She Loved a Fireman (Warner Bros.) (1937)

At The Risk Of Their Lives... For The Thrill Of Yours! (Advance) FORAN BIDS SAD FAREWELL 10 OLD HOSS OPERA DAYS Dick Foran of the movies will never ride the range again. He’s hung up his boots and saddle and his trusty shooting iron will soon get rusty. The Singing Cowboy is no more. After letting Dick star in Western pictures for two years, Warner Bros. decided he was ripe for bigger and better things. So now Dick Foran will sing his way to fame in more serious dramas. His first assignment after finishing in westerns was “She Loved a Fireman,” a story about flamefighters, which opens next Friday Dick Foran Mat 106—15c at the Strand Theatre. He’s scheduled for the role of the Red Shadow in the forthcoming “Desert Song.” It shouldn’t be long before the singing cowboy will be the Singing Star — and the Nelson Eddys and Lawrence Tibbets had better look to their laurels. One would expect Foran to be elated about this opportunity to achieve a new type of stardom. He was pleased, but as he sat on the set of “She Loved a Fireman” there was a far-away look in his eyes as he spoke of westerns. It reminded one of a cowboy in a big city, yearning for the sight of wide open plains and the sound of a calf bawling in the night. “It’s funny,” Foran was saying, “but when I started in pictures I] wanted to be the greatest star in Hollywood. I saw myself singing in great films, perhaps doing a few operatic pictures. After playing in westerns, I changed. I was satisfied just being the singing cowboy and being seen on the screen by a million kids. What if the movie fans in search of romance didn’t see me? “I guess most people would say I was getting in a rut. I don’t think so. I was doing something I liked and having lots of fun doing it. You know, acting in motion pictures is a lot of hard work —and don’t let anyone kid you into believing otherwise. But not with westerns. They’re fun. Most of the time is spent on location, out in the country. We ride and fool] around and everyone feels. a little guilty about being paid for it. “The satisfaction you get from having kids make you their ido] is worth a lot, too. You should read some of the letters I’ve received from the kid fans when they heard I wasn’t going to do any more cowboy pictures. They said farewell as if I were going off to a war. They were so real and earnest.” He stopped talking for a minute and then turned with a_ smile. “Who am I to complain? If they think I have the makings of a big star—let ’em go ahead.” Sheridan Reads Aloud Ann Sheridan, now appearing as leading woman in Warner Bros.’ “She Loved a Fireman” at the Strand Theatre, and her actor-husband, Edward Norris, are never reported in the gossip columns. They spend their evenings at home, reading plays to each other to improve their diction. Page Six (Story and Review) Foran Gives Fine Performance In Thrilling Drama at Strand Red Tyler (Dick Foran) is a hot-headed, ready-fisted young man who decides to join the “checker-playing firemen,” believing that service to be soft and easy. This news isn’t very well received by Captain Smokey Shannon (Robert Armstrong) of Fire Station 36, who is serious about his job and resents Red’s attitude. Red sees Margie Shannon (Ann Sheridan) with Smokey and net realizing that she is Smokey’s sister, determines to take her away from him. Red does take Margie out and they fall in love, but when Smokey finds out he orders Red to leave her alone. Red refuses and insists that he will see her even if it means giving up his job, which he dislikes because of the inactivity. While Red is out on a date with Margie, a fire breaks out. On the way to the fire, Skillet is hanging on to a ladder when the bolt that Red forgot to fasten snaps off and Skillet falls and is badly injured. Red is transferred to a Fire tug and goes on hating Smokey, until one night a fire breaks out in a waterfront warehouse. All the available apparatus in the city is brought out. Smokey climbs to the roof of the warehouse and a falling girder breaks his arm, leaving him helpless. Red sees this and shoots a rope gun up to the roof, climbs up and carrying Smokey in his arms, leaps off the roof into the river below. They are both saved, and in the hospital bury old grudges and become friends. And then, of course, Smokey assents to the marriage of his sister and Red. Length, 5260 feet — Running time, 67 minutes Those who liked Dick Foran, Warner Bros.’ big red-headed Singing Cowboy, as the star of his long series of Western melodramas, will