Footlight Parade (Warner Bros.) (1933)

STORIES FEATURING PRODUC TION How Movie Studio Executed Dance Maestro’s Vague Idea Busby Berkeley’s Sketchy Thoughts Resulted In Most Magnificent Scene in ‘‘Footlight Parade”’ T takes one form of genius to have ideas such as Busby Berkeley has when he plans the spectacular musical numbers for such pictures as ‘‘42nd Street,’’ ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1933’’ and ‘*Footlight Parade,’’ which is now showing at the Theatre. But it takes another kind of genius to execute those ideas. The first day Berkeley worked on “Footlight Parade,” the third of this triumvirate of sparkling musieal spectacles, for which Warner Bros. have become noted, he went into conference with Louis Geib, head of Warner Bros.’ technical department, with Frank Murphy, chief studio electrician and with Anton Grot, head of the art department. “1 Want—I Want!’’ “We're doing a water nuinber,” Berkeley explained, pacing the floor and waving his arms. “I want a pool here, a waterfall there, mountains over here, trees and rocks everywhere. I want the water crystal clear. I want it arranged so I can shoot through it from all sides and up from the bottom. I want it warmed. I want—” “How soon do you want it?” demanded Geib. “Let’s see,’ mused Berkeley. “This is Tuesday afternoon. Could we have it next Monday—the povl I mean. For rehearsals.” “How big?” asked Geib. Berkeley stepped his ideas off roughly on the sound stage floor. Geib made some rapid calculations. “That'll hold about eighty thous and gallons,’ he said. “Concrete’s got to have time to set.” “Monday afternoon, then,” pleaded Berkeley. Geib looked at Murphy. nodded. “Monday noon,” said Geib. Within an hour Geib had rough sketches made of the pool and Murphy had obtained studio permission to make the pool a permanent affair under one of the great sound stage floors. Two hours later a gaping hole had been cut through the heavy planking and Geib had a working model of the pool done in plaster to show to Berkeley. Murphy Six Days to Do It All that night and the following day dirt poured out of the hole in the stage. Another gang of laborers started pouring concrete into the excavation the same night. By Thursday morning the pool itself, its concrete sides still housed in protecting planks, its top just level) with the stage floor, greeted Berkeley when he arrived at the studio. Meanwhile other holes had appeared in the sound stage floors and more dirt poured from the subterranean openings as room for motors, heaters and filters and _ electrical equipment was made and tunnels for cameras, lights and workmen were pushed out in all directions. “We figure to lift 7,500 gallons a minute,” Murphy explained, “out of the pool and over the waterfalls. We will use three big filters to get the perfect Gc beastie Vasa Ork water that Berkeley wants. All the equipment is going in permanently.” Meanwhile in the plaster shop Geib’s plaster model was being duplicated in enormous proportions. “A waterfall there, mountains over here, trees and rocks everywhere,” took form rapidly in movable sections which fitted into each other and to the edges of the pool. Friday the planking was removed from the conerete and more men DICK POWELL Cut No. 4 Cut 15e Mat 5c went to work smoothing and painting its insides, glassing im its many openings with two-inch glassplates and connecting .the inflow and outflow pipes and the filter intakes. Huge electric motors were eased into place on fresh concrete foundations under the mutilated stage floor and the openings above them were closed over permanently. Batteries of high powered lamps were moved into place by the glass openings to be ready for under water illumination when demanded by Berkeley. Three enormous filter tanks were lowered into place and filled with sand. Worked 24 Hours | Twenty-four hours a day workmen labored, sometimes as many as two hundred at a time, to build Busby Berkeley’s vague idea of a “water number” for “Footlight Parade” into reality. Geib and Murphy snatched a few hours of sleep in alternate turns. Saturday came. Then Sunday. Sunday Geib tested the concrete walls of the pool and decided they had “set” sufficiently to risk filling the pool with water. It came our of the newly installed mains red