Screenland (May-Oct 1930)

110 SCREENLAND said, 'I was a gob. You didn't think I was going to be an opera singer. Just wait, they haven't given me Tibbett's part yet.' "After his graduation from high school, Lewis was a telephone clerk in the stock exchange. They liked him there. He was promoted and before he left, Mr. Stearns offered to loan me $80,000 to buy Jack a seat on the exchange. But Jack wanted to go on the stage. So he turned it down. The boy who took the seat paid back the $80,000 in the first two years. "You have read how Jack performed in amateur theatricals and went into vaudeville with Lulu McConnell. I really don't know exactly how he happened to go to Hollywood. Except he wrote me that he was going to take a boat ride to California. He was kept busy after he came west. "Jack has a sister, Sally, Mrs. G. A. Lindbergh, in New York. You know, he says hello to her every time he sings or talks over the radio. And she hears it, too. She's married to a tall Swede and they have two blonde children. Jack often used to go to their house in New York for dinner. "When Jack's first big picture. 'The Fleet's In,' played at the Paramount Theater in New York, the girl at the window knew Sally was Jack's sister and let her take the two children to the press row. When the little girl saw Jack on the screen, she 'rose out of her seat and asked, 'Is Uncle Jack going home to dinner with us tonight?' 'No, sh!,' said Sally, 'He's in the movies now.' 'Well,' said the little girl, 'when you're in the movies, how can you get out of the movies?' 'Listen, little girl,' said a reporter next to her, 'it's plenty easy to get out of the movies.' " Ev lives in her bungalow now and clips her papers. She goes down the boulevard each day and gets the new magazines. She laughed a lot about a theater advertisement for "Sweetie" in Portland. It read, "Jolson, go back in your corner, here comes Oakie." And Ev's eyes twinkled with amazement at the big lettering. "You see, it wasn't a friend who wrote the ad, because we haven't any friends in Portland." Every evening Jack calls his mother at six o'clock on the telephone and tells her whether or not he has to work. Every free evening he takes her out to dinner. Ev likes her Jack. And she's okay with him. The feeling is sort of mutual. She says he was never bad — just a boy. She thinks he is wise and lucky. And Mrs. Evelyn Offield. as usual, is right. Elsie Janis Now — Continued from page 29 had seen an opportunity. She and Her Gang leased a theater and offered New York an unpretentious, intimate, gay, lilting, friendly 'little' show that was an immediate hit. Why not the same idea for the screen? — she reasoned. It was at that moment that "Paramount On Parade" was incepted. For eight months, Elsie Janis gave supervision to the assembling of Paramount's distinctly new-type talking screen presentation. In her work she had full command of every resource available in the great motion picture production plant. Writers, directors, composers, artists as well as players in almost any number were hers to build with. She built with the unerring shrewdness that years of experience in every branch of stagecraft had given her. In addition . to her work as general supervisor, working with Albert Kaufman, an experienced studio executive, Elsie Janis served as director, dialogue writer, song writer and set designer. Two of the numbers in "Paramount On Parade" (there will be twenty in all) were directed by her. She, with Jack King, a composer, wrote three of the ten new hit songs that are sung. She sketched in advance the plans for several of the sets against which the various action is played and from her suggestion the artists in the department of set design drew up finished plans. It has been the most fascinating work of her life, she declares. "Imagine the thrill of building a newtype revue with thirty-five famous stars as a cast!" she said. "On the stage, as the general rule, we have but a few box-office 'names' to work with. Likewise, in the theater, we retain one composer, one lyric writer, to prepare the musical score. Here at the Paramount studios we have the choice of the best works of several composers, and the privilege to choose from the best works of a score of trained writers. Making 'Paramount On Parade' has been a matter of careful selection rather than a matter of searching for material and talent." Because of this, her first real experience in film production, Elsie Janis feels that the balance of her career will be devoted to Hollywood and its studios. Although she is repeatedly being urged to return to the stage, she finds in her new work the utmost satisfaction. To her, the real future of the theater is now in the field of talking, musical, films. The truth of this is pointed out