The House on 56th Street (Warner Bros.) (1933)

FREAKFACTS RAY -RANCIS RAYMON, STARTED HIS STAGE CAREER AT THE AGE of S witha stock Ch) RT EZ , FIRST JOB WAS As MESSENGER Bory FOR A BROKERAGE HOUSE IN WALL STREET. ...... COMPANY. BEFORE STARTING HER STAGE CAREER WORKEDAS SOCIAL SECRETARY TO MRS. W. K. VANDER BILT AND MRS. DWIGHT MORROW dq WIN Wy, Ad vance Veatures =F : ; : | Z JoHN & : HALLIDAY STUDIED MINING ENGINEERING AT CAM BRIOGE UNIVERSITY. Here are some unusual facts about the stars in “‘The House on 56th St.,”’ the new Warner Bros. drama, coming.................. to the. 2s. Theatre. Kay Francis is in the starring role supported by Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond, John Halliday and many others. Mat No. 9 Price 10c Ghosts of Gay White Way Live in Kay Francis Hit Famous Casino Theatre Duplicated for Scenes of Floradora Girls in “House on 56th Street HE old Casino Theatre at 39th Street and Broadway, New York, has been gone for three years. Now it stands again on a North Hollywood movie lot. The Casino was the house where in the old days Fay Templeton, Lillian Russell, Jeff De Angelis and Della Fox starred; where, a little later, Marie Doro, first caught the notice of the town; where Elsie stage debut as a chorus girl. Ferguson made _ her It was from the Casino stage that the “Floradora’ their millionaires and it was there, years later, that Fritzi Scheff sang “Kiss Me Again” for the last time while Broadway cried and cheered. For many seasons anything that opened there achieved a run simply because it was a “Casino show.” The story of the Casino is the story of old Broadway. sextette married What theatre more suitable, then, as a background for the following story? A chorus girl, appearing in a famous musical comedy at the turn of the century, marries into a house of wealth and social prominence. That, at least, is the beginning of-“The House on 56th Street,” which comes to the Theatie Ons: arene » with Kay Francis in the stellar role. What other theatre would do as well? The Casino it had to be. So old photographs were studied, the research department was put to work checking details of the theatre’s interior in the early 1900’s— and the set went up. Picture patrons will see the ornate and gilded auditorium crowded for a firstnight. It is the premiere of a musical show which bears resemblances to “Floradora” and other productions of the period. Aigrettes and Julia Sanderson and Edna May ivory fans sway through the house and the men gallantly help the ladies out of enormous opera cloaks. The lights dim, the foots go up, the orchestra strikes up a number and the curtain rises. There are six beautiful girls and six young men— and they are singing “While Strolling Through the Park One Day.” Kay Francis, most dazzling of all six girls, is in the center. There ‘s thunderous applause as the number ends. This is one of the gay and impressive scenes for the opening of the picture, which begins with the first of the century, coming down to the present date. The picture, which is based on Joseph Stanley’s novel, follows the fortunes of a show girl through a life filled with dramatic incidents all interwoven with the. “House on 56th Street.” It is there she goes as a bride only to return to it as a professional gambler, after she has served a term in prison for a murder she did not commit. The drama is enacted by a strong cast which ineludes besides Miss Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond, John Halliday, Margaret Lindsay, Frank McHugh, Sheila Terry and William Boyd. Robert Florey directed the picture from a screen play by Austin Parker and Sheridan Gibney. 4 #4-| Significant Dual Drama Is Seen in Kay Francis Film HROUGH ‘‘The House on 56th Street,’’ which comes to the Theatre next presenting Kay Francis as the star in this Warner Bros. picture, runs a double drama. The story, as it progresses, becomes the drama of a mansion as well as the drama of a woman. ‘“‘The House on 56th Street’’ is probably the first motion picture to make the history of a gorgeous city mansion once the home of a young, wealthy society couple, and, thirty years later, a garish night-club and gambling hall, the setting for a striving emotional drama. Interwoven with the history of her home where she began life as a bride, is the varicolored life of Peggy of the Follies, as Kay Francis delineates her in this picture. Spanning a period of thirty years in the history of both the mansion and its mistress, “The House on 56th Street” has for its background all the events that made the years from 1903 to 1933 memorable and colorful. It is there that Kay Francis first comes as the “Floradora” girl who married one of New York’s social lights. It is there she