Cheyenne (Warner Bros.) (1947)

Still No. 663-96 JANIS PAIGE, in her "Cheyenne" role of the alluring dance hall entertainer and sweetheart of the bandit poet will appear in Warner Bros.’ new outdoor drama of old Wyoming beginning Friday at the Strand Theatre. MAT NO. 1H "| Abhor Ruts,” Says Jane Wyman “A sturdy western heroine, that’s what I am,” said Jane Wyman as she gave a hitch to her bustle and a tug at her tight Puritan-type collar. The actress, co-starring with Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett at the Strand Theatre in Warner Bros.’ “Cheyenne,” portrays a gentlewoman of the pioneer west—a woman of independence and determination. “T’m not a gun-toting, oxendriving woman in a sunbonnet and gingham dress. But I’m sturdy.” During the picture, Miss Wyman is involved in a stagecoach robbery, which she _ accepts calmly, and she is present during a gun battle, which she accepts not so calmly. In addition, she enacts the wife of a notorious bandit, and she falls in love with a gambler. “So you can see,” she said, “that there’s no place for fragility in that role.” Actually, Miss Wyman isn’t the frail type anyway. Offscreen, she is a woman of firmness and decision who brooks no nonsense in matters of importance. Being a wife and a mother, as well as a working oir tl, has eliminated the ingenue frivolity from Jane Wyman’s life. There was a MAT NO. 1A _ time early in Jane Wyman her film ca reer when she was cast as pert, emptyheaded blondes. Times have changed, though, and so have Miss Wyman’s screen assignments. A western role is exactly what she needs at this time, the actress feels, having recently been the sweetheart of a drunkard in ‘Lost Week-End,” a musical comedy star in “Night and Day,’ and a girl of the earth in “The Yearling.” Miss Wyman is pleased with these recent roles. “And so would any actress be,” she said, adjusting her bustle for the umpteenth time and tenderly patting her sore neck, “who hates a rut like nature abhors a vaccum. And I abhor ruts.” 10 PIONEER FASHIONS WERE FUNCTIONAL Now Jane Wyman and Janis Paige know why the women of the old west wore bustles. And it had nothing to do with being fashionable. Riding in an old-time stagecoach for scenes in “Cheyenne,” Warner Bros.’ drama in which they are co-starred with Dennis Morgan and Bruce Bennett at the Strand, the Misses Wyman and Paige were jostled and bounced unmercifully as the stage clattered over deep-rutted roads. “And that’s why,” Miss Wyman said, “the pioneer women wore bustles. Shock absorbers—-that’s what they were.” REAL HERO REGALES STARS Out where the west begins— at Warner Bros.’ Calabasas Ranch, Raoul Walsh was directing Dennis Morgan and Jane Wyman in “Cheyenne,” a super western on a super scale, in which they currently co-star with Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett at the Strand. Furthermore, if you sat around with Dennis for a while, you’d meet and talk to some of the amazing Gower Gulch characters. Perhaps one of the most picturesque of these characters is Bear Valley Charlie. No one seems to know just how old Bear Valley is in years. Counting the wrinkles on the back of his neck, as they do rings in a tree, would be about as accurate as what Bear would tell. The long hair that grows down the back of Bear’s neck will tell you nothing, either. There isn’t a gray one in the lot. In any event, the truth is not to be found, because Bear Valley is allergic to the truth. Bear Valley will tell you of the days when he was a stagecoach driver and of the holdups and the accidents. He will regale you for hours with stories abeutthe old days. when he worked at Mixville and Inceville. About that time the listener begins to wonder just how much the truth and celluloid fiction have become mixed. Regardless of what is truth and what is fiction, Bear Valley’s stories make good listening. Like all stars, Dennis is besleged wtih people on the set who are sure they have the perfect screen story for him. One of the characters was overheard briefly outlining an idea he called ‘Blood Relations”: The hero gives the heroine a blood transfusion, saves her life and subsequently falls in love with her—hence, “Blood Relations.” Morgan gives all these ideas his courteous consideration. As the day’s shooting drew to a close you might have witnessed the daily routine of one bespurred character who daily tried to put the bite on Dennis. This individual has never written a check in his life, would probably have difficulty writing his own name. Yet, without fail, he approaches Morgan with, “Say, pal, loan me $10 until I can write me a check.” GRANDMA NEVER WORE ’EM Anachronisms are permitted in Hollywood so long as movie audiences are not aware of their existence. Primly and starchily garbed in a dress of Grandma’s day for a scene in “Cheyenne,” Warner Bros.’ newest western epic, Jane Wyman appears properly accoutred as a sweet young thing of that period. But just out of camera range are a pair of the most voguish wedgies that ever graced a feminine foot. The 1870’s from the ankles up— 1947 on the pedal extremities. It could happen only in the movies. Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett are co-starred with Miss Wyman in the Strand’s current film. Still No. 663-48 suffrage. TRAIL’S END Still No. 663-530 DENNIS MORGAN and JANE WYMAN find their love at ‘trail's end' in the Warner Bros. film drama of Wyoming in the 1870's, ''Cheyenne,'' currently featured at the Strand Theatre. JANE WYMAN MAT NO. 2B TAGGED BOTTLED LIGHTNING Director Raoul Walsh has tagged Janis Paige “Bottled Lightning.” The director says that the actress, co-starring with Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman and Bruce Bennett at the Strand in Warner Bros.’ “Cheyenne,” has a quality of controlled electrical tension, for which bottled lightning is the most accurate description. ‘DRAW PARD!’ — WITH ONE GUN Arthur Kennedy finally convinced Raoul Walsh that one gun was as good as two and sometimes even better. The actor, playing a badman role in Warner Bros.’ “Cheyenne,” found difficulty in drawing the two guns which the script called for him to carry, with speed and ease. Investigating bandit lore, Kennedy who with Alan Hale large cast of featured players in the Dennis heads a Morgan Jane Wyman Janis Paige Bruce Bennett starrer, “Cheyenne,” coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday, learned that many of the really important badmen of the early west carried only one gun. He presented his evidence to the director. Walsh capitulated, and Kennedy was happier, and, he says, doubly efficient with his single six-shooter. BRUCE BENNETT discusses the exploits of "The Poet,'' with DENNIS MOR GAN in a scene from "Cheyenne," a Warner Bros. drama of Wyoming in the 1870's. The action-packed film story has its local premiere at the Strand Theatre starting Friday. MAT. NO. 2A STATE CHAMPIONS WOMEN'S RIGHTS Miss Jane Wyman, who is almost as firm a believer in women’s rights as Susan B. Anthony, maybe, or Carrie Chapman Catt, maybe, has found a point of contact with her new movie, “Cheyenne,” which is nearly as important to her as the very role she enacts. In a bit of personal research into the history of Cheyenne and the state of Wyoming, the Warner Bros. star learned that this state was a pioneer in woman The first territorial legislature held in Cheyenne in December, 1869, Miss Wyman reported, gave women of Wyoming the right to vote at all elections. This right was confirmed by an equal suffrage clause in the state constitution which was drawn up in 1889. “Thus,” she said, “Wyoming stands as the pioneer of the nation and probably of the world in granting woman suffrage.” Although Miss Wyman’s role of Ann in “Cheyenne,” which is a film story of the old west, does not tie in directly with the suffrage movement, the role has been written so as to emphasize the growing independence of women in pioneer America. “It’s a pleasure,” the actress said, “to play a western girl who has a mind of her own and is not the simpering ‘pleaseprotect-me’ type of heroine so often seen in western pictures.” She’s very glad, indeed, that her role is of such a nature. “Because it would be a shame to let down the pioneer women of Wyoming who did so much for women’s rights. Incidentally,” she added, “maybe that’s one reason Wyoming is known as the Equality State.” Miss Wyman is co-starred with Dennis Morgan, Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett, in the latest western from Warners which arrives at the Strand on Friday. ‘“SPARKING’ DANGEROUS THEN — AS NOW Jane Wyman, Warner Bros. star, now knows what the girls of ’72 had to contend with when they strolled the board walks of yesteryear with a swain. Jane was strolling such a walk with Dennis Morgan for a scene in “Cheyenne” in which they share stellar billing with Janis Paige and Bruce Bennett, currently at the Strand, when her heel caught in one of the widely spaced boards of the walk. Jane and her bustles kept going, while her shoe stayed firmly locked between the boards . . and Janie had a wrenched ankle to prove that “sparking” in the old days was a dangerous pastime.