Big Business Girl (Warner Bros.) (1931)

REMEMBER HER BOSS WANTS TO BE HER HUBBY! Site, EVad Mr. Jones— —™ "Deli hted—I'l meet p you at the usual a Place.” ¢ { z vs 4 BIG You'll glory in her achievements and laugh at her mistakes. You'll cheer her challenge to men who think they know all about business and women—and how to run them both! LORETTA FRANK ALBERTSON, RICARDO CORTEZ and JOAN BLONDELL A First National & Vitaphone Picture Cut No. “OFFICE WIFE ?— with 18 Cut $1.00, Mat 25c YOUNG HER HUBBY WANTS TO BE HER BOSS! ‘So sorry Hubby | : me dear-but lhavea ‘conference —I|l be de tained al the office en till late. NESS GIRL Begins Tomorrow APOLLO Main and Market Streets HOW ORDER IS ACHIEVED OUT OF THE APPARENT CHAOS BEHIND THE SCENES OF MODERN TALKIES SET Cameraman of “Big Business Girl,” First National Picture, Featuring Loretta Young, Now at Theatre, Explains Complex Screen Mechanism (Short Feature) Of all chaotic sights to the uninitiated a motion picture set probably ranks highest. To one not knowing what things are for, there could be no greater apparent confusion than a sound stage when a motion picture is being made. But to the picture-wise a set is really an efficient spot where everything is placed for the purpose of speeding up production in some way, by putting the various implements of the trade near at hand or in some way saving steps and time. The set of “Big Business Girl,” the interesting First Na tional icture, starrin Loretta |S ee ee ee Vous: conate to the ~ _.. The-| Perfectly matched in the long shot Sie. Sin next, which tells the|°f the same action. romance of business, representing a business office, may have looked inefficient, but Director William A. The floor is covered with pulp carpets, so that inadvertent foot steps may not spoil a scene. A maze of rubber-covered cables, one to-each light, to the camera motors, to the microphones, furnishes the necessary electricity. They lie around in a greater mixup than a nest of snakes or the water hose at a general alarm fire, but they all converge at a general switch where an electrician has them under perfect control. There are two switches, a light switch and a camera and sound one. The camera and sound switch is a table with three. lights and is connected with the recording room. When the scene is ready to be filmed the microphone is turned on. Then the electric motor which runs the camera is put in action. A green light flashes its warning for silence. Then a red light flashes on, indicating that the camera and the recording machine have attained the standard speed. The switchman clicks a button as a signal to the players to start the scene and the scene is filmed. Off to one side is a huge soundproof box with a plate glass window. Inside this the sound monitor listens to the recording of the players’ voices and adjusts the volume to suit. Seiter was going ahead shooting a close scene of Ricardo Cortez dictating a letter to Miss Young. Everyone knows what appears on the screen—nothing is out of place —but behind the scenes it is different. The first thing to greet the eye are the cameras, usually three of them—one to follow the whole action, and the others to follow the action of one of the principal characters. The set is lined with incandescent lights like big searchlights, on both sides of the camera, yet out of camera range. Overhead on a scaffolding are yet more lights. The heat from them becomes intense as they warm the blood of the players and after long and continuous work perspiration stands out on the face and must be powdered away. Sitting in front of the center camera which shoots over his head is the director in a folding camp chair. Everything must suit him or it must be shot over again. Near him sits the script girl. She takes down in shorthand a complete description of every scene and a transcript of the dialogue. She must note all details such as the location of articles on a paper, which hand the man carrieshis hat in—so that it can be Cut No 6 Page Twelve BAL Yh SEES ... it was ‘Office Wife.’’ Now she’s known as— ‘BIG BUSINESS GIRL with LORETTA YOUNG As the ot who found that slim ankles could carry one to success. ANK ALBERTSON CARDO CORTEZ AN BLONDELL A First National Vitaphone Production Directed by Wm. SEITER Cut 40c, Mat 10c Platforms on which lights and cameras are sometimes placed stand neglected in the background awaiting their turn. ‘There is a fulllength mirror wit hlights around the edges for the players to make a last minute adjustment of makeup. There are several portable dressing rooms about ten by twelve feet square for the leading players to rest in between shots or to refresh their makeup. Small boxes like a Pullman porter’s step lie around. The cameraman uses different heights to reach his camera, so he can keep his figures in the center of the screen. Twenty lights are in use on the floor and an equal number are standing in the background for use on larger shots. A large box contains new bulbs of varying candlepower in case some burn out. Several perambulators lie around. They are used to carry the cameras when the camera follows a player in his action. One microphone mounted on the end of a long arm hangs over the player’s head. Several other microphones are not being used. They are for the longer shots when more area is covered by the camera’s lens. There is a “grips” box filled with black shields of different sizes and shapes which are placed around the camera to keep any direct light from striking the lens and spoiling a shot. The electricians have a box in which they keep different diffusers of opaque glass and oiled silk to place in front of a light to soften it and cut down its power. There is a small dressing-table for the hairdresser and a makeup box for the makeup man. The still photographer’s camera reposes at rest until after the shot, when the players pose for a still picture. The minimum crew which can be used on such a set with two or three principals working consists of thirty-five people. At times during the making of “Big Business Girl” as many as one hundred players and extras and a crew of technicians of one hundred and twenty were used at one time. Supporting Loretta Young in this picture are Frank Albertson, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell, Frank Darion, Dorothy Christy, Nancy Dover, Oscar Apfel, Mickey Bennett and Virginia Sale. Former Ziegfeld Beauty Seen In “Big Business Girl’’ (Biography as of March 1, 1931) Dorothy Christy was born in Reading, Pa., and went to high school there. She completed her schooling at the Beechwood Fin ishing School near Philadelphia. While visiting her sister in Hollywood she met and married Hal Christy, a title-writer and now a song-writer. When her husband went East to write for a musical show, Dorothy accompanied him and studied singing under Albert Jeanette. Deciding to try her fate, she secured a job with Ziegfeld as a show girl, and on the strength of that talked herself into a contract with Schwab and Mandel, giving up the first job before she had reported to work. She secured a release from this contract several years later to go into talking pictures. She has been in pictures a year and has had roles in the following pictures: “So This Is London,” “Playboy of Paris,” “Big Money,” “Extravagance,” “She Got What She Wanted,” “Caught Cheating,” “Parlor, Bedroom and Bath,” ‘“Party Husband” and “Re dHot Sinners.” Kick-Out As Extra Come-Back As Star “Fire that noisy extra off the set’’ was the order given by William A. Seiter, First National director, three years ago, when one of his mob players insisted on shouting around the set of “Happiness Ahead,” which starred Colleen Moore. So the extra was fired off the set and got no more work in that production. But today he is leading man for Loretta Young in “Big Business Girl,’ which the same William A. Seiter directed. The extra who climbed the ladder to success is Frank Albertson, one of the screen’s most popular juveniles. “Big Business playing at the