Boy Meets Girl (Warner Bros.) (1938)

Current PUBLICITY BRITISH NEWCOMER OKAYS U. §. GALS tall young man was swinging a golf club on the set of the Warner Bros. comedy, “Boy Meets Girl,” using a piece of paper for a ball. He swung like a professional, but he was, as a matter of fact, an English actor named Bruce Lester; it used to be Lister, but they changed it, and he doesn’t know why. Lester is the boy in “Boy Meets Girl,” now showing at the Strand Theatre. He is twentyfive but looks 19. He is markedly British, but not annoyingly so. He is six feet tall and weighs 150 pounds. He says he is always hungry. He wasn’t born in England but in Johannesburg, South Africa. That’s because his father was a mining engineer. He came back to England to go to school and graduated from Brighton College in Sussex. He went on the stage at the age of 18 in “Young Woodley.” Until the Warner Bros. Studio brought him to America, he thought all Americans chewed gum and wore yellow shoes with nobby toes. He thought there were wild Indians in Iowa and that Americans ate venison, watermelon and ice cream at every meal. Lester says he was agreeably surprised by this country—particularly by its women. He never saw so many pretty girls in his life. Not a bad testimonial. Shoe Horns His Hobby Frank McHugh, one of the stars of the Warner Bros. comedy “Boy Meets Girl,” has the oddest collection in Hollywood— shoe horns. He’s been collecting them for twenty years. (Current Feature) Has Tough Time Making Studio Look The McCoy The name of the Warner Studio was changed for a couple of days several months ago. Some electricians put a big electric sign over the gate, some painters repainted a few trucks and the place became the Royal Studios. No, the Warners didn’t sell out. They were making “Boy Meets Girl,” the comedy about the picture business which is now at the Strand Theatre. At least, it’s the picture business through the eyes of Sam and Bella Spewack, who wrote the play and picture script. So, instead of building a makebelieve studio, Warner Bros. used their own for some of the scenes. Ordinarily, when a scene is being made out of doors, one of the assistant directors blows a siren and all work in the neighborhood stops. But it wasn’t that way on “Boy Meets Girl.” The carpenters kept on hammering, trucks moved in and out of stages, electricians walked around pushing lights in front of them, messenger boys rode by on bicycles. “This is about motion pictures,’ declared Director Bacon at the start. “I want to hear some hammers. I want to see people in the background.” The first scene was made at the real studio gate. Dick Foran, who plays the cowboy star, drove up in an open car with cow horns on the radiator, waved at the gateman and went toward his dressing room. A bystander who had been reading publicity releases suggested that maybe it Star Gets Writing Bug Marie Wilson, the heroine of “Boy Meets Girl,” the Warner Bros. comedy playing at the Strand Theatre, announced recently that she was going to write a book to keep the one she now owns company. Marie’s opus is to be a cowboy mystery novel, because she thinks cowboy yarns and mystery stories are most popular. By combining the two she thinks she'll achieve double results. Mat 205—30e SHE'S DUMB, TOO — Susie, the waitress in "Boy Meets Girl," the hilarious comedy now at the Strand, is supposed to be as dumb as they come. So Marie Wilson, who plays Susie in the picture, does a Charlie McCarthy on the knee of Jimmy Cagney who co-stars with Pat O'Brien in the Warner Bros. film. would be a good thing if the gateman didn’t recognize Foran, but Bacon paid no attention to the suggestion. Then the camera moved over and photographed the elephants. They have no part in the piece except as color. Bacon said he thought they made the place look more like a studio. He said he figured there were lots of people who thought that elephants walked around movie lots. This brought a good deal of criticism from the employees, most of whom had never seen an elephant except at a circus. Bacon, however, stuck by his guns. In those two days, practically every part of the lot was photographed. But there was one scene, supposed to be made on the lot that wasn’t. That’s the one where Jimmy Cagney, as the writer, heaves a rock through a producer’s window. Not one of the Warner producers would allow Bacon to use his window. Bacon had to make the scene on a stage. oll ened Honeys Mat 116—15e HOW TO KEEP FIT — in one easy lesson. Marie Wilson, featured in “Boy Meets Girl," comedy now at the Strand Theatre, does a little bicycle-riding every morning before going to the studio to keep that movie star figure. (Holdover Story) “BOY MEETS GIRL” HELD OVER WEEK “Boy Meets Girl,” the hilarious comedy which has been packing them in at the Strand Theatre all this