Black Gold (Warner Bros.) (1962)

PUBLICITY Four Star In ‘Black Gold’ Drama Star Who Gambled Way To Hollywood Plays ‘Gold’ Shill Fay Spain is starring as a voluptuous gambling casino singer in Warner Bros.’ “Black Gold,” opening.... Theatre, because of her own luck at the gaming tables. With dreams of film stardom but no money to finance a stay in Holly ‘Black Gold’ Crowds Screen With Rowdy, Romantic Excitement Of Oil Wildcatters Phil Carey, Diane McBain, James Best, Fay Spain Spark Hard-Hitting, Turbulent Drama Exploding with the vigor and violence that characterized the rough-and-tumble rivalry and rugged romance of the early days of the Oklahoma oil boom, “Black Gold,” the Warner Bros. drama starring Philip Carey, Diane McBain, James Best, Fay Spain and Claude Akins, opens at the Theatre. The screenplay was written by Bob Duncan and his wife, Wanda, from an original story by Harry Whittington. Duncan was able to reach into his own rich knowledge of the adventures of the oil wildcatters, acquired while employed as an Oklahoma City Diane McBain, Philip Carey, James Best and Fay Spain star with Claude Akins in “Black Gold,” the Warner Bros. drama of oil wildcatters opening at the Theatre. Produced by Jim Barnett and directed by Leslie H. Martinson, the adventureromance recounts the rough-and-tumble battle for Oklahoma’s valuable oilfields during the early 1920’s with Carey and Best aiding Diane when Akins attempts to win her late father’s farm away from her. Mat 2-A_ Still No. 946/16 ‘Black Gold’ Star Care y Disputes Actors Who Resent Studio Ties Philip Carey sharply disagrees with young Hollywood actors who feel they are shackled by long term studio contracts. “They don’t realize how lucky they are to be with a big studio and how many advantages they have. It makes me mad when I hear actors say that their studios don’t understand them, that are hampering their careers.” declares Carey, who proved his point a) ei lene! s-6: 0) 80) O80 BELG” O66 6. @ #160. 808. © wood, Fay took a job a few years ago as a croupier at the Nevada Club in Reno. Her first night she was assigned to the craps table. Never have payoffs and losses been more confused. Amid the chaos, Fay finally broke down and cried. Fortunately, the owner could laugh at the havoc Fay had wrought, and she was given another chance the next evening. Two months later Fay decided to try her own gambling luck. Since employees are forbidden to gamble at their own club, she went next store and risked one week’s salary at black jack. The cards turned up right for Fay and she left $500 richer. With this nest egg she headed for Hollywood. Here she did TV commercials and médelling before venturing on her acting career. She made her TV debut in one of Mark Stevens’ “Big Town” dramas, and this was quickly followed by roles in many other TV dramas. After her appearance in “God’s Little Acre,’ she was in demand for motion picture as well as TV roles. by signing his second long term contract with Warner Bros. and starring in “Black Gold,” the rugged oilfield adventure drama opening ........ at the Garsese aes Theatre. “Sometimes I think actors regard their studios in the same manner as children who feel their parents don’t know anything. Then when the children grow up they are amazed at how much their parents really did Librarian-Turned-Novelist-Scripter Launches Writing Career With Stockholders’ Report A stockholder’s report launched Bob Duncan, a guitar-playing Oklahoman, on a successful writing career. He has now written six books, numerous TV dramas and with his wife, Wanda, the screenplay for Warner Bros.’ “Black Gold,” the oilfield adventure drama opening ...... RGcthEe: Aw. ds « Theatre. Duncan was earning $180 a month as an Oklahoma City librarian, com know and how much they did for them. “Maybe I’ve grown up or mellowed. In any case I know that studio executives have my interests at heart and may be better judges than I am of what is the right course for me to follow. “Some actors talk as though a studio contract is the next thing to serfdom. I believe it makes an actor a member of a strong team instead of being forced to go it alone. Carey is returning to the studio which signed him out of the University of Miami in 1950. During summer vacations he had acted with New England stock companies, where he was seen by a motion picture theatre owner who gave him a letter of introduction to a Warner Bros. executive in New York. A screen test was arranged and shortly afterward Carey was enroute to Hollywood with a contract. Three days after arriving, Carey had the second lead opposite John Wayne and Patricia Neal in “Operation Pacific.” Glad to be back again at Warner Bros., Carey says, “I don’t expect everything to be sweetness and light. Just as in any family, | am sure we'll have disagreements.” ‘Black Gold’ Star Strikes New Note As R-n-R Lyricist James Best, who completed his 36th motion picture role in “Black Gold,” the Warner Bros. oilfield adventure drama opening ........ at the-wxst.ies 3 Theatre, and who has more than 300 TV roles to his credit, has launched a new career for himself as a lyricist. Two of Best’s tunes — “Sweating Blood and Doing Time” and “Gallows Tree”’—have been recorded by the Fuller Brothers. Best also wrote “Mr. Lovely” and “Game of Love” with tunesmith Dave Burgess. Thus far, the actor has had nine out of the ten tunes he wrote in his first two months accepted by publishers. piling information on Oklahoma folk lore and history, when his first book, “The Dickey Bird Was Singing,” was published in 1952. A San Diego oil executive read this collection of Oklahoma oil stories. librarian assigned to compile information on Oklahoma history and Shower Of Riches James Best and Philip Carey stand drenched with oil after finally striking it rich in this scene from “Black Gold,” the Warner Bros. oilfield drama opening ...... at the. 2 03. Theatre. Diane McBain, Fay Spain and Claude Akins star with them in the rowdy account of the rough-and-tumble wildcatters who battled for the big prize in Oklahoma oil boom of the early 1920’s. Jim Barnett produced and Leslie H. Martinson directed the film from a screenplay by Bob and Wanda Duncan. Mat 1-B Still No. 946/63 He decided the author was the man he needed to write the annual stockholders’ report for the Jones-Shelburne Oil Company. A private plane picked up Duncan and flew him around the country on an inspection tour of the company’s oil wells. For the report Duncan received $5,000, a sum many authors would be glad to earn for their novels. With this nest egg he was able to give up his librarian’s job and devote full time to writing. A man who seems to achieve his goals by unusual routes, Duncan then decided to write TV dramas from the unlikely location of the Ozark Mountains. In Eureka Springs, where he staged the annual Ozark Folk Festival, he wrote and submitted his TV scripts. They were accepted by the Steel Hour, Matinee Theatre and other top programs. He also did a series of documentary films for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Duncan finally came to Hollywood with his wife in 1959 and began turning out scripts for leading TV series. Black Gold’ Star Maintains Actors Share Unrelenting Optimism Of Oil Wildcatters “Oil men and actors are the world’s most incurable optimists,’ claims Claude Akins, who portrays an oil promoter in Oklahoma during the oil boom in Warner Bros.’ “Black Gold,” opening at the oioeces'. Theatre. “The oil man is certain that the next well will gush forth vast quantities of oil. The actor is confident that the next role will be the fine dramatic one he’s been dreaming of. As an actor playing an oil man, I’m oozing optimism. I sincerely believe we have an exciting film. “Certainly the period furnishes wonderful material for a motion picture. eoceecsese folklore. The film had a wealth of material to draw upon: people lived life to the fullest while the discovery of oil revolutionized one of the country’s last frontiers in Oklahoma. There are the spectacular true stories of poor boys making dazzling fortunes as well as countless tales of intriguing frauds. Carey stars as Frank McCandless, a shrewd but honest wildcatter unable to get oil out of his system. Carey was discovered by Warner Bros. after graduation from the University of Miami in 1950 and already had extensive New England summer stock experience. Starring as the beautiful Ann Evans on whose farm McCandless believes he has found the rich oil deposit as well as the girl he has been looking for, is lovely Diane McBain. Discovered for TV while modelling, and discovered by Warner Bros. as soon as she appeared on TV, Miss McBain has soared to stardom as one of Hollywood’s finest young actresses with her