Mary Janes Pa (Warner Bros.) (1935)

Features Aline MacMahon Admits She Has The Wanderlust Star of Film, ‘Mary Jane’s Pa,’ Always Wants to Travel and Be On the Go LINE MacMAHON has wanderlust and because she has, there is a stipulation in her contract which permits her to wander at least six months out of every year. The minute she finished her co-starring role with Guy Kibbee in ‘‘Mary Jane’s Pa,’’ the Warner Bros. production now showing at the Theatre, she left for New York, there to join her husband, Clar ALINE MacMAHON in “‘Mary Jane’s Pa,” Theatre. Mat No. 9— 10c ence Stein, the prominent architect. The two planned to wander again but wouldn’t tell where. It seems that this creator of modern dwellings likes to wander, too. Just two years ago the couple made a trip to India but that was before Mr. Stein became engaged in a gigantic task of rehabilitating a section of the New York slums. Since signing a new Warner Bros. contract, Miss MacMahon has made two round trips a year back to New York to join her husband and both have set out on journeys to various sections ofthe country. “I vary these trips to and from Gotham,” said Miss MacMahon, “and in that way have become familiar with every city, town and village through which the three railway lines pass from coast to coast. They have not become the least bit monotonous to me despite the fact that I have seen all of them in a day and night setting.” 'The red-roofed, weather-beaten barns, the billboards with their variety of commodities, the open spaces with grazing cattle, horses and sheep, all interest this talented student of psychology. “Strangely enough, the small towns that we seldom stop at save occasionally by flagging, intrigue me more than the cities,” continued Miss MacMahon. “In these hamlets the people are particularly interesting. “One sees that always interesting character, the combination station agent, telegraph operator, freight dispatcher and what not, rolled into one, who has taken care of more travelers, yet has never been outside the town. “You are always bound to see all kinds of youth in all kinds of dilapidated cars travelling along to new fields, all, no doubt, in high spirits, a sort of exudus that is so typically American. “You see, this picture I am doing now has a particular significance to me for I really am afflicted with that bug, if one could call it that. “T don’t see how anyone could possibly become bored with travelling even though it is over the same country.” “Mary Jane’s Pa’ combines hilarious comedy with heartthrobbing action and_ tense drama. It is based on the play “Mary Jane’s Pa,” by Edith Ellis Furness and the novel version by Norman Way. William Keighley directed from the screen play by Tom Reed and Peter Milne. The cast includes besides Miss MacMahon and Kibbee, Tom Brown, Robert McWade, Minor Watson, Johnny Arledge, Nan Gray, Robert Light and Betty Jean Haney. Page Six Child Actress Has Remarkable Memory Betty Jean Haney, eight year old screen player, has a most remarkable memory. This was shown in a scene from the Warner Bros. production, “Mary Jane’s Pa,” which comes to the Kibbee in the stellar roles. One of Betty’s scenes ran for two and one-half pages in the script. Betty, went through her lines without a single mistake. The scene was shot in one take. Kibbee Needs No Double To Hop Fast Freights Lead In ‘Mary Jane’s Pa’ Rode ‘Rods’ Many Times During Career in Show Business HEN Guy Kibbee was asked if he needed a double for the freight train hopping sequence in ‘‘Mary Jane’s Pa,’’ the First National production which enmes (616. eo Theatre, on 5 EES Sa vo a RO RSE Ug STERN Bee ) he laughed. The business of ‘‘riding the rods’’ was no novelty to Guy for in his early years in show business he had covered about fifty thousand miles on freight trains. He did it beause it was necessary. Unscrupulous managers for the most part were the reason. Guy would get a week’s work in a town and on Saturday night, without a word of warning, the manager would depart for places unknown and with him would go the proceeds of the week. As an itinerant printer in “Mary Jane’s Pa,” Guy is unable to remain long in any one place. The whistle of a locomotive at a junction affects him in the same manner as the call of the moose for its mate. ; ae There is hardly a town on any one of the main railroad lines of the country that Guy hasn’t visited either with intent or by the “persuasion” of an _ unfriendly brakeman. The popular Warner Bros. character actor contends that in all his experience of hopping freights around the country he has yet to meet a friendly brakeman. He does not criticize this characteristic now, however, for he realizes it is just part of the job. The only trainmen he ever met while “riding the rods” that would “listen to reason” were those who would accept a bribe, which, of course, was a small fraction of the railroad fare. The longest journey by freight train that he has made was from Butte, Montana, to Chicago, by way of Shreveport and New Orleans, La. This particular hop took Guy from mid-September until late November. Heading south in September he had hoped to avoid a good deal of the cold but he was mistaken, for on several occasions he nearly froze to death. Until this