Racket Busters (Warner Bros.) (1938)

Gloria Dickson Keeps Cool Four Hints For Summer Mat 204—30c Reading clockwise, Gloria Dickson, lovely blonde lead of “Racket Busters” outsmarts the thermometer by pinning her curls high, using cotton dipped in ice water to remove make-up, and cotton soaked in eau de cologne to work around the hairline. Miss Dickson Rises to Top Girls who seek stage or screen careers because they think they have a chance to make a lot of money should have a talk with Gloria Dickson, young leading woman in “Racket Busters,” now showing at the Strand Theatre. “T wish they could know how much money I made in my first stage appearance,” Gloria says. “When I got through with high school in Long Beach, California, three or four years ago, I joined a tent show that played up and down California. Whatever We took in at the box-office was divided pro-rata among the members of the company. “We were paid by the performance, not Diy the week. I know that some performances netted me = the huge Mat 108—I5e Sum of Gloria Dickson $1.10. The top I ever got for a single show was $3.75. Not such heavy payments, were they? And for this we played every night and spent the rest of the day rehearsing for next week’s show. “Next I managed to get a job with the Federal Theatre Project, which is part of the WPA, intended to care for outof-work actors and actresses. “T didn’t care what I was given in the way of. salary. Whatever it was, I lived on it. Every other girl who is in real earnest in seeking a stage and screen career should be willing to make such sacrifices. “In the Federal theatre I got some really fine training. I played Diane in ‘Seventh Heaven,’ and the lead in ‘Smilin’ Through,’ ‘Holiday’ and ‘The Devil Passes.’ Just as this lastnamed play reached its final night, I was interviewed by a talent scout from Warner Bros. and given the lead in my first picture, ‘They Won’t Forget.’ Miss Dickson has nothing to worry about in the matter of money. She is the bride of Pere Westmore, the wealthy and high-salaried director of makeup at the Warner studios, and who, with his brothers, owns Hollywood’s leading beauty parlors. But she is going to carry on with her screen career, Parents Liked "Thais" Gloria Dickson, whose real name is Thais Dickerson, was christened Thais by her parents after they heard Mary Garden sing in the opera of that title. Gloria’s latest picture is “Racket Busters,” at the Strand. RACKET BUSTERS — CURRENT PUBLICITY Noisy Swallows Halt Production HOLLYWOOD, Calif..— Nesting swallows held up production of “Racket Busters” one day until an official swallow catcher was appointed. The birds, building their curious mud nests high in the rafters of the studio garage where the scenes were being filmed, disrupted filming by flying into the scene and chattering shrilly. Finally Barney Brown, one of the prop men, was assigned the job of stopping the nuisance. Equipped with a net on a long handle, he scooped the birds out of the air and caged them. 13 Vegetables Hand-Picked For Film Set A vegetable may be a vegetable to a small boy, but any tourist knows you can buy vegetables in California that are little known, if not unheard of, elsewhere in the country. And that’s why prop men on the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production, “Racket Busters,” now playing at the Strand Theatre, had more than the usual number of headaches getting ready for the production. Brent’s *Ad Lib’ Stays tn Scene The huge studio garage became “Joe’s Garage” for scenes in the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan production, “Racket Busters,” with Humphrey Bogart, George Brent GEORGE BRENT GLORIA DICKSON Mat 206—30c HUMPHREY BOGART Playing leads in “Racket Busters” at the Strand. and Gloria Dickson, now at the Strand. George Brent, honest truck driver, was leading the resistance of his pals to attempted “organization” by Bogart. There was a glorious free-forall fight participated in by about thirty men, most of whom were former pugilists and stunt men, and it was apparent that they all loved their work. George Brent’s opponent was Norman Willis. The fight looked real and thrilling, but Director Lloyd Bacon sorrowfully shook his head and asked for a repetition of the battle. In the first “take,” Brent merely sent Willis sprawl ing. This time he gave Willis a swift kick in the pants, and Bacon beamed approval. “It occurred to me to do it on the spur of the moment,” said Brent. “It spurred me on all right,” said Willis, rubbing himself. “Spur of the moment stuff often is better than rehearsed business,” Bacon opined. And that’s how movies are made—sometimes. Penny Sinsleton imitates Baby's Cry for Microphone The scene was a set on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. Studio where work was in progress on the filming of the Warner Bros.-Cosmopolitan melodrama, “Racket ” Busters, George Brent, honest, hardworking truck driver, comes home to his modest apartment, and his film wife, Gloria Dickson, greets him at the door with a hug and a kiss. “How’s the kid?” George asks with fatherly interest. “She’s asleep,” Gloria nods to the hallway where the end of the baby buggy is visible. There isn’t any baby in it, of course, for the camera’s eye sees only now showing at the Strand Theatre. the end of the buggy. But as soon as Gloria speaks, a baby’s cry is heard in the hallway. Everybody on the set starts in surprise because the script doesn’t specify that cry. Director Lloyd Bacon — who recently became a father—leaps to his feet, starts for the hallway and then sits down again sheepishly. “I thought I was home,” he mutters, his face flushing. The company roars with laughter and Penny Singleton impishly sticks her head around the corner. “How’d you like my baby?” she demands. “Pretty good,” Bacon replies. “So good that you’re going to dub in the baby’s cries whenever they’re needed in the rest of the picture.” They had to buy tons of produce to stock a huge set representing the Washington Market in New York City, where George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Allen Jenkins and the rest of the large cast are involved in the fruit commission racket. The produce was bought in California but it had to consist of vegetables and fruit familiar to New Yorkers. And it couldn’t be produce that was in season in California but out of season in New York at the time of the story. The job done, the prop men stood by proudly while Director Lloyd Bacon inspected the set with its thousands upon thousands of crates and bags of potatoes, radishes, onions, cabbages, celery and other garden truck. “Very fine,” said Mr. Bacon thoughtfully, “but you’ll have to get rid of those bamboo sprouts and the zuccini. Those cantaloupes would be so expensive at this time of the year back there that not even a millionaire could afford to buy them. Clear out that summer squash, too. They’re eating hubbard squash at this time of the year...” When they had finished, the result was one to strike nostalgic pains in the hearts of all New Yorkers who have wandered from home. The bustle and confusion, the medley of odors and other colorful aspects Mat 105—t15c¢ ALLEN JENKINS Has featured role in “Racket Busters” at the Strand. of the famous market were there in fascinating, complete detail. “That’s what I call a set,” said Mr. Bacon with complete satisfaction as he looked at the cobble stones littered with grapefruit peelings, stalks of celery and other bits of produce supposedly dropped by passing trucks. That was just before he slipped on a banana peel and sat down hard on the realistically hard cobble stones,