Code of the Secret Service (Warner Bros.) (1939)

UNCLE SAM WON'T ALLOW U. S. MONEY TO BE FILMED — It’s against the law to use. real money in motion pictures and because of that fact fake currency plays a more or less real role in Warner Bros.’ secret service series picture, “Code of the Secret Service,” coming Friday to the Strand Theatre. The picture, starring Ronald Reagan, concerns the breaking up of a gang of counterfeiters who operate below the Mexican border. Film money, of course, is far from counterfeit. The paper bills resemble cigar store coupons more nearly than they do U. S. currency and the “silver coins” are of the same degree of authenticity as the slugs which fail to produce results when used in pay telephones and slot machines. Nevertheless, the making of this “money” constitutes a thriving Hollywood business. Many thousands of packets of bills are used each year, and, while the “Silver” doubles are used less frequently, they too see considerable service, Even if it were not contrary to law to photograph actual money, it is doubtful that real currency would be used in pictures. Actors would prefer to keep their bills in their pocket and not pass them around. Certainly it never would have been used in “Code of the Secret Service.” In one scene, Reagan burned whole suiteases full. MARIS WRIXON WAS PREPARED FOR ROLE It has taken a movie role to provide Maris Wrixon with an opportunity to use the typing and shorthand skill she acquired at Great Falls High School in Mon tana. The blonde Miss Wrixon plays a secretary in Warner Bros.’ secret service picture, “Code of the Secret Service,” which is the current attraction at the Strand Theatre. When she studied typing and shorthand in high school, Miss Wrixon never intended to make use of her stenographie training. It was her ambition to become a dancer. That aspiration was slightly altered when she played the lead in the junior class play. Straightaway, she determined to become a dramatic actress. A chance with the Pasadena Community Playhouse in Pasadena, California, proved she had the talent to realize that ambition. She did several plays with the Pasadena theatre, impressed Warner Bros. film scouts and was signed to a long term contract by the studio. Maris has been selected for bigger roles in the near future, and, undoubtedly, her past training will stand her in good stead when her histrionic opportunities present themselves. Painless Instructor Ronald Reagan is doing all right with the Hollywood gals these days because he’s a particularly good teacher of the art of ice skating. He had the whole cast of his current Warner Bros film, “Code of the Secret Service,” coming Friday to the Strand Theatre, out at the new Westwood all-year round rink one night. As his leading lady Rosella Towne, said: “Ronnie, when teaching anyone to skate, rarely lets one down— a fact that makes the instruction practically painless.” ADVANCE PUBLICITY Young Screen Actresses Trained For Many Jobs Young screen actresses owe a real debt of gratitude to stenographers, telephone operators, hat check girls and maids. Few youthful players are given roles of featured importance without prior grooming in minor parts. And for the feminine players, the most common parts are the stenographer, telephone operator, hat check and maid characterizations. Half the big name stars of today have pounded typewriters, parked chapeaus, juggled trays and murmured dulcet “hellos” at some stage of their careers. While doing so they learned the fundamentals of the screen technique which carried them upward and onward. One of the latest to graduate from these training characterizations is Rosella Towne, who recently played her first starring role, bringing the cartoon strip character, Jane Arden, to the sereen in “The Adventures of Jane Arden.” Then she was assigned to another leading role, this time opposite Ronald Reagan in the Warner Bros. secret service series picture, “Code of the Secret Service,’ which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday. Miss Towne did so many stenographer bits that she really learned to use a typewriter. She became an expert at a telephone switchboard and got so she could serve a breakfast in bed without spilling the coffee or dropping the tray. There were times when she became discouraged and was almost ready to give up acting in favor of specializing on one of the trades she’d learned before the cameras. She stuck it out, however, got her big chance, and now regards her apprenticeship as invaluable experience. Prefers Rubdown Ronald Reagan took some rough handling in a scene for Warner Bros.’ secret service picture, “Code of the Secret Service,” opening Friday at the Strand, and his makeup was badly mussed. “Want some powder?” the makeup man asked. “Thanks,” replied Reagan, “I’d rather have a rubdown or a workout.” Dry Land Dive Ronald Reagan dives from the rear platform of a train to escape capture by Mexican detectives as one of the many exciting episodes of “Code of the Seeret Service,’ Warner Bros.’ seeond secret service series picture, which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Reagan plays a secret agent on the trail of a counterfeiting gang. Uncle Sam Gives Orders