Back in Circulation (Warner Bros.) (1937)

PUBLICITY — BACK IN CIRCULATION — PAGE 7 (ADVANCE) Joan Blondell now rates a newspaper gal’s life as the most hazardous and exciting of all careers for women. “For thrills, long hours, unexpected emergencies and general excitement,” said the blonde star, “T used to think the life of an actress couldn’t be beat. In fact, I thought it couldn’t be tied. “But now I hand it to the girl reporter.” She reminiscently rubbed a sore spot or two as she spoke. For Joan took a tossing around in the making of “Back In Circulation,” Warner Bros. newspaper drama. Her role of star reporter on a lurid New York tabloid ealled upon her to take it—and she did. Just how she took it may be seen when the comedy-drama opens next week at the Strand Theatre. In the very first sequence, Joan got all steamed up while covering the wreck in a torrential downpour at night of a railroad express. The steam was from the locomotive which was overturned when it left the tracks in a washout. Director Ray Enright likes his realism straight, so he turned on live steam. “Why the way that steam kinked up my hair,” said Joan, “vowd think I had just got a permanent. It took a lot of bathing to get my hair back to a natural curl again.” But that was just the beginning of Joan’s misadventures. She was drenched in rainstorms. She was shoved around by cops at a murder trial. She was called upon to work straight around the clock without rest and with nothing to eat except a sandwich the office boy finally dragged in. And when she’d be near collapse at 4 o’clock in the morning with two days’ work done in one, (CURRENT) PAT O’BRIEN A GREEN ISLE FAN He’s an enthusiastic Irishman if there ever was one... Ireland and everything that is Irish... her Music, — her legends, her superstitions,—her history stir this only child of William O’Brien and Margaret MeGovern, non-professionals — Born November 11, 1899 . christened ... William Patrick ... better known as Pat O’Brien. . . His early stamping ground, Milwaukee, Wisconsin . . . High School education there... grad uate of Marquette College . . Blue-eyed . . fair, stands six foot tall... weighs one hundred and sixty pounds played football and baseball on his college teams. Likes to attend all sporting events, is a rabid fight fan. Joined the Navy at the age of seventeen ... when he admitted he had studied Latin in school was given a shovel and told to put his Latin to work on a coal pile. . . Likes to talk of the early days ... how he struggled and starved on Broadway ... carving out a career for himself : shared his only good shirt with his pal, Spencer Tracy. . . They couldn’t go out together ... how they lived on pretzels and water for a week ... and couldn’t pay their room rent, is a favorite topic. Show after show ... experience and hard knocks ... then a lucky break in pictures. . started off with a bang, playing Hildy Johnson in “The Front Page,” .. . the rest is history. Now starring in “Back In Circulation” at the Strand theatre. Newspapers Gals Have Tough Life her hard-boiled managing editor Pat O’Brien would tell her to take the morning off. “A newspaper woman who came out from New York to watch us at work,” said Joan, “told me it was all authentic. She said besides that, being a newspaper gal was even tougher in spots. Why, she told me of being hauled out of bed in the middle of the night by a phone eall from her managing editor to go down the Bay to cover the Morro Castle disaster. “She’ lost her raincoat in a taxi, jumped aboard a tug and was out the rest of the night in that stormy sea. She went soaked to the skin for hours. She didn’t get a bite to eat. The tug transshipped her at sea to a rescue boat taking survivors to some little port in Jersey.” Joan herself got used to haphazard living with plenty of unexpected thrills and plenty of undesirable strain during her career as an actress before she became a Warner screen star. With her parents, Eddie and Katherine Blondell, noted vaudeville performers, she trouped from coast to coast, making tank towns and one-night stands as well as all major cities, in the days when vaudeville was the popular entertainment of the multitude. She travelled around the world, too, performing in England and the British Colonies, up and down the China coast and throughout Australia. “It certainly wasn’t what you would call a sheltered existence,” she said. “But since working on this newspaper picture and getting the low-down from my friend on the life of a girl reporter, I’m ready to say the newspaper girl has the toughest career of all.” Mat. No. 104—10¢ CO-STARRED—Joan Blondell and Pat O’Brien head the cast of ‘‘Back In Circulation’? which is now playing at the Strand Theatre. BRIEFS As managing editor in Warner latest mystery drama, “Back In Cireculation,’ Pat O’Brien claims he has Bros. newspaper murder the greatest role of this type since his unforgettable portrayal of Hildy “The Front Page.” The picture is now on view at the Strand theatre. Johnson in Jesse Hibbs, assistant director on Warner Bros. newspaper drama, “Back In Circulation” was