Dames (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Dick Powell Dick Powell, born in Mt. View, Arkansas, won a screen contract with Warner Bros. through his musical talents, having been lifted bodily from a Master of Ceremonies position in a Pittsburgh theatre to an important part in “Blessed Event.” Starting as a soloist with an orchestra in Kentucky, he signed up in a similar capacity with a theatre orchestra in Pittsburgh and attracted sucn attention that he eventually became master of ceremonies at this theatre, later niuving to.a larger house in the ‘ame city. He had no previous “Stage or “screen experience, despite which he showed such natural talents as an actor that he was put under a long term contract by Warner Bros. He has since played in “Twenty Million Sweethearts,” ‘“Wonder Bar,” “College Coach,” “Footlight Parade,” “Convention City,” “Gold Diggers of 1933,” “Blessed Event,” “42nd Street,” “The King’s Vacation” and “Too Busy to Work.” His latest picture is “Dames,” which comes to the .......02...... PRI Ab GON gous oss eresstaaee' : Guy Kibbee Guy Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas, on March 6, 1886. Launched upon a stage career at an early age. He toured the country innumerable times with various stock companies and won attention as one of America’s most capable actors. His performance in the Broadway production, “The Torch Song,’ was so outstanding that Hollywood summoned him for important screen roles, and since Guy Kibbee, rotund comedian in Warner Bros.’ **Dames,”’ now at the Strand. Mat No. 18 10¢ his introduction to movie audiences, he has amassed a huge following among the fans. .His most recent pictures include “The Merry Frinks,” “Merry Wives of Reno,’ “Harold Teen,” “Wonder Bar,” “Easy To Love,’ “Convention City,’ “The World Changes,” “Havana Widows,” “Footlight Parade” and “Gold Diggers of 1933.” He is now appearing in meepmnes, Ate the...) gastos eas Theatre. SS, ae SOOPER, Peres MEGMOGNO et. Bo nse PI GIIWOE > IE ee Pn Ones Fe a DG eg os Ot WHOP Sie, otc Wong NT Porc ste ksvalmeia ass Conguclet: so. fo sl gk es Maud = a: aaah ree sgh aay as eclor Cpe oct e een eee Numbers created and directed by .........000000..... Busby Berkeley Drone 22 ee a Adaptation and screen play by Le ee Joan Blondeil ot ee Dick Powell Nr ee eee ae Ruby Keeler Ge Ne Ree Pan Zasu Pitts EE ae see Guy Kibbee Lee Hugh Herbert POR Oa Ea ies EE Arthur Vinton Lao eee? Sammy Fain pet Brn AER sks see Phil Regan ee a ie Arthur Aylesworth ir cet en, ee ae Leila Bennett BER oe sa Berton Churchill Production Information ¢ Biographies sit athe RO inet a Si Ray Enright Robert Lord and Delmer Daves Btn eee Delmer Daves EROVGQVODNOT Pa oes... tS Sid Hickox and George Barnes PUM LUG OT SO as Cowie bee 3s ee ee Music and. Lyrics by .....00..000.... 5 Re ee Harold MeLernon Robert Hass and Willy Pogany ioe ee Orry-Kelly jy a ee ao Warren and Dubin Fain and Kahal Dixon and Wrube! Vitaphone Orchestra conducted by .......0.00.... Leo F. Forbstein ““DAMES’”’ 100% with Ruby Keeler—Dick Powell—Joan Blondell 100% ZaSu Pitts 75 Guy Kibbee 15% Do oun Patt Hugh Herbert 715% Numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley 20% Directed by Ray Enright 20% A Warner Bros. and Vitaphone Production 40% “Dames,” Warner Bros.’ latest mammoth musical special, is made on a grander and more impressive scale than any of its predecessors. The story starts with Hugh Herbert, as Ezra Ounce, an eccentric multimillionaire with a complex on other people’s morals, cutting all his relatives out of his will except his cousin Horace, (Guy Kibbee). Ezra announces that he is going to give Horace $10,000,000 as soon as the two can organize the “Ounce Society for the Elevation of American Morals.” They leave for Horace’s home in’ New York, but on the train, Mabel (Joan Blondell), a chorus girl, slips into Horace’s compartment. He fears Ezra will discover it, so bribes the girl to keep quiet. Horace’s daughter Barbara (Ruby Keeler) is in love with Jimmy (Dick Powell), a distant cousin. Horace orders Barbara to keep Jimmy away from the house, but