The Little Giant (Warner Bros.) (1933)

(Advance Feature) Star of “Little Giant’’ Won Race Against Stork Edward G. Robinson Worked Day and Night To Complete Picture Before His Baby Was Born ONG hours and night work—especially night work—are the L bugaboos of motion picture stars. Edward G. Robinson, however, shattered all tradition and precedent during the production of ‘‘The Little Giant,’’ which comes to the THGALTG ON) <3 , by announcing that he was willing to work every night, if necessary to complete the picture. Eddie was more than willing to work nights. In fact, he clamored for it. He was ready to work the clock around on this picture, with just enough time out for a few hours’ sleep and the necessary meals. There was a real reason behind Robinson’s sudden passion for work. He was making “The Little Giant’ in a race against Dr. Stork, who was hoovering over Mrs. Robinson (Gladys Lloyd in the theatrical world) in New York. Eddie was anxious to postpone “The Little Giant” until after the arrival of the heir. First National was equally anxious to have the picture made at this time, to fit in with their production schedule. | All Tracks Cleared | Finally, after much calculation and many conferences, Robinson agreed to a hurried trip to Hollywood for “The Little Giant,” with the studio guaranteeing the star that the picture would be expedited by every possible means. The pic. ture was given right of way over all others, with executive orders to every department on the lot to sidetrack everything to finish the pro. duction in record time. The final day of production was one that Eddie Robinson won’t soon | An Hour to Go At 12:15 luncheon was ealled. By 1:30 the company was back at work again, this time on the Warner Bros.-First National lot, for the final scenes of the picture. Thanks to the team-work of the entire troupe — every man and woman of which was pulling for Robinson to get away on time to make the Limited that night —the last shot was in the “box” at 4:30 P. M., and Eddie shook hands all around in a final grateful farewell. There was still an hour’s work ahead of the star in the photograph gallery, however, where he had been booked for a special series of portrait and character studies before leaving for New York. By six o’clock that evening, Robinson finally reached the studio bungalow where he has been making his home during the making of “The Little Giant.” There a couple of hours were put in on the final details of packing. It was nearly eight o’clock before ~~~ “torget. "rhe “@onrpany ad’ worked, |found time to think of dinner. under the direction of Roy Del Ruth, from early Saturday morning until sunrise Sunday morning. After about six hours’ rest, shooting was resumed until the early hours of Sunday evening. But there was still almost a full day’s work to be accomplished before the picture could be called finished. Robinson was up that morning at 6:30. At 7:00 o’clock he was swallowing a hasty breakfast. Half an hour later he was busy answering his final mail and giving his valet orders for packing, in readiness for the transcontinental trip that was to start late that night. In between issuing orders he was getting into his costume and makeup for the day’s work. At 8:45 he was on the polo field a few miles from the studio, in the costume of a player, mounted and ready for the first shot of the day. Page Twelve “Little Caesar’ finds he isn’t tough enough to compete with society’s polo players in his latest hit “The Little Giant” now at the Strand. Cut No. 30 Cut 30e Mat 10c Other members of the cast, which includes Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Kenneth Thomson, Shirley Grey and Russell Hopton, gave up their evenings in order to help the star win the race with the stork. At 9:45 P. M. of the last day, Eddie was headed for the Santa Fe station, where a delegation of friends and fellow-workers was waiting to bid him good-bye before the “Chief” pulled out. At 11:00 o’clock, with the Limited finally wending its way eastward, a tired star crawled into his drawing room berth and dozed off into a dreamland—full of babies, no doubt! | He had beaten the stork. A few days after his return to New York his wife presented him with Edward G. Robinson Jr., whom Robinson immediately nicknamed “Little