returns after a cruel blow by fate, to act against her wishes as a blackjack dealer for a notorious gambler. A famous historian once remarked that it takes less than fifty years for a New York house to fall from the home of aristocracy to the level of a tenement of vice, crime and degradation, so rapidly does the cen ter of fashionable population shift in the great metropolis from one decade to another. “The House on 56th Street” strikingly dramatizes this theory, besides being an absorbing story of a woman’s life and the sacrifices she is compelled to make for those she loves. Around Kay Francis as the star of the picture are grouped such seasoned players as Margaret Lindsay, John Halliday, Ricardo Cortez, Frank McHugh, Nella Walker, Sheila Terry, Henry O’Neill, William Boyd, Gene Raymond, Philip Faversham, Philip Reed, Renee Whitney, Helen Barclay, Pat Wing and Lorena Layson. The picture is based on an original novel by Joseph Santley, adapted for the screen by Austin Parker and Sheridan Gibney, the latter is also the author of “The World Changes,” Paul Muni’s latest starring vehicle. Robert Florey, director of many screen successes, directed. Kay Francis Held To Have Prettiest Feet Kay Francis, whose latest Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The House on 56th Street,’’ comes to the Theatre on cently named by the American Society of Chiropodists, at their annual convention, as one of the two stars possessing the prettiest feet in America. Frank McHugh Can Sing 400 Songs From Memory Frank McHugh, who is seen with Kay Francis in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The House on 56th Street, ’*now at the Theatre, knows more than four hundred old songs. He can sing and plays them from memory, one after another without stopping. Ricardo Cortez and Kay Francis in one of the scenes from “The House on 56th Street,” absorbing drama which begins its run atthe. Se Theatre. Margaret Lindsay, John Halliday, and many others are in the cast. Mat No.15 Price 10e Besides these two stars, Gene Raymond, Kay Francis Names Feet Have you picked names for your feet yet, girls? If you haven’t, you’d better get busy before all the good names are used up. The motion picture stars are all doing it. Kay Francis started it. Her nicknames for her pedal extremities are ‘‘Pete’’ and ‘‘Pattie.’’ The fact came out during the making of her latest Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The House on 56th Street,’’? which comes to the Theatre Robert Florey, director of the picture, had called Kay to go on the set. She called out: KAY FRANCIS Mat No.1 ‘CAre Pete scene’??? The director shook his head. He knew what she meant, but bystanders looked bewildered. Kay caught the look of mystification on the faces around her and laughed. ‘<T forgot you didn’t know who Pete and Pattie were,’’ she said. And she pointed to two shapely, smartly shod feet. ‘‘I never keep on these high-heeled slippers except when I know they’re going to be visible in a scene. The rest of the time I wear woolen slippers without heels. I’ve called my feet by their pet names ever since I was in the nursery.’’ Price 5c ‘n’ Pattie in this And now all the stars are doing at. —_—_ Nay « sancis Fooled By Artificial Flowers Artificial flowers, rather than real ones, are almost invariably used in the making of pictures. This because it ig often necessary to return to the same set and scene days after the first shot has been taken and it would be hard to duplicate exactly the original flowers. The artificial flowers used, however, could never be detected on the screen. They are so natural looking that they often fool which is just what happened when the players themselves, Kay Francis was handed a nose-gay by Gene Raymond during the production of her latest Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The House on 56th Street,’’ which -opens: 4b -thé = ..-:......iieiescjscssen Theatre on They looked so life-like she instinctively put them to her nose to sniff the perfume and was disappointed when there was none. Kay Francis Blondes Hair for First Time Kay Francis, the dashing brunette, appears as a blonde for the first time in certain sequences of her latest Warner Bros. picture, “The House on 56th Street,” which opens at the Theatre She is a brunette, her natural self, in the earlier part of the story and during the entire period when she plays opposite the blonde Gene Raymond. But in the sequence after she is freed from prison after serving a term on the charge of murdering an ex-lover, she is transformed into a blonde to evade the reporters. So she plays a brunette opposite Raymond and when he passes out of the picture, a blonde opposite the dark complexioned Ricardo Cortez. Page Five