he shows up and asks the horrified Ezra to finance his new musical comedy. Later Jimmy meets Mabel while going the rounds of the agencies. She discovers he has a show and needs an angel. On learning he is related to Horace, she concocts a plot. Horace finds Mabel in his room. She demands $20,000 to finance the show and when refused threatens to scream. Horace, with visions of $10,000,000 van ishing, gives her the $20,000 check. Mathilda, his wife, (ZaSu Pitts) is suspicious, however, and enters Horace’s room. Mabel hides in a. closet, but when Mathilda opens the door, she sees a bearded man, Jimmy in disguise, and faints. Ezra learns of the show and decides to suppress it as immoral. He stationed a bunch of thugs in the audience to break up the show when he waves his handkerchief. Ezra takes a case of cough medicine with him, the content of which is largely alcohol. The excitement makes him hiccough. The medicine cures the hiccoughs but makes him drunk. Mabel winks at Ezra from the stage and he waves his handkerchief at her. This is the signal for the thugs, and a riot is started. Police throw the entire east, with Ezra and Horace, in jail. Ezra’s secretary comes to bail him out but he and the crowd are having such a good time drinking the cough medicine, he refuses to leave. Mabel suggests that even in these tough times two can live on his millions. He agrees. Joan Blondell Two years after Joan Blondell, a native New Yorker, was brought to Hollywood to appear with James Cagney in the Warner Bros. picture, “Sinners’ Holiday,’ she had become a star in her own right and one of the most popular screen actresses. From earliest infancy, Joan’s life has been closely allied with the theatre. Her father, a wellknown vaudeville performer for twenty years, carried his family with him in his treks across the country on the various vaudeville circuits and each and every member of the group had a part in the act not excluding even the baby, Joan, when she was scarcely able to walk. Her more recent successes include “He Was Her Man,” “Smarty,” “I’ve Got Your Number,’ “Convention City,” “Havana Widows,’ “Footlight Parade,” “Gold Diggers of 1933,” “Goodbye Again,” “Blondie Johnson” and “Lawyer Man.” Her last picture is “Dames,” wWhich=conres\: tO“ the... ix... EG PUCR ON ten. cheers Ruby Keeler Ruby Keeler, in private life Mrs. Al Jolson, is making her fourth screen appearance in “Dames,” the Warner Bros. production with an all star cast, whieh ~comes=toO° the 25. 0.....< WUC ANOS (ON occa catsecs ss In her first picture, “42nd Street,” she was outstanding in the song and dance numbers. She also appeared in “Gold Diggers of 1933” and “Footlight Parade.” She began her stage career at the age of thirteen in the chorus of a Broadway production, quickly rising to stardom. She appeared in “The Sidewalks of New York,” “Lucky” and “Bye Bye Bonny,” but her greatest triumphs were scored in “Whoopee” and “Show Girl,’ the Ziegfeld productions. Her long stage experience stands her in good stead in her musical comedy roles for the screen. Busby Berkeley's Best ZaSu Pitts ZaSu Pitts, who plays the role of Ruby Keeler’s mother in “Dames,” Warner Bros.’ all star musical now showing at the ee aa ek Theatre, was born in Parsons, Kansas. She was christ ened ZaSu to please two doting ZaSu Pitts, weeping willow the Warner musical at the Strand. Mat No. 23 10e aunts, one named Liza and the other Susan. She received her education in Santa Cruz, Calif., where her family moved when she was very young. ZaSu appeared in school theatricals and eventually went to Los Angeles. Several years of miscellaneous roles followed and when Eric von Stroheim cast her in a tragic role in “Greed” she was hailed as a great tragedienne. She did another tragedy role in “The Wedding March,” but comedy claimed her, for after the enthusiastic reception of her comedy role in “The Dummy” she has remained one of the best laugh winners of the screen. Here are four, but there are 296 more of Busby Berkeley’s beauties in. Warner Bros. latest musi-gal production, “Dames.” Mat No. 27—20e Page Three SD 2