Torchy Blane in Panama (Warner Bros.) (1938)

y (Advance ) Attor Paul Kelly Really Works on His: Valley Farm When Paul Kelly’s Irish eyes are smiling these days, it’s because he’s learning how to keep the vegetables from taking al session of the farm. It wasn’t always thus. When he and his wife, Dorothy Mackaye, first moved to 40acre “Kellymac,” in the lee of the hills at the northern end of. fertile San Fernando Valley in Paul Kelly got iis fm lessons in acting from peeping over his _ back fence. That fence sep arated his home in Flatbush from the old Vitagraph studio. So playtime used to find seven-year-old Paul perched on the fence watching the movie actors at work. Then his big chance came along! A director wanted to borrow some of Mrs. _ Kelly’s ee furniture to use “props,” and Paul persuauled his mother to loan it on the condition that they gave him a job. So Vitagraph got the furni ture and a juvenile for the munificent sum of $1 a day—and actor Paul Kelly was launched. Southern California, they were the rankest amateurs as farmers. So they sowed with a heavy hand — sowed beans, squash, tomatoes, etc. “And then,” said Kelly, “v began to be overrun. Everything grew in such abundance that for a while we feared we’d be smothered. Why, the bean vines threatened to wrap up the house and tie it in a bundle.” ter, Mimi. It That was two years ago. Since then Kelly has learned to Ww more _sparingly. learned lots of other things about farming, too, by taking a home study course in agriculture from the state university extension bureau. “Yousee? . he explained, “we’re determined to make our home on the farm hereafter, He’s — away from is: conheains of Hollywood life. So we’re both pitching in and studying all the © time.” Six feet of well ome Trishman, with curling brown hare and a 'w nning grin, he sat ina camp chair on the “Torchy Blane in Panama” set at Warner Bros. studio, awaiting the director’s call. Co-starring with Lola Lane, he plays Police Lt. Steve McBride in the latest of the famous series about the girl _ reporter and the cop, which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Beside Kelly’s chair on the set stood a basket of vegetables he’d just brought in for a pal. “Dorothy sent ’em,” he said, pointing to the basket, “when I told her the pens wife was sick.” But growing vegetables isn’t the only thing Kelly has learned about farming. For instance, he has five polo ponies, and he knows how to doctor them, even to pushing pills down an equine throat to offset colic. He frequently pitches in and does his own plowing, too, although he keeps two farmhands regularly employed. The farm plant includes a: for the ranch headquarters workmen and their wives, a guest house, and the main house. The latter, built in rambling “Old California” style, is a gracious, roomy structure with plenty of accommodations for the Kellys and their daugh overlooking the ranch. There is an orchard where all the trees are named for friends. And a flower garden, each bloom of which comes from a seed or slip contributed by a friend. Over all is an air of serenity and peace. A far cry from Hollywood, yet only 25 minutes for Kelly by car from the Warner lot. Whistled for Work Paul Kelly, the Steve McBride of “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, won his first stage job as a kid of seven because he could whistle through his teeth. It — was with David Warfield in “The Grand Army Man,” and the tune he whistled was “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” His first movie job was with the old Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn, New York. Mat Goscae. HE CARRIES THE TORCH for Torchy! Paul Kelly steps into the role of Steve McBride for the fifth and fastest of the newspaper series, “Torchy Blane in Panama’, now at the Strand. Page Two its throat. ers. "Country of origin U.S.A. Copyright 1938 Vitagraph, (Current) ACTOR BITTEN BY | STUFFED LEOPARD | Anthony Averill, the Warner Bros. “find’’ who was drafted from the ranks of St. Louis newspapermen, was bitten on the right hand by a stuffed leopard during filming of a scene for “Torchy Blane in Panama, ” which is now showing at. the Strand Theatre. It happened during the shooting of a scene in which Averill, playing an escaped bank bandit who was masquerading as a member of a fraternal order on a junket to Panama, seized upon the lodge’s mascot, the stuffed leopard, as a safe re pository for his loot. He pried the leopard’s mouth apart, then stuffed the stolen money down The animal’s jaw snapped shut as he was withdrawing his hand. The accident ruined the “take,” and before the scene was reshot a property man filled in as animal dentist by filing the stuffed leopard’s sharp teeth. After having the wound treated at the studio hospital, Averill returned and the scene was shot without further injury to him. “Torchy Blane in Panama” is | the fifth in the series of the Torchy adventures. Lola Lane and Paul Kelly have replaced Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane in the leading roles. Also in the cast are Tom Kennedy, Larry Williams, Betty Compson, Hugh O’Connell and othWilliam Clemens directed. 