Dames (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Personal Stories e Casting Items e Mechanical Oddities As suggested in The Film Daily’s poll of motion picture editors Berkeley Beauties Came krom All Parts of Globe 46 States As Well As Foreign Countries Contribute To Chorus Of “Dames” IMES SQUARE may be the eross-roads of the world, but all roads to lead to Hollywood. Proof of this is seen in glancing over the ‘‘home town’’ list of the beauties in the Busby Berkeley ensembles in the Warner Bros. special musical ‘‘Dames,’’ now showing WC Se. 3 Theatre. Dick Powell Says Return of Musicals Made Career Star In “Dames” Tells Of Other Important Events That Affected His Life By DICK POWELL CIURG COMCE AO. 16 |e ab PRCOUVE Ws 6) a rnngn cei in Warner Bros.’ mammoth musical spectacle ‘‘Dames’’) Rye has told me there are ten salient turning points in the life of every person. That started me thinking as to which events go to constitute the ten in my life. Possibly I’ve only had three or four so far and the rest are to come along later. Looking back , at what progress I’ve made, however, makes me look upon the following events as my ten. Back in Little Rock, Arkansas, when that was my home, I sang in a church choir, and folks said they liked my work. I left Little Rock and accepted a job in Louisville as soloist with a concert orchestra, which marked the second turning point in my life. The third came when I went to Indianapolis to work with an orchestra and did some singing which attracted some attention in the theatrical circles. Turning point number four was my move to Pittsburgh, where I stayed three and a half years. Signing my contract with Warner Bros. and coming to Hollywood was, of course, the fifth turning point. Waiting to get started in my first picture, the Lee Tracy picture “Blessed Event,’ during which I walked about in a perpetual cold-sweat of fear. We'll call that turning point six. You Laugh—They Don't! After “Blessed Event” came another trying delay, waiting to see what audiences and critics would think of me on the screen. That period of waiting was turning point number seven for me. The next turning point, the eighth, came when fan mail started coming in. I had nothing to do with the ninth turning point. It was the decision of Warner Bros. to film “49nd Street” and start this latest musical cycle. The tenth turning point came when I was given the chance opposite Ruby Keeler in “42nd Street,” for I date my screen career from that time on. This turning point really continued through a series of pictures for I have, since “42nd Street,” played with Ruby Keeler in “Gold Diggers of 1933,” “Footlight Parade” and in Warner Bros.’ latest musical spectacle, “Dames.” Three funny people—Guy Kibbee, ZaSu Pitts, and Hugh Herbert— are seen here without a smile. But they cause plenty in “Dames,” the new Warner Bros. musical at the Strand, which numbers in its cast such favorites as Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, and the Busby Berkeley cuties. Mat No. 22—20c¢ Page Ten From cities, towns, villages and hamlets they come to seek fame and fortune in the cinema capital. Nor is this country alone represented, for in the Berkeley ensemble are found nineteen beauties of foreign birth. Of the forty-six states which have contributed daughters to the group, California heads the list. Strangely enough, only one of the ten girls was born in Hollywood. She is Gloria Faythe, a blonde cutie who attended private schools and later Belmont High School. The states of Missouri and Texas are tied for second place, each having furnished eight charming misses in the “Dames” ensembles. The state of Illinois is third, having dispatched six beautiful girls to Hollywood for the Berkeley assembly. New York and Ohio tie for fourth place, each state having five girls who claim it as home. Fifth place in the “home state” group goes to Washington, with four entries. In the “big city” division, Chieago and Los Angeles divide first place honors, each city claiming six of the girls, and New York is in second place, there bemg four of the Berkeley beauties who list the metropolis as the “home town.” Kansas City and New Orleans have each rated three cuties in the ensemble and there are an endless number of cities which have supplied two _ representatives. Among the foreign group, Canada and Mexico, our two neighbors, lead the list, with England, France, Germany, Cuba and Holland following in