Wonder Bar (Warner Bros.) (1934)

Berkeley Makes His Girls Comfy The 64 beautiful dancing girls who were lucky enough to win places in the gigantic dancing ensembles of ‘Wonder Bar,” the First National musical drama which comes to the Theatre On oo... are not just “movie extras” to Musical Director Busby Berkeley. While not receiving the plaudits entitled to Kay Francis, Dolores Del Rio, Dick Powell, Al Jolson and other stars in the cast, the chorines do get some “breaks.” Honest-to-goodness set chairs, “just like the stars use’ were given the girls with their names lettered on them. But there were many drawbacks to having been chosen. First of all they had to live up to Berkeley’s rigid routine which proscribed late dates and enforced an early retiring hour. But they got the opportunity that the ordinary extras didn’t get. They could sit in their own set chairs and talk to the stars, although usually an extra can’t approach a star. Dance In Gigantic Berkeley Numbers Prosperity came back to Hollywood chorus girls and dancers when Busby Berkeley started work on the spectacular ensembles for the First National picture ‘‘ Wonder Bar,’’ which comes to the Theatre on ..........00 As Director Llyod Bacon completed his five weeks’ work with the all-star cast in the dramatic part of the production, Berkeley moved in to do his two gigantic ‘numbers. ’’ Just as in ‘'42nd_ Street,’’ ‘Gold Diggers of 1933’’ and ‘¢Footlight Parade,’’ the Berkeley unit was a very distinct organization in itself. It started into action after the ‘‘floor was cleared’’ of the story filming. There can be no waste time, no lost motion. That means before each ensemble is filmed, a thorough and intensive session takes place. It takes days and days of work the girls and boys under Berkeley’s supervision, ‘“Wonder Bar’’ carries an allstar cast including, Kay Francis, Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Cortez, Dick Powell, Al Jolson, Hal LeRoy, Guy Kibbee, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda and Fifi d’Orsay. Grace And Beauty — The Waltz Beauties Of Every Size And Color In Berkeley Choruses If you are looking for beauty, seeing is believing. ‘*T can’t tell you what feminine beauty is,’’ explains Busby Berkeley, ‘‘but when you see it you don’t need to be told.’’ Berkeley, creator and director of the musical dance ensembles of the First Nationa] musical drama, ‘* Wonder Bar,’’ now showing AG TNE: .2citeccectines Theatre, was at the time assembling another of his remarkable collections of feminine allure for the chorus ensembles. For the fourth time in a single year he was on a still hunt for beauty. ‘There is no set rule to follow,’’ he declared. ‘‘Sometimes selection depends upon how a girl enters a room, what that first impression is, her poise, her grooming, the combination of a hundred indefinite qualities that spell personality. ‘*So, you see, I can’t tell you what feminine beauty is. It’s something you know when you see. And a girl who may appear beautiful to me might be only plain to someone else. We try to please everybody when we gather a chorus together. ‘‘We try to make sure that each girl is beautiful in her way. That isn’t always my way or your way — but it’s a way that is certain to be pleasing to some members of every audience. That’s why any man gathering a beauty chorus should have the help and advice of at least three people. We don’t all see women through the same eyes.’’ Berkeley’s choruses are famous for their beauty, nevertheless. They are not the matched choruses that were so popular a few years ago on the stage. The present chorus of 300 includes big girls and little girls, plump girls and slim girls, brunettes and blondes, red heads and in-betweens, flashing beauty, pensive beauty, girls that are typed as languorous, cute, peppy or statuesque. There is an all star cast in ‘¢Wonder Bar’’ which includes Al Jolson, Kay Francis, Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Cortez, Dick Powell, Hal LeRoy, Guy Kibbee, Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Louise Fazenda, Fifi d’Orsay and Merna Kennedy. Lloyd Bacon directed the production from the screen play by Geza Herezeg, Karl Farkas and Robert Katscher. The waltz still reigns as king of the dance. Especially as done by Ricardo Cortez and Dolores Del Rio, and the 300 Busby Berkeley dancers in “Wonder Bar,” First National musical sensation now playing at the Strand. Page Fourteen Mat No. 31—30¢ Berkeley Aimed