Mr Chump(Warner Bros.) (1938)

PUBLICITY Mat 207—30c SPARKIN’ IN THE PARK—Penny Singleton and Johnnie Davis have got romance on their minds in this scene from ““Mr. Chump,” delightful new comedy-drama coming to the Strand Theatre. _ (Advance) Typical Mid-West Home Built for "Mr. Chump” Set Penny Singleton ran an appraising glance over the bookshelves in her living room. Then she took in the furniture, the rugs, the fireplace, the pictures on the walls, and said, “So this is home.” For although it was Penny’s own living room, she was seeing it for the first time in her life. It was erected on a sound stage at the Warner Bros. Studio and it constituted a set for “Mr. Chump,” the comedy-drama of small town life which is coming to the Strand Theatre. Penny is the sprightly young actress who used to be known on the Broadway musical comedy stage as Dorothy McNulty. There’s an intriguing Irish curl to her upper lip and a Gaelic twinkle in her eyes of pansy blue. The full force of her smile was turned on now as_ she grinned, looking around that room, “Tt’s:° amazing,” she said, “Don’t you think it’s amazing, too? I mean all this,’ she added with a comprehensive wave of the hand. She seemed in that one gesture to embrace the ashes of old fires in the fireplace, the family portraits on the walls interspersed with such framed elegancies as the Stag At Bay, the cheap well-worn Brussels rugs, the overstuffed chairs with sagging seats and the books in two slim niches of shelves. “Tt looks like a middle western home that’s been lived in for years and years,” said Penny. “Yet it’s here today and gone tomorrow. I wonder, I often wonder, about the geniuses that do it. “Once I asked a director, and he said, ‘Oh, they have set dressers to do all that sort of thing.’ But when I looked up the dresser he was a funny little man in a sweater, who told me that he took orders from the art director of a production. “Men like Robert Haas and Carl Weyl and Anton Grot sit down and figure out just how a room should be dressed, even to the littlest detail. “T talked to them, and here’s an interesting thing I learned; and that is that while it takes imagination to dress a castle set or a great hotel suite, it takes knowledge to set up a home such as this. “You see, this is a middle western home. It’s average middle class in an average small town. That means that millions and millions who see it on the screen will know exactly what such homes should be like. And if there’s a false note anywhere, the producers will hear about it. It has to be accurate, absolutely true to life.” Qhnound. the Jown With “‘Mr. Chump’ The new little bundle of blessedness over at the Dick PowellJoan Blondell’s is on the distaff side, and they’re calling her Ellen. Papa Dick held up production on his newest flicker “For Lovers Only,” while he paced the hospital floor. * * Penny Singleton demonstrated her versatility between scenes on the set of “Mr. Chump” by singing an aria from “Madame Butterfly” while turning cartwheels—in very good voice—and awfully good form! * * Your correspondent Johnnie Davis (“Mr. Chump” to you!) is now engrossed in raising chickens as a sideline venture. Have thirty chickens for a starter but am hoping for a goodly number of blessed events. ES * Cutest romance in town is the one between Jackie Cooper and Bonita Granville. It all began on the set of “White Banners” and are they blushing! * * Neatest paradox of the week: Bette Davis plays a sympathetic role after a series of unsympathetic ones and Errol Flynn plays an unsympathetic one after a series of “hero” roles. The picture which is now before the camera is “The Sisters.” 2] (Advance) Famous Swingsters Planning to Have Own Jam Sessions A Swing Club for the purpose of holding private jam sessions is being organized among members of the motion picture colony, with such well known names as Dick Powell, Gary Cooper and the Lanes (Rosemary and Priscilla) already on the rolls. Only those known to enjoy going to town are being invited to join. Corny players won’t be tolerated. A player to rate membership must be known for hitting hot licks. Originator of the club was Johnnie “Scat” Davis, trumpeter extraordinary (formerly with Waring’s Pennsylvanians). He got the idea while blowing his trumpet in “Mr. Chump,” his latest Warner Bros. picture, coming soon to the Strand Theatre. At that time various swing devotees of the Warner lot began flocking to his sets and swinging it to such an extent they interfered with production and the sets had to be closed to visitors. Frank Perkins, veteran song arranger with Waring, and, like Johnnie and the Lane sisters, now under Warner contract, will arrange the scores for the swingsters. Johnnie plays trumpet; Rosemary Lane, piano; Priscilla Lane, tambo and bones; Dick Powell, guitar; Gary Cooper, clarinet; Spencer Tracy, drums; Tony Romano, steel guitar; Mabel Todd, vocalist. (Current) Scat Singing Was Born of Laziness But It’s Work Now Laziness inspired “scat-singing,” according to . Johnnie “Seat” Davis, who declares a “scat-singer” gets that way by being too lazy to memorize the words of a song. “So when we can’t remember the words,” said Johnnie, “we just ad lib with sound effects like ‘hi-de-ho.’ ” But Johnnie went on to admit ruefully that, although laziness inspired “scat-singing,” it takes main strength to practice it. By way of proof, he pointed to his recent assignment before the camera at the Warner Bros. Studio as the “scat-singing,” trumpet-playing hero of “Mr. Chump,” the comedy-drama playing at the Strand Theatre. For the filming of one short sequence in a _ roadhouse, in which Johnnie introduces a new song which he “scats,” fortynine rehearsals over a period of two days were necessary. “The first time I sang the song,” explained the _ tousletopped blond, “I gave it everything in the way of improvised scatting. Then each time after that first rehearsal, I’d forget what my business had been in one part or another of the song. But Bill Clemens, the director, wanted me to sing as I had the first time. So he’d stop me, and I’d have to go back and do it all over again. Yes, sir, that was work.” Title of the song, by Johnny Mercer and Bernie Hanighen, is “As Long As You Live.” JOKER MUCH TOO LATE Some prankster rubbed lemon juice on the mouthpiece of Johnnie Davis’s trumpet. But the joke was on the joker, for the music had been pre-recorded by Johnnie several days before and he merely had to go through the motions of filming his trumpet playing sequences for ‘Mr. Chump,” now at the Strand. (Current) Lola Rebelled at Picturing Small Town Gal As Frump “No finger nail polish,” said the head makeup man. “No facial makeup,” said the assistant makeup man. “No glamorous _hairdress,” said the hairdresser. “Only little cotton dresses without any style,” said the wardrobe woman. “Only inexpensive — shoes,” said the director, ‘and kind of clodhoppery, at that.” Lola Lane rebelled. “Whom do you think you’re talking about, anyhow?” she demanded. “Why, about the middle west housewife you’re’ going’ to play,” they answered in chorus. That was when the most forthright star in motion pictures blew up. The conference concerned Lola’s wardrobe and general appearance as Jane Mason, the girl married to the mouselike bank teller, in “Mr. Chump,” the Warner Bros. picture now showing at the Strand Theatre. The Masons are supposed to live in the mythical small town of Union Falls, somewhere within 200 miles of Chicago. “Listen, all of you,” said Lola. “I come from Iowa. I know how the young wives of those small towns dress. Why, LOLA BLAZED THE WAY In view of the current success of Lola Lane and her sisters, Rosemary and Priscilla, it may seem odd that their parents ‘were completely opposed to Lola’s ambitions to become an actress. After Lola, who is the eldest of the three, had succeeded in her ambition, however, the family apparently became’ theatrical minded. Lola’s latest picture is the Warner Bros. comedy-drama, ‘Mr. Chump,” coming to the Strand. TOUGH ON STOCKINGS Penny Singleton wore out three pairs of silk hose while filming a closeup with Johnnie Davis for “Mr. Chump,” the Warner Bros. picture coming to the Strand Theatre next Friday. She was required to do a dance while Johnnie, seated, blew his trumpet, and she had to remove her shoes, dancing in her stockinged feet so she wouldn’t appear too tall next to her seated boy friend. your ideas are just about fifty years out of date. “You're talking theory, but I know fact. I know, for instance, that a girl like Jane Mason gets all the fan magazines and reads all the beauty columns and sees all the movies and listens to all the radio talks about beauty treatments and so on. And why? Why, I ask you, why?” Well, her flabbergasted audience had no answer, so Lola stormed on. “Why?” she demanded again, and then answered herself: “I’ll tell you why. It’s so she can keep up with the rest of the world in matters of personal appearance and charm. “And so now you people want me to play a dummy for smart girls like that, hey?” said Lola. “Well, not if I know anything about it. Now, here’s the way I’ll make up and this is the way T’ll dress. Gather round.” Thereupon they all gathered round—Director Bill Clemens, and his whole corps. And Lola told ’em. And that is why Jane Mason appears in “Mr. Chump” as a real American housewife of the modern type instead of the traditional chromo of the joke books of yesteryear. SHOW MUST GO ON Lola Lane established her right to the title of “best little trouper in pictures” when she tore out the nail on the fourth finger of her right hand while shaking a rug during filming of a scene for “Mr. Chump” but went right on playing, so as not to spoil the “take.” The nail, which caught in the fabric, was not only broken, but completely torn off, and Miss Lane had to play the balance of the picture with a taped finger. She plays a mid-west housewife in the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre. I7’S BILL — NOT SAM Director Bill Clemens suggested that a certain situation in “Mr. Chump,” the Warner Bros. picture opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, should be built up for laughs, and the writers, in a huff, opined he might do it himself. “Not me.” he quipped, ‘I’m Bill Clemens, not Samuel.” Mat 208—30c LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE for Penny Singleton, Lola Lane, Chester Clute and Johnnie Davis—but they solve all their problems in “Mr. Chump,” typically human comedy drama of small-town life which is coming to the Strand Theatre on Friday. Country of Origin U. S. A. Copyright 1938 Vitagraph, Inc. License to reproduce with copyright notice granted newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.