Gold Diggers of 1937 (Warner Bros.) (1936)

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Star’s Star Is Rising Dick Powell, who is co-starred with Joan Blondell in the 5th and best of Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Gold Digger’’ series, the ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937’? which is now playing at the ............. EAs Theatre, has one of his most pleasing roles in the big First National musical. Mat No. 219—20¢ Joan Blondell Champions “Gold Diggers Of 1937”’ To Accept Presents ‘‘Gold Diggers? More power to them! I wouldn’t condemn any Hollywood chorine for doing a little subtle gold digging when she has a legitimate opportunity !’’ Joan Blondell, who in the past two or three years has earned for herself the strictly cinematic title of ‘‘Hollywood’s Gold Digger Number One,’’ was taking the stand in defense of the girls who can blush very prettily while accepting a diamond bracelet from a boy friend. The actress, who appropriately enough has the leading feminine role opposite her bridegroom, Dick Powell, in the First National musical “Gold Diggers of 1937,” knows her theatre front and back, and knows gold diggers and chorus girls through contact with them. But she has never been a gold digger in the faintest sense of the word, in real life. “But that doesn’t mean that [I condemn girls who do,’ Joan said, as she sat on the set and watched dance director Busby Berkeley put some 200 chorines through their paces for a tennis court dancing number in the new musical, which comes to the enon are EP HGRUPO? OW &. cies teer-00-0 “They have their own viewpoint and I ean see it. A young girl gets a break in a show. She interests men. Many of them with money. This girl figures she may not get another break for a long time. While the sun shines she will have to make the proverbial hay (and I don’t mean ‘hey-hey!) “Naturally she is attractive and hopes she will marry a rich boy. Then when the boy isn’t forthcoming, maybe she’ll take a rich man older than herself.” Joan added that the gold digger is no new species. “Remember the Floradora girls? They did pretty good by themselves. I imagine that back in the days when ‘The Black Crook’ was the big legitimate hit, the girls were looking for rich stage door Johnnies when they left the theatre. So don’t blame this on movies and automobiles and radio!” “GOLD { DIGGERS ,; OF 1937' ~ —: © & « PUBLICITY Sereen Chorines Unlike Those Of Stage, Says Joan “I can always tell a_ stage chorus girl from a sereen chorine,” said Joan Blondell as she watched some fifty Hollywood beauties prepare to rehearse for a scene in “Gold Diggers of 1937,” the First National musical now showing at the Theatre. “These girls just came on the stage a minute ago,” Joan was told. “They haven’t had time to do much yet. Could you tell if they were stage or screen girls if you didn’t know already that they were working in this pieture?” “Absolutely,” answered the actress. “It was a dead give-away. The first thing they did was to hand their purses and other belongings to the property man for safekeeping in his lock box. “Do you know what a stage chorus girl would have done as soon as she came on the stage? She would have placed her purse in the footlights. They’ve been doing that ever since “Floradora”’ first went into rehearsal — and probably will continue doing so until eternity. “This is because the bags are always in their sight while they are rehearsing and there’s very little chance of someone slipping up and stealing one of them. A very natural custom of the theatre that hasn’t been transferred to the movies.” “Another difference is in their slang,” said Joan, “although V’ll admit for the most part that it is strikingly similar. A _ girl trained to the legitimate is ‘upstage’ if she is inclined to be a trifle ritzy. A sereen chorine would call the same girl a ‘Hollyhock’ —meaning that she had gone Hollywood. “There are other differences, but they would be noticed only by someone who had worked on both the stage and the screen for a long time.” Famed Musical Team Does “Gold Diggers’’ Melodies Harry Warren And Al Dubin Have Written Ten Hits For Warner Series By ALEX EVELOVE You may talk about your ‘“‘Gold Diggers’’ beauties, all 200 of them. About Dance Director Busby Berkeley’s direc tion of them in their intricate paces. featured players who make each ‘‘Gold Diggers,”’ About the stars and of what ever year, a success up and down the Broadways of the land. But what about two modest men who are also veterans of the “Gold Diggers” wars, who have started more dancing, humming, whistling and singing than any two other gentlemen in Hollywood?) Yes, what about Harry Warren and-Al Dubin, “Gold Diggers 733,” “Gold Diggers ’35,” and the present “Gold Diggers of 1937,” which comes to the ............ Theatre On © ../.0..2.6... 