Screenland (Nov 1939–Apr 1940)

How Allan Jones Licked the Nelson Eddy Jinx! Continued from page 61 Joan Crawford and Fred Astaire. In those brief, tiny bits which flashed so quickly on and off the screen, Nelson Eddy had had no opportunity to prove himself as an actor. If Allan Jones had been, able to go to Hollywood the moment Mr. Mayer gave orders to sign him, there is no telling what might have happened. So inscrutable is Fate and so dependent are actors on good roles that Allan Jones might have become M-G-M's most successful singing star, and Nelson Eddy might have been forced to seek success at another studio. By the time Allan freed himself from his contract by paying $20,000 for it, Nelson Eddy was appearing opposite Jeanette MacDonald in "Naughty Marietta," and that picture made him a star overnight. Because of his success in that picture, Nelson became one of M-G-M's most valuable box-office stars. All of us movie fans grew lyrical about the Eddy-MacDonald team; we demanded more and more of it in pictures, and M-G-M naturally gave us what we wanted. But what about Allan? It was a cinch we weren't demanding him because most of us had never even heard of him, even though he had been singing in concerts and operettas for years. "When I arrived on the Coast," Allan told me, "Metro stuck me immediately into 'Reckless,' with Jean Harlow and Bill Powell. I was supposed to have a good part and to sing three songs., but it all dwindled down to my standing up in front of a piano and singing one song while Jean Harlow danced. The camera flashed once or twice to me to establish the fact that I was singing the song ; but it all was over so quickly that' if you closed your eyes for a few seconds, you didn't know I was in the picture. "Then I sat around for some time, and finally Metro sent me out on the road with the Marx Brothers in their comedy, 'A Night at the Opera,' which was to be made into a picture later on. Perhaps the idea of sending it out on the road was to find out how audiences liked it. "At any rate, there were executives at Metro who probably didn't think I was good enough for the picture, for my agent heard that they were seeking someone else for the part. Being an exceedingly shrewd person, he knew that there was an excellent way to handle that situation. He called up the studio and told the executives that I refused to do the picture because I felt the part wasn't good enough for me. "That did it. 'You mean Allan Jones is complaining about the role?' they blustered. 'You tell him to report to work right away.' " So Allan Jones did "A Night At the Opera," the picture in which, as one critic cleverly put it, the Marx Brothers made "a monkey house out of the opera house and a monkey out of opera." It was a mad, idiotic comedy — the best picture the Marx Brothers ever did, possibly because it was the maddest — and in it Allan Jones sang his first big song hit, "Alone," and scored what seemed a great hit. One reviewer said of him, "In Allan Jones you'll find a newcomer already soaring toward a lustrous spot in the film firmament on wings of song. Appearance, personality and voice provide him with a passport to picture fame." At that moment, Allan Jones looked a cinch for future stardom, and there didn't seem to be a reason in the world why he shouldn't become as great a star in his way as Nelson Eddy — no reason in the world except that Nelson Eddy had got there first. Over at the Universal Studio, they were having a great deal of difficulty finding an actor to play the role of the dashing, handsome Ravenal in "Showboat." For Ravcnal not only had to be a romantic figure, with a great deal of fire and personality, but he had to be able to sing as well. The role was one of those parts — like the role of Scarlett. O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind" or the role of the prize fighter in "Golden Boy" — which require an elaborate search before the right person for the part can be found. The Hollywood story is that Carl Laemmle and James Whale, the director, had tested 32 people for the role of Ravenal without finding the right person for the part, and that finally Carl Laemmle, worn out by all the futile discussion and endless testing, went to see "A Night at the Opera" in order to relax, saw Allan Jones and realized that at last he had found the ideal Ravenal to play opposite Irene Dunne. Allan played the role magnificently and again it looked as if he were on the verge of success. But over at M-G-M, he was still playing second fiddle to Nelson Eddy, and this is proven by the fact that at the very time he was making "Showboat" at Universal, on his days off he had to report to the M-G-M studio, where he was given a tiny bit in "Rose Marie," starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. Naturally, Nelson was given the best breaks, for the public was demanding him, and not Allan Jones. Allan had nothing to do except to appear in a couple of operatic sequences. "I appeared before a firing squad in the execution scene from 'Tosca' and in the death scene in 'Romeo and Juliet,' " he told me. "I was killed off in both those sequences." Allan chuckled, but as a matter of fact, he was gradually, slowly, but none the less actually being killed off. For nine months after his triumph as Ravenal in "Showboat," he was kept idle — and there is no surer way of killing a player than that. "All this time," Alan told me, "I was being paid; I was making an excellent salary; but that didn't satisfy me, for I wanted a chance to act. Finally the executives told me they were putting me into another Marx Brothers picture, 'A Day At the Races.' This time I really didn't want to appear in another Marx Brothers picture; I didn't feel it would get me anywhere. "Metro had promised me 'Firefly,' a picture in which I would be co-starred with Jeanette MacDonald. Now I was told that if I didn't make 'A Day at the Races,' they wouldn't give me 'Firefly.' So I gave in, made the Marx Brothers picture, and got 'Firefly,' my first big role at Metro, co-starring Jeanette MacDonald and myself. (That was the picture in which Allan sang the famous "Donkey Serenade.") The picture made a lot of money, and I thought, 'Now I'm going places. Now they're really doing things for me.' I expected a grand picture next." But the old Nelson Eddy jinx was still pursuing Allan. Although "Firefly" was successful, nevertheless the Eddy-MacDonald team had so captured the imagination of the public that ardent Nelson Eddy fans resented Allan Jones as an interloper when he appeared opposite Jeanette. It made no difference that Allan was STENOTYPISTS Win to I|pi|p1| day's preferred jobs and better pay. Stenotype's machine speed, accuracy and ease make your work faster, better, easier — and you get the credit. Progressive executives welcome this machine way of taking dictation. Stenotypy is easy to learn — easy to write — easy to read. You can train thoroughly in your spare time — at low cost and on easy terms. Write for interesting, free booklet, "Advantages to You in Stenotypy," describing the many opportunities in Stenotypy and telling how you may master it successfully. / The STENOTYPE V COMPANY Dept.34i9-ST. 4101 S. 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