Veteran Wallace Beery Can Still Take Knocks

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 211, 6 September 1941, Page 15 (Supplement)

Veteran Wallace Beery Can Still Take Knocks

ALLACE BEERY celebrated his thirty-fifth year in pictures by getting a few kicks and cuffs u return ing same) in one of the "fightingest" pictures of his career, Barnacle Bill," in which, te -n m Marjorie Main, he will shortly be seen. an H U L Beery ' glories in such roles lf\ es P r , lde 111 t,ie fact that he can take it it's all in the dav's a crowH nf ® a i" nacle Bil1 " he battles a crowd of fishermen and gets into =Lt m fK er T° f trouble, aided and « a by Leo Carrillo. • _{^ er sa ys Beery, "I'm startT» y thirty-fifth year in pictures and I ve been on the receiving end bnnt« "jany well-directed fists and SSfng now " 8 gto S,art

"Richard Harding Davis wasn't fooling when he told nie, vears aero" In two or three years, