Evening Star Newspaper, April 21, 1940, Page 73

AMUSEMENTS. “"They Don’t Know the Formula for Mzr. and Mrs. Dick Powell Are Filmdom’s Happiest They Have Achieved Something That Is the Awe and Envy Of All Hollywood HOLLYWOOD. Ordinarily a biography, even in Hollywood, is the story of one person’s life. But this is a biography of two persons, combined into one story because these two have achieved a oneness during the last few years that is viewed as remarkable by the capi tal of filmdom. The two are Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, the couple wh(;m the fairy tale writers had in mind when lived happily ever after.” You walk into Joan’s dressing room, or Dick’s—for they’ll both be in the same room—and the two of them are so close together that you get all mixed up and say, “Miss Powell—er, I mean, Mr. Blondell.” But they both laugh and you can cover up your confusion instantly and with good grace. Then, before you know what's happening, they go into their routine, without realizing what they're doing, and you are amazed. It goes like this: Dick may be combing his hair be- fore the mirror and Joan may be doing something else, with her back to him. Suddenly Dick will whip out a pack of cigarettes and hold them over his shoulder and Joan quite unconsciousiy will reach over her shoulder and take a cigarette out of the package. No word has been spoken by either one, but Dick knows Joan wants a smoke. The thing is not pat. They've never rehearsed it. It just happens. I happened in the dressing room while they were being asked how they managed to get along so well. Stupid question, but here is really a remarkably happy couple living on the movie merry-go-round and not falling off. “Do you have a formula, a set of rules or something? You know, that good old ‘give and take’ thing?” That is what they were asked. Dick and Joan looked puzzled. Joan got an answer ready first. Their Battle Is in a Film. “Rules? Formula?” she repeated, “Is there a formula?” Then she laughed. “Why they've written one of our battles into the script of ‘I Want a Divorce!”” This is the picture Joan and Dick are co-starred in at Paramount cur- rently. They both explained how they contributed the fight scene, re- placing the one originally written because their own scene was so real. | Just before Dick left Hollywood on & recent personal appearance tour Joan was helping him to pack and she ran across a package of his love letters to her, written before their marriage three and a half years ago. “Funny,” mused Joan, “how you've changed. Why don’t you say things like that now? Why don't you write poems and things like this any more?” From this Joan went on to point out to Dick that for a long time she had known he had fibbed one evening when he said he was going to Palm Springs. A letter reminded her of the Palm Springs episode. Dick tried to laugh off the incident, but Joan only pressed him harder. “Where did you go, actually?” she wanted to know, and without either of them realizing it, they were in a cat-and-dog fight up to — DANCING. PERFECT YOUR Fox Trot, Waltz, Tango, vidual instruction and CING Rhumba, Indi- group practice. 10 Lessons for $5.00 Tap dancing for professional or as exercise. Capitol Dance Studio, 525 13th St. N.W. & ANNOUNCING DON COSARI NATIONALLY KNOWN Teacher of pro- fessionals is now eonnected with ANTHONY WEST STUDIOS. Classes nmow forming in professi and all eharaeter stage routines. All students guaran- teed ensagements according to their ability. Call Na- tional 2500 for information re- @arding courses. TALENT FURNISHED FOR ALL OCCASIONS. ANTHONY WEST STUDIO 1722 Pa. Ave. N.W. Natl. 2500 BALLROOM DANCING Expertly Taught by ANTHONY WEST and his staff of competent instructors Beginners and Advanced Courses Visit our newly remodeled Studio at 1722 PA. AVE. N.W. NATL. 2500 Just 2 blocks from the White House Open 10 AM. to 10 P.M. in the Romantic Atmosphere of the Canellis Ballroom “Tues.