College Coach (Warner Bros.) (1933)

When One Tiny Script Gal | Stopped 77 Football Stars | Gridiron Heroes in “College Coach” Blushed as | They Prepared for Showers with Girl Watching | Fk will blushingly tell you during your next trip to the film capital. i Irva, as you probably don’t know, is a script girl at the Warner Bros. studios, and a seript girl is more important to a director than nine-tenths of his corps of assistants. Her duties are to record in her note-book everything that happens during the shooting. ‘ Irva was assigned to Director William A. Wellman for “College Coach,” a startling football picture now being shown at the | EN NK Me rece yor a En Theatre. What she did, or rather didn’t do, during the filming of a certain scene adds another page to Hollywood history. Director Wellman had finished a locker room sequence and _ his schedule next called for a close-up shot of Dick Powell, Lyle Talbot, and 77 of California’s star football giants who provide the slam-bang gridiron action. The husky athletes were to be filmed in the act of taking their steam-showers after a tough scrimmage, the lads being elad in their birthday. garments as athletes usually are. UNNY things can happen in Hollywood as Irva Ross Wellman glanced around the set as the cameras and lights were being lined up and spotted a pair of pop-eyed female visitors from Iowa standing on the sidelines. Naturally, they could not remain for such a delicate scene as was about to take place. “Clear the set of all visitors,” he commanded through the loud ‘} speaker system and the spectators hurried away. “All right, boys,” Wellman directed, turning his attention.again ' to the picture stars and the asi'sembled athletes who are now battling for the colors of the ’University of Southern California, Stani} ford, University of California at ‘Los Angeles and other great Pacific A THRILL FROM ‘COLLEGE COACH’ Pat O’Brien Is Former Famous Football Star Pat O’Brien, who has the title role in Warner. Bros. sensational football picture, “College Coach,” which comes to the Theatre on quite at home on the gridiron in the games filmed at the Pasadena Rose Bowl. He was once the star half. back at Marquette University and won considerable fame when he crossed Notre Dame’s goal for a touchdown in the year when they were champions of the middle West. Screen’s Tough Guy Finds “College Coach” Role Rough Lyle Talbot After Being Tackled by Football Stars Changes Mind About “‘Nice College Boys’’ ANGSTERS are tough, but college football players are tougher, according to Lyle Talbot, who has frequently been a movie gunman and is now playing his first role as a football hero in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘College Coach,’’ now showing at the Theatre. Lyle made his observation from a cot at the Warner Bros. first aid dressing-room where two doctors worked over a badly Coast football institutions, “take off your uniforms and we’ll shoot the shower scene.” Off came the muddy jerseys, then the heavy leather shoulder-pads, cleated shoes and finally the woolen stockings. Then, as if. automatically .controlled, the undressing stopped and the semi-nude young men stood before the cameras very ill at ease. “Come on,” barked Wellman, “we've got to get this take. Hurry up and get those pants off.” Pat O’Brien, Ann Dvorak, and Lyle Talbot are seen here in one of the many tense situations which have brought “College Coach”? such acclaim. Dick Powell rounds out the cast in this picture which is now showing at the Theatre. Mat No. 11, Price 10c. pointed and_ gulped, about her?” The “her” was tiny Irva Ross, hidden’ in her chair. beside the mounted camera. Compared to Irva, the boys’ blushes were merely pastel “But what} Hugh Herbert, Arthur Hohl: and Phillip Faversham. The story and screen play are by Niven Busch and Manuel Seff. wrenched back. Talbot had looked forward to the filming of the picture as a welcome change from parts where he lugged a “rod” around and “rubbed out a guy” when the script demanded. Also there was the exercise to be considered, for jumping from one picture into another had cut out the star’s goif, tennis and gym work and a bulging waist-line gave promise of rivaling his chest expansion. On the opening day of the shooting, Talbot journeyed with Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Pat O’Brien, Director William A. Wellman and others of the “College Coach” cast to the famous Rose Bowl in Pasadena where the football action was to be filmed. “Remember, Ann, our last picture together,” reminisced Lyle to Miss Dvorak, ‘Three on a Match.’ What a difference. Then I was a tough guy. Now all I have to do is play football with a bunch of college kids.” The “college kids’, as Lyle found out, happened to be 88 of the heaviest, fastest, and best football players to be found on the entire Pacific Coast. Hours later (it seemed like weeks to Talbot) he went home, black and blue and bearing plenty of bumps. “|The “kids” had all the fun, not Lyle! Time after time the star had been given the ball for off-tackle plunges for the cameras only to end _ his line smash under an avalanche. of the best varsity players in the country. As he painfully burrowed his way from under the human pile he contrasted his “easy” part in “Three on a Match” as a gangster with his new assignment. Next day wasn’t so bad... at first. Talbot was the game’s hero and was scheduled to be carried from the field on the shoulders of a victory-mad crowd. He was great as the hero, but the mob of extras who swarmed down from the Rose Bowl stands over-shadowed his performance. One in particular, anxious to make the most of his brief moment before the cameras for the benefit of the folks back in Winthrop, Mass., biffed Lyle in the eye in his exuberance. That night Lyle couldn’t help but compare his present strenuous role with the:tough he played in “20,000 Years in. Sing Sing.” Luckily for Talbot the next three days were spent at the studios where he made screen love to pretty Ann Dvorak. He managed to survive the period without a casualty and returned to the Rose Bowl wars the following day full of pep and enthusiasm. All went well until the big scene where Talbot took the ball on a sweeping end run and zig-zagged down the field for a long gain. The scene was perfect, but not so good for Talbot when it seemed eleven 200 pounders simultaneously caught up with him over the goal line. Next day Talbot had to stage a wild fight with Dick Powell. Gangsters tough? . on Sure, but give Lyle Talbot gangsters any time in preference to college football players! In addition to the thrilling gridiron action in “College Coach,” there is a lively romance and lots of comedy with the true facts about certain phases of the great American college game, as practiced by certain professional coaches at certain colleges. Others in the cast include Arthur Byron, Hugh Herbert, Arthur Hohl and Phillip Faversham. The story and screen play:are by Niven Busch and Manuel Seff. tints. She was burning! “Well, Vl be.. . »”? muttered | Still as statues, the bronzed ath 7 letes blushed rosily. Finally “Cotton” Warburton, U. 8. C. quarter-| Wellman, scratching his head perback, who being a field general was|plexedly, a sure sign he was puztherefore a bit bolder than the rest,|zled. Ordinarily he neither cusses nor scratches his wooly thatch. Now his big problem was... What to do with Irva? She couldn’t be put outside with the guests from Iowa for her notes were absolutely necessary. In fact, so necessary that regardless of everything she must stay. Then Irva composed herself suffi:] ciently to make a suggestion which, luckily, solved the problem. Why couldn’t she sit around the corner of the set partition and take her notes entirely from conversation. ANN DVORAK So Irva sat around the corner, and 77 very much relieved young men thrashed about in the showers for the needed scene. Minutes later the shot was in the “can” and Irva had added another milestone to Hollywood’s progress by having a scene filmed without being carefully watched by its script girl. Besides the thrilling and colorful scrimmages on the football field with plenty of campus romance, the picture gives the lowdown on professionalism in athletics as practiced in certain colleges by certain football coaches. Pat O’Brien has the title role of coach while Ann Dvorak supplies the love interest. Others in the cast include Arthur Byron, Charming star of many successes returns to the screen in “College Coach” current ... . attraction. Mat No.9, Price 5c. Page Eight FILM BRINGS GRID RIVALS TOGETHER The movies did it when everyone else failed! It brought two bitter college football rivals together. The accomplishment brought about the football battle between the national champions of the University of So. California and the growling Bruins of the Univ. of Cal. at Los Angeles, for the benefit of the cameras of “The College Coach,” current Warner Bros. football thriller which comes to the Theatre took place in the famous Pasadena Rose Bowl. Both combating elevens represent universities whose campuses are but a few miles apart, but between which a bitter rivalry exists. All previous efforts on the part of the press and football public to get the huskies together had failed because the college fathers feared ill-feeling if their lads met. Warner Bros. by pulling a string here and another there and using an All-American player as technical adviser finally arranged the long-sought battle, which is shown in the attraction featuring Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak and Pat O’Brien. BROTHERS UNDER THE (PIG)SKIN a. aa Be Homer Griffith, fullback on the champs of U. S. C. and Mike Frankovitch, protege of Joe E. Brown, and star on U. C. L. A.’s team, enjoy a bit of camaraderie during the filming of “College Coach,” in which 88 crack players battled furiously before the Warner Bros. cameras. Mat No. 13, Price 10c.