order. Pretty Diane Douglas is the sole Alaskan entry of the Berkeley files, for Valdez was the town of her birth and her “home town.” De Don Blunier undoubtedly possesses the most distinctive birthplace of the entire 300 beauties in the ensemble. De Don was born of French parents aboard an American boat on the high seas bound for England. Not only from all states of our union and from foreign lands do they come to participate in the Berkeley numbers in “Dames”’— they come even from the realm of Father Neptune! These beauties appear in the several big specialty numbers created and staged by Berkeley for “Dames” which is a hilarious musical comedy romance with catchy airs by three noted song teams, Warren and Dubin, Fain and Kahal, and Dixon and Wrubel. The all star cast is headed by Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert. Ray Enright directed from the screen play by Delmer Daves based on the story by Robert Lord and Daves. 800 Pretty Girls ‘musicals, such as “Gold Diggers Answer Film Call More than eight hundred of Hollywood’s prettiest girls re sponded to the Busby Berkeley interview call for the filming of ensemble numbers in the Warner Bros. special musical “Dames,” now showing at the Sea Soe Theatre. From these Berkeley selected 300 of the most charming cuties. The all star cast of the picture is headed by Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler. Novel Film Device Makes krothy Fantasy of Beauty Berkeley Spectacles In “Dames” Based On Un usual Mechanical Contrivances By CARLISLE JONES HE vast difference between a Berkeley spectacle in a War ner Bros. musical and the dance scenes of any other com pany’s pictures, is almost altogether a matter of mechanics. That studio in general and Busby Berkeley in particular are the only producers of musical pictures who have learned to make full use of mechanical contrivances in staging screen spectacles. And that is at least half of the secret of their SUCCESS. Beginning far back with “42nd Street,” and continuing through all the sensationally popular Hi, Folks! of 1933,” “Footlight Parade” and “Wonder Bar,’ Berkeley has made use of elaborate machines and strange and original moving contraptions to secure each of his unique and startling effects. He has done the same with “Dames,” the latest Warner Bros. musical which comes to the ............: athe S ON at cet tence acres Almost every spectacular “number” Berkeley has created in Hollywood has had a mechanical foundation. In designing these he has had the assistance of several other men, each as much of a genius in his own line as Berkeley is in his. Two of these are Frank Murphy and Louis Geib, heads of the Warner electrical and technical departments, respectively. In “Dames,” wherein Berkeley undertook his latest and, in many ways, his most pretentious combinations of mechanics, maids and mirages of beauty, at least two enormous and unprecedented machines were devised for his use, one of which is without doubt the most complicated, involved and indescribable contraption ever put together for picture purposes. One of the difficulties about building a mechanical set for Berkeley is that one never has any precedent to follow. One rough description of the “Mirage” set for “Dames” was offered as follows: “You take a good sized tornado,” explained the word artist, “and blow a Ferris wheel and a Merry-Go-Round up against an escalator inside a department store which is, happily, over run with lovely ladies dressed in diaphanous, ruffled nightgowns. Set everything in motion—and you have—the ‘Mirage’ number in ‘Dames.’ ” That is a fairly accurate word picture and it gives a hint of the vast amount of mechanical problems with which Messrs. Murphy and Geib were confronted during the building of the “Mirage” set. On the screen it is a delicate That's lissome Ruby Keeler waving at you. She’s coming Wednesday to the Strand, you know, in “Dames,” new Warner Bros. musical. Mat No. 10—10¢ fantasy of feminine beauty and of geometric designs but underneath all that are thirty tons of welded steel, whirring electrical motors, straining cables—the mechanics which make the Berkeley numbers in “Dames” the eye filling spectacles they are. The picture is a hilarious comedy romance with catchy airs by three ace song teams, Warren and Dubin, Fain and Kahal, and Dixon and Wrubel. Joan Blondell, Ruby Keeler, ZaSu Pitts, Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert head the all star cast.