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

Sereen Comedy Is Hardest To Put Over, Says Moore Veteran Star of Broadway Stage Misses His Theatre Audiences’ Reaction There’s a whale of a difference between pulling comedy gags and situations on the stage and on the screen. In fact they are two entirely different fields, and it is no easy task for a stage comedian to suddenly transplant his talents to the screen or vice versa. This view comes from Victor Moore, for many years a headlining comedian of the legitimate stage, who has now turned his attention to Hollywood and the movies, Between scenes of the Warner Bros. musical “Gold Diggers of 1937,” now showing at the Be soos tes Theatre, in which he plays a leading comedy role, Moore told some of the things a comedian has to contend with when he suddenly changes his field of action. “The main difference between stage and screen comedy,” says the actor, “is that you know how youre going over on the stage and you don’t on the screen.” “By that, I mean that ten minutes after the curtain has gone up on a legitimate stage show you have a pretty good idea of what the audience likes in the way of comedy. Fifteen minutes after this you’re sure of it, and by the time the curtain is ready to ring down on the first act you’re a pretty poor comic if _ yow’re not giving them just what they want and making ’em like it!?? “On the screen it’s different. Here you’re playing to no one but the property boys, the hairdressers and the electricians. Even ifthey do think you're funny they can’t laugh. It would spoil the scene!” “The screen was similar to the radio in this respect until the broadcasting companies got wise and issued invitations for handpicked audiences.” “T find it quite a strain in not knowing how my comedy is going to be received until the picture is released and shown on a screen. If it falls flat then it’s just too bad. A stage production ean be changed — and usually is — right after the opening night. Once a picture comedian’s tricks are in the film can there’s no way of pulling them out and changing them around. “When I was appearing in vaudeville at one time in a short comedy skit, I had it written in three different ways. The first few gags were always delivered as ‘feelers.’ As soon as I found out what the audience wanted I gave it to them — in the form of either routine number one, number two or number three!” “Yes, I guess the stage comic has it all over his brother of the sereen when it comes to constructing his comedy as it goes along!” Moore is playing the role of a New York theatrical producer in “Gold Diggers of 1937.” “Gold Diggers of 1937” is the fourth of the famous series of musicals produced by Warner Bros. It’s All In The Routine Victor Moore (left) takes a dancing lesson from Lee Dixon, dancing star of ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937,’’ the First National picture coming to ONGE on occas Theatre on ............... ete Dick Powell and Joan Blondell are starred in the 5th and best of Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Gold Digger’’ series. Mat No. 201—20e “GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937 « =~ * *« *& *& PURBRIATY Dick Powell Says Farewell To His Little Mustache That small mustache which Dick Powell grew recently and which he continued to sport in “Gold Diggers of 1937,” the Warner Bros. musical now show1 ee | Oa“. cee eee ee Theatre, caused no end of controversy among his fans in the state of Arkansas. People down in Arkansas take Powell’s personality, private life and sartorial habits very much to heart, inasmuch as he is a prized native son of that state. Constructive eriticism from: Arkansans comes in the mail to Dick at the rate of about four hundred letters a week. Even the men voiced their opinions pro and con. An Ozark mountaineer wrote Dick that if he (Dick) ever showed up in his neck of the woods with a sillylooking soup strainer like that he’d shoot it off with a doublebarreled shotgun. “__And I ain’t missed my mark in forty years,’ he added. That threat may have had nothing to do with it — but anyhow, when the picture was completed and Dick married Joan Blondell and started for a New York honeymoon, the mustache was gone! “Gold Diggers” Confide Secrets Of Pet Thoughts Do you wonder what the 1937 Gold Digger thinks about? Two. hundred pretty girls were picked at the Warner Bros. studio as chorines for the new version of that famous screen musieal, ‘‘ Gold Diggers of 1937,’? which is now showing at the ................ Theatre, and a check among the candidates showed that these young women think about a wide variety of subjects. ‘“Love’’? leads the list. More than half of _the new crop of Gold Diggers (being fundamentaly honest and having been promised that their names were not to be used) admitted that ‘‘love’’ occupied their thoughts more than any other single subject. ‘‘Marriage’’ was listed as the subject the second largest number of the girls in the new musical numbers think about. ‘<Clothes’’? came third in the list and ‘‘Money’’ got almost as many votes, showing that the modern Gold Digger is not much different from all her predecessors. ‘‘Career’?’