White Bondage (Warner Bros.) (1937)

‘White Bo | gas Sty RM ee NS, ee cies aoe 2 vg Rather Play Hick Girl Than Park Avenue Type Jean Muir, Star of ‘“‘White Bondage,” Is Happy in Rural Role Some motion picture actresses may object to what has flippantly been termed ‘‘dirty drama,’’ but not Jean Muir. She grabs the opportunity to act in these vital earthy stories with both hands. ‘“What can you do in a picture where you must be dressed up to within an inch of your life in tomorrow’s fashionable clothes, and be nothing but beautiful, gracious and wellmannered ?”’ she asks. In “White Bondage,” Warner Bros.’ dramatic story of Southern share croppers, their struggle with the soil, the meager living it offers them in return for virtual slavery, and their eventual emergence into a happier and fuller life, Miss Muir has a real down-to-earth role. The picture is now the feature attraction at the Theatre. “Yd rather sit in this dirty hardware store, on this keg of nails, surrounded by the _ conglomeration of stuff such as is sold in the far south to the poor whites, wearing this faded gingham dress and flat-heeled shoes, than I would in the most beautiful replica of Park Avenue’s most fashionable penthouse,” she said. “T was never so happy as when I was assigned the lead in ‘White Bondage.’ The part is so rich in its opportunities for characterization. It means a chance for interpretation that every real actress must recognize as being of inestimable value. “T play a girl of the foi and speak, in the dialect of the locality. Even the way I stand and walk is changed. And that is as it should be. “The role is a challenge, because contrary to what may be the general impression, it is much easier to swank across a modern drawing room than it is to completely absorb and sink oneself into the character of a girl whose forebears are people who have been tricked and cheated all their lives. “Such a girl thinks and acts differently. Her viewpoint is colored by the life she and all the people around her are forced to lead by these lords of the land that rob them. In order to properly portray that type of person one must really submerge oneself in the part!” “White Bondage” is a stirring melodrama portraying the struggles and romances of the shareeroppers who grow and pick cotton in the Deep South’s remote regions. Miss Muir is starred, with Gordon Oliver as her leading man. Other notables in the east inelude Virginia Brissac, Gordon Hart, Howard Phillips, Harry Davenport, Joseph King, Addison Richards, Vie Potel and Eddie Anderson. COTTON FIELDS MADE TO ORDER Movie makers are the modern magicians. They don’t pull rabbits out of hats, but, they create cotton fields overnight. For Warner Bros.” “White Bondage,” a Southern melodrama starring Jean Muir, Director Nick Grinde asked for a threeacre cotton field. He wanted it on the Warner ranch at Calabasas where no cotton has ever grown. Almost overnight the field appeared. Truckloads of cotton plants covered with white bolls, were brought down from the cotton district near Bakersfield and planted. “White Bondage” will come to CHOP Hees eke Theatre -on®.> 24 Page Two BLEW $400,000 IN FOUR YEARS Gordon Oliver, leading man for Jean Muir in the Warner Bros. drama ‘White Bondage,” now at the Theatre, inherited $400,000 from his father’s eState six years ago. At the end of four years he had two dollars left. He had lost and spent the entire fortune. He says he’s happier nowadays, because he has nothing to worry about and lets the stock market alone. Held In White Bondage Jean Muir, Gordon Oliver and Virginia Brissac (left to right) are three principals in the drama of down-trodden share croppers, mob rule, and a love stronger than death in “White Bondage” the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Theatre, on ....... . Mat No. 201—20c SCOTTISH STAR WEAVING WOOL Jean Muir has gone back to her family’s home country for her newest hobby—weaving. She has already designed and woven a fabric out of which she had made a brand new suit. Jean is starring at present in “White Bondage,” now showing at the Theatre. ACTRESS HAS FAMED PUPILS Virginia Brissac, playing the character part of Sarah, a villainous old woman, in “White Bondage,” gave Harold Lloyd and Glenda Farrell their first stage jobs in her own theatre. Her work in “White Bondage” may be seen now at the Theatre. OFFICIAL BILLING Warner Bros. 40% present WHITE BONDAGE 100% with Jean Muir—Gordon Oliver nae Phillips—Joseph King—Harry Davenport Virginia Brissac—Addison Richards Directed by Nick Grinde A Warner Bros. Picture 75% 60% 60% 40% 20% PRODUCTION STAFF Director Story and Screen Play by .. Photography DY ooecccccccc-—Film Editor ........ Art Director .......... Dialogue Director .. Technical Advisor Pe hte rept ~ Sapo aed rea psc AI is eS 2 Nick Grinde . Anthony Coldeway . Lu O’Connell, A.S.C. Frank Dewar oe ee Esdras Hartley eginald R. Hammerstein DES aw Mrs. Elizabeth Hearst CAST OF CHARACTERS Betsy Anns. Se eee Jean Muir ....Gordon Oliver .Howard Phillips Pe. Joseph King David Graydon...... Cal Sanders... Trent Talcott. “Pap”’ Craig... Harry Davenport Sarah Taloott nce cnn Virginia Brissac Kip Gillis... ..Addison Richards Deo) 21 NER, Ecard ees Cy Kendall JOCTROWNCY ss nn Milt Kibbee ais BIEN man ht Beet D8 | Gordon Hart .Eddie Anderson ee Bernice Pilot ..Trevor Bardette Ditties SUR COU oe Sees EOS Vic Potel Zach Walters. ..Herbert Heywood COUPID aos cscs saeco Tom Wilson Pass 3 Fee eek. eS RN Guy Usher 1 Ee TO pCR Ss ere en Jack Mower Widow CalKr rs icecccccccccconnee Georgia Simmons COME 652 0ck Caccinta © 9, ahaa 5486 feet 60 minutes Running Time .......... i PROP MAN'S JOB A T0UGH ONE ON WHITE BONDAGE On the spike on Emmett Emerson’s desk was this order: Eighteen bales of cotton, sixteen pitch forks, twelve bales of hay, two sets of harness, four horse collars, nine cotton-wagons, two surries, a box of dried apples, fourteen sacks of flour. There were a good many other items on the order sheet. It wasn’t sent by a farmer to a order house. It was sent by Movie Director Nick Grinde to his property man, Mr. Emerson. All these things and more were needed for “White Bondage” the Warner Bros. melodrama of the cotton-fields, now showing at the Theatre with Jean Muir as the star. Most of the props for “White Bondage” presented problems. Piteh forks, buggy whips, bales of hay and cotton, horse collars and sets of harness aren’t plentiful in Hollywood. The hardest prop on the picture was a car which Gordon Oliver drives. It is a travelling workshop, complete with motor, drills, grindstone and _ tools. Emerson couldn’t find one so he built it. “White Bondage” is a stirring melodrama portraying the struggles and romances of the sharecroppers who grow and pick cotton in the Deep South’s remote regions. Jean Muir is starred, with Gordon Oliver as her leading man, Other notables in the east inelude Virginia Brissac, Gordon Hart, Howard Phillips, Harry Davenport, Joseph King, Addison Richards, Vie Potel and Eddie Anderson. JEAN LEARNS FILM CUTTING Jean Muir, star of Warner Bros. drama of the cotton fields, “White Bondage,” is learning to be a film cutter. Every night she spends half an hour watching such noted film editors as Ralph . Dawson and George Amy work on the big Warner pictures. “White Bondage,” in which Jean has Gordon Oliver for a leading man is now at. the Theatre. THE STORY In the general store on the Maywood plantation near a small Southern town, David Graydon (Gordon Oliver) a Federal man, is posing as an _ itinerant mechanic. He has really come to the plantation to investigate conditions of the share croppers. When he arrives he finds “Pap” Craig (Walter Davenport) and _ his granddaughter, Betsy Ann (Jean Muir), in the store. They have just delivered their cotton and have been told that they owe the storekeeper, Trent Talcott, (Joseph King) money. Dave also meets Cal Sanders (Howard Phillips), another sharecropper, who is arguing with Kip Ricketts (Addison Richards) charging that he is being cheated out of his cotton. Snipe is in love with Betsy. Angered by their treatment at the hands of Trent, the sharecroppers hold a secret meeting and determine to steal back