The Petrified Forest (Warner Bros.) (1936)

FOREST” “THE PETRIFIED Exploitation e ITS HOT FROM HOLLYWOOD Here’s something new that should be right down your editor’s alley—Intimate, interesting details of what the stars do after working hours—their hobbies, tastes, fancies and activities. The art can be used separately if the editor wishes. This should be crack stuff for Saturday or Sunday special feature pages or magazine sections. Written for newspapers by newspapermen who know both Hollywood and news. Feature will be continued in subsequent press books and include all Warner stars. Sold as a unit including art and two heading mats. Mat No. 301 —30c. ood AFTER HOURS Leslié Howard is one motion picture star who doesn’t go around weeping for his “lost privacy,”’ and bemoaning the fact that his working day begins when he gets up and ends only when he retires. Some far less scintillating film luminaries haye adopted the pose that only their screen personalities belong to the public that makes them possible — that what they do after hours is nobody’s business. * * * It happens, however, that Hollywood is movie conscious 24 hours a day 365 days every year. Most of the nation’s pictures are made in Hollywood or its environs — the big money of the community is earned in the film industry — merchants, banks, professional men and labor depend on the film colonies — and their earnings for a livelihood. Consequently Hollywood is much less interested in the role the player is acting at any particular moment than in his hobbies, habits and habiliments. Hollywood doesn’t care tinker’s hoot what the most glamorous film star does while working on a picture. It does want to know, and insists on finding out, what that star does after hours. And out of Hollywood go fashions, in interest, as well as of gowns. * * * So consider the case of one of the greatest of all film stars — Leslie Howard, who justifies Hollywood’s desire for news of the screen headliners when they are neither acting for the camera or in public soirees. * * * Leslie Howard is a very fortunate young man. He likes to loaf —and is very busy, consequently he enjoys his loafing. Everyone knows, except businessmen who retire and live to regret it, that the only way to really have fun doing nothing, is when you have a lot of important things to do. Perhaps that explains Hollywood after hours — the really important people have so much work that they can play only in stolen time — so they play, each in his own particular way — with all the zest of a boy who has sneaked out of school. * * * Leslie Howard, for instance, is one of America’s busiest men. He jumps from screen to stage, from New York to Hollywood, from Hollywood to London and from London back to New York. He writes plays; he produces plays and stars in them; he is an outstanding film star, and reads scores of manuscripts in search of good film and stage material, for in common with Paul Muni his is the last word in the selection of his screen vehicles. * * * It was Howard, it will be remembered, who in association with The gentleman with the candid camera, in the foreground above, is Leslie Howard. Below is Leslie Howard the polo enthusiast, with one of his string of ponies. The Leslie Howard who tinkers with motors is shown at the right above. Into the wooden-beamed living room at the lower right are admitted only the intimate friends of Mr. and Mrs. Howard. Leslie Howard’s routine “after hours” for one day, the inquisitive cameraman discovered, includes photography on the desert, a pole game, doing his own automobile repairs and rehearsing in his living room, among other activities. Gilbert Miller, produced the big smash hit of last season on Broadway, in which he was not only a partner, but the star. That was Robert E. Sherwood’s famous ‘‘ The Petrified Forest,’’ the film ver sion of which will open at the 0... LRCQU CON 5a ; with Howard and Bette Davis in the stellar roles. * * * Being a romantic screen and stage hero is one thing — there have been quite a number of “romantic” stars and their escapades get into the papers frequently. But to be every woman’s ideal of what she would like her husband to be, is quite another, and involves many responsibilities. Leslie Howard alone fills that niche. In fact, he revived the ancient institution of matinee hero in New York, after a lapse of many years, and West 44th Street, New York, was treated to a spectacle unique in this generation — the sight of long cues of women waiting patiently just to see him leave the theatre, and on occasion, to see one of their number faint at his feet. * * * Leslie Howard, therefore, is undeniably the actor of romance, but after hours, he is anything but romantie except on a horse — for