Kid Nightingale (Warner Bros.) (1939)

PUBLICITY suyies yy" ae “mq yyy “aye yee ae eee ee ye SOqq{uee segygee aye see eye ye Uy nye "yy" “ayer qe nee mq! TTT “uy “ee aye uqquesyye” age ye aye yee yy qe my yee une yyy yy “ayy ure aye nye “yyy nyu ye mq" qe que qe aq oT "qe (Opening Day) KID NIGHTINGALE’ MAKES LOCAL BOW AT STRAND TODAY “Kid Nightingale,” new Warner Bros. comedy featuring John Payne and Jane Wyman, which opens at the Strand Theatre today, is about a prize fighter. But, what a fighter! He likes to sing much more than he likes to fight, and to tell the truth he sings much better than he fights. While the handsome Mr. Payne and the delectable Miss Wyman take care of a lot of the comedy and some romance besides, they have the more than able assistance of such expert comedians as Walter Catlett, Hd Brophy, Charles D. Brown, Harry Burns and William Haade. It’s really a singing career that is the ambition of the youngster, portrayed by Payne, but he gets detoured onto the road leading to the heavyweight boxing championship by a couple of slickers. They are interested in him when they observe how heavily not only Miss Wyman, but also the women in the class over which she presides, fall for him. In addition to ballyhooing this fact the managers also encourage their fighter to sing from the ring each time he has a fight, thus his name, “Kid Nightingale.” The “Kid” has been persuaded to fight by his manager’s promise that he can train for the opera and the ring at the same time. They palm off a phoney wrestler on him as an opera star and he assures the young fighter that fighting will develop his chest and lungs. Jane, however, isn’t fooled and on the night of the championship fight, she brings the real opera star to the arena. “The “Kid” is knocked out, but the opera star has been so impressed by his voice that he predicts a fine future as a singer for him. All this is related in a cleverly devised sereen play by Charles Belden and Raymond Schrock, based on an original story by Lee Katz. The production was directed by George Amy. ‘ID NIGHTINGALE? BOUTS AUTHENTIC William Haade broke a finger, a professional, Eddie Hogan, damaged a thumb knuckle in fight sequences for the Warner Bros. comedy, “Kid Nightingale,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. But the accidents weren’t in fights with each other. Both were sustained when their gloved fists crashed against John Payne’s head. Payne felt neither blow in the excitement of trading punches in the ring with his big, fast opponents. The actor declares that his nose, jaw and midsection weren’t so dull to pain, however. After three days of boxing various opponents before the camera and a month of sparring as training, his condition was self-described as “sore as a jumping eye tooth.” Love’s Labor Lost Jane Wyman painstakingly knitted herself a sleeveless sweater, a task which consumed nearly all her between-scenes time during the filming of Warner Bros.” “Kid Nightingale.” Then one day she caught a thread of it on a set light fixture, walked away without noticing it, and in a few seconds had unravelled the whole back of her painstakingly-made garment! ‘Kid Nightingale’ Comedy Hit of Socks and Songs “Kid Nightingale” scored a knockout at the Strand Theatre yesterday, but it wasn’t done with fists. The weapons were hilarious situations, acted by expert comedians. After the first round (or reel, to be more specific), the audience was just a pushover for this new Warner Bros. comedy about a singing prize-fighter that features John Payne and Jane Wyman with Walter Catlett, Hd Brophy, Charles D. Brown, Harry Burns and William Haade as their chief.fun-making assistants. Payne, of course, is “Kid Nightingale,” the troubadour of the prize ring, and the role gives him the best opportunity he has ever had in the starring career that commenced so auspiciously last year with “Garden of the Moon.” As for Miss Wyman, she disclosed as far back as “Brother Rat” a comedy gift that is rare in so pretty a girl, and she con tinued the good work in “Kid. From Kokomo,’ in which she was, aS now, a fighter’s sweetheart. The supporting players have already proven themselves to be very capable laugh provokers and their performances in this film add to their reputations. Of course this swell cast has fine tools to work with in the form of a cleverly written screen play, based by Charles Belden and Raymond Sehrock on an _ original story by Lee Katz and directed by George Amy. The tale revoles about a youngster, played by Payne, who can fight fairly well and sing very well. He’s interested only in singing, but a slick manager and an even slicker promoter persuade him to set out for the heavyweight boxing championship. They are interested in the youngster, not because they think he is a great fighter, but because they find he has terrific appeal to the ladies, who turn out in force to see him fight. He himself helps the ballyhoo by singing from the ringside after each fight, thus earning the name, “Kid Nightingale.” His girl-friend Jane, is not fooled by the set-up, and besides she is anxious for him to devote himself exclusively to singing. The night of the championship fight, Jane brings an opera star with her to the arena and he is greatly impressed by the young fighter’s remarkable voice. Thus, although he gets knocked out during the fight, he is assured of a fine career as an opera singer, and you’re assured of 4 million laughs. Rocky Road Led to Soft Life in Films for Payne As Told by JOHN PAYNE There are a lot of things about Hollywood that I might change if I were writing the rules. My own status in the industry isn’t one of those things, however. I’m going to work that out on the present line if it takes all my options to do it. Though I eat regularly now, I can still remember other times, long months in New York, when I had to get along on seven dol Mat 102—15e¢ JOHN PAYNE lars a week for food and a place to sleep and when even the seven dollars wasn’t easy to find. I changed jobs a lot of times on my way to Hollywood and pictures but I never was called upon to do as many different things in as short a space of time as I have here. I have directed an orchestra playing my own song accompaniment. I have learned to handle the controls of a twomotored airplane—and that’s not as simple as it sounds. I’ve