The Mind Reader (Warner Bros.) (1933)

3rd day of run How Allen Jenkins Won His Comic Role in “Mind Reader’ Typing Hollywood actors in roles which make them famous, is a curious mixture of chance and the unfolding of natural ability. ~ Take Allen Jenkins, who plays a leading role in “Mind Reader,” playing currently at the... Theatre, in which Warren William and Constance Cummings have the leading roles. Jenkins came to the Warner Brothers-First National studios with a long record on the New York stage as a comic. His first role for this company, in fact, was the direct result of that fact. He played the comic gangster in “Blessed Event.” But because it was a gangster role, he was im mediately put on the studio lists as a heavy. Several pictures came up, and in each Jenkins played a heavy role. This was so displeasing to him that he stood up one day and announced to whom it might concern at the studio that he was a comic. “Ym funny,” he -said. “All right, go—be funny,’ the studio chiefs are said to have replied. Jenkins took them up—and was funny. He told them he wouldn’t play any role that was lacking in comedy. And that was funny—to executives. They took him at his word and cast him in “Mind Reader” agy a comic, Others in the strong cast. of this picture include Donald Dillaway, Clara Blandick, Robert Greig and Clarence Muse. The story is taken from a piv by Vivian Cosby, _direeted bgtevev.Del Ruth. The Robert Lord. Ath day of run Carnival Show For ‘“‘The Mind Reader’ Readied Over Night Being able to order a carnival show one day, and having it complete and ready to function the following morning is something that couldn’t happen’ anywhere in the world—except in Hollywood. When Warner-First National studios found they needed a real, live carnival for one sequence in “Mind Reader,” the picture now playing at the............. Theatre, with Warren William as the star, it was simply necessary to telephone to one man—and the trick was as good as done. Al Copeland, who delivers circuses and carnival shows to motion picture studios on a “while-you-wait” basis, is the magician who performs this overnight miracle. When Warren William, Director Roy del Ruth, Constance Cummings, Allen Jenkins and the other members of the “Mind Reader” company assembled for the opening scenes of the picture the following morning on the Warner ranch, there was a full-fledged carnival show, with barkers crying their attractions, two dozen sideshows with their gaudy banners and tents, and a motley crew of performers and freaks ready to do their stuff before the cameras. It’s an old story to Al Copeland. He’s been doing this sort of thing for fifteen years in Hollywood. Taking the spectator behind the scenes of the fortune-telling business, in its most picturesque phases, “Mind Reader” is the story of the rise of a carnival show spieler to the pinnacle of metropolitan society’s most fashionable “mystic marvel.” Several unexpected twists in the story are calculated to keep the spectator on the edge of his seat most of the time. Page Sia CURRENT PUBLICITY BIOGRAPHICAL WARREN WILLIAM Warren William declares that he is quite sure he always wanted, subconsciously, to be an actor, but it required a war to make him realize that he belonged on the stage. It wasn’t until after he had served in the Engineers’ Corps of the A. E. F., and the armistice had been signed, that Warren found himself by joining a theatrical troupe that a number of kindred spirits organized to tour the Army camps. in Europe. When he returned to America, the soldier-engineer-actor decided to find out whether lay audiences might not approve of his ability as definitely as his doughboy audiences on the other side had done. The Broadway managers inclined a favorable ear to his petition and soon Warren found himself in a Cut No. 21 Cut 15c Mat 5c road company of “I Love You.” A season in stock ensued, then Broadway gave him a chance in Rachel Crothers’ “Expressing Willie.” Talking pictures were still in the novelty stage when Warner Brothers invited Warren William to Hollywood. In such pictures as “The Honor of The Family,” “Under Eighteen,’ “Beauty and the Boss,” “The Dark Horse,” “The Mouthpiece,” “Three On a Match,” “The Match King” and “Employees’ Entrance,” he has risen steadily in ability and popularity. 5th day of run Constance Cummings Came Close To Not Getting Film Chance Constanee Cummings, who plays opposite Warren William in the Warner Brothers-First National production, “Mind Reader,” which is playing currently at the.............0... Theatre, nearly didn’t get in the movies at all. She came, just as did a lot of other young players, from New York to Hollywood during the first success of talking pictures. But unlike most of the others, she had her contract in her hand when she landed in the mecca of the flickers. She had been sure of that before she = Th » 4 . F =e z SS aa —_ aw mre Ot nd . p | Y:) ~ =. 