-Fri -Sat., 9-12 rivate Lessons by Appointment. Rates lower ‘than ever beforel Find out how little it costs now to learn to Dance from experienced teachers in the ATR-CONDITIONED Canellis Dance Studios 724 11th St. N.W. District 1673 COMBINATION COURSE S'l 0.00 ‘Dancing ’ Last Day to Enroll Tues., April 23. - || at ARTHUR MURRAY’S Learn the Rumba Fox Trot or Waltz in 6 hours and sur- prise your friends. It's fun and inex- pensive. Enroll now &n time for summer vacations. Try a half-hour lesson. Btudios open until /‘, - 10 P.M. for visitors. W Sl Ethel M. Fistere's " ARTHUR MURRAY STUDIO 1101 Conn. Ave. Di. 2460 ¥ : | seen in “Rebecca.” they tossed out that one about “they e e their ears. Far into the night it went, until Joan finally shook her head real hard and said: “Hey, Dick.” “What?” muttered Dick. “You're the handsomest guy in town,” said Joan, and then he was hugging her. Yes, in Hollywood. Show business has given these two a priceless sense of humor which precludes the possibility of a protracted quarrel, and they are so attuned mentally that they actually carry on short conversations with each other without a word being spoken. You ask Dick and Joan where they live, expecting the usual Hol- lywood description of a Hilltop manor or a sprawling ranch in the San Fernando Valley, and again your eyebrows go up in surprise. “We live in Hollywood.” “You mean right in the town?” “Of course,” you will be told by Joan, who is the one who insists on | living there, “and why not? We live in a little No. 1 block from Fair- fax and half a block from Sunset boulevard. It's handy. There's a drug store around the corner, the 5-and-10 is almost across the street. And kids like to look in those win- dows and prowl around the stores, too.” Joan warms to her subject, as you continue to be puzzled. “Why should we move out to the valley, just because the others are doing it? Why, I'd never sleep a ‘wink if I heard a bullfrog croak or a cricket crick. I've never lived in the country, so why should I start now? We'd die of loneliness if we couldn't hear horns honking and things like that.” Then you ask how many servants there are in the Powell-Blondell es- tablishment, because that's one of the most popular questions in a Hol- lywood interview. “Sorry,” Joan said. “We're be- tween servants just now. The couple we had helped themselves to an armload of our silverware and even backed up a truck and hauled away the slot machine we had been play- ing in the garage.” Raised in a Theater Trunk. And Dick added, “And we can'’t do anything about it because we were not supposed to have the slot machine, even for our own amuse- ment. But that jackpot was build- ing up for a long time.” Joan was raised in a theater trunk, practically, after she emitted her first gurgle in New York City in 1909. Her father, Eddie Blondell, was for 20 years a well-known vaudeville comedian, and his family not only traveled with him, but played in his act. Joan started in the act as soon as she could walk. Until Joan was 7 years old each of her birthday anniversaries was cele- brated in a different country, her dad getting bookings almost all over the world. She went to school in New York, California and Texas. Between bookings one winter Joan set some sort of record by holding a job as department store clerk exactly 12 minutes. She broke away from the family act and took a part in a New York stage production called “Penny Arcade.” A Holly- wood studio bought the play and took Joan and another player in the cast—Jimmie Cagney—to Hollywood to play leads in it. The picture of the play was entitled “Sinner’s Hol- iday.” It clicked and Joan and Jimmie were proclaimed star ma- terial immediately. An Arkansas Boy. Joan played in eight pictures with Dick before they were married. “I Want a Divorce” is their ninth film together. Because they are so happy with each other they asked Producer George Arthur to change the picture’s title on the first day of shooting, so that there could not be even a suggestion of a rift in their marriage, ever. The studio had purchased the title from a radio program, though, and would have tossed the purchase price out of the window by changing titles. Joan is a natural gray-eyed blond, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 115 pounds. Her favorite dish is chop suey, her pet