Trailin West (Warner Bros.) (1936)

““TRAILIN’ WEST’ Cleese ely Dick Foran Can Take It And Proves It To Cowboys Star of “Trailin’ West’? Ribbed Unmercifully, But Always Comes Up Smiling Who are the most merciless ribbers in Hollywood ? Vince Barnett, you may say; or Director Woody Van Dyke or the combined forces of the Marx Brothers. Well, these gentlemen are pretty fair examples of the ribbing art, but none of them can hold a candle to the aristocracy of the horse operas—the motion picture cowboys. Any tenderfoot actor who has been taken from the dramas of the drawing room and thrust into the cyclonic confusion of a Western picture will vouch for this. Ribbing is as much a part of a screen’s cowboy’s life as are his high-heeled boots, his spurs and his chaps. And woe ta the weakling thespian who e¢an’t take it. A gent of this nature is the cowboy’s delight. He will be plagued from morning to night and will find peace only when he has finished his role and has turned in his unfamiliar Western outfit to the Wardrobe Department. All this will be vouched for by Dick Foran, red-headed hero of Warner Bros. series of Western pictures who, in the course of a year’s time, has taken the Western ribbing test and passed it with high honors. If he hadn’t —well, you probably wouldn’t be seeing him in such roles. Dick would have been forced back to the more conventional cinema of modish men and dinner jackets. But Dick Foran “came through.” He is now appearing as leading man in the First National picture, “Trailin’ West,” Now Showing ab ther... sake. a Theatre. His cowboy companions respect him now. They still rib him, and Dick ribs right back. That’s the true test of getting along with the boys from the plains. Billed as “The Singing Cowboy,” Dick received his first experience in a Western approximately a year ago when he played the leading role in “Moonlight on the Prairie.” The picture was an instantaneous hit with Western fans, but few of these people who saw the finished picture on the screen realized what the star had gone through before the film was completed. The cowboys started with Dick the first day of production. Just as the noontime lunch hour was called, a couple of the boys roped him and tied him to a tree. He Dick Foran Dick Foran, who plays the lead with Paula Stone in the First National melodrama, “Trailin’ Wiest. nowsatithete: eee Theatre. Mat No. 103—10c was kept there for a full hour while the entire company ate their box lunches in front of him. Dick was the star of the picture to the director and the pro ducer. To the cowboys he was just another tenderfoot who would have to either pass or fail the hard test of cowboy ribbing. The boys almost exhausted their routine on Dick before the picture was finished. They made him “dance” to the accompanying music of pistol fire; tripped him all over the set with their ropes; plagued him with rubber tipped arrows and doused him in the creek. Dick came up smiling every time. Foran is an old hand at all this now. He helps the boys out with their ribbing of new actors, and often takes a hand himself in turning the tables on the cowboys themselves. In their own words, Dick is a “darned good scout.” “Trailin’? West” is a thrilling drama of espionage in the Civil War period, with a Western setting, starring Foran. Others in the east include Paula Stone, Gordon Elliott, Addison Richards, Robert Barrat, Joseph Crehan, Fred Lawrence, Eddie Shubert and Stuart Holmes. Noel Smith directed the picture from the story and screen play by Anthony Coldeway. Paula Stone Is Hurt Watching “Double Fight” Paula Stone got so excited watching a “double” in a bit of furious action that she suffered a mishap and the “double” came through without a scratch. It happened during the filming of “Trailin’ West”, the First National new Western thriller, which=comes, tothé... <:.../ee AN WWepe ers) 2017 a a A next. Ordinarily Paula uses no double. She is an expert horsewoman and an athlete. The scene called for some rough-and-tumble fighting with two character men. Director Noel Smith didn’t want to take any chances of having the actress seratched up. So Paula’s double fought furiously with the men. Watching the battle from the _ sidelines, Paula became so excited she took a step forward and tripped over a chair. The double got through the scene without any damage, while Paula had a beautiful bump on her forehead. The actress says she would rather do her own doubling after this, as it’s safer. “Trailin’ West” is a_ stirring story of spies and guerilla warfare in the West during the Civil War period. Dick Foran has the stellar role while others in the cast besides Miss Stone inelude Gordon Elliott, Addison Richards, Robert Barrat, Joseph Crehan, Fred Lawrence, Eddie Shubert, Henry Otho and Stuart Holmes. The story and screen play are by Anthony Coldeway. Both—Abe Lincoln’s Spies Dick Foran, the hero—and Smokey, His Wonder Horse—with Paula Stone, beautiful leading lady, portray President Lincoln’s secret agents in the First National melodrama of gold thieves, wild Indians and Government spies, “Trailin’ West,” which is now showing at the... Mat No. oe eaines 201—20c Foran Steps From Dress Suit Roles To Westerns Star of “‘Trailin’ West” Proves To Be Among Most Versatile Actors Versatility might well be the middle name of Dick Foran, the young actor who, overnight, steps from ‘‘full dress’’ roles in high society dramas to the part of leading man in swashbuekling stories of the cowboy and Indian type. Foran, who has the stellar role in ‘‘Trailin’ West,’’ the First National picture, which comes to the theatrexone. 