Showmen's Trade Review (Oct-Dec 1944)

December 2. 1^44 SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW 25 to Selling New High 'Can't Help Singing' Throws Spotlight on Film Industry Saga of Deanna Durbin's Rise from 'Kid' Discovery in 1936 to TopFlight Adult Star in 1944 A scene from Universal's "Can't Help Singing," starring Deanna Durbin. changing trends of public taste; the improving technic and technical facilities of studio craftsmanship. Production elements put into the latest vehicle for the star, (original music by Jerome Kern, Technicolor photography, etc.) provide an illuminating clue as to the showmanship applied by Universal as Miss Durbin won increasing prominence in a notable career that started when she was fifteen years old and carried through that span when a girl is entering, living through and emerging from the so-called awkward age. History written prior to Miss Durbin's day was liberally dotted with instances in which a child star was a child star as long as the producers could keep her one, and when it was impossible a:ny longer to cash in on cuteness, that star not infrequently disappeared from the screen. Some few later made comebacks ; others wrote finis to their careers in pictures. But it was just about at the stage when the average child star was accustomed to bow out, that Deanna Durbin started her career. A seemingly simple, but by no means inconsequential factor that had to be taken into account by Universal's executives in I I "Deanna Durbin in Technicolor" plus music by Jerome Kern are the main elements stressed in the newspaper advertising (typical example above) and the color displays that will appear in general and fan magazines (reproduction at right shows the style in general which characterizes the showselling for "Can't Halp Singing" to magazine readers). ...MUX'. contriving suitable vehicles for their immensely able and popular star, was the aforementioned sensitivity of the loyal Durbin fans. These were many and it was most important to cater to their tastes and the ideals they had set up for their favorite. Therefore it was necessary to coax them along to acceptance and approval of the artistic as well as the physical growth of the star and also to the changing trends of popular screen entertainment. Rigid adherence to the same formula inevitably would result in loss of interest on the part of the loyal fans and impede Universal's outstanding star in the natural development of her fullest potential in attaining wider popularity and artistic stature. ' Daring Enterprise Advanced Star's Career Universal essayed and won out in what was a daring venture when it was decided to reinforce their discovery's popular success as a vocaHst in her first picture with a follow-up vehicle that featured one of the world's foremost conductors (Leopold Stokowski) and a symphony orchestra introduced as an integral element of the romantic story of a young girl possessed of an extraordinary singing voice and talents. This move, motivated by a purpose that has been applied to successive vehicles for the star, was based on the decision to keep on backing a demonstrated winner with higher stakes each time their star entered the lists with a new bid for popular approval at box-offices of the picture theatres here and abroad. From that point on the studio carefully provided its star with stories that were progressively older, both in the age of the heroine and in the acting demands. Leading men were shrewdly chosen to conform to individual demands of successive vehicles and also with regard for the growing prominence or established standing of the actor selected to handle the leading male assignment in Miss Durbin's pictures. Universal's intensive advertising campaign to exploit the newest Durbin production is an all-out effort that reflects the company's high enthusiasm for the star's first out-and-out musical. It is candid recognition that the star has arrived and that the company intends to keep her at the top of the heap. This campaign, and the magnitude of the new production, reflect the careful development of an asset that had been created (Continued on Next Page)