aversions are bridge, phone calls and sand under her fingernails. And now about Dick. He was born near Mount View, Ark., and was discovered while serving as master of ceremonies in a Pittsburgh the- ater, being signed by Warner Bros. He sang in a church choir in Little Rock before entering show business, learned to play a dozen musical instruments and to sing. Dick made good in “Blessed Event” and followed with a score of hits, radio getting its share of his services. He is 6 feet tall, weighs 172 pounds, plays golf well, rides and swims. He eats ham and eggs when, where and however available, has blue eyes and very dark red hair. The only thing Dick and Joan don’t do together is yachting. Dick has a good boat, but Joan doesn’t want even to discuss it. She gets seasick when the thing is mentioned. So Dick goes alone. They have a son, Norman Scott, 5 years old, by Joan’s former marriage, and a 19-month-old daughter Ellen. (Released by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) Wanger Film Role Goes to Sanders George Sanders is an important addition to the cast of Walter ‘Wanger's “Foreign Correspondent,” now in production under the direc- tion of Alfred Hitchcock. Sanders Jjoins the cast that already includes Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, Albert Basserman, Robert Benchley, Eduardo Ciannelli - and Edmund Gwenn. Sanders, who has proved himiself to be one of the screen’s most versatile actors, was most -recently tions in which he has played promi- nent roles are ‘“House + Gables,” Uprising’ ulun:‘:ta:’ Nasl 8py.” Other produc- | - “THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTO! HOLLYWOOD FAMILY AT HOME—Upper left: Dick Powell and Joan Blondell relax after a day’s work on “I Want a Divorce.” Upper right: Between servants, they are undecided whether to cook their own dinner or eat it raw. Lower left: Not Yet Has the Showboat Been Sent to Its Last Anchorage By Betty Bryant. BUFFALO, W. Va. “Here Comes the Showboat.” This clarion call, thanks to Edna Ferber's famous novel, “Showboat,” and its magical setting along the shores of the Mississippi in the days when that mighty river was the broad highway of the Nation, has become one of America’s most cher- ished amusement heritages. Almost as cherished a literary tra- dition is the belief that the show- boats sailed into the sunset with the passing of a more leisurely and romantic past. “Showboat” and the subsequent musical and movie vari- ations on the same theme have casta well-deserved aura of glamour about the picturesque floating theaters and have made all America familiar with the showboat. Unfortunately the glorifiers of the showboat came not only to praise Caesar, but to bury him as well. Writers seem to be trying to prove, with all the assurance of their craft that such advances in entertain- ment as the radio, television and the motion picture have scuttled the showboat at its last anchorage. On their unverified testimony, the showboat has, at long last, joined the fast-fading ranks of the jig- saw puzzle, the balloon ascension and the wooden Incian. It is, in short, they would have you believe, & dramatic dodo. But the showboat is not dead. I ought to know, for I fashioned the magic dreams of my childhood on one. I joined Bryant’s Showboat on February 21, 1922, at West Eliza- beth, Pa., to stare for the first time, with baby blue eyes across the smoky Monongahela River. April of the following year found me doing my first specialty at the age of 14 months. I studied my A B Cs in a junk barge surrounded by rope, iron and rags, fighting off malaria, mosquitoes and horseflies. I have played Little Willie in “East Lynne” when I was too young to say the lines and my mother was forced to hide under the bed and talk fof me in an assumed baby voice. For the past 18 summers I have played parts, sung and danced before audi- ences up and down the Ohio River. A Very Lively Cadver. This article is being written on our showboat anchored at Buffalo, W. Va., to which we recently migrated from our winter “dryland” home at Logansport, Ind. Boys are rowing around us in dilapidated “John boats.” The village maidens are in their Sunday best, trying to flirt with the leading man who is uncon- cernedly ironing his own shirt -on the back porch—he’s saving his money in the hopes of . featuring himself in his own show. ‘Tonight, when our first show of the season opens, our clientele will e drawn, not alone from the little village of Buffalo, but from the hinterland. They will come in over- alls and jackets and Sunday. go-to- meeting clothes. And one of our seasonal friends will bring us a bouquet of her first spring lilies. —_— THEATER PARKING sPM.TO 9 s‘ ; 12 PM. CAPITAL GARAGE 1320 N. Y. Ave., Bet. 13th & 14th ¢ s = C APRIL 21, 1940—PART FIVE. Successful Marriage, but They Have I . A o Telepathy is one of their tricks, Dick here handing Joan a cigarette before she knows she wants it. Lower right: Joan Jalls asleep easiest when Dick reads to her. LIFE IS EARNEST—This breath-taking moment is from one of the Showboat classics, a soul-wrenching affair entitled “The Moonshiner’s Daughter.” They will see an old favorite, “Tess of the Storm Country.” Our audi- ence will substitute cheers and whistles for applause and occa- sionally will stamp the floor in the excitement of their pleasure. But their response, though animated, will be genuine. Surely if the show- boat is dead, it is a very lively cadaver. They’re Capable Actors. In spite of the fact that the orig- inal fleet of 12 showboats has dwin- dled to six, those remaining in op- eration have adjusted their form of entertainment, to meet this period of- reconstruction, and find themselves continually in demand, thus prov- ing' the rights of their claims to: smart showmanship. For the last three years the Goldenrod show- boat, the flagship of the mosquito fleet, has prospered at the local ‘LOANS 74 years of buying, selling and lending on diamonds, 'mlry,.:fc. Liberal Loans: at. Lowest tes. CASH_FOR OLD GOLD (GOvernment License) E. HEIDENHEIMER Eostablished 1866 118 wSSER, wharf at St. Louis, with melodrama “as you like it.” Bryant’s showboat has carried on for 12 years at the foot of Lawrence street in Cincinnati with a similar type of entertainment where they hiss the villain and cheer the hero untl they are blue in the face. And when he played “Hamlet” or went through the motions, over the en- trance was a sign which read, “Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be deceived.” The James Adams’ boat, which operates on. Chesapeake Bay; the Majestic, the Hollywood and the Dixie Queen all continue to prosper handsomely along the more legitimate lines. A showboat company consists of experienced, well-schooled actors and actresses. To substantiate this, there are PR 2 L//Jfi/}mc}f /{//‘Z’«:’ [} Tuxedes, Full Dress Chancery cI\l'I’". R‘ Jatest styles in Bt aetessorien M. STEIN & CO. e ree nw NA. 2435 numerous big names in show busi- ness today who started on, or were at one time engaged on, a showboat, Sol Smith Russell once faced a river audience, Buster Keaton, the frozen- faced comedian, was born on Capt. Sam Bryant's show; Elizabeth Cox, another river thespian, took one leap from old-fashioned showboat dra- matics to land with both feet firmly planted on Broadway; Paul Mc- Grath, who played opposite Ger- trude Lawrence in “Susan and God,” has raved his way through many a snake scene as Joe Morgan in “Ten Nights in a Bar Room.” Practical Drama Criticism. The typical small-town river audi- ences have a unique method of dis- playing disapproval of the per- formance, particularly at Bloomer, W. Va, on the Kanawha River, where they climb to the top of the bank and throw rocks at the pilot house windows. On some occasions they even take the precaution of piling the rocks up ahead of time. And they don’t wait for the one who is without sin to cast the first stone. Selecting plays for a river audi- ence is a delicate task. The New York hits of “Tobacco Road,” “Of Mice and Men” and “Hellza-poppin” wouldn't get very far with the fas- tidious set at the peaceful settlement of Old Maids Crossing. They prefer such plays as “Over the Hill to the Poorhouse,” “East Lynne” and “His Dead Sister’s Secret.” Sex plays and off-color gags are