performances in “Ice Palace,” “Parrish,” “Claudelle Inglish” and the studio’s “SurfSide 6” series. James Best, an accomplished young actor with over 300 TV roles and 36 films to his credit, stars as Jericho Larkin, who teams up with Frank in the suspenseful struggle to find oil. Returning to Hollywood after eight months of starring in films abroad, Fay Spain plays the loose-living gambling casino singer in love with Jericho. Miss Spain was widely acclaimed for her portrayals in “God’s Little Acre” and “Al Capone.” One of Hollywood’s most versatile actors, Claude Akins stars as Chick Carrington, the ruthless promoter who'll resort even to murder to obtain oil-rich land. Jim Barnett produced and Leslie H. Martinson directed “Black Gold.” Art director assured the authenticity of the re-created Oklahoma boomtown by bringing in set coordinator Glenn Metts, who worked in the oil fields tor four years in the 1920's. And oil has been one of the most alluring businesses in history. The men who searched for it lived to the limit. We owe a debt to the wildcatter, the man who drills the first well in any area. “The search for oil is a gamble. There are thrilling accounts of the fortunes made by the few, but not much publicity about the failures of the many. Oklahoma offers an example of the astonishing effect oil can have upon the civilization which produced it. “Tt changed the ramshackle towns of Tulsa and Oklahoma City into great metropolises. No region is more tinted with romance and adventure.” History Virtually Repeats Itself In Film History caught up with itself in a way on the set of “Black Gold,” the Warner Bros. drama opening at the Theatre and recounting the rugged battling of the wildeatters during the Oklahoma oil rush in the early 1920's. Twenty four years ago Iron Eyes Cody, as a representative of the Cherokee tribe in Okla homa, received assistance from an employee of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., named Bill Zuckert. In “Black Gold” Iron Eyes was called apon to play a scene in which he, as an Osage Indian, receives aid from the sheriff in the oil boom town. Iron Eyes thought the actor playing the sheriff looked familiar. He was right. It was Bill Zuckert. As the faithful foreman who assists Diane McBain in her search for oil on her late father’s farm in the film, Cody could bring some bittersweet experience to his role. In 1924 he had sold his own farm near Muskogee, Oklahoma, to join a_ travelling troupe as a_bow-and-arrow marksman. A year later the farmer who had bought it struck oil. Director, Co-Star Rate Beautiful Diane McBain As Promising Star Rated by a veteran Hollywood director as ‘a truly natural actress,” Diane McBain stars opposite Philip Carey and James Best in “Black Gold,” Warner Bros.’ exciting oilfield drama opening .......... aithes: JP sc eeest Theatre. “Although only a few years ago she had no intention of becoming an actress, she was destined to be one,” remarked Gordon Douglas while directing her in an earlier film. “Diane has the natural ability to concentrate and become the person she is portraying. God gave her talent.” Five-time Academy Award nominee Arthur Kennedy declared after working with the luscious blonde beauty: “She has the talent and beauty to be one of Hollywood’s finest stars.” Born May 18, 1941, in Cleveland, Ohio, and brought up in Glendale, California, Diane graduated from Glendale High School, intending to go on to college. It was, in fact, while she was on a modelling assignment during her senior year to earn money for college that she was spotted by a talent agent who secured her several television appearances. Her TV appearances in turn brought her to the attention of Warner Bros. executives and led to her motion picture debut as Richard Burton’s granddaughter in Warner Bros.’ Technicolor production of Edna Ferber’s “Ice Palace.” She followed “Ice Palace” with “Parrish” and “Claudelle Inglish” and a regular starring role in War ‘Black Gold’ Lovers ner Bros.-TV’s “SurfSide 6” series. In “Black Gold,” Diane is cast as the strong-willed owner of an Oklahoma farm, which she suspects may be oil rich, struggling desperately to hold on to her land. Diane McBain and Philip Carey star as a young girl whose land is being battled for by oil speculators and the wildcatter who comes to her aid in “Black Gold.” Mat 1-4 _ Still No. 946/20 Page Three