Go Into Your Dance (Warner Bros.) (1935)

© Features Jolson Wants Audience When Doing Film Work Hard Boiled Chorines Weep When He Sings in “Go Into Your Dance” By BOB HUSSEY CCUSTOMED as he is to studio activity, your Unofficial Observer was nevertheless perplexed by the buzz of excitement that gripped the First National movie lot. ‘‘What,’’ asked your correspondent, ‘‘is the reason for all this dashing about ?’’ The guide looked incredulous. ‘‘Don’t you know? Why, Al Jolson is going to sing a song on Stage Three right after lunch. Hurry and IT’ll take you over there.” No directions were needed for one to arrive at Stage Three. All roads seemed to lead there. Actors and actresses from other sets were drifting over. “Ts it all right about visitors?” asked the unofficial observer. “All right? Of course!” answerel the guide. “Jolson likes an audience. In fact he demands it. He says he can’t act just for the cumeras. He has to watch an aucience.” The vast sound stage was erowded. It was a_ brilliantly lighted cabaret scene. Beautifully gowned women and well groomed men sat at the tables. There was an air of intense importance about the place. This, it appeared, was because this was the first big scene to be filmed in “Go Into Your Dance,” the First National, musical which comes to the... 2.24 Theatre And there was something more to it than just that. This was the first big scene in the first picture in which Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler, husband and wife, appear together. Five cameras, each with its erew of operators, were lined about the dance floor. Each camera was placed so that it was not within range of another. To one side nervous musicians were tuning their instruments. There was a chatter among the players. “Quiet!” The command came loudly over the publie address systems. Instantly there was a death-like hush. The lights dimmed, a spotlight was focused on Jolson. The musicians became taut, poised ready to begin. “Twist ’em!” yelled the director. The scene was started. The music began as Jolson quietly cleared his throat. In awed silence the audience held its breath through the verse and then, getting into his stride, Jolson began the chorus. All the heart rending singing for which he is famous went into “Mammy, I’ll Sing About You.” A girl on the sidelines dabbed at her eyes. Another, fearful that her sobs would ruin the “take” tiptoed away. Jolson, on bended knee, was putting his all into the finish of the song. Tears could be seen glistening on his cheeks. There was a terrific outburst of applause when Al finished’ his song. “He’s dynamite!” exclaimed an old theatrical trouper to another. “More work for me!” complained the make-up man as he saw the ruined make-up on the actresses on the sidelines. Mascara stains showed on the cheeks ‘of the girls whose reddened eyes testified to the feeling Jolson injected into the song. In the east with Jolson and Miss Kecler are Glenda Farrell, Helen Morgan, Barton MacLane, Benny Rubin, Phil Regan and Gordon Westcott. Specialty numbers in which scores of chorus beauties dauce were created and staged, by Bobby! Connolly, with music by Warren and Dubin. The One and Only! Big All-Male Chorus in New Musical Hit A total of 100 dancing men, the first big all-male chorus to be used in a musical motion picture, will be seen in the First National production, “Go Into Your Dance,” which comes to the Np BS tes Wheatre Nemes oes Bobby Connolly, veteran dance director who had charge of the dances for this newest musical, says it only took the men a few days to become letter perfect in the intricate routines. The men dance to the sparkling new patter tune of “About a Quarter to Nine”’—one of the Dubin and Warren hits of the Al JolsonRuby Keeler musical. It’s Al Jolson come to town. And this time he’s brought his charming wife, Ruby Keeler, with him. Both are co-starred in ““Go Into Your Dance,” today at the_________.____ the Warner Bros. mammoth musical, which opens Sot, sur ee tae eso Theatre. Mat No, 5—20c Helen Morgan Tells Girls How To Find Romance Star In ‘Go Into Your Dance’ Says All Women Can Win Love © 66 O the girl who yearns for romance and never finds ; it, I ean say only she is probably missing the romance that is hers rightfully, because she is striv ing to find it.’’ Helen Morgan, beautiful star playing in the First National production, ‘‘Go Into Your Dance’’ which comes to the IGT UDG RD co ees wae ca Nae PCA SOR ei Oe ee ae authority for the statement, and her elaboration of the point of view she holds is of interest to every woman whose most important interest in life, romance and love, has reached no satisfactory culmination. “Romance is never found when one seeks it,” continued Miss Morgan. “I think romance always just happens. That is what makes it fascinating. What could be more deadly than a romance that is planned? “There is one thing that a girl should never do. Never try to dominate a man. Never try to tie a man down to romance when he is merely offering you companionship and friendship. “Tf you are tired and nervous don’t see your men