Bureau of Missing Persons (Warner Bros.) (1933)

ADVANCE FEATUR Bette Defies Chatterers to Wreck Her Marriage Not Worried About Effects of Columnist’s Gossip as She Returns Alone to Hollywood By FRANK DAUGHERTY é6 HEY fell in love. WE The speaker was Bette Davis and the occasion was her return to Hollywood from New York to begin work on the First National picture, “Bureau of Missing Persons,” which opens at the. . . «_ Eheatre-on=.. merely married.” And the significance of this was that she returned ALONE only four months after her marriage to Harmon O. Nelson, Jr. A national chatterer had nosed out _ the fact and printed a divorce rumor. The matter had been repeated to Bette, along with the information that she might now be the target for most of the chatter writers of the world. “Look at Doug been ventured. “They fell in love,” Bette answered. “That’s where they made their mistake. I don’t think anyone who falls in love should marry. It’s too awful getting used to that—let alone trying to get along with someone besides, in the same house. “People ought to wait until the infatuation is over before they marry. Harmon and I had known each ‘other for eight years before we married. We had been all through the infatuation years ago. We're really good friends now. We know how to take each other. “Of course, we’re terribly in love. But we’re not infatuated, if you know what I mean.” “Then you're really not afraid of the chatterers?” “Why should we be?” “They’ve managed to cause quite a few rifts. At least,’ we said, “so we’ve been told.” Bette laughed right in our face. “You don’t believe it?” we asked. “No.” “But they have.” “How?” “Just by—well, talking about the thing until it actually happened. Sometimes when the people themselves never had a thought of it. Look at Ann Harding. Look at Ruth Chatterton. a hundred Hollywood marriages that have hit on that snag.” “T don’t believe it.” What could anyone say to a young person like that? After all, Bette isn’t very old. Hardly twenty-two. Sitting there in blue slacks, a baby and Joan,” had Look at—oh, any one of | ribbon about her yellow hair, eyes blue as turquoise, she looked an advertisement for the schoolgirl complexion. How could she be so sure FASCINATING she knew all about marriage? All about what the chatterers could do to her own marriage? “Y¥ don’t believe it,’ she repeated. “Marriages don’t go on the rocks because of what someone says of them —certainly not chatterers.” There was a world of scorn in her voice. Sure of Her Marriage “Marriages go on the rocks because of the people themselves. No chatterers could put my marriage on the rocks.” Looking at her you almost believe her. But then, you know chatterers, too—and you have seen their effect on the Hollywood marital chart. “They have to earn a living somehow, I suppose,” she said. “The chatterers, I mean,’ she went on. “But if they were wise, they’d know by now that they’re on the wrong track. One of them ought to start writing about the good things in YOUNG STAR Beautiful blonde Bette Davis has one of the most entrancing roles of her colorful career as she plays the part of the missing girl in First National’s triumph, “Bureau of Missing Persons,” which comes to the cece Theatre'on ....Cut No. 21 Cut 30c Mat 10c Hollywood, the marriages that succeed. He’d be lots more popular.” “Do you really believe that?” “Of course. People are sick of the chatterers and their predictions of disaster. They’re not read nearly as much today as they were a year ago. They’re falling off rapidly. People want to know about Hollywood and Hollywood players—but they want to know the truth. The day of the chatterer is just about over.” “And that’s why you’re not afraid the chatterers can harm your marriage?” “That’s why I’m not afraid. Harmon is in New York finishing up a radio contract. He happens to be the sort of man who couldn’t possibly be a Mr. Bette Davis. He'll have to stay there a long while. I'll probably have to stay. here a long while. We'll both go out with other people, of course; we can’t stay home and be bored. Expects Gossip “We don’t want to, and we don’t expect to. So the chatterers will have a lot to say. But it won’t make any difference to us. And when we’re ready, when our work makes it possible, we'll be together again—chatterers to the contrary.” As was said before—what can you say to a young person like that? She just isn’t afraid of the chatterers and that’s all there is to it. And you wonder, after you’ve had time to think it over, if that isn’t the secret of beating Hollywood at its own game. Because, if you don’t care what Hollywood and its chatterers say about you—how can they harm you? In the meantime, Bette went serenely to work in the stellar role of “Bureau of Missing Persons,” which is a powerful dramatic story dealing with the thousands of men and women who so mysteriously disappear every year, and then become cases for the police departments’ Bureau of Missing Persons. In the cast with Bette are Lewis S. Stone, Pat O’Brien, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert and Alan Dinehart. The screen play by Robert Fresnell is based on the novel, “Missing Persons,” by John H. Ayres and Carol Bird. Roy Del Ruth directed. Pat O’Brien Still Trying to Get Away on Honeymoon HEY just won’t let Pat O’Brien have a honeymoon. even a belated one. Not Two years ago Pat wanted to get married. Eloise Taylor, the Broadway stage favorite, was perfectly willing. busy playing in “The Up and Up” planned to get married as soon as take a honeymoon vacation. But just about the time he was Pat was offered a nice contract to go to Hollywood and play the part of Hildy Johnson in “The Front Page.” So the wedding bells didn’t ring and the honeymoon was off. After this picture, the love birds said. But Pat was rudely pushed into another picture immediately. So the pair decided to wed and let the honeymoon wait. They planned that honeymoon a dozen times in the past two years, but always something came up so they couldn’t go. But when Pat finished “Flowing Gold” not long ago, he and his wife packed their baggage and caught a boat for Hawaii. Just at this time First National was looking for a man to play the romantic role opposite Bette Davis in “Bureau of Missing Persons,” a picture which opens at the... . Theatre on... . O’Brien