Little Miss Thoroughbred (Warner Bros.) (1938)

ADVANCE PUBLICITY Depression or Recession — Janet Brought Good Luck! She was born when the banks were closed, back in the dark Spring of 1932. A poor family doesn’t welcome a child too heartily, at a time like that. But when little Janet Chapman was ushered into the world in a Cincinnati hospital on April 18, 1932, her parents, Burl and Kay Chapman, said to each other: “Cheer up—the tide will turn.” They didn’t imagine then that tiny Janet would become a screen star at the age of six and save the family fortunes. But the future starlet of Warner Bros.’ “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, was Lady Luck, even then—or so it seemed. Before she came with her mother from the hospital to the family’s modest home things looked brighter. The bank in which the family’s small savings had _ been placed had closed because of a “run” and was rumored to be unable to protect its depositors. Now it opened, solvent. The Chapmans didn’t lose a cent. Burl Chapman, an employee of General Motors, worked steadily. The motor business “nicked up.” That long-awaited oft-promised prosperity “just around the corner” finally began to appear. Janet’s father got promoted—was given charge of material supplies in one factory—an important executive job. Then he was transferred to California, where a big new assembly plant was being opened. Again this meant promotion, and an increase in_ salary. Things were going pretty well until—along came the rumblings of what we call, for variety, the “recession.” The assembly plant closed down tight, throwing all of its employees out of work. Burl Chapman was one of these. About the same time, his wife was stricken by an illness that necessitated hospitalization and expense for doctors and surgeons—the demolition of their savings account. Little Janet meanwhile had won a child’s singing contest, got a free course in the Meglin Kiddies’ School and _ attracted the attention of a famous drama coach, Robert W. Major, who had launched Jane Withers and other child, as well as adult, stage and screen stars on successful careers. “Forget about pay,’ Major had told the family. “You must keep Janet at her training, however. Some day, she’ll be able to buy you diamonds and Mat 109—15c LITTLE MISS CINDERELLA— Six-year-old Janet Chapman attains stardom in her very first movie, “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which is coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Page Two Country of origin U. S. A. Copyright 1938 Vitagraph, Inc. castles in—well, a Beverly Hills mansion.” When the Chapmans needed aid, however, wasn’t “some day.” Things were getting serious when a film talent agent persuaded Major to let little Janet take a film test before the coach thought she was quite ready, and— But the rest, of course, is history. With John Litel, Ann Sheridan, Frank McHugh and others in “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” she created such a sensation, even while the picture was in the making, that Easy Street suddenly opened up for the Chapman family. The studio signed the little girl on a seven-year-contract. Depression or recession, little Janet turned the tide! PRESS CHATS NO PROBLEM FOR TOT Eighteen days after she had faced a moving picture camera for the first time tiny six-yearold Janet Chapman, child star of the Warner Bros. comedy drama, “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday, was being interviewed for Collier’s. “Have you ever been interviewed before?” the magazine writer asked. Janet wanted to know what being interviewed meant. The writer told her. Then the tot said she hadn’t ever been interviewed before. Her father, Burl B. Chapman, said reproachfully, “Why Janet—what da von eall that you had with the editor of the Toronto Star, long distance?” “T talked to him over the telephone, daddy.” “And the ladies from the motion picture magazines, and the men from all the newspaper syndicates—and the radio broadcasters—” He thought he had his infant prodigy there. “They didn’t interview me, daddy,” Janet pointed out. “They just said ‘hello, you lucky little girl,’ to me. You did all the talking.” He's Swanky Smoker John Litel, appearing in “Little Miss Thoroughbred” at Warner Bros., has established a Hollywood record for “pure swank.” John carries an elaborate tobacco pouch. From it he takes the tobacco with which he rolls cigarettes. When the cigarette is rolled, he takes a long black holder trimmed in ivory out of his pocket and puts the homemade gasper in it. Then he lights the hand-made cigarette with a gold lighter in which there is a 17 jewel watch. The tobacco he uses costs him all of five cents a sack. It May Start a Fad! Ann Sheridan once dyed her hair green when, as a child in Texas, she became ashamed of her beautiful red hair because the other kids called her “pumpkin top.” But she didn’t intend to get the green shade—it was a brown dye intended to be “shaken well before using” and Ann didn’t shake it! Recently named by artists “the girl with the _ perfect American girl figure,” Ann plays the feminine lead in the Warner Bros. film, “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which comes to the Strand next Friday. Mat 107—15¢ IN PERFECT FORM — Ann Sheridan, the screen’s loveliest red-head, puts her own brand of glamor in “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” scheduled as_ the next attraction for the Strand. | Biief History of a Sensational Career She’s the tiny, six-year-old, tow-headed blonde who was tested for a “bit” in “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” the Warner Bros. comedy drama coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday, but swept through the competition furnished by half a dozen experienced little actresses to win the leading role... And she’d never faced a movie camera nor an audience before the test ... Janet is 40 inches tall, weighs 30 pounds .She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 18, 1932 .. . Moved to Fullerton, California, 1936 . . « Her father, Burl B. Chapman, was employed by General Motors; she’s named Kay as a middle handle, after