Pride of the Bluegrass (Warner Bros.) (1939)

Pinan ee ICITY (Advance Feature) Young Star Made Debut At Age of 3 Jimmy McCallion’s father gave him a hammer and a saw at birth so he would follow in his footsteps as a carpenter. So he became an actor and now at the age of 21 has 18 years of brilliant histrionic achievement to his credit. Jimmy has been in Hollywood only about six months but recently he finished his fourth picture. That is “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” the novel Warner Bros. film which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre. Born in New York City, Sept. 27, 1918, Jimmy completed his education at the Professional Children’s School two years ago when he graduated. At the age of three he and a little girl friend were performing in a singing and dancing act at lodge and club social affairs. When he was five years old he played a small part with Bebe Daniels in “His Children’s Children.” The following year he appeared with Marion Davies in “Yolanda” and with Ben Lyon in “For the Love of Mike.” A year later he filmed “East Side, West Side” with George O’Brien and in subsequent years appeared in a number of film shorts. On the stage in New York and on the road, he has appeared in numerous plays with leading Mat 107—15c James McCallion is trainer and jockey for Elmer Gantry, the blind horse, in “Pride Of The Bluegrass” opening at the Strand on Friday. Since his arrival in Hollywood he has played important parts in “Boy Slaves,” “Code of the Streets,” and “The Man who Dared,” which preceded ‘Pride Of The Bluegrass.” Gifted with a pleasant, warming smile that brands him as a true son of the “ould sod,” he is slight in stature and has brown hair and brown eyes. He collects autographs for a hobby, and is extremely proud of those he received from the late Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Lipton, the English tea magnate and sportsman, Will Rogers and James J. Jeffries, the noted boxer. Director Had Job to Get Actors to ‘Act English’ Director William McGann’s most difficult scene in Warner Bros.’ “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” which opens next Friday at the Strand Theatre, was one in which two bit actors play English radio actors. McGann had great difficulty keeping them absolutely cold and unemotional as they reported the Grand National steeplechase, one of the high spots of the drama, but he finally got the result he wanted. PHE NATIONALLYKNOWN fifteen-year-old blind show horse, Elmer Gantry, is the central figure of the new Strand Theatre racing picture, “Pride Of The Bluegrass” opening on Friday. Astride him is his owner and trainer, Miss Eleanor Getzendaner. Mat 207—30c (Current Feature) Story of Gantry’s Courage One Few Persons Can Match Hollywood recently paid homage to its most unusual, and without doubt, its most interesting potential star. The star was Elmer Gantry—not the minister _of Sinclair Lewis’ fictional crea tion—but a blind horse. Bryan Foy, Warner Bros. producer, and Vincent Sherman, screen writer, made a_ special trip to Elmer’s home at Des Plaines, Ill., to sign him for the movies. Which makes it apparent that Elmer is a most unusual character. About fourteen years ago, Elmer was a frisky, sassy, thoroughbred colt on a ranch in southwestern Nebraska. He was boss of all he surveyed. Eleanor Getzendaner, then a country fair and outlaw track jockey, saw him and fell in love with him. She tried to buy him but his owners asked a price beyond her reach. Miss Getzendaner kept in touch with Elmer. Four years later, when Elmer was thin and ragged looking after a hard winter, she was able to buy him for $150. She soon had him thoroughly trained as a triple-bar exhibition jumper, show horse, race horse, cow pony and hurdler. Elmer was in his glory; still a king among horses. But his reign of glory was short lived. A few years after Miss Getzendaner acquired him, he was stricken with his first attack of moon blindness. A film closed over his eyes and he became a pitable object of despair. The attacks of periodic opthalmia became more frequent. The forlorn Elmer stood shivering with other horses in the pasture, seeking their companionship and guidance. When they trotted out of his hearing his panic was heart-breaking. Miss Getzendaner was advised to have Elmer shot. That’s what they do to blind horses. But Miss Getzendaner would have as soon shot a brother. She refused. Finally cataracts covered both eyes and it was apparent that Elmer would never see again, even briefly. But as Miss Getzendaner watched him picking his way about the pasture, his feet lifted high in the manner of blind people, she decided she would become his seeing eye. Patiently, painstakingly she worked to win his confidence. She blindfolded herself to study her reactions to blindness; she made herself think like a horse would think under the circumstances. She taught him to respond to spoken words, to the inflection of her voice she convinced him she would never let him down. He showed her he wanted to jump again and she taught him to jump. Elmer, of course, must have daily exercise, so his mistress finds a level stretch of ground where he can run without falling over anything and tells him where the boundary is. He never forgets. That’s annoying, sometimes when she is riding him and she forgets the boundaries. E]mer will stop short at the boundary and she will fly over his head. Elmer is again a king among horses. He is complete boss over his equine mates. The story of his triumph over adversity; of his confidence in his mistress and her devotion to him is one that few human beings can match. And so, several months ago, Elmer travelled to Hollywood in a special horse car, to appear in Warner Bros., racing film, “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” now playing at the Strand Theatre. For his pasture while in Hollywood, a plot of ground was leveled off, sodded and surrounded with a fence that would keep him in but wouldn’t injure him. And a special stable was also built for him. His film contract, at Miss Getzendaner’s demand, contained two unusual clauses. There had to be a supply of carrots on hand at all times to reward him after he made a jump or otherwise performed for the camera. The second clause required that applause must be given after every stunt! That’s the way she has trained him. If only two persons witness Elmer taking a jump, they applaud. He bows his head in acknowledgment and then reaches for the carrot he knows will always be there. PRESS AND PROGRAM Edith Fellows, young screen actress featured in the Warner Bros. film “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” the novel horse-racing picture showing Elmer Gantry, the blind jumper, which opens Friday at the Strand Theatre, collects dolls as a hobby. Director William McGann gave a Warner Bros. camera crew anoddand patiencetesting assignment. At the Janss horse ranch, 40 miles from Hollywood, they were on 24-hour duty waiting for the foaling of a colt. A shot of a new-born foal and its mother was essential to the picture “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” which opens next Friday at the Strand. Elmer Gantry, who never saw a motion picture camera in his life and, tragically enough, will never see one, learned the words “camera” and “cut” after he had been in Hollywood only two days. He is the blind, fifteen-year old bay horse which is featured in the Warner Bros. racing picture, “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” Friday at the Strand. At Director William McGann’s call of “camera,” he pricked up his ears and pranced like a filly in a six-furlong race at Santa Anita. At “cut’ he relaxed like any veteran actor and took it SHORTS easy until the next scene. Animal lovers need not be concerned by scenes showing a race horse being burned in a barn fire in the Warner Bros. film “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” featuring the famous blind horse, ‘Elmer Gantry,” which opens next Friday at the Strand. The horse in the fire was adummy. Edith Fellows, featured in Warner Bros.’ ‘Pride Of The Bluegrass’ with James McCallion, can trace her ancestry back to a famous English writer, Charles Lamb. ‘Pride Of The Bluegrass’ opens Friday at Strand. (Advance Feature) Blind Gantry Still Jumps Over Hurdles When Elmer Gantry, the nationally-known blind show horse featured in the Warner Bros. picture, “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” at the Strand Theatre on Friday, went blind, Miss Eleanor Getzendaner of Des Plaines, IIl., his owner, determined he would not be deprived of the one thing he seemed to love to do: take hurdles and ditches in stride in a mad gallop over the countryside. Patiently she started out to accustom the horse to a new system of direction, that of “reining” by voice. She first rode him at a slow walk, teaching him to lift his forefeet slightly for rises in the ground when she said “careful, up,” and to watch for a low spot when she said “careful, down.” Then she taught him to come to her, guided only by the direction of her voice or a clap of her hands. As the horse’ approached her, often from the far side of a pasture, she used her “Up” and “Down” precautions so that he would never stumble. She next took the horse through a course of cantering, then run Mat 106—l15c “Pride Of The Bluegrass” opening at the Strand on Friday, features Edith Fellows and ‘Gantry’, the fa mous blind show horse. ning, until he got complete confidence in her and in himself. Next came the trials at jumping. First she used a very low hurdle, not more than a foot high. She would bring the horse up to this so that his forefeet would barely hit the barrier. Then, in the maneuver he knew so well from days when he could see, she would bring him sharply around, go back for a distance, then ride him up for the jump. When at precisely the proper distance for the horse to begin to gather himself for the spring she calls, “Ready,” then, quickly and on the right stride, “Up high” (or “Up low’) depending on the distance to be cleared. Before he lost his sight Elmer could jump about five feet; now he clears the bar at three feet eight inches. Three Horse Classics Shown in “Gantry” Film Three great horse races are shown in Warner Bros.’ unique racing picture, “Pride Of The Bluegrass,” opening Friday at the Strand Theatre, which features Edith Fellows, James Mc-| Callion and the famous blind horse, Elmer Gantry. The classics are the Baltimore Stakes, the Kentucky Derby and the Grand National at Aintree, England, a famous steeplechase race, Page Three