2) a: next, has accomplished this extraordinary feat several times in the space of a little over the year’s time that he has been under contract at the Warner Bros. studio. He was signed, in fact, to play the leading roles in the Westerns. But he proved so versatile an artist that he is constantly being given prominent parts in other pictures far removed from the extiting melodrama of cowboy roles. Thus the actor will one day be dressed in an immaculate dinner jacket and playing the part of a society playboy. The next morning in spurs and chaps and a ten gallon hat, he will report on the set of his new Western picture; ready for action of distinctly two-gun type. Dick’ doesn4t.-mind it a; bit: Believing that versatility is the true test of any actor, he is getting an acting education that few actors have the time or inelination to acquire. The wardrobe change doesn’t affect Foran’s mental attitude towards the part. He has learned to take care of that himself. Billed as the “Singing Cowboy,” he has a fine voice which he cultivated while attending Princeton University. An actor trained and schooled to the rough riding of cowboy pictures would have a_ pretty tough time stepping into a role in a picture of a totally different type. Foran had an equally hard experience stepping from drawing room roles into the rough and ready parts demanded by the horse opera. He went to it with a will, though, and ig now a rough rider with the best of them. The actor had prominent roles in Joe E. Brown’s latest picture “Earthworm ‘Tractors,’ and in “Public Enemy’s Wife” before he began work on the new western. “Trailin’ West” is a thrilling drama of espionage in the Civil War period, with a Western setting, starring Foran. Others in the cast are Paula Stone, Gordon, Elliott, Addison Richards, Robert Barrat, Joseph Crehan, Fred Lawrence, Eddie Shubert and Stuart Holmes. Noel Smith directed the picture from the story and screen play by Anthony Coldeway. Indian Chief Plays In New Western Jim Thorpe, noted Indian chief, athlete and actor, has a featured role in the new First National western picture, “Trailin’ West,” now showing at the............ Theatre. Thorpe did not have to step out of character for the role, as his part is that of an Indian chief. He appears in support of Dick Foran and Paula Stone who have the leading roles. Joseph Crehan Plays In First Western Joseph Crehan achieved a lifelong ambition by being cast in a Western picture after 27 years on the stage and in films. Crehan enacts a featured role in support of Dick Foran and Paula Stone in “Trailin’ West’ the First National picture which COMES Or RUC et. teres Gees ne esen Theatre on Six Foot Extras Hired to Cover Up Phone Poles A hurry call for six extra players over six feet tall was issued at the Warner Bros. studio. during the filming of “Trailin’ West,” Dick Foran’s latest Western thriller, which comes to the Theatre on next. The casting had little trouble in rounding them up for plenty of tall men are registered on the regular lists, but their job was a bit out of the ordinary. office The six men were needed to stand in front of as many telegraph poles on a Western street built on the studio back lot. The company was shooting out from the interior of a hotel window on the ground floor. The six telegraph poles lined the street outside within the camera range; and the action of the story takes place several years before telegraph poles made their appearanee, If the poles had been “props” they could have been taken down, but they were for real use. Therefore the extras, garbed as cowboy street loungers, took their places in front of the poles and the scene was shot. “Trailin’ West” is a thrilling melodrama of the West during the Civil War period when guerillas were undermining the gov-. ernment and spies were on the watch to catch them. Foran has the stellar role while others in the cast include Paula Stone, Gordon Elliott, Addison Richards, Robert Barrat, Joseph Crehan, Fred Lawrence, Eddie Shubert, Henry Otho and Stuart Holmes. Noel Smith directed the picture from the story and screen play by Anthony Coldeway. Dick Foran Spends 6 Hours in Hold-Up Back in the wild western days when the holding up of stage coaches was a recognized outdoor sport, it took hardy desperadoes about three minutes to shoot up a coach. The same act today takes approximately six hours. This was discovered by a Warner Bros.’ location unit shooting a _ stage coach hold-up sequence for “Trailin’ West,” the new Dick Foran thriller which comes to the iy Re ee (Pheabre sone as. ses « Paula Stone SIIIIIIITIIITTT TTL A, Paula Stone, who is featured with Dick Foran in the First National thriller, “Trailin’ West, now. of the. ee Theatre. Mat No. 101—10c Page Seven