Little Big Shot (Warner Bros.) (1935)

@ PUBLICITY New Film Star May Change Style of Women’s Attire Designers Expect to See Sybil Jason Motifs In New Fall Costumes If you see women wearing knee length dresses, patent leather pumps with low heels, and a cute curling bob, this winter, you'll know Hollywood has been making itself felt again. Hollywood has always set the nation’s style pace. Film favorites like Marion Davies and Kay Francis have hundreds of thousands vf fans who imitate their gowns, coiffures and manicures, sometimes forgetting that the stars have their costumes designed to suit their own distinct personalities. Nevertheless, when Marion or Kay introduce a style, their admirers follow suit, regardless. Now a new star has arisen in the Hollywood firmament. She’s petite, pretty, and cute. She wears knee length dresses and “sensible” pumps, and her black curly hair is cut in a style entirely distinctive. She’s Sybil Jason and she’s five years old—about 40 pounds of s ailing happiness. Of course her costumes might seem a bit bizarre tor adult women on the heavier seale of life, but there is never any telling what fashion will demand of its devotees, and funnier things have come out of Hollywood than a new fad originated by a five year old screen star. The child’s influence has already been felt in Hollywood itself, and there is every reason to believe, from the interest shown by manufacturers, that it will soon be reflected in the shop windows of America in the form of Sybil Jason shoes, dresses, jewelry and accessories. Better hairdressers are already featuring the Sybil Jason bob, which is particularly becoming to those whose faces have a tendency to roundness. Sybil, who is coming to the . Theatre=ONatse:.c.. i. her. first American production “Little Big Shot”, the Warner Bros.’ picture in which she appears with Glenda EDWARD E. H@RtTOen was born in Brooklyn, New York and educated at Columbia University ... His stage career began at twenty in the chorus of a comic opera company doing the Gilbert and Sullivan pieces in Staten Island . . . He was on the stage for twelve years in ten stock companies . . . His real theatrical work began, he says, when he appeared in "Never Say No" at the Majestic in Los Angeles where he was retained for five years as leading man... He was in silent films and was a pioneer in the talkies, his first audible picture being "Miss Information" ... He is prominent in "Little Big Shot." Farrell, Robert Armstrong, Edward Everett Horton and a big supporting cast, wears gingham dresses, plainly cut, with large collars. They make perfect school costumes for little girls, and a glimpse at the accompanying photographs shows how easily this style can be adapted for adult use. Slacks are usually more useful than ornamental, but Sybil’s have an intriguing quality that probably will be incorporated into adult sizes. The chief reason for the Sybil Jason style vogue, according to Orry Kelly, fashion designer for the Warner Bros. studios, is its stressing of the beauty of simplicity. “One of Sybil’s chief charms is her own simplicity,” he explained. “Consequently, her dresses, her shoes, and her coiffure must be simple. Mothers will find these styles most becoming to their own little girls, and they will be quick to adapt them for themselves. “There is real beauty in the lines”, the style designer added. “Women are quick to recognize these things. So we may expect toa see them as well as their daughters, wearing Sybil Jason dresses.” coming to the SYBIL JAS ON the brown-haired, blue-eyed five-year-old star of "Little Big Shot'' was born 11,000 miles from the film capital—in Capetown, South Africa . . . At three she was singing, dancing and imitating everybody in sight . . . An uncle, Henry Jacobson, a London producer, saw her perform and advised that she be sent to England for training . . . She was an instantaneous hit on the radio... made many recordings ... and appeared in two pictures "Barnacle Bill" and "Dance Band." ... Irving Asher, head of Warner Bros. British studios brought her to the United States... Miss Horn, her teacher at the studio reports that the tot finds third and fourth grade work, easy... . "Don't think she is precocious though," Miss Horn says, "She's not—she's precious!" Sybil impersonates Mae West, Greta Garbo and Jimmy Durante in "Little Big Shot." a Re ee ee ROGERT oo t was born in Saginaw, Michigan but moved to Seattle, Washington at an early age .. . Studied law at the University of Washington . . . In his senior year he wrote and appeared in a skit... A vaudeville producer caught his act and gave him a job on his circuit .. . The bookings took him to New York where an uncle, the late Paul Armstrong, gave him minor parts in several of his plays... He served overseas during the World War . .. Made a Broadway hit in "ls Zat So" and was appearing in it in Los Angeles when a movie contract was offered him, his first film being ''The Main Event." ... He is featured in “Little Big Shot." 4 vy 2 Mat No. 301—30c St ec ey theatre on =; ARAASTRONG Mat No, 302—30c New Style Trend Inspired By Child Star se Ee A little girl is expected to start a new vogue in attire for both women and girls. She is Sybil Jason the five year old film star whose first American production, the Warner Bros. picture “Little Big Shot”, i She is shown above in some of the costumes which designers are studying with the idea of adapting for commercial use because of the child’s popularity with American movie fans. Robert Armstrong, Glenda Farrell and Edw. Everett Horton also appear in the film. Five Year Old Actress Leaps Into Star Role Sybil Jason, South African Girl, Plays Lead in “Little Big Shot”’ At eighteen months of age she could sing in perfect tune. Within a year after that she had started to pick out songs she knew on the piano. When she was three years old she impersonated Maurice Chevalier in a theatre performance accompanied by a large orchestra. At five she had become a favorite of London, and won fame as a singer, dancer, mimic and pianist. She practically “stole” the two moving pictures in which she appeared and then in her spare time, which she somehow found, she launched upon a career as a radio entertainer. As if that weren’t enough, she found time to make some recordings. This very busy individual is Sybil Jason, a five and a half year old actress who was born in Capetown, South Africa, and who recently arrived in Hollywood where she has plunged into an intensive career under the banner of Warner Brothers, with whom she has been signed under a long term contract. Now playing in “Little Big Shot” which comes to the .............. Theatre on ........:.... » with Glenda Farrell, Robert Armstrong, Edvard Everett Horton, Jack LaRue, Arthur Vinton, J. Carroll Naish and others, under the direction of Michael Curtiz, little Sybil declares she isn’t nearly as busy, now that she’s in Hollywood, as she was before she came here. “T was terribly busy all the time in London,” the little lady exclaimed, “what with the films, and radio, and I even made some records with my Uncle Harry’s orchestra.” Her uncle, Harry Jacobson, is the same who had the very popular orchestra at London’s Savoy Hotel. Sybil soon won the hearts of everyone at the Warner Bros. studio. Modest, appreciative and unspoiled, the child actress conducted herself like a perfect little trouper. She has blue eyes and jet black hair, and is regarded by the studio workers as the most polite child ever to step before a camera. She thanks all her associates on the set for every little thing they do for her. No task is too small to win her thanks. Sybil is quite in love with American slang, the palm trees and the ice cream. She had never heard American slang before she came here and quite bluntly asks the meaning of some expression which she doesn’t understand. Nor had she ever seen palm trees before coming to Hollywood, nor tasted American ice cream. There’s one topic that occupies most of her speech. She has just been given what she has long wanted, a little dog of her own, and she’ll talk about it to anyone who will listen. Lyrics and music were written for the production by Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel. The screen play is by Jerry Wald, Julius J. Epstein and Robert Anderson, based on the story by Harrison Jacobs. Page Thirteen