Silver Screen (Jun-Oct 1940)

Silver Screen for September 1 The Man Who Plays Rockne [Continued from page 39] Not much, anyway. I felt so good, I trotted back to where the college boys were — we were using boys from U. S. C, U. C. L. A., and Loyola — and said, 'If any of you fellows can be that spry at my age, you'll be doing all right.' They started calling me One-Horseman O'Brien." Maybe playing football for two weeks straight was no hardship for him. But how about wearing that difficult make-up for three months straight? Wasn't that a hardship? Pat shakes his head. "My skin wasn't used to anything but greasepaint, and I was worried. I had heard about the tortures of trick make-up. But the only torture I suffered was having to get up at 5 every morning, to be at the studio by 6. It took three hours to get the make-up on. Forty-five minutes to get it off. "We worked on it nearly a month, before the picture. Perc Westmore studied photos Mrs. Rockne had, and blow-ups of newsreel shots showing Rockne from every angle. First, he would experiment on a plaster cast he had made of my face and head. Then he'd try an effect on me in person. Then we'd start all over again. "He had a tough assignment. He had to turn a Celtic into a Nordic— and one particular, well-remembered Nordic. And then he had to age the Nordic gradually, three different times. I wasn't prepared for the results he got. Neither were other people. The likeness startled them. And I kept scaring myself. I'd look into a mirror, unconsciously expecting to see O'Brien, and there would be Rockne, instead. It was eerie. "Make-up wasn't the word for what I wore. Make-over was the word. Every feature of my face was changed. The cleft in my chin was blocked out. My nose was flattened, and built out on each side. My nostrils were widened. My dark eyebrows were covered with blond ones. My eyelids were taped, to make my eyes look deep-set. My hairline was raised. And I wore a blond wig that had to be altered as I grew older. "I should like to stress at this time that no putty was used on my face. The entire facial metamorphosis was achieved with plastic rubber — which wasn't painful." So much for the outside. How did he get "inside" Rockne? "I studied recordings of his voice, slowed down my speaking tempo, tried to get his inflections. And the script was a big help. Robert Buckner, who wrote it, took infinite pains to make every word typical of Rockne. I studied newsreel shots of him, for little mannerisms. I remembered gestures he had used, the three times I heard him speak at banquets. I talked with people who had known him — people like Nick Lukats, who is in the picture and who scored the last touchdown for the last team Rockne coached. And I consulted constantly with Mrs. Rockne, who was the greatest help of all. She deserves most of the credit. "People think of Rockne as an aggressive leader of men. And he was that. But in the beginning he was shy. Mrs. Rockne tipped me off to that, and that's the way I play him at the start of the picture, which will probably baffle people, till they watch his gradual development. All his life he had a wide streak of humility, particularly with the clergy. We bring that out. He could be tough, and he could be tender. And he had a great sense of humor, loved a good story. There's a scene in a Pullman car where reporters ask him for a story, and he tells them a story about a Pullman porter, in dialect. Personally, I'd have liked more of that. But there were other things that were more important." Pat paused reflectively. "I've played football coaches before, and I've taken them in stride. But Rockne got under my skin. This time I wasn't playing just a coach — I was playing a great man, a human being who inspired other human beings. He had a code of living worth perpetuating in the minds of Americans, particularly with the way things are in the world today. "The scene I got the biggest bang out of playing was the scene in which Rockne defends football, before a committee of educators. There has been talk of discontinuing the game, substituting something of a less violent nature. One of the board has proposed hockey. Rockne reveals that he had suggested hockey, himself, to the president of the University — -who had wondered, with a little smile, if "it would be safe to allow any game that put clubs in the hands of an Irishman. The committee laughs. Then Rockne launches -into the most serious speech of his life. In which he says: 'Every red-blooded young man in every country is filled with what he might call the natural spirit of combat. In Europe and other parts of the world this spirit has manifested itself in continuous wars and revolutions. We have tried to make competitive sport act as an easier outlet for this spirit. And, gentlemen, I think we've succeeded.' "Don't get the wrong idea. He didn't stress football to the exclusion of everything else. It was, as he said, an outlet. There's a scene in which he speaks to the boys on the opening day of the season. 'You didn't come to Notre Dame just to play football,' he tells them. 'Don't neglect your studies. Football isn't that important. Five years from now, the public will have forgotten the best of you.' He hammers home that they are in college to learn, to develop character— something that will last. He keeps their perspective straight. "And his boys Joved him. There's a scene — lifted from life, like every other scene in the picture — that shows that. It's the end of the season, and Notre Dame has won the national championship. 'Rock' comes into the locker room after the game with the football, and says, 'Here it is. And the party is on me.' The boys whoop, 'We'll say it is,' and toss him into the shower, hat and overcoat and all. . . . The boys on the set crossed me up in that scene. They went through all the motions of making certain the water would be just the right temperature. 94 0 91 •Whoever saw a "fashion plate" with rough, chapped lips? Smart lips must have the smooth sheen of glossy red silk. So don't risk Lipstick Parching! Take advantage of the protection offered by Coty "SubDeb." This amazing Lipstick actually helps to soften . . .while it brightens your lips with the season's ultra -smart, ultra brilliant colors! THRILLING RANGE OF 9 SHADES! You'll like the dramatic shades of "Sub-Deb" Lipsticks! Newest of many grand shades is Magnet Red . . . very dashing, very red.