Caesar.” “The ‘Little Giant” BIOGRAPHIES MARY ASTOR Mary Astor was born in Quincy, Ill. Later she moved to Chicago where she entered a beauty contest conducted by a motion picture magazine and won an honorable mention in the preliminaries. So she went to New York, got into the finals and came out second. Mary then got work in a New York studio playing in short subjects and finally was selected to play opposite Huntley Gordon. Later she played leads with Eugene O’Brien and Glenn Cut No. 41 Cut 15e Mat Se oa Hunter. Fnially she turned to Hollywood where she has appeared in a number of outstanding features. Among her more recent pictures are ‘A Successful Calamity,’’ with George Arliss, ‘‘Holiday,’’ ‘*Behind Office Doors,’’ ‘‘White Shoulders’? and ‘‘The Lost Squadron.’’ She is married and has a daughter. HELEN VINSON Helen Vinson, brown-eyed blonde, started her stage career in Hous: ton, Texas, not far from her birth ; Fate. +f ; _Place, ‘the city of Beaumont, leev-_ ing the University of Texas in her sophomore year to take the lead in ‘The Charm School.” Her appealing speaking Out No. 40 voice and Out 15¢e Mate fashionable figure com bined with her native histrionic ability won her much acclaim in such plays as ‘‘Berlin,’’ ‘‘ Death Takes a Holiday’? and ‘‘The Fatal Alibi.’’? Now under contract to Warner Bros.-First National, she has appeared in ‘‘Grand Slam,’’ ‘Lawyer Man,’’ ‘‘I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang,’’ «Two Against the World,’’ ‘‘ Jewel Robbery,’’ ‘‘ They Call it Sin,’’ ‘*Crooner’’ and others. She plays an important role in the Edward G. Robinson starring vehicle, ‘‘ The Little Giant.’’ RUSSELL HOPTON Russell Hopton was born in New York City February 18, 1900. After spending two years in college studying agriculture he left to take a job as a surveyor. He quit to become a film salesman which he credits with giving him an interest in theatricals. His first stage work was in a small part with a stock company. He proved to have talent and rapidly rose to leading roles. After four years on the stage he turned to the screen, just after the talking pictures became the rage. Hopton has been playing for the sereen since that time, and has been highly successful in character and leading parts. Among the pictures in which he has appeared are ‘‘Elmer the Great,’’ ‘‘The Man Who Played God,’’ ‘‘ Blonde Crazy,’’ ‘‘The Star Witness,’’ ‘‘Arrowsmith’’ and ‘‘Street Scene,’’ in addition to his present production with Edward G. Robinson in ‘‘The Little Giant.’’ tt tt pe en FEATURE STORIES (Advance Feature ) ‘Screen’s Most Vigorous Star, Calls Self Lazy Edward G. Robinson Says He Hates To Work, But His Attitude Toward Roles Belies His Words 66 HE laziest man in the world’’—that’s Edward G. Robinson, according to his own statement. He loves to reiterate it, and watch its effect upon his listeners. “‘T hate to work,’’ is one of Robinson’s favorite dicta. As he says it, he turns a quizzical eye upon you to see how you take such an incredible statement. Incredible because anyone who knows Eddie Robinson, or has watched him creating a characterization, day after day, on the big stages at the First National studios, recognizes him as one of the most painstaking, conscientious, scrupulously exact actors on the stage or screen, Nevertheless, Robinson insists that he hates to work. There is no record, up to date, that he has ever convinced anybody that the assertion is true. But he can say it with such simple, deep sincerity that you are almost tempted to believe him—until you remember what a consummate actor he is. Uses Boundless Energy | Ironically, the man who regards himself—or wants you to believe that he does—as a paragon of indolence has a record to his credit of some of the most vigorous, dominating, vital parts that the screen has brought forth. ‘‘Little Caeser,’’ the underworld potentate—the driving, relentless editor in ‘‘Five Star Final’’— Mike Mascarena, the terror of the sea’s most savage monsters in ‘‘ Tiger Shark’’—Yates Martin, the wmulti|{ millionaire silver king of ‘‘Silver pevllar’?’