Blessed Event (Warner Bros.) (1932)

BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL Advance Feature Lee Tracy, a Riddle Without Answer to Hollywood Studios Broadway players who came to conquer Hollywood have always been an enigma to the hundred per cent film folk; but of all the mysterious stage folk, there is none to compare with Lee Tracy. To a Hollywoodian, Tracy is a riddle without an answer. He just will not ‘‘stay put,’’ and the fame and fortune at— tendent on film success, which is the aim in life of so many show folk, does not mean a thing to him. He reached the peak of his career in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘ Blessed Event,’’ which comes TONE DG ee Oe Rs VOHUTO C0 ou ee ce es. , and saw a vista of glowing achievements ahead of him—but all he did was snap his fingers at it and uttered the Broadway version of ‘fAy tank ay go home.’’ Three times picture producers have put him under long term contracts, but each time the tug of Broadway has yanked him away. The last attempt collapsed upon completion of ‘“Blessed Event,’’ which was not only his greatest performance but also considered one of the finest pieces of screen entertainment filmed since talkies came in. Just prior to its starting, Tracy, who had already made three pictures for Warners, decided to accept a five year contract with the company and relax like a good home body into the quiet of Hollywood for that period. But even while the publicity department was announcing the signing, he calmly went about getting a release from his contract. Tracy brought to Hollywood from New York, a reputation not unlike that which followed John Barrymore into stardom from years as a theatrical playboy. Indifferent to Rules He has the same indifference to the rules of decorum, the same flare for daring to do the unusual and the same devil-may-care attitude toward life and his profession that characterized the young Barrymore. ____But he has the ability too, and. hich all does not as yet explain the mystery of why Lee Tracy won’t | chough he keeps it a secret from his friends, he has a sincere streak in him which makes it impossible for him to give a shoddy performance, under any circumstances. It is impossible to start an appraisal of an actor by announcing that he is good to his mother. An actor, like other human beings, is supposed to be good to his mother—albeit some of them are not. But this does not alter the fact that Lee Tracy is particularly fond of his mother, and that it is largely because she likes Hollywood better than he does, that he even considered plans to stay there. The mention of matrimony during a recent interview caused those very blue eyes to close, and that funny Tracy face to wrinkle into a most impressive expression of distaste. ‘‘Ugh!’’ he says. And you gather that he is not for it. It is motherly Mrs. Tracy who keeps house for Lee. It wasn’t exactly keeping house either, in Hollywood, for they lived at a hotel there. But even in an apartment hotel, Mrs. Tracy is Lee’s one tie to domes ticity, which he says on his studio biographical questionaire, he ‘‘ hates.’’ It was Mrs. Tracy who waked him up mornings almost early enough to reach the studio on time. But it was also Mrs. Tracy, the mother, who didn’t wait up nights for her boy, a thoughtful attitude which Tracy appreciated. There is a good deal of understanding between these two, and no little tolerance on the mother’s part which the actor repays with a very genuine affection. ‘*Say,’’ says the subject matter of all this. ‘‘Are you trying to make out that I have a face only a mother could love??? The fact that she does love it doesn’t alter the pertinent fact that it is a funny face. But there’s personality in it, and behind it, and there’s ability back of it. William Wellman, famous director of many Warner successes, has been credited with a very pat description of Lee Tracy. ‘He has,’’ said Wellman, ‘‘a face like a baked potato and a smile that’s like a glimpse of heaven.’? listen over-long to any call from Hollywood. There is no explanation for it—it just happens. It’s an even bet that movie fans will see Lee Tracy again, for movie producers have a very persistent manner with people who have ‘‘the goods.’’ But you can bet your new fedora that as soon as Tracy has given in, Broadway will once again be whispering in his ear, and the back to the bright lights movement will start once again. Tracy’s restless character is best revealed in the role he plays in ‘Blessed Event.’’ When you see the picture, you wil know what we mean. He is supported in this production by a marvelous cast of actors headed by Mary Brian as the leading lady, also Ned Sparks, Allen Jenkins, Isabel Jewel, Ruth Donnelly, Milton Wallace, Frank McHugh, Dick Powell, Walter Walker, Edwin Maxwell, Emma Dunn and others. The story is an adaptation by Howard Green of the great Broadway stage success by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson. Roy Del Ruth directed. * SPECIAL BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Use for Player and Picture Build-Up LEE TRACY feet Lee Tracy, whose amazing success with the role of Alvin Roberts in Warner Bros.’ picture, ‘‘ Blessed Event,’’ playing now at the............ Rirerees: Theatre, is one of the sensations of the theatre year, spent five. years on the New York stage before he could be persuaded to appear in pictures. Tracy was born in Atlanta, Georgia and was educated in the . Western Military academy at Al ton, Ill. and in Union College in Schenectady, N. Y. After five years of experience in stock companies and two years on the road, he won his first Broadway role in ‘¢The Show Off.’’ As the hoofer in ‘‘Broadway,’’ Tracy found himself suddenly acclaimed a star by the New York press. This was followed by the tremendously successful ‘‘ Front Page,’’ and it was after the show finally closed, that he was first persuaded to come to Hollywood under contract to Fox studios. He made two pictures there and returned to New York, where he remained in various stage parts until signed by Warner Bros. to play featured roles in ‘‘The Strange Love of Molly Louvain,’’ ‘‘ Doctor X,’’ and in ‘‘Blessed Event.’’ Tracy is thirty-four years old, unmarried and his hobby is fishing. EMMA DUNN ene Famous For Her Fine Mother Roles Emma Dunn, who appears in support of Lee Tracy in the Warner Bros’. picture, ‘‘Blessed Event,’’ which opened ..................... BUOY Sie ase Theatre, has become one of the screen’s most famous and best loved ‘‘mothers’’ without losing her sense of comedy and her ability to put zip into old lady roles. Miss Dunn is famous alike on stage and screen. For a number of years she was a star in well remembered productions on the English and American stages, including ‘‘Old Lady 31,’’ ‘‘Courage,’’ ‘*Mother,’’ and ‘‘The Governor’s Lady.’’ She started in pictures in 1919 when she played ‘‘Old Lady 31,’’ on the silent screen and she has been featured in countless roles since that time. Recent parts played by Miss Dunn include ‘‘It’s Tough To Be Famous,’’ ‘‘Under ‘Highteen,’’ ‘¢The Guilty Generation,’’ and ‘* Juvenile Court.’’ Miss Dunn is English born and educated and she has been on stage and screen almost since childhood. DICK POWELL Dick Powell, Hailed as Film Find by Thousands, Makes Good in Big Way (Current Feature) When Dick Powell left Pittsburgh for Hollywood to play a part with Lee Tracy and Mary Brian in the Warner Bros’. comedy ‘‘ Blessed Event,’’ now featured at the ............ her tear oe Theatre, he took with him the expressed good wishes of the thousands of fans and friends he had made during his three years as master of ceremonies at the Stanley Theatre there. He returned to the theatre after the picture was completed but for only a limited engagement because he took back with him a long term contract with Warner Bros. under which he will soon be featured in leading roles. Dick Powell is the exception that proves some kind of rule in Hollywood. He looked like a screen ‘find’ before he was sent to Hollywood for the part in ‘‘Blessed Event’’ and he has lived up to that ‘look.’ No new comer to the screen was ever 80 flooded with mail during the first few weeks of production as was this favorite son of Pittsburgh. Literally thousands of letters reached the studio from admirers of the youthful orchestra leader, all of them recommending Powell as a promising new leading man for the screen. For once these early fans seem to have been one hundred per cent right, too. Powell hails originally from™Uittle Rock, Arkansas, where he stopped on his way to Hollywood to be feted as a conquering hero. Pittsburgh gave vue VUY Whas anuuteu vw almose w civic reception on his return from Hollywood. ‘*Blessed Event’? is his first screen appearance. NED SPARKS ——___—_4 Ned Sparks, whose hard boiled characterization of a disgruntled newspaper columnist adds much to the hilarity of the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘Blessed Event,’’ which is promising to break records at The eee OR ee Theatre, is a Canadian by birth and a pessimist by nature. Sparks won his first attention on the New York stage which he deserted some years ago for Hollywood and parts in pictures. He is frequently featured in brief comedies of his own and he has been seen recently in ‘‘The Miracle Man,’’ ‘‘Kept Husbands,’’ ‘‘Corsair,’? and ‘‘Big City Blues.’’ Lee Tracy’s Reporter Role Even Fooled Real Editor Knowing that editors will be particularly interested in stories written around newspaperdom, the subject with which ‘‘Blessed Event?’ treats to a great extent, we have included three features on that phase of the picture. He is an ace newspaper reporter in his particular line of work—and yet he has never written a line in his life and confesses he wouldn’t know a good story if it stared him in the face. It was as a newspaper reporter that Lee Tracy first made himself conspicuously convincing to the world at large. The stage production of ‘‘The Front Page’’ did this for him. He didn’t really know how good he was in that role until a real newspaper editor wrote him a sarcastic, disparaging letter in which he said: ‘‘You are not any different from twenty drunken reporters I can name.’’ That, to Lee Tracey, was the highest compliment he had ever received. He had played his role well enough to fool an editor. Not that newspaper reporting is the only thing he portrays on stage and sereen, but it is the role in which he excels. Following his nose for news into many dark and forbidding corners makes him an outstanding figure in the mystery melodrama, ‘‘Doctor X,’’ the First National picture which is now playing BURG a con eee Theatre. Fast thinking and especially fast talking have put Lee Tracy where he is today. It is these qualities which act as his trademark that make even critical showmen believe Tracy. is the sort of type he plays. When he scored highly as the hoofer in the stage production of ‘‘Broadway,’’ a Hollywood producer wired him to play a hoofing role in a picture called ‘‘Big Time.’’ He did not dance a step in ‘‘Broadway’’—just talked about it at his usual rapid rate—and it took all his powers of persuasion to convince the Hollywood producer that he really couldn’t dance. Dancing happens to be one of his pet aversions, along with people who eat oranges on trains, women with umbrellas, phone calls, women who use lipstick constantly and harsh voices. But the proof that he acts the reporter so consummately lies in the fact that producers immediately think of a Lee Tracy type when they read a script having a reporter role in it. Page Seven