an All American player on the U.S.C. team of 1927, captained the National U. S. C. team of 1928, and graduated with an A. B. degree. The movie he helped direct is now showing at the Strand theatre. Ruth Pursley, hairdresser and close pal of Joan Blondell, Warner Bros. star has refused many offers of a screen test, preferring to remain Joan’s aide-de-camp. Joan is now showing in “Back In Circulation” at the Strand. (ADVANCE) Joan ‘Wakes Up’ Tousled In Film When an actress wakes up in bed in a stage or screen play she usually makes it a glamorous performance even though she’s supposed to be a slattern in a slum. But when Joan Blondell wakes up in bed in “Back In Cireulation,” Warner Bros.’ newspaper opus, she’s a newspaper girl and nobody else but. Least of all is she Joan Blondell. That tawny-haired tomboy of the screen had her own ideas about how the scene should be set and played, and didn’t hesitate to express them. “No Louis Quince bed for me,” she told Director Ray Enright. “And no fancy boudoir fixin’s, either. “[’m a girl reporter in this picture, and a girl reporter I’m going to be. ’m the kind of a girl who lives on her income, and you ean bet it isn’t big enough to afford anything but ordinary furniture and a telephone right by my ear so the City Desk can reach me quick if I’m asleep.” So it’s an ordinary bed. And there isn’t any maid to bring the telephone in on an extension cord and plug it in when the City Desk calls. Instead, there’s that ol debbil telephone right by the sleeper’s ear. When it rings, Joan finally rouses with a grouch. And when she rolls over in a smother of covers and reaches for it, she isn’t any beautified ravishing creature fresh from the make-up artist’s brush. Instead, she’s to the life a gal who hasn’t had enough sleep and resents being paged by the boss. Her hair is untidy from tossing around on her pillow, and hangs down over her eyes. And when she gets out of bed, audiences are going to miss the ‘ROUND THE CLOCK WITH A SOB SISTER Mat No. 302—30¢ "ROUND THE CLOCK WITH A SOB SISTER—In the early yawning Joan Blondell is awakened to ‘‘cover’’ a railroad wreck. Daybreak finds her at the scene of the wreck getting her story. At 6 A.M, a visit to the morgue is all in the day’s work. After a catnap, dinnertime finds her using her feminine wiles to extract inside info from a playboy murder suspect. midnight and the boss tells her she can have the, morning off! Final edition with her story on the front page comes out at maid rushing up with the beautiful dressing gown to enfold her. For Joan, still half asleep and grumbling to herself, gropes with bare toes for a worn pair of slippers and elutching her pajamas to keep ’em from slipping their moorings, stumbles around the room as natural as life. So anybody seeing the picture for the purpose of finding out how Joan Blondell looks when she wakes up in bed, will look in vain. But how the gal reporter comes to life is there to be seen —and as Joan says maybe that’ll be a novelty. “Back In Circulation” opens next Friday at the Strand. (ADVANCE) COULD BLONDELL PLAY SCARLETT? At last, a player in Hollywood has been found who hasn’t read “Gone With The Wind.” Pat O’Brien claims this distinction, but like everyone else, he has his opinion as to who should play what in this widely discussed novel. “I’ve read publicity, heard the story argued and players suggested, until I feel I can express an opinion,” explained O’Brien. “For my money, I’d nominate Joan Blondell to play Searlett O’Hara.” It was suggested that probably he was influenced by the fact that Joan is playing opposite him in “Back In Cireulation”—Warner Bros. latest newspaper mystery drama. “Not at all,” protested Pat, “Joan is a great actress. Look at her stage training. Just because she has been typed in pictures as a ga-ga dame, the public thinks of her only in those parts. “The producers are overlooking a great dramatic bet. Her performances in “Penny lArcade,” and “Maggie the Magnificent,” had New York producers writing plays for her, claiming she was greater than Jean Eagels at her best.” “Back In Circulation” will open next Friday at the Strand theatre. (ADVANCE) JOHN LITEL HAS GREAT NEW PART John Litel, veteran stage actor, in the role of Dr. Eugene Ford in the picture, “Back In Circulation” enacts one of the most important parts he has played in his many screen appearances. Warner Bros. Gaining an enviable reputation for his rendition of lengthy speeches in his dynamic portrayal of Patrick Henry in the historieal technicolor featurette, “Give Me Liberty” tall, dark, and handsome Litel began to fear that he was doomed to be ‘typed’ in parts that called for lengthy oration. Demonstrating his versatility, in a characterization remarkable for its persuasive restraint, his voice seldom raised above a whisper in a role of dramatic intensity, the dynamic orator completely submerged, Litel’s portrayal of this difficult role of a doctor under the shadow of a murder accusation, in “Back In Circulation” is most impressive by its effective reticence. The picture opens at the Strand theatre next week.