Everybody's Hobby (Warner Bros.) (1939)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY (Lead ) ‘“‘Everybody’s Hobby” Film Of A Typical American Family — Coming To Strand ‘«Byerybody’s Hobby,’’ a Warner Bros, comedy with melodramatie touches, featuring Irene Rich and Henry O’Neill, which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, is a bona fide slice of American life. Its characters are representative of just about every man, woman, boy and girl in this nation. The citizens of this nation may differ sectionally, but in one respect they are nearly all brothers and sisters under the skin, and that is that they nearly all have a hobby. And ‘‘Everybody’s Hobby’’ is a picture which, while it gently satirizes this matter of hobbies, essentially argues that it is a good thing for mankind in general and for individuals in particular that they devote their surplus energies assiduously to the pursuit of some avoecation far removed from their mandatory business, home or school interests. So, in ‘‘Everybody’s Hobby,’’ we have a typical middle class American family of father, mother, and ’teen-age son and daughter, not to ention father’s rather lazy brother and each of them is almost fanatically devoted to some hobby. When father, who is editor of the local paper, runs into a serious crisis in his professional life, that of making a choice between quitting his job or running the paper to suit policies of a new publisher, his knowing wife fans his interest in his hobby, which happens to be photography. She gets him to invest in a lot of new equipment and take their son on a camping trip into the mountains. The lad’s hobby is short-wave ra Mat 206—30ce Five pairs of busy hands at work with their hobbies, Irene Rich and Henry O'Neill, the mother and father respectively, bring their family to the Strand Theatre this Friday in “‘Everybody’s Hobby.” dio, and he takes his set with him. This camping trip results in both father and son becoming heroes and being materially rewarded too. When a big forest fire breaks out and all the phone lines go down, the boy saves the day with his little radio set. Communicating with another kid ‘ham’? back home, he enables the forest rangers to summon firefighting crews, and, via the same means, the vacationing editor sends the home town reassuring news concerning the safety of people in the fire area. Henry O’Neill plays the father, and Miss Rich, whose hobby, incidentally, in the picture is stamp collecting, is the mother. Their children are portrayed by Jackie Moran and Jean Sharon. The shiftless brother of papa is played by Aldrich Bowker and the kid friend of Jackie who gets his radio messages is enacted by Jackie Morrow. The screen play was written by Kenneth Gamet and William W. Brockway from an original story by the latter, and the production was directed by William McGann. IRENE RICH settles a family squabble in “Everybody's Hobby” at Mat 208—30c the Strand Theatre this Friday, with Henry O’Neill as her husband. Mrs. Leslie Tom Leslie MODCTT LiGSle. 2h cul ee Uncle: Bert Leslie: oc eho Evelyn Leslie Ramon Castillo Vir Ble kee gies ; Terris Captain Ogden Directed by Screen Play by From an Original Story by Photography by Art Director Dialogue Director Film Editor Gowns by Sound by Technical Advisor ee bo cccerevevsseeesse.. Jackie Moran Teenie ear ox Pee Aldrich Bowker Jean Sharon John Ridgely Peggy Stewart Jackie Morrow = a ea eM IE Ste ORRIN A ye Nat Carr Sidney Bracy Jack Mower Don Rowan Sid Hickox, A.S.C. Esdras Hartley Arthur Ripley Frank Magee MISSES SET MUSIC One of the paradoxical things about movies according to Trene Rich, is that silent films always were more melodious than sound pictures. That was due to the violins, portable organs and accordions with which the silent stars and their directors equipped the film sets to ‘‘induce’’ emotional moods. Miss Rich, who grew up on the tradition of ‘‘set music,’’ kept a radio going softly in her por table dressing room when she was working in ‘‘Everybody’s Hob byse SHOES AS BONUS Henry O’Neill received a pair of half-worn shoes as his bonus from Warner Bros. for his appearance in ‘‘Everybody’s Hobby.’’ He had worn the shoes in camping sequences, and said they were the most comfortable he had ever had in his life. After that the studio gave them to him. SYNOPSIS NOT FOR PUBLICATION When Tom Leslie (Henry O'Neill) must choose between losing his job or putting out news in a manner that he considers unfair, Tom’s knowing wife (Irene Rich), whose hobby is stamp collecting, steers him off his trouble at the newspaper by fanning his interest in his own hobby — photography. He arranges to take his son for a short vacation into the mountains so the editor of his paper can reach an unhurried decision. His son, whose hobby is shortwave radio, saves the day when a forest fire breaks out. In an exciting final scene each hobby is shown to be of value and Tom is reinstated as editor. [ed EVERYBODY'S HOBBY FADS PROVE USEFUL WHEN IN TROUBLE Some sage popularized the idea that the more fun a working man gets out of some fad when he isn’t at work on his job, the better he does has chores when he buckles down to them. This idea was happily adapted by Warner Bros. Studio in filming ‘‘ Everybody’s Hobby,’’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. In this film, the main point is that the characters triumph over adversity and solve their everyday perplexities by working at their play — or playing at their work — whichever way it looks from the sidelines. A good deal of Henry O’Neill’s footage in this, his eightieth motion picture featured role, is devoted to the hobby of the character he plays, which happens to be up-to-date cameras. The story plot shows how O’Neill becomes unnerved by complications in his profession, and falls back upon his avocation, which is camera work. O’Neill’s wife in the picture is played by Irene Rich, and chestnut-haired Irene, has a hobby with which she scatters the pressing cares of her own domestic day. Mat 107—15c HENRY O'NEILL featured in “Everybody's Hobby” coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Irene’s hobby, in the film, is stamp collecting. Jackie Moran, playing the high school son of the family, followed the hobby of amateur radio’ in the picture. Jean Sharon, daughter of the family, was presented as a collector of jazz dance records, and as an aspirant to proficiency in the rhumba. Another member of the cast was the veteran actor, Aldrich Bowker, who played the lazy, jovial, talkative uncle of the family. His hobby was the recital of odd facts. Mat 108—15c IRENE RICH, in “Everybody’s Hobby” at the Strand Friday. RENE RICH FINDS MORE FUN IN FILM WORK NOWADAYS Irene Rich was a very happy girl that day in 1918 when she got a job as an extra in a Mary Pickford picture, but she said that she was still happier, 21 years later to get the featured role in ‘‘ Everybody’s Hobby,’’ the Warner Bros. picture coming soon to the Strand. ‘<Tt is a lot more fun working in picture now, than it used to be,’’? Irene observed the day she finished acting in the new Warner Bros. comedy. ‘<TIn the old days,’’ said Irene. who reigned as queen of the Warner Bros. star roster from 1923 to 1929, and who was _ leading woman for ten of Will Rogers’ memorable pictures, ‘‘there were none of these lovely little dressing rooms that they now give you on vour set. ‘*7 used to prop a looking glass on the back of a truck, or against the rung of a step ladder, and make up like that. If I went on location, I considered myself lucky to find they had remembered to give me a tent. The stages were draughty, and ,we were always freezing or suffocating with heat. ‘‘The lighting is ever so much improved over what it used to be, and it was a revelation for me to sit and watch our cameraman, Sid Hickox, help the director, William MeGann, get some of the effects that were desired in the forest scenes. It took a mingling of lights and shadows that would have been considered very daring in the older days. ‘<That’s why I say it’s just as big a thrill for me to come back and start again at Warner Bros., as it was the very first time I ever made a picture.’? Irene Rich in ‘‘Everybody’s Hobby,’’ her latest film for Warner Bros., is the knowing mother who settles all the squabbles of a typical American family. OFFICIAL BILLING WARNER BROS. 40 % Pictures, Inc. Presents 5% ‘EVERYBODY'S HOBBY’ 100% with IRENE RICH ¢ HENRY O’NEILL 25% JACKIE MORAN ¢ ALDRICH BOWKER 25% Directed by William McGann 15% Screen Play by Kenneth Gamet 3% and William W. Brockway 3% From an Original Story by William W. Brockway 2% A First National Picture 3%