Side Show (Warner Bros.) (1931)

USE ALL NOVELTIES, STUNTS, “SIDE SHOW” PROVIDED WITH FREAKS, ) WILD ANIMALS AND PARAPHERNALIA, | SEAL TRAINER! BY HOLLYWOOD’S PERMANENT CIRCUS Modern Barnum Puts Big Top And All The Rest On Warner Bros.-First National Lot For Scenes Of Sensational Picture Which Features Lightner And Butterworth NOW SHOWING STRAND “RIGHT THIS WAY FOLKS, FOR ] THE TIME OF YOUR LIFEV” Tigers, clowns, elephants, lions— Strong men with weak spots—weak women with strong spots — Sights! Thrills! a Romance! You'll see them all in By Jack Cooper (Big Story of Human Achievement. Plant as Sunday Feature Week Before Opening) The world’s biggest circus has never left the city in which it was started. It has operated for twelve years to a worldwide audience without once leaving the very close environs of Hollywood. Whenever you see a circus on the sereen, be it American or European, it is almost certain that it is Al. W. ide Copeland’s show. Every motion picture studio in Hollywood has drawn on his services and Street carnivals, water carnivals and everything from a one ring European circus to a five ring American cireus, with all its attendant freaks, stunts, concessions, animals peanuts and popeorn are included iti his paraphernalia. Just. what he provides is exemplified in his latest assignment, Warner Brothers picture, “Side Show,” featuring Winnie Lightner, Charles Butterworth, Evalyn Knapp and Donald Cook, which opens ........ Bt thes eee Theatre next. Almost the entire action takes place within the confines of a circus side show. Acreage was set aside on the Warner Bros. ranch in the San Fernando valley and Copeland was given an order to convert it into a typical American cireus carnival. IT’S A REAL CIRCUS Just a few brief orders were given such as a tank and ladder for a fire diver, a seal tank and seals, canvas equipment. FIRE DIVE—TRAINED FLEAS Balloons and parachutes figure in Copeland’s list of things the pertect circus man should have—and he has the men who can perform the aerial stunts. Several of the freaks used in “S'de Show” are supplied by Copeland. No order was too far-fetched for him. The seript directs Winnie Lightner to take a hundred foot dive into a six-foot tank with her clothing in flames. It’s a large order for Winnie, and needless to say a double was required to do the actual Fire Dive. Copeland produced him without the slightest trouble. Fleas were needed for one of the side show attractions. Copeland appeared on the scene with the little insects wranped in cotton woo! anc put them through their paces witk diminutive hoops, minute fvuurwheeled carriages and all the ozher Cut No. 17 Cut 15¢ Mat 5c Charles Butterworth plays an important role opposite Winnie Lightner in Warner Bros. comedy “Side show, now--al the fe He does everything from raining seals to high diving. “Side Show” Seals Are Trained By The Droll Skill Of Butterworth (Advance—Plant 2 Days Before) nosters of certain attractions which trappings fleas require for their act. figure in the picture and other odds|He even brought one of his men to makes old —men young Charles Butterworth recently kept and young men old! 1 ve oy vie Tamily with WINNIE LIGHTNE CHARLES BUTTERWORTH It’s a real circus for the kids! and a rare treat for the Laine: 0 ERE The greatest laugh com bination in the moving talkie that ever fastest hit town. EVALYN KNAPP DONALD COOK GUY KIBBEE A WARNER BROS. AND VITAPHONE PICTURE Cut No rr Cut 4oc Mat toc ~ LUIS ALBERNI PLAYS CIRCUS ROLE HERE IN “SIDE SHOW” (Biography, August 1, 1931) Luis Alberni, who plays the role of Santini in “Side Show,” the War. ner Bros. production featuring Winnie Lightner and Charles Butterworth, now at the Theatre, has the stage production of “What Price Glory” to thank for his intro Page Eight duction to pictures, because it was his work in that play that led to his friendship with its author, Lawrence Stallings, who first persuaded Alberni to go to Hollywood and work in pictures. He recently played the role of Gecko in Warner Brothers “Svengali,” starring John Barrymore. He also appeared in Santa Fe Trail.” Luis Alberni was born in Spain »~ The cook house came first. and ends which are required by the ory. Tithin twenty-four * the set “1 readiness. E z from |} “nad — +n +? Bae are, and the co under airection of Roy Ruth yved in and started to work. That is an important item, for two hundred and fifty persons have to be fed. There were real concessions, too. Hot dog, hamburger and drink stands, which also feature in the picture, functioned for the benefit of the players and hundreds of extras who were working far from any place where they could buy pop candy and cigarettes. Then came an enormous ferris wheel and merry-go-round, around which were erected the tents with their multitudinous and highly colored banners depicting the odds and ends of nature’s playful moments— the freaks. Everything on the set was practical. The merry-go-round did just that—and the ferris wheel wheeled, and Copeland was able to supply the real article for every freak advertised on the banners. FREAKS AND FANFARE As he puts it in his own showman’s language, he has everything