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

“GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937" x * kk & & PUSHITITY “Gold Diggers”’ Compete With ‘Daring Young Man”’ Director Calls On Them For Dizzy Stunts On Pedestals High In Air No wonder chorus girls have the reputation of being dizzy. They get that way after a couple of years spent around the Hollywood movie lots, performing at the whim of a dance director who dishes out his terpsichorean art from the highest spots he can find. During the past six or seven years Hollywood ladies of the ensemble have learned that straight dancing on a polished floor is just one very small aspect of a dancing sequence. When they sign their term contracts for the duration of a musical sequence in a picture they know they will be expected to do anything the director asks — from swinging on a trapeze fifteen feet above the floor to being ejected from the mouth of a property cannon. The girls are almost on a par with the highly-publicized stunt men of the film city. The tricks that come under the head of dancing are limitless. A typical example is the “All is Fair in Love and War” number made by Warner Bros. for a sequence in their biennial musical extravaganza, “Gold Diggers of 1937,” which will open at the Cee ierseTHOSELO: ORs .cs ces acerrserecce Two hundred of Hollywood’s prized dancing chorines take part in this. On the fiirst day of rehearsal for the “Gold Diggers” number, Busby Berkeley, dance director on the picture, devised a plan for having twelve of the girls go through a routine on the seat of a huge rocking chair. The chair couldn’t be of the straight type. It had to rock while the girls were dancing. Something new for the public and a new stunt for the girls. They pitched in and learned how to balance themselves and go through a fast-stepping routine as it swayed back and forth. The chair, incidentally, is 29 feet high! Another routine in the sequence called for the girls to stand atop “parallels” 14 feet high and manipulate an eightfoot flagstaff through a series of signal drills. They were strapped to the base, of course, but it was a cinch to bring on dizziness. Your modern dancing Miss gets more thrills in an average week of “dancing” than other less fortunate girls get in a lifetime. It’s A Matter Of Necking Hair Dresser Turns Down Acting Bid Playing for the silver screen holds no glamour for Ruth Pursley, pretty aurburn-haired hair dresser, While she was working on Joan Blondell’s hair, during the filming of “Gold Diggers of 1937” which is now showing at LLY a gaan perro Oe Theatre, she was offered a contract at the Warner Bros. studio, but she turned it down, because she likes her own profession better. Now in its fifth and best edition, ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937’’ comes to the Rea Sal SO Theatre: 00.2 os05st » with Dick Powell and Joan Blondell heading an all star cast which includes Victor Moore, Glenda Farrell, Osgood Perkins, Lee Dixon and a score of Hollywood favorites in addition to 200 beautiful dancing girls. Mat No. 204—20c Marriage, Homes, Children kor 1937 “Gold Diggers”’ Few Desire Film Stardom, Some Even Willing To Wash Dishes For Love By CARLISLE JONES Judging from the questionnaires filled out by the 200 Victor Moore Keeps Tabs On His OldFriends ’Oddities Comedian Of “Gold Diggers’’ Makes Notes On Fellow Players’ Unusual Habits In order to prove that all comedians don’t sit around thumbing the pages of Joe Miller’s joke book in their spare time, Victor Moore, the stage and screen comedian, is showing friends an ‘‘Eccentricity Chart,’’ which he kept between scenes of the Warner Bros. musical, ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1987,”’ which comes to the ....................... Theatre DS hai ee Moore, who plays a leading comedy role in the picture, keeps the chart because he likes to study the peculiar mannerisms of the human race. “Audiences are quick to detect a flaw in your impersonations of the human race,” he says. “That’s why I’m always jotting down notes about the funny things my fellow players do and say. A true-to-life impersonation always goes over big in anybody’s theatre.” Following are some of the eccentricity notes Moore has jotted down about other players in the “Gold Diggers” company: Dick Powell always pushes his hat on the back of his head as soon as the cameras have stopped grinding on a scene. He leaves it that way until the next scene is ready. Joan Blondell has a telephone complex. She can’t stay away from the set telephone for more two minutes at a time. She isn’t at all particular about her costume but fusses and fumes to herself if one curl of her hair is out of place. Glenda Farrell is a pencil chewer. She sits with a pencil in her hand and chews the end of it until it is half demolished. Moore says her capacity is about three a day including the eraser. Moore classes himself as a “Stomach Worrier.” “At least three times a day,” he says, “I find myself worrying about my diaphragm. Not that it’s getting too big. Quite the contrary. I’m afraid if I should lose too many pounds I wouldn’t look like a comedian and Victor Moore One of the stage’s most noted comedians, Victor Moore has a featured role in ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937,’’ the First National production which opens at the ........ 5 Se ENCOUN O ON > 36. <.cccackteasine Dick Powell and Joan Blondell head the cast, Mat No. 106—10¢e oo would lose my job!” “Gold Diggers of 1937” is the fourth of the famous and _elightful “Gold Diggers” series turned out by the Warner Bros. studios. It stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell. New Song Hits In Film Ready For Battle girls that worked as ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937,’’ eighty-five per cent of Hollywood’s chorines have their minds set on marriage — eventually if not now. More than three-fourths of them hope to have children, and nearly half of them are willing to do their own housework — “at least for a few years.” Only six would be will Dick Powell is again in uniform, but his battles are more marital than martial in ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937’? in which he and Joan Blondell are starred. The picture comes to the Theatre on Mat No. 109—10c ing to mow the family lawn, but 46 expect to do part of the family laundry. Twenty-four of the 200 girls would rather become screen stars than marry. Eleven of them declare they would rather be famous than happy. True to the type of roles they played, “money” is rated next in importance to love in their lives. Asked how much money they considered desirable, the answers ran all the way from “coffee and cake” money to $5,000,000. Most of them indicated they would be content with $50,000 invested in property or stocks and _ bonds. Fifty thousand dollars seemed to appeal to the Gold Diggers as a comfortable round sum. The “Gold Digger of 1937,” who will be seen at the .....w... EE RGBUTOON. <....1.2.04.+0000055> , would like to live in an eight room house or a six room apartment. Three indicated they would demand a penthouse or something equally swank. Without exception they all want — or have — fur coats, automobiles and diamond rings. Apparently they are rather average young American girls. “Gold Diggers of 1937” is the fourth of the famous and delightful “Gold Diggers” series turned out by the Warner Bros. studios. Elaborately cast, it stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, and the other noted players inelude Victor Moore, Glenda Farrell, Lee Dixon, the famed eccentric dancer; Osgood Perkins, Charles D. Brown, Rosalind Marquis and Irene Ware, plus 200 dancing beauties. The picture was directed by Lloyd Bacon and Busby Berkeley from a screen play by Warren Duff, based on the stage play “Sweet Mystery of Life.” Dick Powell (left) and Lee Dixon (right) join the wash-room boys in putting over one of the many new songs featured in ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937,’’ the new First National musical spectacle which opens at the PAE OTe Sree TNCGUC=ON a ee Mat No. 205—20c Page Thirty-three