Polo Joe (Warner Bros.) (1936)

“POLO JOE”’ PUBLICITY Comedian Joe Brown Has Serious Side Off Screen Star of “Polo Joe” Has ‘Walked with Kings and Kept the Common Touch’ ‘Go to college if you ean, but if you can’t, rest easy in the knowledge that you can get the best general education possible in sugar-coated form, by going to movies, listening to the radio, and reading.”’ That’s the advice of Joe E. Brown, self-educated citizen, for whose general culture, everyone who knows him has a well-founded respect. Joe has paid for the college educations of a greater number of young people than he’s telling about. The only ones to hit news notices are his athletic proteges. But he believes the modern person who has gone through grammar school and had a year or so of high, owns a radio, takes newspapers, patronizes the public library and goes to the movies two or three times a week will have acquired by the time he is twenty-five, a good liberal education. “What you get in modern life, as seen in films, heard on radios, read in newspapers and periodieals, is, of course, a vast and scrambled assortment,’ Brown concedes. “But given a fair elementary education and average intelligence the individual himself can fit it together like jigsaw puzzle pieces, into a real pattern of human knowledge.” Brown, who, like the late Will Rogers, has talked with presidents and kings, philosophers and divines, and earned their respect, eredits his own remarkably wide knowledge of topics, men and affairs in part to his film work, part to the variety of human beings he has known. “Don’t overlook the value of anything you can learn!” Brown advises. Because he is essentially a comedian, Brown’s studio Boswells have never stressed the studious side of the star’s character, and never painted friendships on an intellectual plane with college professors, scientists and writers, or the friendship his love of musie has brought about with Otto Klemperer, conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. But when you see “Polo Joe,” a rollicking comedy, perhaps you'll detect this side of genial Joe, even through make-up, grimaces and slapstick comedy. Supporting jovial Joe in the picture are Carol Hughes, Rich Monkeyshines! Joe E. Brown shoulders a little trouble in a scene from “Polo Joe,” the Warner Bros. picture which is now showing at the Bes een Ls Bice Theatre. Mat No. 102—10c Page Twelve ard (Skeets) Gallagher, Joseph King, Gordon Elliott, Fay Holden, and George E. Stone. William MeGann directed the picture from the screen play by Peter Milne and Hugh Cummings. Starlet Wants Her Footprints Immortalized Honest and _ plain-spoken is Carol Hughes, young brunette Irish girl playing the romantic lead in Joe E. Brown’s latest Warner Bros. picture, “Polo Joe,” now, Showing ab the..:.. 7... Theatre. “What is your chief ambition?” asked the questionnaire which all new players have to fill out at the studios. “To have the prints of my hands and feet in one of those cement blocks in the forecourt of the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood,” Carol wrote. “How about winning the Academy Award, kid?’ asked Joe. “The way I see it, Mr. Brown, the Academy winner gets in the papers for a couple of days and that ends it,’ replied Miss Hughes. “But a million tourists a year gape at those hand and foot prints of Vie MeLaglen, Shirley Temple, Mary Pickford, Garbo and the rest, and they never quit talking about it when they get home. And I’d rather be talked about than read about.” Miss Hughes, a comparative newcomer in pictures, was promoted to a leading role because of the fine work she did in small parts. She is Joe’s lead in “Polo Joe,” a hilarious comedy by Peter Milne and Hugh Cummings. Others in the cast are Richard (Skeets) Gallagher, Joseph King, Gordon Elliott, Fay Holden and George E. Stone. William McGann directed. Joe E. Brown Makes Horse Pluck Rose “The pony reaches over and with his teeth yanks the rose out of Joe’s lapel,” said the script of “Polo Joe,” the Warner Bros. comedy now showing at the Riri atin ie) Re Theatre. “Hasily written by the scenarist—but not so easy to do, in reality,” said Director Bill MeGann, while the company was on location at the smart Saddle Club in San Fernando Valley. “Sure it’s easy. Wait till I come back,” said Joe E. Brown, the star. He disappeared into the clubhouse, returned in five minutes, muzzled the horse momentarily against the flower. Then when the time came to take the picture, the pony turned his head, and, sure enough, grabbed the rose. “How did I do it?” said the grinning Brown. “I went into the kitchen, pared some carrots and apples, and stuffed them between the petals. A cinch!” Joe Has A Kick Coming Joe E. Brown (right) with Richard (Skeets) Gallagher—as the, considerate valet who brings in a donkey so his master may have a bit of practice for his polo in a scene from “Polo Joe,” the Warner Bros. picture now at the re i rag alana ea FO Theatre. Mat No. 202—20c Skeets Gallagher Prefers Big Check To A Big Hand Comedian Playing in “‘Polo Joe’? Has No Yearning For the Footlights One of the not too many actors to achieve success on the sereen after a similar experience on the stage is Richard ‘‘Skeets’’ Gallagher, who is playing Joe E. Brown’s comical valet in ‘‘Polo Joe,’’ the star’s latest Warner Bros. comedy which comes to the. . “Nearly all the boys and girls of the film world say they want to try the stage again, but I notice that very few of them do it,” says Skeets. “As a matter of fact, they all know they’re better off financially, and live more comfortably, in pictures than in so-called legit,’ and they’d howl if they were forced back to the stage. Richard (Skeets) Gallagher in “Polo Joe” at the Strand A Mat No. 112— 10c “T make no pretense of wanting to get behind the footlights again. I’ll take Hollywood and like it as long as Hollywood’ll take me. It’s true that a film player misses the contact with an audience, and the applause, but the knowledge that a fairly fat check is coming in regularly every week, and that your show is not going to fold up under you, more than makes up for those things.” Skeets ought to know. He has been acting for almost twenty years. Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Gallagher’s first ambition was to be a civil engineer. Studying at Rose Polytechnic Institute he carried the rod and transit for two years, then suddenly decided an easier life would be that of an attorney. So, he entered Indiana University and _ studied law. Possessing a natural Irish talent for song and dance, he was drafted into the University’s dramatic association and that was Aisihiee tit ti cite MN ii cal Theatre the end of a possible legal career. A vaudeville scout caught the annual performance of the students, and said “Looka here, Gallagher, I’ve got a gal on my list who’d team up swell with you, and a sketch that would fit the both of you. I can give you time right away. How about it?” The next week Skeets began a career in the varieties that ecarried him up into eleetrie lights and big pay. He sang, danced, wisecracked, did monologue, and played all the biggest vaudeville houses in the country. Broadway then drafted him for musical comedy. Among some of these in which he had big parts were “Up in the Clouds,” “Up She Goes,” “No, No, Nanette,” “Marjorie,” “Magnolia Lady” and “Rose Marie.” Following a long run in this success he was starring in “The City Chap” when Hollywood ealled upon him. That was in 1927. Gallagher played in two silent pictures, “Alex the Great” and “Stocks and Blondes.” Then the talkies came along and he has been busy ever since. Among his most recent pictures are “Yours For The Asking,” “The Perfect Clue,” “Lightning Strikes Twice,” “Bachelor Bait” and “Too Much Harmony.” His part in “Polo Joe” is ideally fitted to his varied capabilities including his dead pan face. Joe E. Brown Eats With Chopsticks Joe E. Brown had to learn to play a one-string Chinese fiddle, sing a Chinese lullaby, speak several sentences in the same language, and eat with chopsticks for his Warner Bros. picture, “Polo Joe,” which comes to Che paps Theatre on......... s He was taught by Paul Fung. Luck Follows Joe E. Brown’s Female Leads It’s an axiom in the picture colony that the luckiest thing that can happen to a young actress in Hollywood is to be cast as leading woman in one of Joe E. Brown’s comedies. “Therefore, I think I am a fortunate girl,” says Carol Hughes, who has the feminine lead opposite Joe in the Warner Bros. coméedy, “Polo Joe,” which comes to (Be ipemtet sty ston 3 at so ica eecees Theatre “Just look at the way some of the other girls have climbed who have had the same chance. “Olivia de Havilland supported Fredric March in “Anthony Adverse”’—was featured with Errol Flynn, in ‘Captain Blood’ and costarred with him in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade.’ Yet only a year ago she was playing the sweetheart of Joe in ‘Alibi Ike.’ “June Travis is getting better and better parts and she was Brown’s leading woman in ‘Earthworm Tractors.’ Patricia Ellis is doing leads in a number of pictures dealing with youth and she was with Joe in ‘The Cireus Clown,’ ‘Elmer the Great’? and ‘You Said a Mouthful.’ “Jean Muir, who now gets important roles, supported him in ‘Son of a Sailor’ and Ann Dvorak was with him in ‘Bright Lights.’ “Maybe it’s just luck, because the sweetheart in a Joe E. Brown picture is never a very important character. But Joe’s movie leads seem to go far, and I hope the same luck will follow through in my case.” Miss Hughes, a striking brunette, was discovered in a Chicago night club where she was a singer and dancer. Others in the cast of “Polo Joe” are Richard (Skeets) Gallagher, Joseph King, Gordon Elliott, Fay Holden and George E. Stone. The picture was directed by William McGann from the sereen play by Peter Milne and Hugh Cummings. Learns About Mules After He’s Kicked Joe E. Brown learned too late that a mule can’t kick you if you stand very close to his kicking end. So Joe got kicked in the chest by a trick mule used in his latest Warner Bros. picture, “Polo Joe,” now showing at the It didn’t comfort Joe for his bruises when the trainer demonstrated that the beast, unlike Joe Louis, can’t get much steam into short punches. Joe E. Brown Shares Laughs With Donkey Joe E. Brown isn’t going to heaven on a mule, but he plays a few chukkers of polo on a donkey in a barn in a hilarious sequence for his new Warner Bros. comedy, “Polo Joe,” which comes to Theatre on A Dressed in a complete polo regalia, Joe chased and was chased by the donkey from the barn and through a house while “Skeets” Gallagher, his valet, watches with astonishment. Joe runs around in circles, the donkey following at his heels, till in desperation, he finally vaults through a window. As Joe walks back, the donkey nuzzles at his pockets, till Joe pulls out a lump of sugar and gives it to the animal. This settles the feud.