with rust and totally untransparent. The filters were started. “In eight hours,’ predicted Murphy, “the water will be clear.” Monday morning the massive pieces of composition mountains, the fabricated waterfall and the ‘trees and rocks everywhere” were snaked through the sound stage doors by caterpillar truck and shoved into place about the sparkling pool. Cable lines carrying electrical power to the hundreds of lamps which were to light the set, were laid. Motors hummed and tons of water, pulled from the bottom of the gleaming pool poured over the waterfalls. Tired but triumphant Geib and Murphy waited for Berkeley’s comment, when he arrived with his eighty “swimmers and divers” for the first rehearsal Monday noon. The director wandered around the “trees and rocks everywhere” for a few minutes, toured the underground tunnels, tested the warmth and clearness of the water, asked a dozen questions in rapid succession and then said: “This is fine—so far as it goes. Now over here I want a disappearing fountain.” He stepped off another part of the stage floor while Geib made notes. “And here I want a smaller pool and there a —” “Wait a minute,” said Geib and Murphy in one breath. “When do you want these things?” “Could I have them by Wednesday?” Berkeley asked. “It?ll take another motor,’ suggested Murphy. “Wednesday noon,” pleaded Berkeley hopefully. Geib looked at Murphy. Murphy nodded. “Wednesday noon,” agreed Geib. “ll have a sketch for you in an hour.” And it was ready. It’s one thing to have ideas, like Berkeley. It’s something else again to have to translate those ideas into reality. This water number called, “By a Waterfall,” is one of the most beautiful sequences ever filmed. One hundred and fifty girls appear in it in breathtaking under-water formations. “Footlight Parade,” besides its musical and spectacular numbers, carries a strong comedy drama plot. The screen play is by Manuel Seff ‘and James Seymour. Lloyd Bacon JIMMY CAGNEY One of the many stars of ‘*Footlight Parade” shows what the well-dressed man will wear. This sensational picture comes to the theatre Cut No. 20 Cutie Mat &e Cat Aided Scene in Musical Film Hollywood’s latest is a cat technical director. A real, live, black tabby named King. King didn’t exactly know it, but he taught 125 chorus girls how to do the cat walk for one of the unique dance numbers in “Footlight Parade,” Warner Bros.’ musical comedy special which comes to the TNeatre on Busby Berkeley was doing a eat dance. He wanted his 125 girls and men to dance in a slinky, sinuous rhythm, imitative of a cat’s walk. The girls had seen plenty of cats, but none seemed to have observed their movements. So King, an unusually intelligent cat, whose owner rents him to studios to play in pictures, was engaged to teach the girls cat motions. Berkeley had the cat walk up and down the stage at intervals during a whole day of rehearsals to instruct the girls in cat rhythm. Finally they got it. In the number they are made up as cats—mostly alley cats— except Ruby Keeler who is a beautiful Persien with a curly, plumed tail and little white ears. And eat-like they sing and dance and make love on the back yard fence in the moonlight. King did his job so well that Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal wrote a song about him, “Sittin’ on a Backyard Fence,” and Director Lloyd Bacon put him in the cast. directed, with Busby Berkeley creating and staging the choruses and ensembles. Music and lyrics are by Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal, and Harry Warren and Al Dubin. An all star cast includes James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Hugh Herbert, Claire Dodd, Frank MceHugh, Arthur Hohl, Gordon Westcott, Ruth Donnelly and _ Phillip Faversham. Believe it or not Cagney actually sings and dances in great style in the picture. ) suoulder. Cat Caused 17 Retakes of ‘‘Footlight Parade’”’ Scene Unique Scene Almost Had to Be Abandoned When Animal Kept Walking Out on Camera AYBE it’s true that a cat has nine lives but Lloyd Bacon, director of the new Warner Bros. super-musical production, ‘‘Footlight Parade,’’ is willing to testify that one cat made him make 18 takes of a single motion picture scene. And here’s his story. ‘*Mootlight Parade,’’ now showing at the