Slim (Warner Bros.) (1937)

PUBLICITY ————— At Plow ‘Farmer’ Fonda Proves Better As Actor Playing Title Role in “Slim,” Takes An Hour For One Furrow PAT O’BRIEN HAS A CHAMP FAN ADMIRER Pat O’Brien lays claim to having the champion fan letter writer. Among his huge stack of recent mail, O’Brien, currently starred with Henry Fonda in Warner Bros.’ ¢¢Slim,’’ which comes to the............ Theatre on ............ , found a letter from 17-year-old Jimmy De Zego, of Brooklyn. Covering 27 pages, it was written in longhand and comprised a complete record of O’Brien screen accomplishements. In addition to listing the complete casts, it gave a brief synopsis of each of the 34 pictures O’Brien has played in since ‘‘The Front Page.’’ Here is one typical paragraph from the letter: ‘¢Twenty Million Sweethearts.’’ You play the part of Rush Blake. You discover Buddy Clayton (Dick Powell), a superb singer, singing in a honky-tonk cafe. You become his manager. He becomes the golden-voiced tenor of the air. He meets and falls in love with Peggy Cornell (Ginger Rogers). He wants to marry her. You are told by Chester A. Sharpe (Grant Mitchell) to put a stop to it. You hate to do it but you have to. When Dick finds out he socks you in the jaw and goes away. (Ete. ete.)’’ All young Mr. De Zego wanted for his trouble was an autographed picture of O’Brien and you may be sure he got a very special one by return mail. ¢¢Slim’? is a picturesque outdoor drama dealing with those colorful young men who seem to have been neglected heretofore by novelists and scenarists—the linesmen who string high-tension wires across the land. O’Brien and Henry Fonda are co-starred as a pair of pole-climbing pals. Margaret Lindsay is the girl who loves them both. J. Farrell MacDonald is their.boss. Stuart Erwin is their buddy. Others who figure in their adventures are Dick Purcell, Joseph Sawyer, John Litel, Craig Raynolds, Jane Wyman and Joseph King. Ray Enright directed the picture from a screen play by William Wister Haines, who was also author of ‘‘Slim’’ as a best-selling novel, TOWER MOVES 246 MILES House moving concerns might learn lessons from Art Director Ted Smith, who designed the sets for Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Slim,’’? which stars Prt O’Brien, Henry Fonda, and Margaret Lindsay. The picture, which deals with power linesmen, comes to the .......... Theatre 0iet..<.5. se Four times Smith had to move for long distances a 110-foot wood en elevator tower weighing, togetuer with its gas vline-powered winches, about 20 tons. The tower, on which camera, sound and directorial crews ascend to a level equal to that of crews of linemen working on adjacent steel towers and wooden poles, was constructed at the studio. It was first moved to a ranch near Calabasas, 25 miles away. Then, ‘vhen Director Ray Enright wanted a new type of background, it was transported 7 miles to Las‘ky Mesa. The third move took the elevator tower to a site near Victorville, Calif,. 107 miles from the Mesa and the fourth returned it to the studio. Page Ten High Tension at Strand Pat O’Brien dishes it out and Craig Reynolds has to take it, in ‘‘Slim’’ the Warner Bros. melodrama of daredevil linesmen who love as they live — dangerously, never knowing which moment will mean disaster. Tt: Comes t0-GRE = o2 nents F3 pUBOUEN Gy LOW aaa « ova sink apa Mat No. 201—20e STIFF NECKS BOTHER MANY ‘SLIM’ FOLK Paul MacWilliams, head of the Warner Bros. studio first-aid department, was greatly puzzled a few weeks ago by an epidemic of stiff necks among technicians on the lot. After treating somewhere in the neighborhood of two score of the ailing lads, he decided to investigate. He discovered that every case involved a member of the technieal crew assigned to the picturization of William Wister Haines’ novel, ‘‘Slim,’’ starring Pat O’Brien and Henry Fonda. Further investigation disclosed that the stiff necks were caused by the constant craning of heads upward to watch actors at work on