Star Witness (Warner Bros.) (1931)

"YOU'VE GOT TO INVENT NEW CHICSALE TELLS HOW HE CREATED HIS FUNNY CHARACTERS, INCLUDING LEM PUTT, THE FAMOUS SPECIALIST “The Star Witness,’ First National Production Featuring Charles (Chic) Sale, Walter Huston And Frances Starr, Now At The Strand (Feature. Plant 2nd Day in No. 1 Paper) Charles (Chic) Sale, now at the Theatre in his first picture “The Star Witness,’ a Warner Bros. production, is held in high regard by millions as one of the really great crea tive artists. the word, for his humor lies in He is not a comedian in the ordinary sense of his character—in his Lem Putt Bessie Belch—Filbert Twitch—and Gran’pa Summerill, The Man Who Knew Lincoln—rather than in himself. Lem and Bessie and Filbert. are among Sale’s favorite characters though he has done over thirty others. “T did not invent these folks,” said Sale, replying to a question, as he sat in his canvas chair at the studio while “The Star Witness” was in production. “I depict characters that I have known. I never unduly exaggerate them, nor do I color them in any way to make them offensive to the peonle I paint. I’m really one of them myself, for my entire youth was spent in a small town, and I’m still a small town man in my likes and dislikes.” SIMPLICITY IS KEY Sale, who re-creates his famous character, Gran’pa Summerill, The Man Who Knew Lincoln, in “The Star Witness,” considers simplicity the key to all true artistry. “The little homely touches are the things audiences like,” he declares. “T’ve been proving the truth of this for a good many years now.’ Sale was born in Huron, South Dakota, a few more than thirty years ago. His father, a dentist, moved the family to Urbana, Illinois, when Chic was a youngster. It was there that he made those small town contacts and observations which later provided the fund of material for his professional career. “T didn’t leave Urbana until I was twenty-one,” Sale reveals. “I’d _.. won considerable local reputation as a mimic and all my friends agreed ATL a a PE Ie SRE MYSTERY DRAMA LAUGHS te ARS ACTION THRILLS welded by the master hand into THE Pemrect PICTURE! with WALTER HUSTON CHARLES PCHIC’ SALE DICKEY MOORE GRANT MITCHELL FRANCES STARR RALPH INCE SALLY BLANE ROBERT ELLIOTT Cut No. 3 Page Four Cut 20c, Mat Sc that I could make just about the funniest faces they’d ever seen. So I got a letter from the mayor of Urbana—a friend of my father—to the mayor’s brother, who was manager of the Majestic Theatre in Chicago, and went to see him. When I’d finished showing him what I could do he said to me: ‘Young man, you'll sure get ahead. If you’ve got the nerve to come to the finest vaudeville theatre in the West to get a try-out for that bum act, you're bound to get somewhere before you are through’.” Instead of being discouraged by the result of his first effort to get a job in a theatre, Sale found comfort in the words of the manager. Within two years he had battered his way up through small time vaudeville engagements to return to the Majestic as the headliner of the current bill. KNOCK WAS A BOOST Today Sale is one of the most versatile actors of the stage. For the past five seasons he has appeared on Broadway in his own musical show, under Shubert management, and has directed and written for the productions, as well as played in them. Under the sponsorship of a nationally known oil company he is a weekly favorite over a coast to coast radio chain. He writes a daily article which is syndicated to sixtyfive newspapers, and_ personally manages his own publishing house, established when he wrote “The Specialist.” That book, Sale reveals, came into being as a means of protecting his vaudeville act. Lem Putt, designer and builder de luxe, actually lived. He was a carpenter whom Sale knew in his boyhood. Sale originally introduced “The Specialist” as a character of his professional family, reserving him for special engagements when he was addressing stag gatherings as an entertainer. Lem’s fame spread with unexpected rapidity and soon the act was being imitated by rivals of Sale. To protect his material he put “The Specialist” in book form that he might copyright it. Fame, and fortune, followed. The publisher of the little volume had anticipated at best a sale of a few thousand copies. More than a million copies have been sold to date and Sale owns the publishing company that made the initial printing, having bought it out of a part of the proceeds of his authorship. “In a way that book has damaged my reputation as an actor, if I ever had much of a reputation,” Sale complains with a smile. ‘“People invariably say, ‘Oh, yes, you’re the fellow that wrote the little book.’ They never remember me for my years of work on the stage, or if they do they rarely refer to it.” Featured in “The Star Witness with Mr. Sale are Walter Huston and Frances Starr. Others in the fine cast are Sally Blane, Grant Mitchell, Edward J. Nugent, Dicky Moore, "Ralph Ince, Tom Dugan, Russell Hopton, Fletcher Norton, Robert Elliott, Guy D’Ennery, George Ernst, Mike Donlin, Noel Madison, Ed Deering and Nat Pendleton. The story is by Lucien Hubbard. William A. Wellman directed. ——— “Star Witness” Player Was Olympic Wrestling Champ (Current Reader) Nat Pendleton, featured in “The Star Witness” with Charles (Chic) Sale and Walter Huston at the Theatre, once was the Olympic heavyweight wrestling champion and also intercollegiate champion of the United States. Charles (Chic) Sale and Walter Huston are featured in “The Star Witness.” DRAMA! COMEDY! TRAGEDY! PATHOS! THE LAST A FIVE -YEARS OF SCREEN PRODUCTION HAVE BEEN LEADING UP TO THIS STARTLING CLIMAX | THE STAR . WITNESS America will hail it as the Rebirth of a Nation! with WALTER HUSTON CHAS. “CHIC” DICKEY FRANCES RALPH Cut No. 9 Cut 60c, Mat 15c MOORE GRANT MITCHELL SALE STARR INCE-SALLY BLANE STRAN WARNER BROS. & VITAPHONE DRAMATIC HIT! Ralph Ince Cast As In “Star Witness” (Biography July 15, 1931) Ralph Ince, who plays the part of Campo, the menace in “The Star Witness,’ the Warner Bros. production featuring Chic Sale and Walter Huston, now at the ...... Theatre, was born in Boston in 1887 and began his stage career in the company of Richard Mansfield. He has directed, as well as acted in, many plays and has been employed in both capacities. on the screen also. He appeared as Lincoln in a series of pictures on the great emancipator which were produced by Vitagraph. He has directed for many of the great producers. He acted in and directed “Not for Publication,” “Shanghaied,” ‘Chicago After Midnight” and “Bigger Than Barnum’s” and directed “Coney Island,” “South Sea Love,” “Hit of the Show,” “Hardboiled” and “Hurricane.” He played heavy roles in “Wall Street,” “Big Fight,’ “Numbered Men,” “Little Caesar” and “The Star Witness.” Mr. Ince’s favorite sports are golf and tennis. Dickey Moore and Charles ‘Chic “STAR WITNESS” IS ACCLAIMED HERE Gang Leader,Campo | AS POWERFUL MELODRAMA, FILLED WITH QUAINT HUMOR AND HUMANITY Walter Huston, Charles (Chic) Sale And Frances Starr Featured In Warner Bros. Picture Now Being Shown At The Strand (Review Featuring the Story) The large audience at the Theatre last night enthusi astically’ applauded “The Star Witness,’ a picture which is unique in being both melodrama and heart-warming human comedy. Its grim theme—the danger which we all incur of innocently falling prey to the evil characters who lurk in every town, big and little—is made less grim by the characters to whom we are introduced, and which we feel we have always known and always want to know. The high-speed action begins when Gran’pa Summerill, the Man Who Knew Lincoln (you must have seen Chic Sale play this part in vaudeville) gets a forty-eight-hour leave from the Soldiers’ Home, to visit his married daughter and her family, in town. The family, including Pa Leeds and Ma, the pert young daughter, the grown sons, the two small boys and, of course, Gran’pa—are at supper when they The STAR WITNESS Sale in “The Star Witness A Warner Bros. and Vitaphone Picture. "Gut: No. 5 Cut 30c, Mat 10c are called to the window by smots, just in time to see a man shoot another. The thugs rush through the Leeds house, followed by police —and escape. : . This puts the family in the position of being the only ones who saw the shooting. . The gangsters beat up Pa Leeds, -and intimidate the rest of the family to prevent their testifying before the district attorney. Finally the little boy is kidnapped. It is Gran’pa Summerill, in his Grand Army blue, with his shrill fife in action, who wanders about the haunts of the gang—frees the kid, foils the thugs, gives some live tips to the cops—and finally acts as star witness. But it is the amazing things that happen along the way—the thrills—the fun and the pathos which makes “The Star Witness” so compelling. Walter Huston is up to his high standard in his portrayal of t* trict attorney; Chic Sale course, inimitable as Gran’p. Amerill, star witness, Frances Starr is fine as gran’pa’s daughter and mother of the kidnapped boy. Others in the capable cast are Sally Blane, Grant Mitchell, Edward J. Nugent, Dicky Moore, Ralph Ince, Tom Dugan, Russell Hopton, Fletcher Norton, Robert Elliott, Guy D’Ennery, George Ernst, Mike Donlin, Noel Madison, Ed Deering and Nat Pendleton. tig. William A. Wellman, who directed “Wings” and recently did “The Public Enemy” and “Night Nurse,” has been eminently successful in his direction. This is a picture that no one should miss. Take the whole family for an evening of grand and glorious entertainment.