fought a number of fist fights. Lately I had to drive a racing car at break-neck speed without breaking anybody’s neck, even my own. I’ve barked my shins, jumping fences, I sprained an ankle diving out of a window, had my eyebrows singed by the flames of a burning car—the one I was driving so fast — and I have been dunked, wearing dress uniform, in the very wet water of Pensacola Bay, in Florida. Still I like it and hope for a lot more of the same. I think that when pictures begin to go too much to the drawing room and actors start cheating on the dirty work allotted to them in roles, it will be time for the whole industry to declare a new deal. I tried acting when I couldn’t find anything else to do. Before that I had been a wrestler of sorts in New York’s subway wrestling circuit. Occasionally I won and luckily I kept my ears undamaged. I was a bouncer, for a time, in a 65th street joint and “a little later I was a manager in a pool hall. Cigar smoke drove me out of that job. So I started writing stories for the pulps.. I wrote for “Astounding Stories,’ “Amazing Stories” and “Weird Stories.” I did this for eight months. There were other months when I was a waiter—not a singing one, however, as I am in “Kid Nightingale,’ and I played chauffeur and scene painter at other times to keep from starving. I sang for the radio but that didn’t seem to catch on and so I finally went looking for a job as an actor. After several years of mediocre jobs, mainly in road companies, my first really good break came when I was made understudy to Reginald Gardner in “At Home Abroad.” I took over the role later and played it with Beatrice ‘Lillie, for several months. Sam “Goldwyn offered me a contract then and sent me to Hollywood, where I played a small part in “Dodsworth” and started a heartbreaking wait for other good roles.“ Warner Bros. finally rescued me.from my professional doldrums and put me into “Garden of the Moon,” and eventually in. enough pictures to keep me happy. Mat 201—30c SCORE HIT AT STRAND—John Payne and Jane Wyman are the eye-filling romantic team in the Strand's current comedy, "Kid Nightingale," in which Payne plays the title role of a singing prizefighter. BRIEF With skirts going higher for fall, Jane (Gam Girl) Wyman and other young film fashion leaders are tying hosiery in more closely with the rest of an ensemble. Jane has a pair of plum-beige hose, embroidered with slim grape-wine clox to match a grape-wine suit. Square-meshed hose accompany a fine-checked dress. All lace hose carry out the same rose pattern as an all-lace dinner jacket. Jane is the heroine of “Kid Nightingale.” Now that John Payne has had his joke on all of his friends with trick ping-pong balls, the secret of the magic spheres can be revealed. They look like standard balls, but are somewhat lighter and are filled with hydrogen gas. Moreover, a tiny weight inside the ball on one edge unbalances the little sphere. Hit on the serve, they may clear the net or the whole table, but on the second rebound they really begin to act up. They float, soar, duck and dodge as though they had wings! Jane Wyman was determined to have her sun-tan despite working every day in Warner Bros.’ “Kid Nightingale.” So her between-scenes costume was a sun suit, and one could find Her Shapeliness on a canvas cot in the sun just outside the stage where she was working each day. Doctor’s examinations before film boxing bouts are the rule now at the Warner Bros. Studio. It was put into effect for the first time before a bout between John Payne and William Haade for “Kid Nightingale,” the prizefight comedy now playing at the Strand Theatre. When Jane Wyman, playing a scene with John Payne in “Kid Nightingale,” blew a line and cut loose with a mild expletive, among those who heard it was Governor Lloyd C. Stark of Missouri. “Forgive me for what I said when I missed that line,” Jane begged, when introduced to the governor a few minutes ’** later, but he countered with: “Young lady, you come from St. Joseph, Missouri, don’t you? I’m surprised. I thought almost any good Missouri girl could do a lot better than that.” [REM S One of the most famous of all the old-time comedians, Ben Turpin, recently was given his best chance to date to stage a big comeback. It was supplied by Warner Bros. in’ “Kid Nightingale,’ the comedy opening Friday at the Strand Theatre which stars John Payne as a singing prizefighter. In the picture, which is a large-budget comedy romance, Turpin will be seen as the leader of an orchestra which, at the end of each of the hero’s fights, plays the accompaniment for Payne’s song of victory. Because Milo Anderson designed such a clever trick belt for her to wear in “Kid Nightingale,’ the Warner Bros. picture now playing at the Strand Theatre, Jane Wyman has been inspired to design a few tricky . gadgets for her own personal. wardrobe. In the picture Jane wears a brown leather belt studded with gold nail heads and the wide gold buckle has a scabbard across the front from which a small saber may be drawn. It intrigued Jane no end, so she now wears a lapel pin of her own design — a large gold lily with a perfume vial for a stamen. John Payne and fighter Eddie Hogan boxed 100 rounds to a draw. All day long, they made scenes of a championship fight for Warner Bros.’ “Kid Nightingale.” At long last came 5:25 by the clock and Director George Amy’s eall: ‘Cut! That was a fine scene, boys. That’s all for today.” “Yeah,” said the script clerk who “clocked” the scenes, “you’ve just done a hundred rounds.” John Payne, as a result of his boxing training for the Warner Bros. film “Kid Nightingale,” which is the current attraction at the Strand Theatre, has joined Mushy Callahan’s trio of boxing. The others are Errol Flynn, George Brent and Wayne Morris. John Payne’s weight receded to its lowest since the days when ‘he played prep school football and *. threw the javelin in college, during John’s several weeks of in tensive pugilistic training under Mushy Callahan. Payne weighed only 180 for his prizefighter role in Warner Bros.’ “Kid Nightingale.” 208 as a college athlete. alllvscat8isstltts tlt. tla allt allie ctl atl AED tll cf Da DoE stdin ada uli lis wt a cll ta, tl lll lca bl ltt ltl lll. lll Delt lll salllDpe cotta cotlDdns ctl acta tll tlle cll tld salldtas allies cell alll, Page Three