past week, will be held over for a second week, according to an announcement by the Strand Theatre management today. Starring Jimmy Cagney and Pat O’Brien, together for the first time since they made “Ceiling Zero,” the film was an instant success from the opening date. Based on the smash stage play by Samuel and Bella Spewack which ran for two years on Broadway and in 235 theatres on the road before being adapted to the screen, “Boy Meets Girl” is said to contain all the laughs and situations of the original. The story is concerned with the mad antics of a pair of cainraising playwrights who concoct one weird plot after another, the final one resulting in the adoption of an unborn baby to be the star of their next film. The mother of the baby is a beautiful but dumb waitress, played by Marie Wilson, in her first big role. @ Motion Pictures Are Your Best Entertainment @ Mat 202—30c DIRECTOR LLOYD BACON seems to be doing the listening instead of giving the orders. Anyway that's Jimmy Cagney expostulating with Pat O'Brien and Bacon at right between scenes on the "Boy Meets Girl’ set at Warner Bros. studio. The comedy is currently appearing on the Strand Theatre screen. The Fashton Corner Table Material Featured Although Marie Wilson wears one dazzling “glamour girl” costume in the Warner Bros. picture, “Boy Meets Girl,” which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, her favorite Milo Andersondesigned frock in the picture features red-checked tablecloth material. The glamorous gown is actually a broad burlesque on what a little girl who has risen to fame too rapidly in Hollywood might be expected to select. The molded bodice and brief peplum of the gown are embroidered with iridescent sequins; the long skirt is heavy white slipper satin; her baby bonnet, tied under the chin, and her short gloves are almost solidly sequined. But that isn’t all — she wears a knee-length white fox cape from which drip a round dozen orchids. The character Marie portrays in the picture wears this dream of elegance to a film premiere. The tablecloth number, which is to Marie’s personal liking, is the type of thing every teen-aged girl will adore. The checked fabric seems to form a tight-fitting, long-sleeved collarless jacket from the back, but the front is not so simple. The upper part of the jacket is split to form a bolero while the lower part is snugly zippered down the front like a wide corselet belt. With this, Milo teams a short pleated skirt of black crepe, a white crepe blouse with Peter Pan collar and a black straw Breton sailor with under-brim faced in checkered cotton and crown covered with it. The rest of Marie’s screen wardrobe is completely simple as befits the screen character whose greatest wish in the world is to finish high school. It consists of a waitress’ costume which is a double for those worn by Brown Derby waitresses with its full, stifly starched skirt; a sailor suit with white tuck-in middy blouse having the square part of its collar in front, a blue pleated skirt and a red crushed kid belt; and a slim summer tailleur conceived by Milo in oyster white sheer wool. The jacket shows a black velveteen collar while the skirt shows one inverted pleat in front. A tailored hat is of self-fabric banded in black grosgrain and a flower-pot-shaped bag in black patent leather. Takes No Chances After losing his home and all it contained in the disastrous South ern California flood last spring, Ralph Bellamy, one of the stars of the Warner Bros. comedy, “Boy Meets Girl,” now at the Strand Theatre, bought a nineroom home in Beverly Hills. “It’s on high flat ground away from washes,” Bellamy announced. “I’ve seen one flood take all I own. It isn’t going to happen again, not if I can help it.” Embroidery Tells Story Just any sort of embroidery doesn’t go on the new rough fabric peasant frocks. It has to be truly novel. Marie Wilson, heroine of the Warner Bros. comedy, “Boy Meets Girl,” which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday, has such a frock in powder blue linen which has a wide band at the hemline embroidered in little black stick men who tell the story of a movie. It starts with a man at the typewriter and carries through the director with his megaphone and ends with a projection machine and final clinch. Marie Once Salesgirl Marie Wilson, female star of “Boy Meets Girl,” was once a salesgirl in a Los Angeles department store. She sold toys. steneee MARIE WILSON 1s the ultimate in sheer daintiness when she goes dancing in a Gibson-Girl dress of white organdy. A wide panel is placed in front and is trimmed with ruffles of Val lace and pale blue buttons. A wide blue sash ties in back. Puffed sleeves, baby collar and deep ruffle at the hem add to the ingenue effect. Marie is the girl in Warners’ "Boy Meets Girl." Mat 111—15e