Gold Diggers in Paris (Warner Bros.) (1938)

(Advance) BERKELEY GIRLS PREFER DANCING, WORK IS STEADIER The only young girl in Hollywood today who doesn’t expect to win fame and fortune as a motion picture actress is the chorus girl who works in the ensemble numbers of such big pictures as the Warner Bros. musical, “Gold Diggers in Paris,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. A canvas of the two score beauties engaged by Busby Berkeley for the dance numbers in the latest “Gold Diggers” revealed that fully two-thirds of the girls have no picture ambitions. They never expect to be stars or even leading ladies, and don’t seem to care much. One reason is that being a chorus girl and _ concentrating one’s attention merely on that one objective is likely to mean that a girl works pretty steadily the year round; and the work is not onerous, for there are many days when the chorine earns her salary by merely sitting and waiting for the part of a number in which she appears to be filmed. Many Gals Married Best of all, the chorus girl has no personal responsibility for the success or failure of the picture in which she appears. The picture may be a dud, but the blame is laid to the plot, the ingenue or the director who created the dance numbers, But never to the individual chorus girl. Twelve of the beauties who appear in “‘Gold Diggers in Paris’ are married and their husbands are all gainfully employed. Such girls use their salaries to buy clothes or for extras. As blonde Edna Callahan, one of the Berkeley girls, puts it: **My husband would never consent to my going into pictures as a career. It is too hard work, the hours are too long and, besides, he believes it spoils a girl for domesticity. But chorus girl work is different. We get enough exercise to keep in condition and work often enough to keep us amused. He doesn’t mind that at all.” Unmarried Rose Tyrell, brunette and vivacious, has another reason for not expecting to win acting renown. “‘Ingenue actresses are a dime a dozen in Hollywood,” she declares, “but good dancers are rare and can always get a job.” Band Can Play ’Em All Although Freddie Fisher's Schnickelfritz Band does not demonstrate its complete repertoire in the course of its motion picture debut in the Warner Bros. musical, ‘‘Gold Diggers in Paris,”’ which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, his boys play so many different instruments and switch from one to another so quickly that it is a bit difficult for the spectator to make a complete mental catalogue of their versatility and ingenuity. So herewith are listed the various devices besides the standard instruments with which they make music in “Gold Diggers’: Hardware: Jugs, gourds, locomotive bell, bicycle bell, cowbell, doorbell, dinner gong, auto horns, bicycle horn, frying pan, ratchet, sandpaper, tire rim and hammer, tire irons, gaspipes, washboard (strummed_ with thimbles). (Advance) Rosemary Lane “Best Bet” For Hollywood Stardom The only time in her life that Rosemary Lane really felt insulted was when Fred Waring said to her: “The trouble with you, Rosemary, is that you’re so darned healthy.” ; She’s a study in contradictions this “middle Lane” girl. From her older sister, Lola, she has inherited the ability to look aristocratic, reserved and even supercilious on the screen. From her younger sister, Priscilla — known at home as “Pat’’— she has acquired an ability to ride, swim, be a_hail-fellow-well-met to all of Pat’s gang. From somewhere on her own she has developed a well trained and excellently modulated voice which has won widespread acclaim on the radio. And yet, as Waring remarked, she is so darned healthy. Rosemary Lane has dark chestnut hair flecked with tawny tints which the Technicolor camera catches to excellent advantage. It is naturally curly and has never been subjected to any treatment other than soap and warm water. She has also the plentiful freckles of the outdoor girl who woos the sun in April and isn’t afraid of a swim on Christmas Day. When she was a youngster, she was nicknamed *“‘Raspberry,”” and she hasn't entirely outgrown it even today. Priscilla says that Rosemary always looks as though she had just come from a polo game. And perhaps that is not a bad one-sentence description of Rosemary. She has the look and the mental attitude of the girl who is a good sport and who has grown up as one of the boys. She is straight-forward, and she looks it. Perhaps that is what Waring meant when he said that she was **too darned healthy.” Perhaps he meant that she was one of those girls who are best Provides Own Laughs Hugh Herbert was glimpsed one day in a Hollywood Boulevard hat store trying on hats too small just to give himself a laugh. He ended up by buying a hat to soothe the worried clerk, although he really didn’t need one. Hugh is the chief laugh-getter in the new Warner Bros. musical, “‘Gold Diggers in Paris,”’ which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. described as “‘nice.’’ The sort that men pick out to marry. But any man who takes Rosemary dancing is in for the treat of his life. She is the best ballroom dancer of the three sisters and although Priscilla can perhaps excel her at ‘tap,’ Rosemary can swing a mean buck and wing when she feels in the mood. Ray Enright, who directed her in “Gold Diggers in Paris,” the Warner Bros. musical opening next Friday at the Strand Theatre, in which she plays opposite Rudy Vallee, says that she is an excellent actress, rarely blows up in her lines, and can be photographed from nearly every angle. She has an excellent figure and carries herself with the grace of a trained dancer. She has an inward reserve that is always evident. The fellow who would try to ‘get fresh’ with Rosemary Lane would probably be cooled off so quickly that he would never quite know what happened. She has that gifted capacity for keeping people in their places without their ever quite knowing how they were put there. It is a valuable ability in a little girl who intends to go a long way in pictures. And Rosemary Lane today is considered to be one of the best bets for picture stardom on the Warner Bros. lot. She has the gift of exciting admiration from other women without jealousy, and, best of all, she creates for herself on the screen a characterization that makes the picture-going male think — “‘here’s a girl that it would be fun to know very well indeed.” And if that is being ‘‘too healthy,” Mr. Waring, Hollywood can do with a lot more of healthy girls who are just like our Rosemary Lane. Rudy Plays Barkeep Rudy Vallee brought his cock tail equipment to a party given by Hugh Herbert at his home for Jimmy Cagney and was kept busy all evening. “And he was very good, too,’ said Herbert. **Rudy may be a crooner, an orchestra leader and an actor but I think he is just a bartender at heart.”” Both Vallee and Herbert are in “‘Gold Diggers in Paris.” ALLEN JENKINS casts a wary if not appreciative glance toward Mabel Todd in a scene from "Gold Diggers In Paris," the Warner Bros. musical comedy starring Rudy Vallee and Rosemary Lane, coming to the Strand Friday. Mat 21J—30c Mat 203—30c STUDY IN SYMPHONIC ARRANGEMENT by no less authorities than the Schnickelfritz Band, the looniest melody maniacs alive, who will be both seen and heard in "Gold Diggers in Paris," Warner Bros.' musical starring Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane and Hugh Herbert. (Advance) HOLLYWOOD CLIME ENTICES RUDY, WANTS T0 REMAIN Before leaving Hollywood when he finished his work in the Warner Bros. musical ‘‘Gold Diggers in Paris,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, Rudy Vallee said that if he had not been contractually bound to play an engagement at the Para Mat 102—I5c RUDY VALLEE—ROSEMARY LANE dise restaurant in New York, he would have stayed in California to spend the summer there just loafing. The reason for that desire was obvious. For the first time in his several trips to California, Rudy had a lot of fun on his last visit, especially after Judy Stewart flew out from Florida with her aunt to pay him a visit. Three years ago, when Rudy went there to play in ‘““Sweet Music,” he was worried and _ harrassed. Matrimonial troubles were keeping the atmospheric conditions very humid, and he thought a process server lurked behind every tree. But this time, Rudy had such a good time that he said, if it werent for his radio work, he would probably become a permanent resident of Southern California. He thinks New York is the only place to originate a radio program, because most of the talent is there. As to what he wants to do in the future, Rudy is somewhat undecided —except that it must include acting in pictures. “For myself,’ he said, ‘paying me to act is like paying a baby to eat candy. I’ve always loved it. But I would like to try my hand at a serious role.” (9)