friends, for they have little patience with so-called nerves caused by situa tions of which they know nothing. “Romance is the greatest of all adventures, and if the spirit of adventure is alive within you, it will attract to you the happiness that is to be yours.” “Go Into Your Dance” is the latest mammoth musical under the First National banner. Specialty numbers were staged by Bobby Connolly with scores of beautiful girls, and with music and lyrics by Warren and Dubin. There is an all star cast headed by Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler. Others include Glenda Farrell, Helen Morgan, Barton MacLane, Sharon Lynne, Patsy Kelly, Benny Rubin and Phil Regan. Al Jolson Had To Coax Wife To Play With Him By Carlisle Jones EHIND the simple announcement that Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler are co-starred in the First National pic ture ‘‘Go Into Your Dance, Pee sang ho ace Theatre on 9? which comes to the Mey ce ee oer lak , is one of the most amusing stories in Hollywood. Ruby, it appears, had to be coaxed, long and earnestly, by no less a person than her Mammy-singing husband himself, before she would agree to the idea and accept the role. Jolson tells the story on himself. He had assumed that Ruby would be a willing co-partner in his new screen venture. But Ruby just listened to Al’s plans and said nothing. It dawned on him, a week or two before the picture was to start, that his wife had never said she would play. the part. This sudden realization halted Al’s preparations for a golf game with Eddie Cantor one bright morning. He cornered Ruby in the living room of their Bel Air home and fired questions directly at her. “You’re planning on that role in ‘Go Into Your Dance,’ aren’t you, honey?” he asked. Ruby hedged. “I’ve never promised to play it,’ she reminded Al. “I know, I know,” snapped Al, a little impatiently, he admits. “But it’s time you made up your mind now. Yes or no?” Ruby gave him “a look” out of those wide blue eyes. “Well,” said Ruby firmly, “why don’t you sell me on the idea. If I weren’t your wife and you wanted me to play the role, you wouldn’t ask me that way. You wouldn’t expect me to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without a sales talk.” “T see,” said Jolson. “You want to be coaxed.” “Yes, I do,” agreed Ruby, “and unless you can sell me on playing the part—I just won’t. That’s all.” Al called to his secretary. “Send word to Eddie Cantor at the club that TVll be late,” he ordered. He looked at Ruby, sitting small and determined in the chair below him. “I never talked harder, or faster or better in my life,” Jolson explained later. “I told Ruby I’d rather have her opposite me in that picture than Duse if she were alive, which she isn’t, or than Garbo and Dietrich and Del Rio all rolled into one, which they aren’t. The story back of Ruby’s hesitaney is six years old and dates back to the time Al Jolson brought her as a bride, to Hollywood. He was making pictures for Warner Bros. at that time, Into Your Dance, Girls the first and biggest star of the talking sereen. Ruby refused dozens of early offers to appear in pictures with Al. Sometimes Al himself urged her to do so, but she always refused. She might never have changed her plans if Al had not, on the spur of the moment, given her encouragement when an unexpected offer was made to her to play the ingenue role in “42nd Street’ for Warner Bros. Al was not to be in that; in fact, he was under contract at that time to another studio, so Ruby knew that her presence on a sound stage would not make her husband nervous. Al was as thoughtful of Ruby had been of him. He purposely avoided visiting Ruby on the sets of her picture. He never watched her work. He offered no advice and made no criticisms regarding her career. This happy arrangement continued right up to the present picture. Although both Al and Ruby were under contract to the same studio for a year or more, they kept their professional lives separated. Even though they at times worked on adjoining stages, they seldom visited back and forth. They went to the studio together in the morning, met at noon for luncheon and drove off the lot together at night. But during working hours each respected the wishes of the other and stayed away. Now in “Go Into Your Dance” this was all changed. Al and Ruby made scenes together, watched each other before the cameras, shared the closeups and long shots. “We know each other so much better now,” says Ruby. “Being on the set didn’t seem to worry Al as it once did and he didn’t bother me. In fact I think we helped each other.” Al is even more sure that he and Ruby “hit it off” frcm the first scene. “We’re all for one and one for all in our family,” he grins. “We got along swell. There was no ‘ton of temperament’ on our set.” And these chorines aren’t just dancers. To elbow into a Bobby Connolly line, they must be gorgeous as well. Just a sample of what to expect from the Al Jolson-Ruby Keeler musical hit, “Go Into Your Dance,” coming to the sah a TOE CS Oe eUz te pee Theatre. Mat No. 6—20c Page Twenty-three