her mother. Janet won a newspaper talent contest last year, which gave her six weeks of free song and dramatic training ... Then a drama coach, Robert W. Major, took over her training, and a film agent, Harry Singer, scouting for talent, located her and arranged for her first screen test . . . For the test she sang, danced, recited; got a _ special call for next day, when she was tested all over again with ’script lines by Director John Farrow, this time not for a bit but for the lead . . . and she won by a wide margin! With the release of “Little Miss Thoroughbred” she has been hailed by movie critics and audiences as one of the most natural and_ lovable child actresses the screen has ever had. Mat 110—15c License to reproduce with copyright notice granted Ann Sheridan Is Called Typical American Beauty Titian-haired Ann Sheridan has the “perfect American girl figure,” according to two famous artists, Azadia Newman and Jean Charlot, who both enumerated as her outstanding phys ical characteristics her wide shoulders, trim hips, straight back, long straight legs with slender ankles, deep sharply-defined bosom and __ beautiful throat. The two artists met and compared notes on the set of Miss Sheridan’s newest Warner Bros. picture, ‘Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Charlot, the noted Continental illustrator, had dropped in to visit Director John Farrow, whose book ‘‘Damien the Leper,” he had illustrated. Miss Newman, who has painted celebrated portraits of Joan Crawford and other film stars, was touring the Warner Bros. lot and came to the same set to watch the acting of tiny six-year-old Janet Chapman, child heroine of the picture. Other sculptors and artists have also heaped praise on Miss Sheridan, some for her almost classical profile, others for her figure. Hitherto only three general types of “ideal figure’ were recognized by artists. One is the tall, slender, Norse type, characterized by rather large bones and high, small breasts; medium hips and a height derived from length of trunk as well as legs. In exact contrast is the shorter, curvy Latin type. The third type, formerly considered characteristic of American women as well as_ English, Seotch and Irish lassies, is slightly more athletic, but still narrow of shoulder, wider hip, and usually with a slight curve of the back. The prevalence of athletics for young girls in American schools has developed, according to the artists, a new type which must be recognized as our own. It combines features of ancestor races with those developed by American conditions: Fine wide flat shoulders, long athletic legs, deep chest; breasts high like Norse woman’s but somewhat fuller; hips trim and modelled. Miss Sheridan is mainly of Scotch-Irish ancestry but She's Little Bandit They were finishing up “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” the picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday with the new six-year-old child star, Janet Chapman, in the title role. The final shot was a three-way clinch between Janet, John Litel and Ann Sheridan. “Cut! The picture’s finished!” said Director John Farrow. “And you stole it, you little thief!” said Litel playfully to Janet. The little girl began to cry. It took ten minutes before they convinced her Litel’s words did not mean what her literalmindedness had caused her to think they meant. A Teacher at Last Some of the most beautiful film actresses have been educated to become school-teachers. Ann Sheridan is one of them. The red-headed Warner Bros. star, heroine of “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” coming to the Strand, attended North Texas Teachers’ College, but a beauty contest came between her and her first teaching assignment. Ann still likes to teach, however; she helped teach tiny sixyear-old Janet Chapman, child star of the picture, between scenes—just for fun. through one Indian ancestor can place an additional claim on being truly “American.” One of her direct ancestors was General Phil Sheridan. She’s athletic and started early developing her body while attending grammar and high school and North Texas Teachers’ College. She got into pictures via the beauty contest route, was signed by Warner Bros., and made a star chiefly on the strength of her work in two prison pictures, “San Quentin” and “Alcatraz Island.” She’s married—of course and alas! The lucky man is Edward Norris, the handsome young actor who played the lead in “They Won’t Forget.” In “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” an exciting story of the nation’s race tracks, she plays the romantic lead opposite John Litel. Besides these two, the cast includes Janet Chapman, six-year-old tot who looks like a winner, Frank McHugh, Eric Stanley, Robert Homans, John Ridgely, Cy Kendall, Jean Benedict and many others. WARNER STUDIC WON ON GAMBLE The most popular gamble in Hollywood isn’t at the race tracks. Dyed-in-the-wool cinema folk, from top moguls to office boys, try to pick rising stars. This boy or this girl, they say, is a comer. They’ll argue and even fight to prove it. And when a Robert Taylor, a Wayne Morris, an Errol Flynn, a Shirley Temple zooms to the zenith— how the backers yell, “I told you so!” More than any star, however, tiny six-year-old Janet Chapman, who makes her debut in “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, has had the “I-told-you-so” boys at the Warner Bros. studio busy. Director John Farrow has had a pretty clear field in claiming her discovery, following her coach, Robert W. Major. But after Farrow and Major come the legion who will tell you now, “The instant I watched her do a scene, I knew she’d be a sensational child star.” Empty bubbles of fame, mirages and rainbows minus the pot of gold there have been aplenty, but the gamble goes on in Hollywood day after day because occasionally a Janet Chapman appears from nowhere. The wheel of fortune turns, and—! Mat 111—15ec SHE’S A THOROUGHBRED— Ann Sheridan is the feminine romantic interest for John Litel in “Little Miss Thoroughbred,” a saga of the race tracks, coming to the Strand Theatre. newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.