from a minnow to a whale, and a gnat to an elephant. Besides the animals, there are eight hundred performers on his list, ready for call at a moment’s notice. He has six eircus bands of various types. His calliopes and organs are toned to a pitch suitable for recording purposes. All of his animals are trained to a point where he requires but twenty-four hours to train them in any particula: tricks required for picture purposes. He has a full stock of banners, ballyhooing every known freak; yet he keeps two artists busy all the time making up new ones and repainting others which have become battered through constant use. The artists’ job is also to make up such banners as are required in the picture. Thus, Charles Butterworth, in “Side Show,” has an act ealled “Captain Sidney and His Trained Seals.” Winnie Lightner, who takes the place of many of the attractions in cases of emergency, had to have banners of herself as Princess Mauna Kea, the Hula and came to America some years be| Dancer; The World’s Most Beautiful fore his memorable appearance as Woman; and the Man-Eating Canni Cognac Pete in “What Price Glory.” bal. feed the little beasties; which was accomplished by allowing them to browse on the man’s arm. , oe Charles Butterained seal act came from the .opeland menagerie, and a spe cial course was given Butterworth in how to handle them. THEY LET AL DO IT Al W. Copeland himself was retained for the duration of production to act as technical adviser and te supervise the men whom he _ had placed handling the ferris wheel, the merry-go-round, the canvas and general circus utility work. He has enough material to send two or three big shows traveling over the country and _ still have enough left to stage all the movie circuses and carnivals needed in Hollywood. Like everything else, it had an numble beginning. Twelve years ago, Copeland was with a circus which ultimately played Los Angeles. A movie company at that time was in need of circus props for one of their piectures, and Copeland helped them secure it from the show he was with. That gave him the idea. He immediately set about gathering equipment and performers, in the meantime selling the idea to the produeers. The idea caught immediately, and with the money Copeland received from each of his first jobs he invested in still more material. Today he has a studio and warehouse in the heart of Hollywood end a ranch in North Hollywood devoted almost exclusively to the housing and training of animals, During the past three and a half years he has outfitted forty-eight motion picture productions. CIRCUS WILL LIVE for They weren’t all circus pictures, but in each there were at least sequences in which carnivals form the background. He is not afraid of producers suddenly deciding that circus pictures are passe, or that earnival backgrounds are beginning to bore the public. “There can never be such a decision,” Copeland very earnestly asserted. “Just watch how avidly the publie will take to ‘Side Show,’ for instance. The circus is the oldest form of entertainment which has survived through countless eenturies, with very slight change in form, It is elemental and colorful. It is rather steady company with a school of seals trying to convince them that he meant them no wrong. The companionship was made ne "role which Butterworth takes in “Side Show,” the Warner Bros. picture in which he appears with Winnie Lightner, and which comes to the Theatre As Captain Sidney, seal trai-er, and meek lover of Miss Winnie, he is seen putting the seals through their paces in a trick act. “These embryonic fur coats,” says Butterworth, “are more temperamental than movie stars and utterly refused to do anything for anyone they are not thoroughly acquainted with. A new face will seare all the tricks out of them. “Once a seal lays down’on the job it is through for the rest of its days. Considering that it takes three months to train it to stay out of water long enough for an act, and another nine months to train it in the tricks it must perform, I was not taking any chances on the whole school walking out on me!” “Two extra creatures were kept in the same menagerie just an old seal-trainer’s custom in case a couple of the other animals decided that I was not the sort of person in whose society they cared to mingle. But they didn’t!” Others in the cast of “Side Show” are Evalyn Knapp, Donald Cook, Guy Kibbee, Louise Carver, Mathew Betz, Ann Magruder, Luis Alberni, Edward Morgan, Tom Ricketts and Otto Hoffman. Roy Del Ruth directed. SENSES i reer instructive, and brings to a normal placid publie the oddities of nature which never fail to cause wonderment. “Just as long as circuses will remain as vivid, simple and without trace of the sophistication which has entered into modern showmanship just so long will circuses remain dear to the public.” “Side Show,” the Warner Bros. picture which comes to the Theatre next, features: Winnie Lightner and Charles Butter. worth, Evalyn Knapp, Donald Cook, Guy Kibbee Louise Carver, Mathew Betz, Ann Magruder, Luis Alberni, Edward Morgan, Tom Ricketts and Otto Hoffman. the author. Roy Del Ruth directed, William K. Wells is: ;