their cotton from Trent. They burn Trent’s warehouse and take the cotton. The sharecroppers are suspicious of Dave, but he finally convinces them— even Snipe—that he is a government man. He goes back to the store and makes Sarah give him the books. Sarah and Trent plot to get Dave out of the country. They learn that Snipe has the cotton and tell the sharecroppers that they got the information from Dave. The sharecroppers decide to lynch Dave. He has gone to Pineville to tell Trent that he has the goods on him and they follow him. Just as they are going to set fire to his gasoline-soaked clothing. Betsy rushes to his aid. She stops them and tells them that Dave has all the information he needs to send Trent to jail. KIDDING IS NEW WAY T0 GET T0 TOP “Look here, Max, get me a regular leading man role for my next picture, will you, like a good feller?” said Gordon Oliver to the Warner Bros. casting director, Maxwell Arnow. Gordon was kidding. He had done only a few small parts at Warners, and before that, a little stage acting. He didn’t know at the time just how his efforts as a young villain in Jean Muir’s “Onee a Doctor” had panned out. So he thought he had as much chance of becoming a regular leading man in one more picture as a pig has of turning into a gazelle! He said as much. “Now listen, Gordon, don’t be cynical,” said Arnow, grinning. “Suppose I were to listen to your pleas, and give you a chance at a leading role, right now. Would that make you happy?” “V’d know you were kidding,” said Oliver. “Miracles don’t hap pen.” “Just the same, they’ve happened in your ease,” chuckled Arnow. “This morning, my boy, I received word that you had been okayed for the lead opposite Jean Muir in ‘White Bondage.’ Regular, straight romantic hero. Yowll go to work Monday.” That’s why Gordon has promised never to be cynical again, nor to doubt that there’s a Santa Claus, or that one should plant potatoes in the dark of the moon and never whistle in a dressing room! He’s to be seen in this— his first romantic lead—when the picture opens on at the Theatre. HIS LOVE LEAD TO SCREEN WORK Gordon Oliver, Warner Bros. featured player, who is supporting Jean Muir in “White Bondage,” now at the Theatre, became an actor because he was in love. Six years ago, a producer was casting the play “Elizabeth the Queen,” which was to be presented at the Belasco theatre in Los Angeles. Oliver was in love with a girl who had a part in the show. To be near her, he applied for a small part and got it, expecting to go on tour with the girl. The day the show opened, the girl got fired. Oliver didn’t and went on the road with the show. BIOGRAPHIES Jean Muir Tall, brown-haired Jean is New York born of Scottish parents named Fullarton . . . Was ambitious to be a surgeon but nerves wouldn’t stand it... Decided to become a teacher and went to Paris to study that profession . . Returning, accidentally met on the ship John Drinkwater, famous playwright . He induced her to join his company on a tour of America ... Played many cities, then got a part in Broadway hit . . Engaged by Warners for film “As The Earth Turns’ three years ago . Is 5 feet 7, 125 pounds, lately let her hair turn brown from its fixed-up gold ... Current picture ‘““White Bondage,” at “the Be Mi ltr Puch ree A Theatre. Gordon Oliver Native Los Angeles boy, Gordon Oliver couldn’t get movie work in any studio . Went to San Francisco, then New York, doing small bits on stage ote Didn’t dream of dramatic work until 1929 stock-market crash . cleaned him of half-million father, Los Angeles banker.. . modest living on stage, working as salesman between engagements ... Was in road-show of ‘Petrified Forest’ “when Warner Bros. scout decided he’d fit in film version with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart ... Brought to Hollywood and signed to contract . A Placed under long contract .. . Current picture ‘‘White Bondage,” at the Ethel Foes Theatre. Country of origin U. S. A. Copyright 1937 Vitagraph, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright is waived to magazines and newspapers.