strictly taboo. A gag such as “Are you married?” “No, I'm naturally round shoul- dered,” knocks ‘em for a twister. No, the showboat is not obsolete, antique, nor on its way.out. There will always be a certain element of people who cling to old-fashioned simplicity, and it’s there the show- boat, with its clean, wholesome form of entertainment, will come into its own. “Jesse James,” “Peck’s Bad Boy,” “Nellie, the Beautiful Clock Model” and other old-time tear- jerkers will live forever and will always be welcome from the head waters of the Allegheny to the shadows of the Gulf of Mexico when properly presented aboard an insti- tution that is a living part of the American theater, the showboat. (Released by the North American French Sunday, 2°PM. to § PM. ' This special while metorials last. Phone_or Conie in. TIRALLA, INC. 4843 Mass. Ave. :Es. 1001 A AMUSEMENTS F-3 t/Only One Way I Can Go,‘ And That Isn’t Up, He Says Mickey Rooney, a Serious Youngster, Looks at Himself From Top Of the Box Office Heap By Franklin Arthur. A couple of years ago, & perspiring youngster walked off a movie set, in a chalr, the sea. HOLYWOOD. . He had just finished a scene, with his back to the camera, pulling the oars for a couple of stars in a movie bnme. against ‘I don't know much about rowing,” he sighed, “but I did the best I coulc.” When this same youngster walks off a set these days, it's as Holly- wood’s top star—from the very con-4¢ crete viewpoint of box office. But he still does his scenes in ‘the same formula—*“the best I could.” Mickey Rooney has come a long way in those two years. He has achieved a sense of maturity well ahead of the ordinary 18-year-old. in He’s s serious individual, full of re- sponsibility. He still has an un- quenchsble love of horseplay, but he isn’t the cocky adolescent he once was. As he evaluates himself: “There’s only one way I can go now. And that isn’t up.” ‘This Brooklyn-born son of show business—he was 11 months old when he went on the stage with his parents in a burlesque routine—is in the midst of going around in circles for the sake of his art. On the way around, he exposes the varied character of his acting ability in three distinct ways. He moved to the top of the money ladder last year largely through his humorously homey portrayals of Andy Hardy, a youngster growing up. But he’s also highly able in musical comedy (“Babes in Arms” brought him into the finals of the academy “Oscar” competition for 1839) and in more serious vein— “Young Tom Edison.” The Cycle Will Continue. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which is| doing Mickey’s master-minding, has continuation of the cycle in mind. He’s finishing another in the Hardy series, will go shortly into “Strike Up the Band,” with Judy Garland his co-star again, to be followed by a sequel to “Boys’ Town,” his serious effort a couple of years back. The process of Mickey's growing up moved fastest last year. He traveled a quarter of a million miles, mneeting thousands of his fans and scores of notables, including Presi- dent Roosevelt and Henry Ford. Probably no youngster of his age has achieved such wide recognition. And it’s done something to him. “I don't care what kind of roles they give me,” he observes, “I'll do the best I can.” It’s a trite state- ment, made sometime or other by almost every star. But it has a ring | of sincerity when he adds: “And I don’t mean that as press agent applesauce. I want to make acting a lifetime job. And if you're going to eat, you have to make people like you.” Most Get Serious Sometime. Mickey was half-worried half- | purzzled when reports flltered back from New York after the re- cent “Edison” preview that maybe his fans—familiar with his llzhur: e —— Graham (Continued From First Page.) ter fleld, or retire from the screen? I hope the former. I would guess that other 36er, Norma Shearer, would sooner retire from pictures than give over the center of the movie spotlight to an- other woman. Norma, together with 35-year-old Joan Crawford, has had 8 long inning of screen romance. Both gals have been at it for more than 14 years, which is a long time in any