was just the type, the casting director thought. But Pat was on the New York stage. So they he completed his engagement and to finish with “The Up and Up,” So a cablegram was sent to Hawaii, asking him if he wouldn’t return at once. Pat looked at his bride and sighed. “I give up,” he said. “Maybe we’ll be able to have our honeymoon on our golden jubilee.” And so Pat returned to play the part of a hard-boiled detective in a picture which reveals for the first ’ time on the screen the activities of that branch of the police department known as “The Bureau of Missing Persons.” Bette Davis has the leading feminine role while others in the cast include Lewis S. Stone, Glenda Farrell, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert and Alan Dinehart. The screen play is based on the book by Capt. John H. Ayres, Chief of the New York City Missing Persons Bureau, and Carol Bird. It was directed by Roy Del Ruth. N. Y. Police Officer Tells Why Most People Vanish Head of “Bureau of Missing Persons’? Reveals Findings Based on Study of 300,000 Cases HY do missing persons disappear? There is one man in the United States who probably can give a better answer than anyone else to the question concerning the 300,000 human beings who yearly drop out of sight. That person is Captain John H. Ayres, for 15 years head of the New York Police Department’s Bureau of Missing Persons. He is the author of the book, “Missing Men,” upon which is based the First National production, “Bureau of Missing Persons,’ which opens at theza—. — Eneatre: on ..=; 2%, with a large cast headed by Bette Davis, Pat O’Brien and Glenda Fartells’ = He is still head of that important, dramatic and—Little known phase of metropolitan police activities. Captain Ayres has acquired an intimate knowl edge of the are oe lives, disposiut No. > Cut 15¢ Mat 5c tions and character’ of more than 300,000 human beings during the past fifteen years. Page Eightéen They form the vast army of “missing persons” whose disappearance has been placed in the hands of his bureau for solution. Directly or indirectly, he has come to know the vast majority of them better than most people know their intimate friends. Here are a few of the conclusions Captain Ayres has reached about people who disappear. Most missing persons vanish voluntarily. It’s an attempt to escape from something that has grown intolerable or too hard for them to solve. Comparatively few are _ frightened away. Comparatively few are missing against their will—this, inspite of the alarming increase in kidnapings during the past few years. Most amnesia cases are Now and then Captain Ayres runs | across a genuine case of “lost iden fakes. \ tity” or lapse of memory. In most instances, however, the “amnesia” is an amateur performance which the skillful detective sooner or later exposes as a fraud. More married women disappear than do single ones. Most people are apt to believe that lovesick girls, or maidens. with blighted romances, form the majority of missing women cases. Not so, declares Captain Ayres. It’s the married woman, with husbands who “don’t understand them,” or other purely domestic problems, who take to dropping out of sight. More adults disappear than juveniles. ‘The proportion, says Captain Ayres, is about 3 to 2. The older you get, the more likely life is to “get your goat,” apparently, and the less able you are to work out its jig-saw puzzles. More Men Than Women Men vanish more frequently than women. The proportion is about the same as in the preceding paragraph —3 to 2. Does that mean women are better fighters than men, less easily discouraged, more capable of making the best of an unsatisfactory situation? Captain Ayres seems to think it does. “Wanderlust” is a common catise particularly for men’s disappearance. They get tired of the humdrum, dull routine of their lives, and long for adventure, change, excitement. Many ‘of these cases return to their old modes of living—or can be persuaded to do so, if located—when the “holiday” they have taken has purged their blood of the “wanderlust.” Domestic friction is another frequent cause for “runaways.” This applies to all classes of missing persons—men, women, boys, girls, Un happy home life in the juveniles, discord and friction among the older people is the impelling motive. Disappearance on account of crime is comparatively rare, as against the total of missing persons, says Captain Ayres, Occasionally, a person is reported missing who is proved, by subsequent investigation, to have been an embezzler, or a murderer, or the victim of murder. Then the case is referred to the proper bureau in the Police Department and passes out of the Missing Persons unit. In most instances, says Captain Ayres, the missing persons have broken no law— though sometimes they may imagine they have. The work of the Missing Persons Bureau is to find these people if possible, and help them, rather than place them under arrest for punishment. About 50 detectives comprise the entire force that Captain Ayres has at his disposal to deal with the 25,000 or more cases of missing persons who are reported annually to his bureau. Ayres is especially proud of the record of his bureau, which shows that only 2 per cent of all the cases sent to him during the last fifteen years have remained the mysteries they were when the first report came to them. In the picture, “The Bureau of Missing Persons,” Lewis Stone has the role which is the counterpart of Captain John H. Ayres. Pat O’Brien, Allen Jenkins and Charles Wilson are the principal detectives attached to the bureau. Ruth Donnelly has the role of chief file clerk, of which there are usually five, all women, attached to the bureau. The other employees, including stenographers and typists, are detectives. Bette Davis has the principal feminine role in the picture, that of Norma Roberts. Other important mernbers of the cast are Alan Dinehart, Glenda Farrell, Marjorie Gateson, Hugh Herbert, Noel Francis, Adrian Morris, Clay Clement and Tad Alexander. Roy Del Ruth directed the picture, and the screen play is the work of Robert Presnell. PAT O’BRIEN The rugged Irish star of many stage and screen successes strikes a new high in his latest dramatic achievement, “Bureau of Missing Persons” coming to the .... TheaERG acronis Cut No. 16 Cut 15¢ Mat 5c