like him quite as well (and maybe better) now that he’s off his horse for good and is playing in what picture-makers call “dramatic action stories.” Dick appeared at the Strand Theatre yesterday in one of these—dealing with the adventures and romances of a city flamefighter — called _ “She Loved a Fireman.” And he seemed to appeal to his audiences in his uniform of blue just as he did in his chaps and 10gallon hat. He performs various deeds of heroism as a smoke-eater, and, of course, sings. It would be a shame if that splendid Foran voice were allowed to go to waste. Dick plays a young fellow who joins the “checker-playing firemen” because he thinks their life is pretty soft. This attitude doesn’t please his captain, who takes his job very seriously. Bob steals Dick’s girl from him, the lass being Veda Ann Borg. Then Dick falls in love with Bob’s sister, Ann Sheridan. She becomes the girl who “loved a fireman.” Dick is about to be dismissed from the service for inefficiency when a great spectacular blaze breaks out in a waterfront warehouse. Here are some amazing moviescenes, some real and nerve-tingling shots. And they should be, since they were made under the technical advice of a Hollywood fire-officer. Injured and helpless on the high roof of the warehouse, Bob is rescued by Dick in an amazing feat of strength and agility. Then, of course, everything is O.K. for the young lovers and for Dick’s future in the department. Foran and Armstrong are both splendid. So, too, are the Misses Sheridan and Borg and the rest of the cast. Eddie Acuff Mat 104—15c Robt. Armstrong Mat 103—15c A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FIREMAN “She Scenes from Loved a Fireman,” which vividly show the dangers attached to fireman’s job. Mat 301—45c (Advance) SHERIDAN FINDS MARRIAGE IS AID TO BiG CAREERS Marriage helps a career in Hollywood, in the opinion of Ann Sheridan, young Warner Bros. leading woman, who dates: the start of her climb to stardom from the day she married Edward Norris, aboyt a year ago. “Marriage is the best confidence builder I have ever known,” Miss Sheridan declares. “No other one thing has ever helped me so much in my efforts to get somewhere worthwhile in pictures. It supplies the assurance, the freedom from Ann Sheridan Mat 107—15c worry, and the incentives that seem to me to be necessary for success. “Tt know I will go further in my career aS a married woman than I would ever have gone as a single girl.” Ann, who is currently the leading lady in “She Loved a Fireman,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, got into picture work as a contest winner from Texas. She shared with the late Will Rogers the distinction of having Indian blood in her veins. She was red-haired and pretty and she started at the Paramount studios with all the confidence of extreme youth. Then something happened. Even Ann doesn’t know just what is was. “I think I lost my courage,” she says. “I found that I was hesitating over decisions I should have been able to make on a moment’s notice. There seemed to be no one to give me a figurative kick in the shins and tell me to get into harness and work. So I lost my job.” She wasted a few months in Hollywood, waiting for other studios to bid for her services and just before the time limit she had set for herself ended, Warner Bros. offered her a long term contract. She accepted. “With more alacrity than poise,” she adds and started in again on the long road toward stardom. She hadn’t gone far, however, when she discovered that she was in love. “There is nothing you can do about a situation like that,” she says, “except to marry the man. I did. I married in spite of the advice of friends who still believed that young actresses should avoid romantic entanglements until their careers have been ‘put over.’ “From that moment on _ I’ve had the best luck and the best roles I’ve ever had in Hollywood. I’ve played in ‘Sing Me a Love Song,’ ‘Black Legion,’ ‘The Great O’Malley,’ ‘San Quentin’ and now “She Loved a Fireman,” opposite some of the best male stars in the business. “I think my marriage—my very happy marriage—turned the tide.” Artist Paints Actor The world-famous artist, Sergei Gerstonoff, recently made a painting of Dick Foran, the movie star, in cowboy costume on his horse Smokey. The painting will hang on exhibition in New York in the Spring. Foran is now featured in the Warner Bros. melodrama “She Loved a Fireman,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, with beautiful Ann Sheridan as Dick’s leading lady.