The Adventures of Jane Arden (Warner Bros.) (1939)

Step No. 3 PUBLICITY Public Selected Rosella Towne to Play “Jane Arden” More than 500,000 readers of 79 newspapers throughout the country joined the Warner Bros. Studio casting department in choosing the actress to portray Jane Arden, popular comic strip personality, on the screen in the new film series, the first of which “The Adventures of Jane Arden,” opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Rosella Towne was the popular choice of Jane Arden newspaper comic strip fans because of her astonishing resemblance to the cartoon heroine. Close behind Miss Towne in public favor was Ann Sheridan. Other candidates for the part were Jane Bryan, Gale Page, Marie Wilson, Jane Wyman, and Janet Shaw. This was the first time that Hollywood has appealed to the public for assistance in casting an important screen role. Warner Bros. felt, however that readers of the Jane Arden strip knew a great deal more about the character than they did. Miss Towne has been a motion picture actress for little more than a year. “Jane Arden” is her first starring role. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, she has lived in or near Hollywood long enough to qualify as a “local girl who made good.” Though she was raised on the outskirts of : the film colony, the thought of entering motion pictures didn’t occur until after she gradu} ated from %& high school. At that time Herman Bing, the gutteral screen comedian, persuaded her to attend dramatic school. A test at the Warner Bros. Studio followed and Miss Towne was on her way to screen stardom. Rosella has strong likes and dislikes. On the credit side are actresses Bette Davis, Luise Rainer and Claudette Colbert. Actors high in her esteem are Paul Muni and Gary Cooper. Favorite books are ‘Gone With The Wind’ and ‘Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall.’ Loves blue as a color. Adores daffodils. Things she could live without are people who radiate sweetness and goodwill before breakfast. She herself loves to sleep late and takes a long time awakening in the morning. Other than the screen test that started her on the way to fame, her greatest thrill in life was the time she won a loving cup in a high school fashion parade. Rosella Towne Dennie No Dummy Dennie Moore has been playing dumb comedy parts so long and so well that only her intimate friends know she is an intelligent, well read young lady. Dennie, now appearing in ‘The Adventures of Jane Arden,’ starring Rosella Towne, which comes to the Strand Friday, has written several radio scripts and is planning a novel. In her latest comedy role she is aided by Benny Rubin, who also has several radio sketches to his credit. Mat 201 — 30c ME AND MY SHADOW —so alike are the two pictures. The girl is Rosella Towne, starring in "The Adventures of Jane Arden,’ coming to the Strand Friday. The drawing is of Jane Arden, heroine of the famous cartoon strip. ADVANCE PUBLICITY (Opening Day) ‘Jane Arden’ of ‘Funnies’ Now A Hollywood Star “The Adventures of Jane Arden” which opens today at the Strand Theatre with Rosella Towne in the title role, is the first picture in a new series being based by Warner Bros. on the heroine of the popular cartoon strip which appears daily in 139 newspapers. The extremely personable Miss Towne was selected for this, her first starring part in the yearand-a-half that she has been under contract to Warner Bros., by a vote taken among readers of seventy-nine of the papers in which the Jane Arden strip appears. Her selection, it is believed, was largely influenced by the fact that she actually looks a great deal like the cartoon representation of the heroine. As readers of the strip know, Jane Arden is a pretty girl reporter who gets into hazardous adventures but is so courageous and resourceful that she manages to come through unscathed and triumphant. In the film story which Vincent Sherman, Lawrence Kimble “Adventures of Jane Arden” (Lead Story) + Hops From Comics to Screen; Coming to Strand on Friday Already a favorite with millions of newspaper readers and countless radio listeners, Jane Arden has now become a motion picture character as well, for she is the heroine of a new series of Warner Bros. pictures, the first of which, entitled “The Adventures of Jane Arden,” opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. The heroine of the popular newspaper cartoon strip which appears in 171 papers with a combined circulation of about 14,000,000 and of a national network radio serial that has been on the air five days a week for the past two years is portrayed on the screen by Rosella Towne. This is the first starring role entrusted to the youthful Miss Towne in her comparatively brief screen career, but the decision to cast her as Jane Arden was not made by any executive of the Warner Bros Studio. It was made by the vote of thousands of newspaper readers who chose her in a contest sponsored by seventy-nine of the papers in which the Jane Arden strip appears. Although she was not as well known as Ann Sheridan, Marie Wilson, Gale Page, Jane Wyman Never Felt Better After a ‘working vacation’ at Palm Springs, William Gargan returned to Hollywood to appear opposite Rosella Towne in the first of Warner Bros. new series, ‘The Adventures of