Rhapsody in Blue (Warner Bros.) (1945)

Use this special feature for daily amusement, feature or music pages, for week-end supplements or as a specially printed program insert or throwaway. GEORGE GERSHWIN | By Robert Alda, who portrays him in the Warner Bros. picture, “Rhapsody In Blue,” which arrives at the Strand Theatre on Friday. George Gershwin’ s parents didn't expect him to be a musician. His brother Ira (the lyricist) was to take piano lessons, not George. When the family bought a piano — to even cultural scores with a relative — George dumbfounded them all by sitting down and playing Rubenstein s Melody in F. He'd learned it from watching the keys of a player piano ina neighborhood penny arcade. He got the piano lessons instead of Ira. They cost fifty cents each. George was thirteen at the time. Within six months he was getting dollar lessons. In another half year he started studying with his first good teacher, the late George Hambitzer. At 15, he was a piano-playing song plugger or Remick’s. Lost the job because he insisted on plugging his own songs when the customers didn’t want Remick tunes. First Song Published His first published number carried the marathon _ title “When You Want ‘Em, You Can't Get "Em; When You Got ‘Em, You Don't Want "Em.”” He was 17 then. The popular conception that Gershwin wrote nothing but hits is distorted. The first show for which he did the production numbers was called “Half Past Eight.” It lasted five performanves in Syracuse. His first Broadway show, “La, La, Lucille,” evened the score by winning success. Gershwin was just 20. ” was the “Swanee first Gershwin song to score a na§ tion-wide hit. Al Jolson introduced it in his show “Sinbad.” It sold two and a quarter mil| lion records. Jolson sings it again for “Rhapsody in Blue.” Gershwin wrote the music for five George White “Scandals” (1920 through 1924). “Scandals” were — and are — famous for beautiful girls. George was shy with them. White, who's playing himself in the picture, says he never saw him speak to one of the beauties. Unless she spoke first. Then he made a bashful exit. Gets Over Shyness He got over the bashfulness later. He loved to give parties and appear at them. And entertained at the piano, hours on end. Nevertheless he died a bachelor, at the age of 38. George's father used to cloc is compositions with a stop watch. If they were long, they were important, he said. One of Gershwin’s early jobs was as relief pianist in a New York vaudeville house. The comic bawled him out for missing the score for his act. George quit without collecting his pay. Years later, he signed a $100,000 composing deal with the theatre's parent company. He made ‘em pay $100,003.13. Collecting that back salary. When he was tops as a composer he developed a sudden interest in painting. Collected masterpieces, but wasn’t satisfied with that and took to the brush himself. Did praiseworthy portraits of Jerome Kern and Arnold Schoenberg. Also a full-sized self-portrait. Gershwin did most of his composing fate at night. Worked directly at the piano, Still RB 534 Robert Alda, who draws a plum acting assignment in his initial screen appearance as George Gershwin in Warner Bros.’ stirring musical film, "Rhapsody In Blue," currently at the Strand. Also starred in the rousing tribute to the great American composer are Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn and a host of other screen and radio personalities. Mat 212—30c with a self-designed desk alongside. Always smoke cigars while working. He became a_ fastidious dresser and acquired a wardrobe that would have been the envy of an actor. Had an especially brilliant array of beach and lounging robes. In the winter of 1926, Gershwin had two shows running simultaneously on Broadway. “Tip Toes” and “Song of the Flame.” Each had four or five song hits. In all, he wrote some 160 song hits, in addition to his serious compositions. Signs With Damrosch After the Aeolian Hall triumph for his “Rhapsody,” Gershwin signed a_ contract with Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, to write a concerto for the orchestra, to be presented in Carnegie Hall. Then went out-and bought a book to learn what in blazes a concerto was. His Concerto in F was the result. His “Of Thee I Sing,” written with George Kaufman, was the first musical play ever to receive the Pulitzer prize. At the height of his fame, he appeared in Lewisohn Sta dium and with the New York Philharmonic in the triple capacity of composer, piano soloist and conductor. His friends knew him as a confident individual who knew he was good and going to get better. Not at all conceited, but pleasingly naive about _ his accomplishments. One of Oscar Levant’s favorite stories concerns the time an admirer enthused over one of his concerts. “Tt was wonderful,” sighed the admirer. “Just wonderful?” asked Gershwin. “That's all?” Dance Star's Cousin In ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ Wallace Van Simons, second cousin of Marilyn Miller and for three years concert dancing partner of Maria Gambarelli, dances opposite Viola Esenova in one of the many featured musical numbers of Warner Bros.’ ‘Rhapsody In Blue," the film story of George Gershwin, now playing at the Strand. Van Simons is making his screen debut in the Jesse L. Lasky production which stars Robert Alda in the role of the immortal composer, and Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn and numerous other stars of stage and screen. Film Whiskers Bring Out Fire Warnings Gagsters posted brush fire warnings on the Warner Bros. East Side tenement set during the filming of certain scenes in “Rhapsody In Blue," the story of George Gershwin, which opens at the Strand on Friday. Seventyfive whiskered extras featured the luxuriant 1909 type face foliage. Together with the feminine con tingent, the extra player total for the day came to one hundred and twenty-five. Robert Alda, a brilliant young newcomer, makes his screen debut in the film as George Gershwin with other important roles being filled by a galaxy of top stars including Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn and many others. Favorite Screen Mother Owns To Only 27 Birthdays ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ Actress Longs To ‘Act Her Own Age’ Youthful Rosemary DeCamp, as trim and pretty as screen actresses often come under her maternal padding and makeup wrinkles, says she guesses she “just progressed” into her present status as a favorite film mother. “I started my career in maternity as an expectant mother in ‘Hold Back the Dawn, ” the 27-year-old actress explains. “Next I was the mother ofa twelve-year-old boy in the ‘Jungle Book.’ Sabu was my son. “Then I was James Cagney s mother in ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’ I really did progress in that one. Because Jimmy himself went on to the gray hair of George i ee Oe han’s later years and I lasted through most of the picture. Since “Yankee Doodle Dandy,’ Miss DeCamp has played Lt. Ronald Reagan's mother in Irving Berlin’s “This is the Army,” and she is currently appearing as George Gershwin’s mother in Warner Bros.’ “Rhapsody in Blue,” now at the Strand Theatre. Robert Alda, the actor who portrays Gershwin, is 29. ‘ “They had me in a padded suit,” the actress said. “The same one | wore in Yan eee Doodle Dandy” and “This Is the Army.” It’s a sort of modi‘fied football Mat 13—15¢ uniform. I Rosemary DeCamp wear it under my wardrobe clothes. As my character grows older, they add to the padding.” Miss DeCamp said she had enjoyed all her mother roles and she considered it exciting to be portraying the parent of a genius in the Gershwin picture. “But,” she added, “I'd like to act my own age again. I'd like to do immigrant girls, like the one I played in my first picture, ‘Cheers for Miss Bishop.’ It’s a funny thing, I did a lot of dialect roles for the radio in New York and rather fancied myself as a dialectician. So I do one dialect part, and they make me a mother.” P.S. She is a mother. Hazel Scott Shows Special Aptitude For Playing Self Contributes Fifth Such Film Role In ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ Hazel Scott thinks it is about time she played somebody other than Hazel Scott, pianist and singer, in a motion picture. “I've done the Scott role in five pictures now,’ _ the throaty-voiced, sepia enter tainer said. “And I'm beginning to worry about becoming typed.” Miss Scott is doing her fifth interpretation of Hazel Scott, pianist and singer, in “Rhapsody In Blue,” the story of George Gershwin, | which comes to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Warner Bros. could easily have cast her as Mademoiselle Fifi or any other fancy sounding French character name, because her stint in the picture is to sing to her own piano accompaniment the Gershwin hit, “The Man I Love.” in a Paris cabaret setting. As she does it in her own inimitable style, they simply bill her as herself. Still RB 87 Mat 117—15c Hazel Scott, charming ivory-tickler of cafe society, performs in her inimitable style in Warner Bros.’ "Rhapsody In Blue,’ currently at the Strand Theatre. Starred in the film tribute to George Gershwin are Robert Alda, as the composer, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn and many others. The talented performer said she'd been making almost as much a specialty of singing Gershwin music as she had of portraying Hazel Scott. “It’s fine music,” she said, “and ideal for my style.” A native of Trinidad, British West Indies, Miss Scott was reared and educated in New York City. When she was eight, her mother, a concert pianist, enrolled her in the Juilliard School of Music. For the past thirteen of her 23 years she has been playing and singing professiona y. e sings in seven different languages, including the Chinese. In the Gershwin picture, she uses only two of them, English and French. “My French accent may be more Hazel Scott than Parisian, she said, ‘but it manages to get by.” In addition to Hazel Scott, the picture stars Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, Alexis Smith, Charles Coburn, AI Jolson, Oscar Levant, Paul Whiteman and George White. 31