he is Hollywood’s most inveterate polo player, as well as one of the best in the country. One of his hobbies, and one which he insists on indulging despite the pleas of movie magnates who fear an injury to him, is to play polo whenever he gets an opportunity and to play it with utter fearlessness and disregard of consequences. He owns a string of three fine polo ponies, and when he isn’t engaged in a match game, he can be seen galloping along the bridle paths in the vicinity of his home or practicing shots in company of his little daughter Leslie, who is quite an expert herself. * * * : Howard has a second “after hours” pastime that he cherishes almost as much as he does his horses. That is photography. It happens, however, that the star doesn’t always confine his snap shooting to after hours, much to the consternation of his directors. When he was making “The Petrified Forest,” Director Archie Mayo assigned a special corps of three assistants to keep track of Howard, who has a habit of disappearing during the course of the action. He was usually discovered somewhere in the catwalks above the sound stages, taking pictures of his fellow players. His delight is to catch expressions when the camera subject is unaware that he is being photographed. Howard has a dark room in his home. does his own developing and prints his own pictures. He owns a battery of cameras ranging from a candid camera to the most complicated motion picture equipment, and could easily take his place in the first ranks of cinematographers. * * * Playing polo, training horses, and photography would seem to be enough to fill in the after hours of almost any busy man. But for Howard it is just a beginning. Page Ten He has two children, one a youngster who looks so much like his father that he has been appointed “official double” and signs his Dad’s name for autograph collectors, and a young daughter also named Leslie. The three are inseparable companions, and Howard insists upon spending part of each day with them. * * * Then he raises dogs — and not all of them are bench entries either. Howard, like most Englishmen, is fond of walking — almost as fond as he is of riding — and he can frequently be found tramping through the woods in the vicinity of his home, accompanied by all his canine family. There is also his home, in the furnishing of which the star has been given considerable leeway by Mrs. Howard. Howard spends much of his time in his library. He writes a great deal, and is a regular contributor to ‘‘Vanity Fair,’’ ‘The New Yorker’? and other smart magazines. If he stopped acting he would probably become a writer. He writes plays too. He starred in his own §*Murray Hill’’ which was very successful. * * * As an individual, Leslie Howard is very popular with everyone. He’s a very nice sort of a fellow, except for his pipe, which was not aged in a box of rose leaves. But that pipe is a talisman to him — he smoked it in his first stage hit, and it has a place of honor in his affections. His favorite dish is rare roast beef washed down with stout. He is careless about his clothes, and his favorite outfit is a pair of old flannel trousers, a nondescript blazer jacket and a beret. He doesn’t dance well, and thinks dancing a waste of time anyway. His singing voice is none too good and he knows it, but is nevertheless an habitual bathtub warbler. His chief characteristic is independence. He absolutely will not play a role in which he doesn’t believe. He turned down a flattering offer to play opposite Greta Garbo in “Queen Christina” because he believed himself unfitted to the part. * * * That’s the Leslie Howard after hours. Not much time left for parties and premieres, because there is also his garden which gets his personal attention. He’s by way of being an expert horticulturist, and sees that his favorite flowers get the attention they need. He himself wonders where he gets the time to accomplish all the things he does, but he does conserve his energy. * * * He takes a nap whenever possible during the making of a picture — and he’ll pop into any unoccupied dressing room and go to sleep while the searching parties look for him in vain. Rus. (Sample Newspaper Ad) HOLLYWOoD After Hours Starting Saturday, this paper will present the first of a new Hollywood series — covering an angle of Filmland life hitherto untouched. What your favorite stars do after working hours. Now you ean read all about where they dine ... What sports they’re interested in... what books they read... . how they spend a sunny afternoon... who’s dancing with whom and a thousand other intimate, interesting facts. This Saturday you'll spend a few leisure days with Leslie Howard, if you read HOLLYWOOD AFTER HOURS in the DAILY RECORD