Jane Arden’ now playing at the Strand Theatre. Bill spent his holiday putting his Palm Springs home in shape for winter occupancy. He mixed cement, hauled rocks and did odd repair jobs eight hours a day, six days a week—and never felt better in his life. Keeps Herself Fit Rosella Towne, who plays the leading role in the Warner Bros. picture, “The Adventures of Jane Arden,” which comes to the Strand next Friday, uses an unusual form of exercise. She mows her own lawn and does all her own gardening. or several of the other actresses over whom she triumphed, Rosella won handily because of her remarkable resemblance in actuality to the drawings of Jane Arden which appear every day in the Monte Barrett and Russell E. Ross cartoon strip. The plot devised by Vincent Sherman, Lawrence Kimble and Charles Curran depicts Jane matching her wits and courage against a sinister ring of jewel thieves and smugglers. It is the murder of a New York society girl, whom Jane believes has been mixed up with the ring, that causes her to make up her mind to unmask its members and bring them to justice. In the course of her dangerous enterprise, Jane manages to pose so successfully as a dealer in stolen jewels that she is hired by the ring to be their carrier in an attempt to smuggle stolen jewels into the United States from Bermuda. Everything goes well until the head of the ring discovers her identity, and Jane might have been unable to get out of this situation alive had it not been for the timely arrival in Bermuda of her managing editor, who is not only young and personable but also in love with his star girl reporter. He comes on the scene just as the master thief is forcing Jane at revolver point to accompany him to a plane which is waiting to make the dash for the mainland. After a thrilling race against death, the editor saves the girl and then he and Jane board the boat for New York. Besides Miss Towne, the cast of “The Adventures of Jane Arden” includes William Gargan, as the managing editor, James Stephenson, as the gang leader, Peggy Shannon, as the latter’s girl friend, Benny Rubin and Dennie Moore in comedy roles, and Edgar Edwards, Hobart Cavanaugh, Pierre Watkin, John Ridgely and Maris Wrixon. The production was directed by Terry Morse. This is Terry’s first picture, and he turns in a job so well done, that his studio is looking forward to: bigger things from him in the future. The young director, he is only 33, started his career as a film cutter, and became so expert, promotion to a position of greater responsibility was only a matter of time. Now he has his chance. Mat 204 — 30c BENNY'S DOWN BUT NOT OUT —though he certainly looks close to it. It's Benny Rubin in a scene from Warner Bros. "The Adventures of Jane Arden," coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday, with Rosella Towne and William Gargan, in the starring roles. [8] and Charles Curren based on the character in the Monte Barrett and Russell E. Ross cartoon strip, Jane Arden unmasks and breaks up a notorious ring of jewel thieves and smugglers. Bravely she poses as a jewel thief herself and manages to be taken into the employ of the gang as the carrier for some jewels which are to be smuggled into the United States from Bermuda. When the gang leader discovers her real identity, things look exceedingly dark for the nervy girl reporter, but after a succession of quick, melodramatic developments, it is the master thief who comes to an untimely end instead of the girl reporter. Jane returns to New York with plans already in the making for another exciting undertaking. Besides Miss Towne, the cast includes William Gargan, James Stephenson, Benny Rubin, Dennic Moore, Edgar Edwards, Hobart Cavanaugh and Maris Wrixon. The picture marks the debut of Terry Morse, hitherto one of the top-notch film editors at the Warner studio, as a director. MARK HELLINGER TALKS ABOUT NEWSPAPER GALS Motion pictures have done wrong by the newspaper gals. In most cases the movie news gal is pictured as a flossie with a press ecard. All the newspaper men turned writers working in the Warner lot, where “The Adventures of Jane Arden” was filmed Mat 104 — 15c Rosella Towne praised Rosella Towne’s characterization of Jane Arden. It is as different a newsgal from the usual run as Allen Jenkins is from Errol Flynn. There are two kinds of newspaper women just as there are two kinds of any gal. There’s the sweet, winsome, almost selfeffacing type. Then there is the hard, wisecracking, aggressive kind. Only the latter has been pictured on the screen. “Torchy Blane’ is typical of this kind of lady journalist. It’s about time something was done for the nice girl who is also a reporter. Now Miss Towne has her chance to come to the rescue of her sex. It is her first starring role, but she turns in a sterling performance worthy of a more experienced actress. A Bird in the Hand Rosella Towne bought no new sable coat but six neat baby bonds to celebrate her first leading role in “The Adventures of Jane Arden,’ Warner Bros. production based on the well known cartoon strip, which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre. “Tt isn’t,” says Rosella, “that I wouldn’t like a new coat, but I think that security comes before vanity. If you take care of the present the future is safe.”