4 They have done ten songs in the three “Gold Diggers” since 1938. Count ’em, remember ’em and hum ’em: “Shadow Waltz,’ “We're in the Money,” “Remember My Forgotten Man,” “T’ve Got To Sing A torch Song,” “Pettin’ in the Park” (all of those from “Gold Diggers of 1933”), “Lullaby of Broadway,” “The Words Are in My Heart,” “I’m Goin’ Shoppin’ With You” (all from “Gold Diggers of 1935”), “All’s Fair in Love and War” and “With Plenty of Money and You” (both from the recently completed and fortheoming “Gold Diggers of 1937”). That’s the W. & D. record on “Gold Diggers.” They wrote the nation’s songs, but the nation doesn’t know much about these two fellows who discovered as far back as “42nd Street” that they were a pretty good team, that they worked well together and ought to do it from then on. Dubin is a native Philadelphian, and he tried his hand at drawing, and at writing poetry, before he made the grade in Tin Pan Alley. Some of his many hits have been “Just A Girl That Men Forget,” “Carolina Moon,” and “She Was Just A Sailor’s Sweetheart.” Warren is a New York Italian lad who started his musical career playing the piano in Brooklyn. Then he drifted to Tin Pan A}ley, and scored many successes. The team of Warren and Dubin was formed when Warner Bros. assigned them to do the music for “42nd Street.” Dick, Long An Insurance Buyer, Sells [t In Film Star Who Has Been Pestered By Agents Now Plays One On Screen By DICK POWELL (Starring with Joan Blondell in ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937,’’ which opens at ERE ccc Sie} PRCUWE LON. ce es) I knew it would come about sometime. At last they cast me in a role with which I am perfectly familiar. In fact I could have written the part. I know the ups and downs of the business as I know the notes on the musical seale. I don’t have to step out of character a bit to play the part of a guy who knows all about the insurance business. This fine bit of casting came about when Warner Bros. assigned me to the part of an ambitious young insurance salesman in “Gold Diggers of 1937.” When { heard about it I stuck my feet up on my dressing room makeup table and took it easy for a couple of days. No need of any coaching for this part, It was a cinch! All my life I’ve been plagued by imsurance salesmen, and all my life I’ve tried to cultivate that art known as “sales resistance.” So far the salesmen have won out. No need to say that I know them all by their first names now. It’s sort of like a class reunion when the boys get together and storm my portals in an attempt to sell me just a little bit more. Two more policies, they say, and I'll be as heavily insured as the “Queen Mary.” My first run-in with one of the boys was down in Little Rock. I was a callow youth, still in my ‘teens, and earned a little extra money every Saturday night tooting a saxophone in.a three-piece band. One night, when the other two pieces — piano and drum — were indisposed, and I was holding down the musie job all by myself, a gentleman with a pink face and a brown derby hat edged up to me and asked me if [ wouldn’t like to take out some insurance on my saxophone. “What kind of insurance?” 1] asked. “Why, simple twenty three and endowment, straight life and full Reunion In Gold Diggers accident coverage,” he told me as he pulled out a handsome looking policy with beautiful imitation gold around the edges. “All you have to pay is twenty-five cents a week. If your horn there ever gets in an accident or is stolen you get one hundred dollars, a new horn and a book of lessons!” “I won’t need the lessons,” I told him. He seemed insistent that I take them anyway. He was so kind about it all that I finally signed up and gave him a dollar for the first four weeks’ payment. The pink-faced gentleman came around regularly every week and collected his twenty-five cents. Finally, after he had collected a total of thirty-two dollars and fifty cents I lost the horn. I ran around to his office to collect my money, a new horn and the book of lessons. It seemed, though, that he had grown weary of the insurance business and had left town. His landlady said he had joined a dance orchestra the night before and had gone on with the band to another town. “They hired him because he had such a _ nice-looking saxophone,” she told me. I’ve always been a little suspicious of the insurance boys since that time. But DVve always been the first one to sign on the dotted line. Yes, sir, they’ve insured me against everything except the taking out of another policy. I’m waiting for a guy to come along and do that! Dick Powell and Joan Blondell were teamed in ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1933.’ Now they are co-starred in the fifth and best of the series ‘‘Gold Dig gers of 1937’’ the First National musicomedy which opens at the ee Ore oe PRECOUE OR GS ia ee Mat No. 202—20c Page Thirty-one