Gold Dust Gertie (Warner Bros.) (1931)

WINNIE—WITTIER THAN EVER— Hard Plugging Wins Winnie Lightner An Enviable Position Star of “Gold Dust Gertie” Now Betis cas Theatre, Noted For High Speed Industry (Short Feature) More than all else Winnie Lighther is a plugger. Not a plugger for songs alone—although she is the shining example to all ambitious singers in that respect—but in everything she does. _Winnie plugs everything, holes in dialogue, awkward spaces in action, forgotten cues. When she works in a picture she sees to it that the production is water tight, air tight and laugh tight. She fills all empty spaces with her own personality. She is, according to Lloyd Bacon her director in “Gold Dust Gertie” the Warner Bros. comedy, now at ie Theatre, the greatest scene-saver in the picture business. She can be trusted to leave no gaps. The cost in energy is high. Frequently the star leaves the studio at night limp with fatigue. Plugging is hard work but Winnie knows no other way of putting a picture over. She is probably the hardestworking actress on the combiried Warner Brothers-First National lots from the standpoint of actual physical exertion. She stamps her feet and bites her nails and groans that she can “never do it”—and then goes out and does it very well indeed. ; Plugging-away-at-it put Winnie where she is today in popular favor. She worked her way to stardom by the hardest possible route. that of putting over scenes and _ songs against all-star competition. Arrived in Hollywood for her first feature length picture, in which she was to be billed sixth or seventh in a list of important screen names, Winnie went energetically to work. Within a week the gossip about the Warner Brothers studio was that she was bound to steal the picture.” The picture was “Gold ___Diggers _of —Braadway?-—and—the| chances are, more people remember Winnie in it, than all the other people put together. It was a particularly successful piece of unconscious thievery. Winnie plugged her part in “Gold Diggers of Broadway” for all it was worth. She worked day. and night to make a place for herself in Hollywood, without realizing what an important place she was actually going to have in that interesting community. And having started plugging songs and scenes and sequences in one picture she has just naturally had to keep it up. Directors, producers and public all expect it now and Winnie must keep plugging to keep them happy. So Winnie is plugging away and with Winnie that means putting all her energies, all her talents, all her abilities into scenes and onto film for “Gold Dust Gertie.” Some day that apparently limitless power to plug may fail, but until it does Winnie will go on working harder than anybody else and worrying more than any six others and putting everything she has behind everything she says and does. “Gold Dust Gertie” faetures the international clown team, Olsen and Johnson. Others in the cast are Dorothy Christy, Claude Gillingwater, Arthur Hoyt, George Byron, Vivian Oakland, Charley Grapewin, Charles Judels and Virginia Sale, Lloyd Bacon directed. Just For A LAUGH Last Two Days Winnie LIGHTNER GOLD DUST GERTIE BOBBY JONES in “How I Play Golf” Cut No. 18 Cut 20c, Mat Sc Page Six SHE'S in town again BOYS !t-—( BEWARE! WITH OLSEN and JOHNSON A Warner Bros. & Vitaphone Hit! Cut No. 12 SPINACH START PIE FINISH Winnie Lightner, star of “Gold Dust Gertie,” the Warner Bros. comedy, now at the atre, not only punches the bag with characteristic vigor, but diets with Spartan determination —for she claims it is in her contract—that she must not expand! She began her lunch, says a friend who was with her recently in the restaurant at the Warner First National studios at Burbank, California—with a spinach sandwich on whole wheat bread without butter or mayonnaise and a cup of black coffee. “There’s an ounce.here and there to come off!” she remarked. The friend was lost in admiration for the heroism of the tomboy of the talkies, till she suddenly hailed a waiter and ordered hot mince pie with brandy sauce and a cup of chocolate. “Let’s make believe its my birthday!” she said. ST GERTIE WARIISR WILDER THAN EVER— She slayed you with fun in “Gold Diggets of Broadway” She left you limp with laughter in “Life of the Party” She’s in great shape for another whirl at nonsense. Precious little goldgetter—She’ll make you—take you—and shake you with the latest styles in Laffs! Cut 40c, Mat 10c Sister Of Author Of “Specialist” In Odd Comedy Role (Biography May. 1, 1931) Virginia Sale, who plays the part|othy Christy, Claude Gillingwater, as secretary in support of Winnie|Arthur Hoyt, George Byron, Vivian Lightner, in “Gold Dust Gertie” the Warner Bros. comedy now at the|Judels and Virginia Sale. Roy Del Theatre, is the sister of the| Ruth directed. famous vaudeville artist and author, Chic Sale. Miss Sale was born in Urbana, Illinois, and educated in Urbana High School, the University of IIlinois and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She spent five years in the legitimate and vaudeville, entering pictures in 1927, doing a bit in King Vidor’s “The Crowd.” Among her pictures are “Legionnaires in Paris,” “Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City,” “Fancy Baggage,” “Why Be Good,” “The Dude Wrangler,” “Embarrassing Moments,” “This Is Heaven,” “Show Girl in Hollywood” and “Bright Lights.” Miss Sale is five feet five inches in height, weighs one hundred and twenty pounds and has brown eyes and brown hair. Lloyd Bacon is the director of “Gold Dust Gertie” which features in addition to the Misses Lightner and Sale, Olsen and Johnson, famous knockabouts of nonsense. Lightner Says She Is Not Raising Her Son To Be An Actor “Star of Gold Dust Gertie” Now AES, Theatre Discusses Bringing Up A Boy COMIC CUT-UPS Cut No. 14 Cut 15c, Mat Sc (Short Feature) Winnie Lightner now starring at the Theatre in Warner Bros. “Gold Dust Gertie,’ says she isn’t raising her boy to be an actor and doesn’t care who knows it. “Of coure,” she qualifies, “he’ll probably |: grow up to be one, if he makes up his mind to it like I rid, but If|} mama has her way he’ll he a surgeon—and a good one!” All of Winnie’s tremendously busy life is centered about her baby |! boy, not yet three years old. Forced by her profession to leave him often in the care of a nurse, she nevertheless keeps close check on what|} he does, what he eats, how he sleeps and where he plays. Her first question when she visits a fortune teller, which she frequently does, is about the welfare of Dickie. But she will tell you that she takes no stock in their answers, that she stands ready to fight Dickie’s fights for him until he is old enough to fight for himself and that neither fortunetellers nor pessimists can worry her about his future. Close about her plans for Dickie are wrapped other plans which Winnie Lightner has for the future. A child’s hospital, with Winnie as patron saint and the chief visitor and with Winnie’s son as the practicing ees that is the dream of her life. That hope dates back to a tragic moment when a niece of the now famous and wealthy actress, almost a baby, struggled against the overwhelming odds of infantile paralysis without the benefit of expert medical help. “Almost in front of my eyes she became a cripple,” says Winnie and something of the black horror of those poverty-ridden days comes back to her. “Someday I’m going to have a children’s hospital of my own,” she confided in a particularly confidential moment. Because she dislikes to recall the occasion that gave rise to that ambition she mentions the idea to few. Winnie of the glib tongue and free-and-easy manner actually tells less about herself than many a celebrity noted for modesty. Strange ambitions these are to be behind the rollicking, roisterous red-head who has made the loudlaugh and the apparently vacant mind a box office sensation. Not that Winnie doesn’t enjoy being the hoodlum of the talking screen. She frankly likes her roles, admits they are the parts she can play best, and calls herself pretty lucky. But the wisecracks that fit so perfectly into her boisterous features in “Gold Dust Gertie” don’t prevent Winnie having serious plans for the three year old who is at home, decorating the furniture with finger marks while she plugs scenes for Warner Brothers pictures. Dickie is to be a doctor. So far as Winnie’s plans go. She hasn’t raised her boy to be an actor! Others in the cast of “Gold Dust Gertie” are Olsen and Johnson, Dor Olsen and Johnson, noisy knock-a-bouts of stage and screen, are currently to be seen in support of Winnie Lightner in — her latest Warner Bros, & Vitaphone comedy, “Gold-Dust Gertie,” at the Strand. Lad From Limerick Ably Supports The Lady Of Laughter (Biography May 1, 1931) George Byron, who plays the yacht captain in “Gold Dust Gertie,” Warner Bros. comedy starring Winnie Lightner, now at the........ Theatre was born in Limerick, Ireland and educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Art, specializing in literature. He was content with his remarkable success on the stage in important roles in such plays as“Lightnin’,” “If I Was Rich,” “Front Page” and “Twelve Miles Out,” until talking pictures made his services so valuable to studios that he could no longer resist their offers. He entered pictures in 1929 appearing among other films in “Song Writer,” “Officer O’Brien,’ and “The Czar of Broadway.” Mr. Byron is five feet seven and one-half inches in height, weighing one hundred and sixty-five pounds and with blue eyes and brown hair. His Te sports are golf and hand all. Judels Stormy Style Designer In Latest Lightner Comedy Charles Judels who plays fiery designer of bathing-suits in “Gold Dust Gertie,’ the Warner Bros. comedy starring Winnie Lightner, now at the Theatre, made his fame and fortune as producer and director of stage shows, including such famous productions as “Artists and Models,” “Gay Paree,” “Night in Spain” and “Greenwich Village Follies.’ ‘He has become known as one of the funniest of the talking screen*comedians within the past two years. He specializes in eee eee ae Oakland, Charley Grapewin, Charles dialects of languages which he does not speak. Judels was born in Amsterdam but came to New York City as a young child. He has appeared recently in “The Life of the in SCREEN BEAUTIES LOOK LIKE TWINS Party” and “Fifty Million Winnie Lightner is supported Frenchmen.” in “Gold Dust Gertie,” the Warner Bros. slapstick classic now atthe Theatre by Dorothy Christy and Vivian Oakland, two Hollywood beauties who look so much alike that they are cast as the twin sisters who marry and mar the lives of Olsen and Johnson, those clowns of the talkies who are only second to Miss Lightner in their ability to make staid citizens roll in the aisles. Others who make “Gold Dust Gertie” the chief of laughmaking films are Claude Gillingwater, Arthur Hoyt, George Byron, Charley Grapewin, Charles Judels and Virginia Sale. Lloyd Bacon directed. LIGHTNER , ‘GOLD DUST \ GERTIE an Cut 20c, Mat Sc Cut No. 19