1. ¥ lands on a slope garious person, new ‘is never “Honey” and “Darl: Ine, eae . TORCHY * A. AME LP ine.” WHAT A PANIC FOR ‘PANAMA when Torchy Bline and her boy friend arrive to scoop the canal. Lola Lane and Paul Kelly are the BLANE = gk ae Mat 203—30c new starring team who head the cast of “Torchy Blane in Panama’’, soit: Frege be the next feature attraction at the Ghsee Theatre. ( sande ) Lola Lane Tells Lives Alone and Likes It at Garbo for “vanting to be alone,” but the truth of the matter is that there are other actresses who really feel the same way, and not for publicity purposes, either. And high up on anybody’s list of the “vantto-bealoners, ” oddly oe would be Lola Lane. Oddly, because Lola is a greShe likes the company of others. Or she is colapanigable and easily Mat 105—15¢ THE NEW TORCHY — Lovely Lola Lane takes over the role of — a the girl rep er in the Si of the. series “Torchy Blane in Pana ma’? now at the Strand Theatre. ee never comes down with an attack of temperament, and soon gets to know everybody’s history and troubles. Around the Warner Bros. studio you will find people hail-— ing her wherever she goes with “Hi, Lola” and “Hello, Pal.” It 9 and “Dear.” Such accepted « endearments for greeting ac tresses are generic. They apply to any woman. But Lola is individual. Intuitively, greeters recognize that fact and give her her due. And yet Lola refuses to make a home with anybody, even with her mother and two sisters. She prefers the independence of being by herself. In her charming cottage home at Reseda, out in San Fernando Valley and far withdrawn from hectic Holly: wood, she retires after studio working hours to read and study and—to be all by herself. License to reproduce with copyright llvwood for years has gibed g ceal her preferences for occa Questioned, she’ll reveal her reasons — as _ “And meee rv hed That’s how I notice granted newspapers, he makes no attempt to con sional solitude. happened one day on the set where she was working in “Torchy Blane in Panama,” in which she will be seen when it opens at the Strand Theatre next Friday. Her role of the adventurous gin. See was” an a that during a winter period when colds and flu were decimating not only her own company, but every company on the studio lot. “I keep going,” she said, “because I recruit myself and my strength by being alone. I really believe that everybody needs far more personal privacy than the world generally permits. When _ you’re alone, you have no sense of obligation to others pulling at you. You really can rest.” The vibrant little star, with her dark eyes looking out pierc ingly from an oval face crowned with a mass of dark, curling chestnut hair, is like a dynamo . around others. on ihe force & she ere ‘ree age ae ety speak to a soul.” rs of, reading after she’ll say. recharge my batteries. It’s we way Iusually do while I’m working in a picture.” A mile from her home live her sisters, Rosemary and Priscilla, together with the hills. Lola spends a lot of time visiting them, for all four | are a devoted clan. “But as for living with them, no,” she says. “I have to have hours by myself, in which to relax and sink into silence. It’s healing. My family knows, and they wouldn’t want me to do anything else. sg Was Giadiron ew All-American quarterback of 1929 was Russ Saunders, assist ant director of “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. He was the famous Southern California quarterback who took a Notre Dame kick-off that year at Soldier Field, Chicago, and ran the length of the gridiron for a touchdown. -— = = ee pind “ADVENTURE sically. \ a ; turned to work—and. Many re| : their mother, in a rambling home in Cidtaees KENNEDY REMAINS. IN NEW ‘TORCHY’ COMPANY LINE-UP Tom Kennedy doubled his hamlike fist (ham as in pork, not histrionics) and _ looked’ around for someone to fight. He thought he’d been called “missing link” during the filming of “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which comes to the Strand The atre next Friday. Lo'a Lane, Paul Kelly and Director William Clemens as sured him he was wrong. No one had called him a missing” link. Someone had said he was. the only remaining connecting link between the old and the — new in a series of pictures. That mollified Tom—six-feet two and 215 pounds of burly ex-prizefighter, now one of the best comedians in his peculiar line on the screen. A missing” link—he knew that was an in sult to a guy with a somewhat. atavistic and battered pan such as his. But a connecting link,. now Previous “Torchy Blane” pic-. tures, with Glenda Farrell and Barton MacLane, had built the popularity of the series and Mr. Tom Kennedy, the chief comedian in it. ; So Warner Bros., in making’ the “Torchy Blane” series bigger and better, starting with the current production, “Torchy Blane in Panama,” shifted the entire cast and even the director. Alone of the previous characters of any import in the show, there remains Kennedy, big and bungling would-be detective, police chauffeur and getter of laughs. The connecting link between the old series and the new! Lola Lane and Paul Kelly ere take the two lead spots in the new picture and handsome Anthony Averill makes his screen debut as a romantic villain. Gadgets Must Match _ Lola Lane, heroine of the Warner Bros. picture, “Torchy Blane in Panama,” which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday, has the reputation of being Hollywood’s most beautifully tailored lady. Since accessories. lend or withdraw distinction from the average tailored ensemble, Lola naturally shrinks from a motley collection of them. She can’t abide seeing Be gloves, belt and shoes all made of as many different materials. She believes at least two or three of them should match. She also dislikes accessories which contrast too vividly. MU ssoaseeh faa. Mat 104—15¢ NEW STAR TEAM—Lola Lane | and Paul Kelly play Torchy Blane and her detective boy friend i in the latest of the popular series “Torchy Blane in Panama’’, now showing at the Strand. magazines and other periodicals."