2 Beet a ng (arise te screen SSS aaa ta pndge a foot away from New screen play is by Wilson MTZWerwa yeep Ned a Wess evo York. But while many of her friends who had come out without contracts went early to work in pictures, Constance, who was to have been used opposite Ronald Colman, was left idle for many weary months because the Colman picture had been called off almost immediately after her arrival. Discouraged, she was about to return to New York—had her bags packed, in fact—when a call came from another studio asking her to come to work. If the call had come an hour later, she would have been on her way back to New York, perhaps for ever. In the east with William and Miss Cummings in “Mind Reader” are Donald Dillaway, Allen Jenkins, Clara Blandick, Robert Greig and Clarence Muse. CURRENT Hollywood Has Its Own Snow Covered 42nd St. Hollywood is never supposed to have snow. But on one particularly blustery day for Southern California, players on the First National lot claimed that they actually saw snow. But the reputation of the California sunshine was safe. It was artificial snow sprinkled by prop men for a scene in “Mind Reader,” Warren William’s latest picture, which. is Wow Ob: the: a0. csmenn: Theatre. The scene in the picture depicts New York City in winter time. Warren William Asked to Tell Fortunes of Cast Warren William, now to be seen in the leading role of “Mind Reader,” a First National picture, at the Sie race Sacer nce eS Theatre, was so convincing in his role of crystal gazer during the production that many of the more supertitious players have applied to him for a private reading of their fortunes. 6th day of run Money and Love Form Bases for Questions Asked Soothsayers “An old fortune-teller in New York once told me that ninety per cent of all the people who came to him for advice asked questions concerning love or money,” says Warren William, who plays the part of a fortune-teller in First National’s production “Mind Reader,’ now Playing dt then. scans. Theatre. “A few wanted advice in business or expected revelations of what the future had in store for them on other matters,” the star continues, “but the vast majority of the ques tions put to him had to do with | wealth or affairs of the heart.” Numerous int on the inside of the fortune-telling “racket” in its various guises, such as mind reading \nd erystal-gazing, are afforded by “Mind Reader.” The elaborate telephonic and dictagraph devices used in the carnival shows by “seers” and “mystics” to impress the credulous are shown in action. Much of the story is laid in the picturesque setting of a cheap carnival show touring the inland states, before William, as Chandra the Great, graduates to New York and becomes the reigning consultant of the idle rich. Constance Cummings, Allen Jenkins, Clara Blandick, Robert Greig, Donald Dillaway and Clarence Muse are associated with Warren William in the picture, which was directed by Roy del Ruth. SHORTS Flag Pole Sitting No Fun to Allen Jenkins Allen Jenkins sat on the top of a pole 100 feet high for the biggest part of a day in taking scenes for “Mind Reader,’ a First National picture starring Warren William, now showing at the ....... ee Theatre. It was a cold day in December with a howling wind. Jen kins says he would much prefer shoveling coal for Satan. Allen Jenkins Finally Realizes Odd Ambition Allen Jenkins confesses that it was always his boyhood ambition to throw a brick through a plate glass window. It was not until he was a grown man, playing a. role with warren William in “Mind Reader,” a First National picture, now at $hO ce Saas Theatre, that the opportunity came to him. He now says that this particular complex in his nature is finally satisfied. B sresting sidelights SQUIBS CONSTANCE CUMMINGS “All’s well that ends well” is a particularly appropriate saying when applied to the motion picture career of Constance Cummings. Certainly the beginning of it was anything but auspicious. She was brought to Hollywood from -the New York stage for a part opposite Ronald Colman. Unfortunately, the picture was called off, and Constance was left with nothing but a return ticket to Broadway. Just as she was about to make use of it, another producer sent for her—and Constance Cummings has been an increasingly successful and popular actress ever since. A year later, (in 1931) she was chosen as one of the Wampas Baby Stars. Her most important recent parts have been with Harold Lloyd in “Movie Crazy” and the leading role in “Washington Merry-Go-Round” with Lee Tracy. Miss Cummings was born in Seattle, Washington, where she began to manifest her ability as an actress in amateur theatricals almost before she outgrew pinafores. CONSTANCE CUMMINGS in love with “The Mind Reader’ Out No. 22 Cut 15e Mat de ALLEN JENKINS Allen Jenkins has two paramount interests in life—acting and the ~5a, The screen and the , his first loves, and al = eww; i however, the sea has everything else beaten, says Allen. ee es OEE oe excellent boatsman, Allen likes nothing better than to spend a week-end on the water. He enjoys piloting a speed-boat, but it really isn’t half as much fun, he dacleres, as sailing. He’d rather watch a yacht race than a football game, and his ambition is some day to own the kind of a yacht he has dreamed about for years. As an actor; Allen Jenkins has gathered to himself considerable glory in the east of such plays as “Blessed Event,” “Rain,” “What Price Glory.” “The Last Mile,’ “The Front Page” and “Five Star Final.” In the picture “Blessed Event,” he duplicated his stage success, vesides appearing in such outstanding productions as “I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang,” “42nd Street,” “Rackety Rax,” “Employees’ Entrance,’ “Lawyer Man” and “Hard To Handle,” and now “The Mind Reader.” DONALD DILLAWAY Born in New York City, Donald Dillaway comes of a family that had distinct theatrical ability on his mother’s side. In spite of that, Donald left the theatre once and stayed away from it for six months with the intention of forsaking the stage and following a legal career. The law, however, failed to hold his attention and he returned to the theatre. Four years in vaudeville, an extensive experience in stock companies from Brooklyn, N. Y., to Denver, Colorado, and an enviable record in various Broadway productions are ample evidence of his success in his chosen profession. “Min and Bill,’ “Cimarron,” “Squadrons” and “The Animal Kingdom” and now “The Mind Reader” are some of the outstanding pictures he has played in.