Merry Wives of Reno (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Ruth Donnelly Nags Hubby Into Reno Film Divorce But It All Happens In The Hilarious Warner Bros. Comedy “Merry Wives Of Reno” N her own words— ‘The Screen has enough society girls, concert singers and heiresses, please say that I’m just an actress. ”’ That’s Ruth Donnelly, folks. She just recently renewed a long term contract with Warner Bros. and she signed it because she’s an actress. She has had to prove it in ‘‘ Mandalay,” ‘‘Hard to Handle,”’ Detective 62,’’ ‘‘Jewel Robbery,”’ ‘*Female,”’ ‘“Wonder Bar,”’ ‘Lilly Turner,’’ ‘‘ Private ‘‘Blessed Event,’’ ‘‘ Ladies They Talk About,’’ ‘‘Employee’s Entrance’’ and many others showing at the Now that she has won screen success, she will undoubtedly hold it. The Donnellys seem to hold on, Her unele Fred Donnelly was Mayor of Trenton, N. J. for 22 years, while she held on to a job with Geo. M. Cohan for 5 years and that was only her first job. Ruth always aspired to be an | -. aetress. She was impatient to get started. She begrudged her publie school education the time it required. The urge was too strong to be denied. She went to New York and managed to hang on | somehow until Cohan gave her a part in ‘‘A Prince There Was.’’ That unlocked the door for her and she entered upon a succession of parts, her favorite one being that of Annie in ‘‘The Crooked Square.’’ It was ‘Blessed Event,’’ however, that caught the interest of Hollywood and gave her a screen contract. Her interest in the theatre is as keen today as when she started. Her enthusiasm for a new part just as marked. She still feels that being a good actress is the sum of all success. ‘‘T’ve been an ingenue and leading lady,’’ she said. ‘‘Now I’m a character woman. Some of these days I’ll be a dowager and finally play in nice old grandmother parts. What more could anybody want?’’ Ruth has a quick, sharp mind and an attractive personality. She tells a story with magnetic effect and never loses a friend. She is fond of musie and good books and takes ordinary precaution with her weight and complexion. In ‘‘Merry Wives of Reno’’ she has the role of a nagging wife of a philanderer, winding up in the Reno divorce colony where she gets into a score of merry marital mix ups along with Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Hugh Herbert and others. Guy Kibbee One of the merry husbands of the “Merry Wives of Reno,” the film now at the Strand. Mat No, 2—10c S ae Page Sixteen , garet including her latest picture. ‘‘Merry Wives of Reno,’” now Theatre. Woods, New To Films, Gets Leading Roles Unlike most actors who, although noted on the stage, are compelled to take minor roles when they first start sereen work, to aequire experience and screen technique, Donald Woods was given a leading role with his very first picture. This was in “As the Earth Turns.” Now he is playing in his second picture, “Merry Wives of Reno,” the Warner Bros. comedy of marital mixups, which comes to the Theatre on , and again he has the masculine lead, playing opposite Margaret Lindsay. Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell and Frank MeIlugh are in the cast. Hugh Herbert’s Clowning Sheep Creates Film Laughs Two Play Important Roles In Hilarious Comedy, “Merry Wives Of Reno” ONG before pictures started talking for themselves. a man used to stand behind the screen and talk for them. Ke member that strange voice coming out of nowhere, sometimes forgetting to change from the villain’s baritone to the hero’s tenor? Well, that was Hugh Herbert. Nowadays he talks for only one character at a time and it’s usually the most humorous character in the piece. He gets his effects mentally rather than orally. His strange way of submerging his whole personality in a part is uncanny. He is able to ‘‘think’’ a role with such concentration that he lives it. Glenda Farrell Has Many He was born in New York, and did his first acting in a Fall River stock company. By the time he reached Broadway, he had played every part except Little Eva, which he explains by the fact that he would have looked funny in a blonde wig. Writer As Well As Actor He was always full of ideas and for a long while was morte successful as a writer of plays and sketches than as an actor. ‘He also directed several shows that had long runs. He preferred acting, however, and before he came to Hollywood had played in more than sixty roles. Herbert did not come to the coast with the idea of going into pictures, but as a member of the musical revue, ‘‘Exposures of 1927.’’ Michael Curtiz saw him and gave him a part in **Good Time Charlie.’’ Of the twenty odd pictures in which he has ap peared for Warner Bros., the wost recent are ‘‘Convention Cotr.* ‘*College Coach,’’ ‘‘ Wonder Bar,’’ ‘‘Harold Teen,’’ ‘‘Fashions of 1934’’ and ‘‘ Easy to Love.’’ His latest picture is ‘‘ Merry Wives of Reno,’’ which comes to the Theatre on Would Out-lie Travellers Personally, Hugh Herbert is staid and reserved. A fine sense of humor pervades his outlook on life. He is too tolerant for violent likes or dislikes and simply avoids people and things that do not appeal to him. There is no room in his broad mind for extremes; he likes prize fights yet his pet hobby is flowers. In music and the arts, his tastes are just as divergent; Herbert and Wagner, Maugham and Peter Kyne, Katherine Cornell and Mickey Mouse. In ‘‘Merry Wives of Reno’’ Herbert furnishes much of the comedy as the rich and somewhat stupid husband of a very beautiful and flirtatious woman. Glenda Farrell has the part of his wife while Eloise, a trained sheep, is his clowning companion. Others in the cast include MarLindsay, Donald Woods, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, Roscoe Ates, Ruth Donnelly and Hobart Cavanaugh. H. Bruce Humberstone directed the picture from the screen play by Robert Lord. Superstitions and Fanctes The rising young star, Margaret Lindsay, is the would-be-ditorcee First National’s comedy now at the Strand. The great cast of comedy favorites includes Guy Kibbee, in “Merry Wives of Reno,” Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, Donald Woods and Frank McHugh. Ggread Mat No. Real Character And Part In “Merry Wives Of Reno” Greatly At Variance, Says Writer. By CARLISLE JONES HE other tenants in the Hollywood apartment house where Glenda Farrell lives. know when the actress in at home because she has a habit of slamming doors. Glenda. who has one of the leading roles in the Warner Bros. hilarious success picture. “Merry Wives of Reno’ nos playing at the Theatre, is quick tempered, has strong likes and dislikes. and loses things constantly. She ts superstitious about opals and says ‘*money, money. money . when she sees a falling star. She is one of the actresses in Hollywood and looks busiest forward eagerly to the time when she has a chance to sleep the clock around, She counts pins in a pin cushion in the dark to put her self to sleep and wakes up quickly —with the aid of an alarm clock. She never walks under a ladder. A wise-eracking screen com edienne, she confesses that she likes puns, especially poor ones, and that she sings to herself when she works. She is afraid of the dark and of thunder and lightning and of spiders and Mexican jump ing beans. Son Only Correspondent Hers is the only clothes closet in the film colony where the hangers all match. The letters Glenda’s nine year old son writes her from military school are the only letters she saves. She never listens to speeches and she doesn’t join in the singing when she goes to chureh. She was born in the wide open spaces of Oklahoma but she likes a big city—the bigger the better to live in. She doesn’t smoke. She has many nightmares but doesn’t worry over them the next day. She has more than her share of curiosity and has never been able to wait patiently for the last installment of a mystery novel. She tan do ecard tricks but she can’t tell fortunes with cards. She likes dolls and she saves string and rubber bands. She has never owned a parasol and she has never kept a serapbook for any length of time. She takes her shoes off first when she undresses for bed, She ix more affectionate in letters than she means to be. She has painted china but she has never finished a ‘* burnt wood’? box. She doesn’t like puzzles, nor pienics, nor mountain climbing, nor Aimee Semple Ma Pherson. She laughs at acrobats. She wore a ‘‘chest protector’? as a child—and she has read all th: Elsie Dinsmore hooks. She can’t whistle through. her fingers and she doesn’t like the sound of wind. Fascinated By Bald Heads Glenda knows exactly how much money she has in the bank. She reads editorials in newspapers and tells white lies to her friends. She doesn’t play golf and she dis likes to swing. She has never found a satisfactory remedy for sea-sickness, Completely bald heads fascinate her. cross word She has slapped a man but she wouldn’t spank a baby. She is decidedly uncomfortable in a ham mock. She plays ping-pong ani she likes Peter Arno’s cartoons. She has never turned in a fire alarm but thinks it would be fun to do so. She likes circuses and has ridden on an elephant but she doesn’t know how many legs a fly has. Miss Farrell likes to rock in a 1—20¢ io rocking chair but she never sits on the floor. She orders more than ~ she can eat in a restaurant. She has been married and di \ voreed but is willing to try mar} riage again when, as and if the | E right man is available. She thinks §+a— Mary Brian's new house in Tolueca Lake, near Hollywood, is per feetly planned and she would like one like it. She wears monogram med lingerie. She doesn’t like to <ew and will use a_pin_ instead of stepping to sew a button om | She has fun at her parties and she would have no hesitancy in tin asking a strange man to help her change a tire. She does not enjoy — riding with people who drive at th high speeds. She has never missed why a train. My Not Interested In Kings rs The actress has never seen a isn’t particularly We anxious to see one, She doesn’t “%: | like parades but would go to one if her boy wanted to see it, So ; fur as she knows, a centipede has uy a hundred legs. She has never A fainted, She likes home made 7 sam jelly and ice box lunches at real king and She can talk pig Jatin and she | ix not tired of hearing ‘On tes Road to Mandalay’? sume. She doesn't like the smell of popeor and she doesn ’t like corm on t er owned a gun. ‘¢indifferent’’ 0 the She talks ' She t wet cob. She has nev She is “feel of sponges.”” herself when she is alone. eatehes cold if. her feet ge and she dislikes to hear 4 eee tick, She is nervous at night, looks under the bed before she Te tries the locks and tests t tires : sleep: telephone before she goes aati . she hy wer thrown anytl She has neve “hut Wo! to the Grand Canyon” he interested in doing 80, it’s been suggested. now tha jetute She appeared in the bes : «Tittle Caesar’? with sea? ‘ j peri Robinson long hefore she ma a, first ‘hit’? in (‘Life Beg! a ¢ but likes to count the later P! a s¢ as the beginning of her career. our She is often cast as the ¢ woman who is ap W. she sees her own shade