by her in the fact that in Hollywood now are gathered some of the greatest figures of the theater. Maurice Chevalier, with whom she appeared in London in "Hello America," Chevalier's first appearance on the English-speaking stage, is prominently featured in "Paramount On Parade." Another great stage artist with whom Miss Janis once starred is Leon Errol. She played with him throughout the run of "The Century Girl" in New York. Errol, too, is in "Paramount On Parade." Miss Janis feels that her work with Maurice Chevalier was the most interesting .part of her new duties. He, to her, had always represented the epitome of perfection in the deft humor of musical comedy and the concert stage. "Maurice Chevalier is a true artist," says Miss Janis. "He possesses, to the fullest possible extent, that spark of personality, ingratiating charm and friendly spirit which enables a player to reach his audience. That is the 'secret' of his success. He reaches across the footlights and gathers the audience into his arms; plays directly to them, and they love him for it." It is this same spirit of intimacy and friendliness that Miss Janis attempted to capture throughout all of the many numbers in "Paramount On Parade." She arranged it so that Richard Arlen, George Bancroft, Clara Bow, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, Nancy Carroll, Ruth Chatterton, Gary Cooper, Skeet Gallagher, Harry Green, Helen Kane, Dennis King, Jack Oakie, Zelma O'Neal, William Powell, Charles Rogers and the more than thirty others in the imposing cast should be permitted to step off the screen, to get close to those 'out front' who came to be entertained. It was 'Her Gang' again. Elsie Janis' life as well as her present work has been interesting. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, fortyone years ago. From earliest infancy, according to her mother, who now is with her in Hollywood, Elsie gave evidence of her genius for pantomime and mimicry which in later life carried her to the top in her profession. One of her earliest recollections is mimicing a guest in her mother's home and receiving for her effort a resounding spanking. This guest was a woman always complaining of her ills in a thin, weak little voice that was annoying at least to the six-year-old Elsie. One afternoon, when this woman was at her home, Elsie retired to her bedroom, practised before the mirror for a short time, and returned to the parlor with an impersonation that none could fail to mistake. It was at the age of eight years that Elsie Janis made her first appearance on the stage. She played the part of a little boy in "The Charity Ball," a popular play of the day. When eleven years old, she made her New York debut as "Little Elsie" in vaudeville at the Casino Theater Roof Garden under the management of E. E. Rice. During the next three years, she toured all over the United States and became the best-known child actress of that period. Her work was to impersonate the famous stage stars of the day. Her first great success came in New York in the summer of 1905, when she appeared in "When We Were Forty One" at the New York Theater Roof Garden. In this play, her specialty of impersonating the great contemporary stage stars created quite a furor and she became an established star. During ensuing seasons, Elsie Janis was presented in: "The Vanderbilt Cup," "The Hoyden," "The Fair Co-Ed," "The Slim Princess," "A Star For A Night" (which was written by herself), "The Lady of the Slipper," "The Passing Show," "Miss Information," "The Century Girl," and many others. One of these 'many others' which perhaps should be mentioned was "It's All Wrong," of which she was partauthor and composer. It was in September of 1918 that she appeared with Chevalier in "Hello America" in London; that being sometime following his discharge from the French army because of wounds which had left him incapacitated for further military service. It was after the war that Miss Janis became producer of her own shows, a work she followed with such intensity of effort that it brought about her eventual breakdown and temporary retirement from the stage. The stage, however, was never the extent of Elsie Janis' full activity. She has, in addition during her career, written almost one hundred published song successes, several plays, several librettos for musical shows, many short stories in collaboration with Gene Markey, and has played in motion pictures. She once was starred by the Hobart Bosworth company in a picture, "Betty In Search of a Thrill." In appearance, the Elsie Janis of today is still the Elsie Janis of "The Slim Princess" and "The Century Girl," two of her greatest hits. The passing years have left little mark. Her smile is the smile of a youthful heart, her eyes flash with