language, and both must have received at least 100 screen proposals each, which should be | enough for any one woman. Norma gets Robert Taylor (aged 29) in her next picture, “Escape.” Joan has Predric March (in his middle 40s) as her leading man—in “Susan and God.” Comparatively young movie hero- ines who are 30 or a bit over include Greer Garson, about 31; Joan Blondell, 31; Bette Davis, 32; Greta Garbo, 32; Ann Sothern, 31; Rosa- lind Russell, about 32, and Barbara Stanwyck, 33. Screen infants in their 29th year include Merle Ober- on, Maureen O'Sullivan, Ginger Rogers, Margaret Sullavan and Paulette Goddard. All these, of course, have nothing to fear from a screen romantic viewpoint. But for the majority of the others I would suggest that they start thinking of what they would like to be doing if they weren’t making pictures. Or, to start picking out some good character roles and leave the love stuff for their younger col- leagues. If the idea seems hard to take, let them remember the char- actor role successes of 48-year-old Fay Bainter, who in her day was the love pivot of all her plays; and Kay Francis (in her near 40s), who is currently doing s0 well as Deanna Durbin’s mother in “It's a Date.” And May Robson, who is still going strong at 76. (Released by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) Rosemary Loaned Rosemary Lane has been loaned by Warner Bros. to Universal for the feminine lead in “The Boys From Syracuse.” LOwW SRRING PRICE 2, te the Ton Il.m RIDGE VA. HARD | Stove 8. I0US BLUE EGG Hard Structurs, Light Smoke $7.95 BLUE RIDGE_ SMOKELESS Ne Smoke, Seot or Gas _.38.50 0% POCAHONTAS OIL-TREATED Egg, $10.25; Stove, $10.00 Pea, $8.00 Takes Day side—wouldn’t accept . him in s studied biographical role. “But I've made a lot of new friends,” he says. “Folks who write they never liked me before have sent some mighty complimentary letters. I want them to like me in parts like that. I have to get serious sometime. It's a cinch I can’t play comic adolescents for- ever.” He's taking care of such an even- tuality, too, along another line of his versatile nature. He has helped author a script which sends Andy Hardy to college, and which Metro is considering as the next step in his family film career. “After,all” he observes, “if I don't get out of high school be- fore long a lot of folks are going to think I'm awfully backward.” — GET ON THE AIR! Announcers—Speakers—Actors Needed for Summer-Fall Programs ROBERT EVANS America's foremost radio director, teaching successfully for 12 years, will sive Free Auditions in YOUR City en: Apr. 21—Hotel Ambassador—Wash- ington, D. C. Auditions Sunday only, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m. Master Course starts April 25. Your apportunity to study under this Seicbiated coach, or to have your volce ROBERT EVANS RADIO ACADEMY 1650 Broadway New York, N. Y. STATION BEGINNING TONIGHT —LISTEN TO JOHN J. ANTHONY'S T-H-R-I-L-L-1-N-G GOOD WILL HOUR NOW ON STATION WMAL EAR real people reveal their most intimate problems to John J. Anthony, noted radio counselor. You, too, may be helped by his wise advice. TONIGHT si8oaeidhe 10 to 11 P.M,, WMAL * TONIGHT % ROSALIND RUSSELL SPENCER TRACY ol el ~17:30 WISV GULF SCREEN GUILD THEATER you want to take off ugly fat easily | and pleasantly all you have to do i of a glass of Welch’s Grape Juice with 3{ of a {luu of water and drink before meals and at bedtime. Thus you reduce calor- ic intake considerably. But you do not suffer a hungry moment. | There are nostrict diet lists, strenuous exer- cises or taking § Yet!—in a test con- j ducted by Dr. Damrau of New York, with this method among a group of iqlelhm;':nd m erative people w] - lowed directions impli d effective for over- weight men as it is for overweight women. is only one thing to watch. Eat sensibly, which means you avoid over-eating; and besure to use Weich’s Grape w‘:‘e—llw s made the of -the grape crop; alwaye full ommends the eesy Welch . ‘omato_Juice is alike, Welch's new, vitamin-rich Tomato Juice. It hnm.nfldflmun‘lfld and still have a most delicious to TONIGHT WMAL 9:30 p.m. M HER THRILLING RADIO DRAMA CRAPE JUICE