at Something New In “Wonder Bar’ Sets Transformation of architectural skill and engineering genius into a creation of beauty, almost breathless in its magnitude, a tremendous task, was accomplished on the mammoth ensemble set of ‘©Wonder Bar,’’ the First National dramatic musical which comes to the Theatre (0) | ar ee a in his effort to create ‘‘Something new, something different’’ in the musical comedy field, supervised the construction of a cireular, revolving sound stage with sixteen immense, glistering sheets of glass enveloping a revolving black floor. Hundreds of ‘‘dream _ trees’’ shake their silver and gold foil leaves te the brisk breeze; stately arches surround the set; black vel vet drapes harmonize with the chorines’ scanty costumes, as they dance; soft lights melt the composite group into grace, rhythm, ecstatic beauty. But this was not easy to attain. Engineers, carpenters, electricians, iron-workers and countless prop men worked for weeks. Worked with enthusiasm to insure the successes of the spectacle. A great iron track was built near the roof of the sound-stage to carry the heavy derricks, machinery and camera and sound equipment necessary to take the ‘‘top shots.’’ The picture is based on the internationally famous musical drama in which Al Jolson starred on the American stage. An all star cast plays with Jolson in the sereen production by Earl Baldwin, including Kay Francis, Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Cortez, Dick Powell and Hal LeRoy. Lloyd Bacon directed the picture from the screen play by Ear] Baldwin. Musie and lyries are by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, These six darling damsels, along with three hundred others, are members of the Busby Berkeley dancing chorus which appears in 6 ‘Won r Bar’ coming to the Strand. Mat No. 28—20c¢ Introducing—Filmland’s Smart-Looking ChorusMen HO are Hollywood’s chorus men . . and why? Nobody seems to know, despite the fact that these legions of forgotten screen men play very important parts in the success of lavish film musicals, and even outnumber Hollywood’s famous chorines nearly two to one. Whenever there is a prospective job they appear by hundreds. When the work is over they disappear, not to be seen or heard from until a new musical picture starts. Where they Jive, what they do, what their hopes and ambitions are, no one has known until recently when the 110 of them who appear in “Wonder Bar,’ the latest First National musical drama, now showing at the Theatre, were pinned down to an exhaustive questionnaire. The average age of a chorus man is 23 years, his height is 5 feet, 11 inches and he weighs 169 pounds. Of the 110 selected by Busby Berkeley, who created and directed the gigantic ensembles for the picture, only 41 had ever studied dancing with a career in view. The others had just picked it up, mostly by necessity, and managed to bluff themselves into jobs until they became proficient. Hollywood’s male dancers hail from every state in the Union, except Florida, according to the representative group in “Wonder Bar.” Two claim Alaska as their home, which might imply that it’s too hot in Florida to dance, and too cold in the Arctic not to. The chorus men are drawn from all social ranks, one being the son of a governor of an eastern state. When not dancing before the cameras only 57 of them . divide themselves ‘gets will do other work. And they into clerks, gasoline station attendants, soda jerkers and salesmen. Ninety-two of them are serious about their work, while the remaining minority do it for the adventure and thrill of being in the movies. After work 38 of them return home to waiting wives, and 16 of them have children. Despite the fact that they are working for First National, they don’t list a feminine star on the lot among their favorites. Mae West and Helen Hayes split the honors. However, Jimmy Cagney first place among Hollywood’s masculine stars. Only half of them hope to continue as dancers, others want to play straight roles or else get some other job not connected with motion pictures. The chorus ranks are merely an emergency measure for them now. WNinetysix claim to be able to sing better than the common variety of bath-tub tenor and 74 are musical. “Wonder Bar” will have a well-educated dancing line for 29 of the men attended college. But they give an excellent account of themselves in “Wonder Bar,” the spectacular numbers created and directed by Busby Berkeley.