Theatre, presents James Cagney as a bright young man who thinks up the ideas for presentation units or prologues at motion picture theatres. Joan Blondel! is seen as his faithful secretary. Early | enough for King. in the picture, there is a scene where Joan finds Jimmy fast asleep at his littered office desk. He’s been there all night, working out new notions to present to Albany and Kansas City, together with their Chattertons and Stanwycks. Joan, with an ardent eye for the welfare of her boss, enters the office, sees the litter and the crumpled papers on the floor, then sees Jimmy, soundly sleeping. <A large black cat is curled up on his shoulder... And that is the point at which Lloyd Bacon’s troubles started. The cat was a proud beast with a proud name, “King.” He had been “engaged,” complete with trainer, from one of those animal agencies flourishing in Hollywood which can fill any order from mastodon to marmoset before an assistant supersivor can say “yes.” The scene was rehearsed. Obligingly King curled up on the Cagney fie gee an undivided interest to the proceediiigs.-.When the secretary wakens Jimmy, the s8e:ip* calls for the latter to gaze about him, dazed; to discover the cat; to be reminded of his last night’s ponderings. “Cats!” he shouts. “Cats! Ever see a cat walk? Like this!” And he shows Joan, the fingers of one hand gliding stealthily up his other arm, the dance routine which King has inspired. All this while the latter is expected to remain perched on the shoulder, showing interest. King took it all like an old trouper. It was a perfect performance ... that is, as long as rehearsals lasted. It was only when the cameras started that King developed nerves. The lights were adjusted. All three performers took their places—Miss Blondell, Mr. Cagney, King. “Turn ’em over,” shouted the cameraman. “Action!” called Director Bacon. Like a black streak King was off the Cagney shoulder and across the set. “Ay tank ay go home now,” he might have murmured had he been Swedish. His trainer galloped after him. He was returned to Cagney and the arm chair. The scene began again. This time he sat stolidly in place, eyeing Miss Blondell, until the moment when Cagney awakened, saw Haughtily he stretched himself, yawned with disdain, stalked down Cagney’s shirt front and vanished from the camera’s eye. This wouldn’t do either. He had to be there during the next speech. “Tt’s his liver, I guess,” muttered the trainer, quietly perspiring nearby. “His what?’ demanded Bacon. Everybody stared. = More Retakes “Wants his liver, that’s all.” The trainer gathered King up once more and vigorously rubbed a bit of liver on the cat’s forepaws. “Ah,” sighed Bacon “That’ll do it.” The scene began again. This time King stayed in position, contentedly licking his paws until Cagney turned to look at him. Then he set out again for home and family. “Well, we'll just have to cat’s as eat’s can” quipped Bacon, to a deafening silence. “No, I’ve got it. We'll cut him out. Don’t need him anyway. Just put in a line, Jimmy —eat crossea my path last =i¢ht?.’” The trainer looked distressed. “Try him onee more, won’t you, Mr. Bacon?” “O.K. Once more—and then he’s out. Seventeen takes on his account! Try him without the liver this time.” Perhaps King’s trainer turned on him an especially baleful look. Perhaps he had had his fill of liver; or perhaps his actor’s vanity was hurt. At any rate, to everyone’s surprise, this time his conduct was perfection. Not even a swish of the tail disturbed his calm. The scene played through to a finish. Bacon, looking incredulous, called “eut!” and mopped his brow. Miss Blondell went to lie down. Cagney asked for tomato juice. It was over. Highteen takes—twice all King’s lives. There’s a cat that may be said to live abundantly—at least in discarded film. The scene is one of the colorful incidents in a story filled with comedy and stirring drama in a mammoth musical spectacle in which 250 beautiful girls appear in choruses and dance ensembles, created and in relief. him, shouted “Cats!” That was| staged by Busby Berkeley. SCENE FROM STRAND HIT Dick Powell, Ruth Donnelly, and Jimmy Cagney and many other stars head the cast of “Footlight Pa rade,” coming soon to the Out No. 15 Out 30c Theatre. Mat 10c Page Twenty-three