Grent, Una Merkel, Ruby | Keeler, Guy Kibbee, Ned Sparks, Dick Powell, Ginger Rogers and Allen Jenkins. Advance Feature Dick Powell Joined Army So He Could Get on Stage ANY a young man has joined the army for trivial reasons —hbecause he had lost his girl, or because a pal had joined before him, or because he was enticed by that really great advertising slogan ‘‘see the world.”’ Dick Powell, one of the members of the all star cast in the Warner Bros. epic of backstage life, ‘‘42nd Street,’’ which comes to the Theatre, is probably the first man ever to have joined a military organization because he wanted to go on the stage. The boys in the National Guard in Dick’s home town, which happens to be Little Rock, Ark., were putting on a big show. They wanted Dick in it. Dick had always wanted to play in a show. It was his first big opportunity and he didn’t mean to let it slip. He took a three year stretch in the guard to play in that show. It was, he says today, worth it. But probably that’s because Dick Powell would have made good anywhere, doing anythi g. He made such good progress dur ing his service, besides playing in all their shows, that he was a top sergeant in a little more than a year. At the end of his stretch of service he took an examination for a second lieutenantey and passed. He’s still an ex-officio member of that body. But the chief thing that first show did for Dick was to convince him that he belonged on the stage. That he was meant for it and it for him. Although a member of a smart young country club set, he left town at the end of his national guard experience as a banjo player in a jazz orchestra. Anything he says—to get on the stage. Three years after that he was the most sought after singer in the city of Pittsburgh, the leader of his own band at a Pittsburgh theatre and a singer in the town’s biggest night club. It was only a step from that singing job to the movies, which he joined to sing and play the role of himself in the Warner Bros. picture ‘‘ Blessed Event.’’ And now he’s in the movies for good. His latest assignment to the role in ‘‘42nd Street,’’ in which he appears cheek and jowl with a group of players that reads like a Who’s Who of Hollywood stardom—Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels, George Brent, Una Merkel, Ruby Keeler, Guy Kib bee, Ned Sparks, Ginger Rogers, Allen Jenkins and a score of others.