the tall electric high-tension steel towers that are a feature of the picture. These are 100 feet high—about as tall as an 8-story budlding. A great part of the action of the story, which concerns the hazardous existence of linesmen, takes place on the towers and for more than six weeks the entire technical crew of the production had to gaze almost constantly skyward during working hours. ‘‘Slim’’ is now showing at the Site eee Theatre. New Love Team Can Margaret Lindsay’s kisses make Henry Fonda forget that he traded his best friend for his friend’s best girl? The answer is told in ‘‘Slim,’’ Warner Bros.’ high-tensioned melodrama now playing at the .......s.0....0: Theatre. Mat No. 106—10e PAT O’BRIEN HIDES GRIEF UNDER SMILE Pat O’Brien, the film star, holds to his old stage-days tradition, ‘‘the show must go on.’’ For more than a week during the making vf Warner Bros.’ ‘¢Slim,’’ which comes to the............ HEB GTO NOX he ces eeepc ee ons » Pat worked with a cheerful face. Only O’Brien’s intimates on the set knew that Mavourneen, his 3year-old daughter, lay seriously ill at his Brentwood home under the constant attention of doctors and special nurses. Mavourneen caught a cold, complications set in and her temperature rose near the critical mark. O’Brien worked days on the picturization of William Wister Haines’ novel about high-tension linesmen, and stayed up nights at the bedside of his adored child. Not once did anyone hear a word of complaint from him. The first the rest of the troupe heard about Mavourneen’s illness was when O’Brien disclosed that _the child’s temperature had return ed to normal and that she was on the road to recovery. Ray Enright directed ‘‘Slim,’’ in which Pat and Henry Fonda are co-starred and Margaret Lindsay is leading woman. INSURANCE ON ACTORS Insurance policies for $250,000 each were recently taken out by Warner Bros. studios on the lives of Pat O’Brien and Henry Fonda, stars of ‘‘Slim,’’ the movie dealing with high-tension wire work ers, which will open ................... at ThGkee eesee as: Theatre. Separate clauses also provide for large benefits in case of accident. While the studio naturally took every possible precaution to protect the two players, their work in ‘‘Slim’’ involved considerable danger. A series of towers ranging from 75 to 100 feet in height were built for the production and O’Brien and Fonda were required to do much work high above the ground, along with professional experts hired .by the studio. Fortunately, neither was injured. ‘‘Slim,’’ featuring also Margaret Lindsay and Stuart Erwin, wus directed by Ray Enright. READERS AND FEATURES ON O’BRIEN & FONDA Henry Fonda went to college, but plowing wasn’t on the curriculum of the University of Minnesota, so Hank took up journalism. This was an unfortunate decision on Hank’s part, for an intensive course in agriculture would have equipped him better for the profession he eventually adopted. UNIQUE GIFT FOR POPULAR PAT O'BRIEN During his motion picture career Pat O’Brien has received many rare gifts from. his fans, but recently he added to his collection the most unusual present of all. The gift was from T. A. (‘‘Rusty’’?) Wayland, one of a crew of linesmen that worked with O’Brien, Henry Fonda, Stuart Erwin, Margaret Lindsay and J. Farrell MacDonald on Warner Bros.’ melodrama ‘‘Slim,’’ the picture which GOMES 60 = CNC a. eeicccsseseene ss Theatre It is a burnished copper lamp stand, fashioned out of a length of hollow cable hacked by Wayland off the end of a piece of conductor used on the Boulder Dam-Los Angeles transmission line, the greatest long-distance electrical transmission project in the world and on which Wayland worked for many months. The lineman made the lamp stand during his spare moments, and gave it to Pat at Lasky Mesa, where the ‘‘Slim’’ shooting exterior scenes along a troupe was series of high tension towers especially erected for the production. O’Brien said he would consign the lamp to a favored corner in the den of his Brentwood home. ‘¢Slim’’ shows the trials and daring deeds of the men who string high-tension electric lines across the country. It was directed by Ray Enright from a_ successful novel by William Wister Haines. NO WONDER HE RAISED On the set of Warner Bros.’ ‘¢Slim’’ one day they were photographing a supposed poker game involy..¢ Pat O’Brien and Henry Fonda, the two stars, and J. Farrell MacDonald, Craig Reynolds, and two other players. Reynolds was dealing. The script called for Fonda, on his left, to pass, another man to open for five dollars, O’Brien to stay, the other two gamblers to follow suit, MacDonald to pass and Reynolds to raise the bet to ten dollars. All went according to the foreordained plan until it came MacDonald’s turn to pass. The veteran character actor looked at his hand then glanced at director Ray Enright. ‘‘T can’t help it,’’ he mournfully remarked. ‘‘I have to raise it to twenty-five dollars. ’’ With which he exhibited four queens and a deuce. ‘<Slim’’ is now the feature attraction=at the? .<-2..5.--::Theatre. Farming and histrionics, it would seem, go hand in hand insofar as Fonda’s motion picture career is concerned. For example, there was ‘‘The Farmer Takes a Wife,’’ his first picture, in which he played the young farmer. Then there were ‘‘Way Down East’? and ‘‘The Trail of the Lonesome Pine,’’ both of which possessed an aroma of earthiness. And now there is ‘‘Slim,’’ which is Warner Bros.’ picturization of the William Wister Haines novel, and which stars Pat O’Brien and Margaret Lindsay, among others. The picture will open at the ........ pe wero. Thenatreron.3:::.si...5:.2.80-> Not that ‘‘Slim’’ is a discourse upon agricultural economics or kindred subjects. It is, in fact, a story that deals with those daring individuals known as _ hightension linesmen. Nevertheless, out at Warners’ ranch, some 25 miles from Hollywood, Fonda, who plays the title role in the picture, went back to the soil once more. One of those shimmering steel towers that you see sparkling in the desert sunlight had been built in a shallow valley toward the back of the 400-acre ranch and on the day your correspondent visited the scene two overall-clad workmen were manipulating caterpillar tractors back and forth along an area ‘about fifty yards to one side of the tower. Behind each of the tractors dragged a set of gang plows. While Cameraman Sid Hickox set up his equipment near the tower, Fonda held conference with Director Ray Enright. The actor wore rough clothing—an old battered felt hat, a pair of khaki trousers frayed at the cuffs and bagged at the knees, and an ancient checkered shirt. ‘<T’ve done lots of odd things in my life,’’ he was saying, ‘‘ but this is the first time I’ve ever been called. on to drive a plow.’’ ‘¢Tt’s easy, Hank,’’ replied Enright, who has had experience in that sort of thing. ‘‘ All you do is hang the reins around your neck and grab the plow by the handles, then go ahead.’’ ‘‘Say, Ray,’’ he wondered. ‘Why couldn’t I use one of them tractors instead of a horse?’’ ‘¢Because you’re a poor farmer, and only rich farmers have tractors,’’ the director explained. ‘‘You’re tired of farming, don’t like it, and therefore you become a linesman.’’ Fonda gripped the plow handles tightly and strung the reins around his neck. But the plow wouldn’t go straight. A couple of property men put the plow back in the furrow and Fonda started up the field again. This time he progressed: three yards before the plow did a nose dive into the earth just like an airplane doing an outside loop. The handles slipped from Fonda’s grasp and the team of horses, dragging plow and actor after them, started across the plowed area at a brisk clip. After several efforts, unsuccessful because of the unstable footing the field offered, Fonda finally managed to reach the reins around his neck and halt the team. It took him an hour to plow a single furrow 50 yards long. No wonder he tired of farming and became a linesman.