—-every vue vf them rulers in their own sphere, fired by boundless energy and unlimited ambition. In his latest picture, ‘‘The Little Giant,’’ which comes to the PROBATE “ONS ce .2 on Bars , he is once more a King in Gangland, still an absolute monarch, although the story runs in a lighter vein and a merrier key than did ‘‘Little Caeser’’ and deals with his efforts to break into high society, after he has made his pile and quit the beer racket. What gives the lie to Robinson’s legend of his own laziness is his attitude toward the parts he plays. He does not merely study his character. He saturates himself with it. He gets inside his role—or, if you prefer, gets his role inside himself—to such an extent that, talking to him on the set while he is working in a picture, one has the definite feeling that one is talking to two persons at once—EHdward G. Robinson, and Little Caesar, or. Mike Masecarena, Yates Martin The Honorable Mr. Wong, or ‘‘ Bugs’’ Ahearn, as the case may be. 5 While his pictures are in the course of production, Eddie rigidly eschews all forms of social activity. Even in his leisure, he is no party addict. Attending plays and concerts with Mrs. Robinson are his preferred ways of spending his evenings. But while he is working, he foregoes these as well. Two or three hours of studying and analyzing the char EDWARD G. ROBINSON Edward G. Robinson, star of ‘‘The Little Giant,’’ was born in acter he is playing in the light of next day’s work—listening to some of his favorite operatic or symphonic records—and so to ved for a good night’s sleep. | Works intensively | No detail of the part he is playing —whether in a line of dialogue, the incidental business of a situation, or a trifle of dress or makeup—is too small to miss Robinson’s critical attention. His mind, while on the set, is incessantly at work on some phase of the character he is portraying, like the brush of an artist, adding touch upon touch to his canvas. At times, he will engage in cordial and animated conversation with his fellow-players. More often than not, he will sit by himself, absent-minded to all outward appearances, in reality weighing and pondering the scene that he is to play within the next few moments, in all its implications and significances. . jade a-epec we = — of them, but indulges in rew. ois most violent forms of exercise are golf and walking. And he likes to do his walking through the streets of cities, full of people, where he can watch his fellow-beings. He is a stranger to most of the other popular recreations. He is not interested in swimming or boating. The ocean is to him merely a convenient highway to other parts of the world, when the urge to travel seizes him. Fishing and hunting have no allure for him. He doesn’t ride horseback. Pets don’t interest him. He enjoys motoring only if someone else is driving, so that he can devote himself to stuying the country he is passing through. Music and pictures are Robinson’s absorbing interest—next to the art in which he excels as an interpreter of human character. In ‘*The Little Giant,’’ which is a hilarious story of a_ retired beer baron’s efforts to turn gentleman and break into society after the United States had legalized good beer. Edward G. Robinson is surrounded by an exceptional cast of players, including Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Russell Hopton, Donald Dillaway, Kenneth Thomson, Berton Churchill and Shirley Grey. Roy Del Ruth directed the picture, which was adapted by Wilson Mizner and Robert Lord from Mr. Lord’s original story. Roumania in 1893. His family came to America and became naturalized citizens during his early youth. He was educated in the New York public schools and took his Master of Arts degree at Columbia University. Having discarded ambitions to become a minister, then a lawyer, he entered amateur theatricals, J but this career was interrupted by the World War, during which time he served in the U. S. Navy. Returning to the stage, he portrayed a wide variety of roles and became acclaimed as one of the finest actors of the American stage. Among the long list of stage successes in which he played Mat 5c are ‘‘The Brothers Karamazov,’’ ‘‘ Right You Are If You Think You Are,’’ ‘‘The Firebrand’? and ‘‘The Deluge.’’ Hollywood called and he signed a contract: with Warner Bros.First National Pictures, scoring hits in ‘‘Little Caesar,’’ ‘‘Smart Money,’’ ‘‘Five Star Final,’’? ‘‘Two Seconds,’’ ‘‘Tiger Shark,’’ ‘‘Silver Dollar’’ and his present picture ‘‘The Little Giant.’’ Cut 15¢