This Time Uncle Sam countermanded a Warner Bros. Studio order which forbade Ronald Reagan to do trick horseback riding until he finished his latest secret service series picture, “Code of the Seeret Service,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Reagan, who holds a_ second lieutenant’s commission in the reserve army, was transferred, shortly after the studio ban was placed on his riding, from the 14th Cavalry to the 323rd Cavalry. The 3823rd is a California regiment, and Reagan immediately received army orders to do riding maneuvers, including difficult jumps, each Monday evening with his troop. The 14th Cavalry is a midwest regiment. He’s glad to know that the U.S. Army backs him up now. ROSELLA TOWNE'S SITTIN’ PRETTY PRETTY ROSELLA TOWNE plays the feminine lead opposite Ronald Reagan in ‘Code of the Secret Service’ coming to the Strand Friday. This is the second in the Warner Bros. series dramatizing the exploits of the U.S. Secret Service in its war against the underworld. SECRET AGENT OUTWITS CROOK Mat 208—30e RONALD REAGAN, secret service agent, capturing Moroni Olsen, counterfeiting gang leader, in a scene from ‘Code of the Secret Service’. Eddie Foy, Jr. stands by. The Warner Bros. series film opens this coming Friday at the Strand Theatre. Ronald Reagan Reveals Habits, Past And Present The following is a somewhat impertinent word picture of Ronald Reagan, star of the Warner Bros. series of secret service pictures, the second of which “Code of the Secret Service” will open at the Strand Theatre next Friday. He worked his way through Eureka College in Illinois as a life-guard but he didn’t learn to spell “supersede”—and can’t spell it yet. Later he became one of the best known radio sports announcers in the Middle West but he never has had money on a long-shot race-horse that won. Reagan is near-sighted and hottempered, slams doors and swears when he is mad, but can’t hold a grudge for more than twentyfour hours. He doesn’t like to eat at a counter and ealls pullman porters “Skipper.” He keeps an accurate account of his bank balance and he can’t knit. Some of the men in the movies can. He sings to himself when he works, except when he is mad, and he shoots left-handed. He likes circuses but has never ridden an elephant nor carried water to the camels, although as a boy in Illinois he was out at five o’clock on the mornings the circus came to town to help push the wagons into place in the mud. Reagan’s favorite golf caddy— he plays a_ better-than-average game—is an ex-parachute jumper. Claims he has both watched and had flea cireuses. Dogs sometimes bite him but no rocking chair ever gets him if there is any place else for him to sit. He tans easily—ealls it “growing some more make-up.” Even though he hails from Illinois and has lived much of his life in Towa, he doesn’t like state fairs and wouldn’t go ten miles to see one. Pawn shops have had his name on the customer list but everything was redeemed long since. He keeps a scrap book which is full of complimentary things about Reagan. “Ego elevator,”’ he calls it. Ronald is single, free, white and past twenty-one. Loves horses and is a reserve officer in the U. S. Cavalry. Has a penny for a good-lueck charm. When he loses it, he sits right near the spot it disappears and hunts until he finds it or until a friend sneaks a substitute penny into the same spot. A Musical Memory Eddie Foy, Jr., was having a hard time mastering a dialogue line for Warner Bros,’ secret service series picture, “Code of the Secret Service,” now playing at the Strand Theatre. He was supposed to say: “You won’t have to. Bancroft will meet you at the line.” Instead he persisted in saying “Bancroft will meet you on the line.” “Tell you what you do,” said Director Noel Smith, “just think of Sweet Adeline.” She Can’t Cook Rosella Towne, who treated the east and crew of ‘‘Code of the Secret Service’? to home made candy one day, received a stocking filled with cooking utensils from the company as a Christmas gift. She didn’t know whether it was a bid for more candy or a hint that she practice her cooking. Rosella played the leading feminine role opposite Reagan in ‘‘Code of the Secret Service,’’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Reagan Imitates Self A new guessing game in Hollywood is imitating other screen stars. Ronald Reagan, star of ‘«Gode of the Secret Service,’’ the Warner Bros. picture opening next Friday at the Strand Theatre, started it at a party by imitating himself as he was when he first came into pictures from the radio and mouthed words too diligently. The stars catch idiosynerasies in each other non-professionals might miss but they take the burlesquing of it good-naturedly. Red And Lavender Girls having red glints in their hair are usually devotees of lavender, so titian Rosella Towne’s make-up for after dark should win their approval. She uses lipstick the color of ripe plums, dusts her shoulders with mauve-tinged powder, lacquers her nails with silverflecked purple polish and shadows her eyes with silvery lavender. Rosella’s latest Warner Bros. picture is ‘‘Code of the Secret Service,’? now playing at the Strand. Review And Additional Publicity On Following Page [9]