? won more _ second votes than any other subject. ‘‘ My looks’? was a favorite thinking theme of about half the girls. About ten per cent of them listed ‘¢ Wood’? as one of the things they are most interested in. ‘“Security’’ worried only a secant dozen of them. ‘‘Diets’’ bothered only six. ‘‘ Health’’ seemed to worry no one. They all had it, it seemed. ‘<Polities’’ seems to be ignored by all but a very few of the Gold Diggers. ‘‘Overtime’’ interests them all but that should be ineluded under the head ‘‘Money’’ because that is what overtime means to them. Put it all together, the 1937 Gold Digger is a healthy, happy and hard working girl who spends most of her idle hours thinking of love. ‘¢Gold Diggers of 1937’’ stars Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, and the other noted players inelude Victor Moore, Glenda Farrell, Lee Dixon, famed eccentric dancer; Osgood Perkins, Rosalind Marquis and Irene Ware, plus 200 daneing beauties. They're All At The Strand Left to right are Rosalind Marquis, Lee Dixon, Glenda Farrell, Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, at the completion of a scene during the fiiming of ‘‘Gold Diggers of 1937’’ the First National extravaganza now playing at the ...... So ee: ee Theatre. Mat No. 220—20c What Do Chorines Read? Glenda Farrell Answers Comedienne of “Gold Diggers of 1937°’ Looks Over Shoulders of 200 Dancers ‘‘Most people are judged by the company they keep. But chorus girls can be judged by the literature they read.’’ This comes from Glenda Farrell, blonde sereen comedienne who has made a silent study of moving picture chorines for the past two or three years and says she can usually tell their personalities by a glance at the books, papers and magazines which they bring on the set with them to read between scene calls. Glenda is currently playing a featured role with Dick Powell and Joan Blondell in the Warner Bros. musical, “Gold Diggers of 1937,” which comes to the ........ siete Riese PHoatre, : ON2Se..tiecewss Two hundred of Hollywood’s most beautiful showgirls are in this picture, and the actress had ample time to pursue her curious hobby of studying personalities via the reading habit route. Here are some of her observations: Most chorus girls, contrary to the general impression, read good literature. Pulp magazines of the love-angle type give away to library books by well-known authors. Stars, says Glenda, sometimes carry around a great literary work in their hands just to give the impression that their literary tastes are above the average. Chorines have no affectation in this regard. They read the books they carry around! Their taste in authors runs from Edna Ferber, Katharine Brush, Hemingway and Sinclair Lewis in the modern field to Poe, Thackeray, Dickens and Oscar Wilde in older works. Favorite poets, she has noticed, include Edna St. Vincent Millay, Steven Vincent Benet and Ogden Nash. Gertrude Stein doesn’t get much of a tumble. Chorines who read poetry, says Miss Farrell, usually are the best dancers. Those who read modern authors are the cutest and those who read the more ancient literary gems are the most beautiful. Those who read humorous books lack a little on the dancing but make it up in general ability to speak small parts when called upon to do so. Girls who read mystery stories have fine powers of concentration. Glenda says she doesn’t read much herself. Gets too much of a kick peeking over the shoulders of those who do and seeing how her deductions come out! Wheelchair Carries Actor To His Lunch Practical jokes among the cast during the filming of the new First National musical, “Gold Diggers of 1937,” which comes to theists. Theatre, on ........ Peete tieh , reached their peak when Victor Moore was strapped into a wheel chair, and wheeled down Hollywood Boulevard to lunch. Moore, who plays the part of a Osgood Perkins in “*Gold Diggers of 1937” at the Strand Mat No. 103 10¢ New York theatrical producer in ill health, had been working all morning propped up in the wheel chair. Osgood Perkins and Charles D. Brown, two New York cronies of Moore’s, thought the opportunity was too good to miss, so they strapped him into the chair as soon as lunch was called. Blonde Vogue Over? Looks That Way! Time was when the blondes outnumbered the brunettes two to one. Now the brunettes seem to have come into their own. A check-up on the 200 girls in the dancing sequences of the Warner Bros. musical picture “Gold Diggers of 1937,” now playing at the Noneiressers Theatre, proved it. Out of the 200, eighty-six are brunettes, and eighty-five are blondes — the remaining 29 are several different shades of auburn. Looks like a draw — with the brunettes forging ahead! Page Thirty-seven