day Guy admires the so-called tramp for many of this ilk were more than kind to him on many occasions. “Mulligan stew” was a delicacy in those days. When you are cold and hungry, he said, even hot water is manna. So Guy Kibbee needed no one to show him, how to get on or off a freight train for there are times when he thinks he can almost feel the callouses on his hands caused by the iron grips of the box cars. “Mary Jane’s Pa” combines hilarious comedy with _heartthrobbing action and_ tense drama. It is based on the play of the same name by Edith Ellis Furness and the novel version by Norman Way. William Keighley directed from the screen play by Tom Reed and Peter Milne. Aline MacMahon heads the cast which includes besides Kibbee, Tom Brown, Robert MceWade, Minor Watson, Johnny Arledge, Nan Gray, Robert Light and Betty Jean Haney. Just One Happy Family Seems as if Guy Kibbee is in the “chips,” or did he bag that raccoon? The merry trio on the left are his domestic attachments —wNan Gray, Aline MacMahon and little Betty Jean Haney. They’re all in “Mary Jane’s Pa,” the First National comedy at the ae valet Theatre. Mat No. 2—20c FREAK FACS... . 8007 FIM favonires WEA PICTURES: “FIVE STAR FINAL” <4 “WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT” “pMdsaitr” “Big HEARTED HMiensear “HEROES F@A sale” “MARY JARVES pa" allt + ll GUY 7 42. // BIBBE IN HIS QUARTER-CENTURY OF BARNSTOAMING RODE OVER §0,000 MILES-MORE THAN TWICE AROUND THE WORLD e. DOLLAR” “cou pil ccers of 1933 ° ene 4 IN HER THIRTIES “LIFE OF yMnmy DOLAN“ ~ HE AAT, LIGHTNING" THE WORLD @HANGES” “ THE EARY FRINKS” BEGAN WIS CAREER ON BROADWAY AT THE AGE OF 6 MONTHS WHEN WIS MOTHER CAR RIED HIM BEFORE THE FOOTLIGHTS Ca “erry Jaye we APPEARING AS Magy JANE IN "MARY JANES PA’ HAS SCHOOL: ING EQUAL To A HIGH SCHOOL PUPIL THOUGH ONLY B YEARS OLD These players appear in the First National picture, “Mary Jane’s Pa,” current at the__________ soot ire Went St ge cs ieee Theatre. Mat No. 7—20c Old Time Hand Press Is Dug Up For New Film Guy Kibbee, Once Printer With His Father’s Paper, : Runs It In ‘Mary Jane’s Pa’ T took three weeks of diligent search to locate a particular type printing press for ‘‘Mary Jane’s Pa,’’ the Warner Bros. production now showing at the........... Theatre, with Aline MacMahon and Guy Kibbee in the stellar roles. A hand press, commonplace in most of the frontier towns late in the last century, was the kind of a press that was desired. It was the press with which was gotten out the weekly newspaper, the local wedding announcements and funeral notices. The search was rewarded just two days before the picture started when a fast tiring property man learned of the whereabouts of a Washington Hand Press. Since presses of this type he sought bore many names, he hoped that this would be the one needed. It was exactly what he had been looking for. When Guy Kibbee, who has to operate the press in the picture, viewed it, he chuckled with glee for it was the exact duplicate of one that he operated for his father when they were getting out the Roswell Record in Roswell, New Mexico, just at the turn of the century. The average output of this type of hand press when all is made ready for running is about two hundred and fifty impressions per hour. This number, it should be said, is the product of two men who work together as “partners.” One inks the type form and keeps a sharp lookout for any irregularity of inking and sees, generally, that the work is being turned out in workmanlike manner. The other lays on the sheet to certain marks, runs the carriage in under the plate, and pulls the bar handle across to give the necessary impression. He then runs back the carriage and takes out the printed sheet, which he replaces with another sheet and repeats the different operations for the next impression. During the interval between taking off the printed sheet and laying on the next one his partner inks the type surface with a roller which carries just sufficient ink properly distributed to preserve uniformity of impression. This roller used for inking the form is made out of a composition of glue and molasses and al though substitutes for it have now been found, none do the work ag well. Printing was no novelty for Guy Kibbee for he spent a number of years in the business and even forsook the business of acting some time age to take another fling at the printing craft with a brother. Three of his brothers are still in the business. When he was helping his father get out the Roswell Record, his run for the weekly paper was in the neighborhood of five hundred copies and running four and sometimes six pages all by a hand press was work that Guy will always remember. Although there actually are a number of these presses in existence, to locate one was a task. It was essential to find a similar printing machine for it plays a very important part in the picture, “Mary Jane’s Pa,” a combination of rollicking comedy, tense drama and heart throbbing action, based on the play of the same name by Edith Ellis Furness and the novel version by Norman Way. The cast includes besides Miss MacMahon, and Kibbee, Tom Brown, Robert MacWade, Minor Watson, Johnny Arledge, Nan Gray and Betty Jean Haney. William Keighley directed.