Frisco Jenny (Warner Bros.) (1932)

Advance Feature A Filming an Earthquake With Ruth Chatterton backed away from the _ tossing wreckage which had (apparently) killed O’Connor and screamed. The walls caved in, the ceiling dropped and just as she cleared the space in front of the bar the whole floor gave way carrying the mountain of debris into the darkness below. Unofficial Observer Watches Dramatic Thunder bolt in “‘Frisco Jenny’? and Quakes Until It’s Over By CARLISLE JONES N earthquake had been arranged. Your Hollywood correspondent had what might be called a reserved seat for a convulsion of nature. If a good reporter is one who knows where Gehenna is going to break loose next—and gets there first— then the unofficial observer begs to qualify. He was on hand for an earthquake by prearrangement, an earthquake that was to shatter the roof over the head of Ruth Chatterton, in a sequence from her latest First National picture, ‘‘Frisco Jenny,’’ which opens at the .. Theatre on Some of Miss Chatterton’s friends were there, too, at her invitation. Miss Chatterton knew all about the earthquake With a single “no” she could have stopped it. With a wave of her hand she could have bid the earth be still and for picture purposes, at least for “Frisco Jenny” purposes, the earthquake would have been called off. But Miss Chatterton, having the good of her new picture in mind, and her courage screwed up to the sticking point, interposed no objections. She told Bill Wellman, her director, to go ahead. So William Wellman and Robert Haas, expert earthquaker, volcano exploder, flood maker and disaster It was no they a rib-crushing, vantage in being able to do that. It’s not often that an earthquake will obey orders. He stopped it because Wilson Mizner, co-author of its glassware onto the floor and then settled slowly back in place. the screen play with Robert Lord, and an experienced earthquake victim, objected to the even roll of the floor under Miss Chatterton. “Less regularity and more pep,” he advised and this suggestion was transferred to Mr. Haas and by him in turn to the thirty men hidden below scenes. Then with a second wave of his hand, Director Wellman started the earthquake going again. From this point on your unofficial observer can only report what he saw and heard and eventually felt. The Quake Is On The floor below buckled and danced. Miss Chatterton got to her feet with difficulty and Robert E. O’Connor, playing her father, was thrown back against the long bar. Miss Chatterton turned, terror stricken, to hold to an ornate pil in advance. imitator, went ahead. shilly shally earthquake planned. It was world rocking, building busting, nerve-wracking, soul stirring cata clysmic catastrophe, calculated to furnish a thousand thrills for ten million future spectators. For all of which the unofficial observer had reserved se t. George Brent Watched George Brent, Miss Chatterton’s husband, was there, to jgive comfort and courage to his bride between quakes. The “Frisco Jenny” earthquake was to start at ten o’clock on a Monday morning and to continue for two days. After that there would be a fire. That is where pictures have the advantage over nature. In pictures they do one thing at a time. Nature lumps her disasters all together and generally makes a fearful mess of things. The first tremor struck almost exactly on time, thereby setting up some new kind of seismographic record. Miss Chatterton was, at that moment, lying prone on the floor. She had been knocked there by a blow by her father on the preceding Saturday afternoon but had arisen and gone home over the week-end. Now she resumed the prone position and Director Wellman gave the signal for the first tremor. Roll Too Even Right in the middle of it he stopped it all. There’s a great ad TOOM., The second shake was more vigorous than the first. The back bar leaned perilously forward, shedding Sy aa IE RITE The floor buckled below and danced. The pillar near which Miss Chatterton crouched, began a slow descent into the floor. With only a second intervening, the third quake struck. O’Connor was knocked to the floor in front of the bar; bricks flew out of the walls and piled around Miss Chatterton’s feet. The back bar tipped forward again, slowly, menacingly and crashed magnificently over O’Connor. Tables and chairs rolled about. The floor billowed and .creaked. Timbers and bricks, plaster and decorations fell about them in profusion. From her place at the pillar Miss Chatterton ran toward the spot where O’Connor had disappeared, pulling at the heaped wreckage on the groaning floor. Your unofficial observer wouldn’t have gone into the middle of that tossing wreckage for the best contract in Hollywood. Frantically she dug into the piled debris to find O’Connor, apparently dead. (The unofficial observer has it on the best authority that he did survive but he doesn’t understand how.) As soon as the fact that her father was dead had registered for the cameras, Director Wellman waved both hands. Richard Harding Davis should have lived to report what happened then. The brick wall behind the bar started inward. Miss Chatterton Right in the middle of it he ‘stopped it all. Page Eight lar supporting the ceiling of the Then followed Wellman’s rain of household utensils which will doubtless make him famous all the rest of his life. Down out of the hole that had opened from above the.set came all the paraphernalia -and equipment of a four story tenement house. Beds and dressers, chairs and tables, a bath tub, stove, odds and ends, china, tin ware, and tons of bricks and timbers. It rained destruction on all sides. Miss Chatterton screamed again (the unofficial observer thinks she meant it this time) and ran through the swinging doors of her father’s saloon into the street. Just as she cleared the front entrance and joined the panic stricken refugees on the street, the whole front of the building crashed behind her, leaving only a mass of smoking, dusty rubbish there. “Everything came. down,” Mr. Wellman later explained, “except the price of wheat.” The. unofficial observer thinks he noticed that, too. But the next time he is invited to one of Miss Chatterton’s prearranged cosmic disturbances he will regret—and wait for the real thing! Others who take part in “Frisco Jenny,” but were safe from harm in this particular shock, because they were not working in the sequenée, include Donald Cook, James Murray, Louis Calhern, Hallam Cooley, Pat O’Malley, Robert Warwick, Harold Huber, Helen Jerome Eddy, Frank McGlynn, Sr., J. Carroll Naish and Noel Francis. : The screen play is taken from the story by Gerald Beaumont, Lillie Hayward and John Francis Larkin. Both illustrations in this story ___available in_one piece. Cut No. 82 Out 20c Mat 10c Special Newspaper Art A portrait of Ruth Chatterton, whose newest film, “Frisco Jenny’’, is attracting wide notice, according to advance reports. It is due at the Strand on Friday. Cut No. 23 Out 30c Mat 10c For the Grandest Possible Publicity Break, Plant the _ “Stunt of the Week” | Page 16 i “Hidden Person”? Pussle for Newspaper This is a popular type picture puzzle that newspapers like to run. In it a girl’s head has been cleverly concealed. We suggest you give the mat to your local newspaper using the caption with the picture. “Frisco Jenny” is Lost in the Earthquake Can You Find Her? Frisco Jenny’s Out No. 85 Out 45c¢ Mat 16c lover has been lost in the great San Francisco earthquake, and she is frantically searching the streets for him. See if you can find her! Ruth Chatterton plays “Frisco Jenny” in the new dramatic hit of that name at the Strand.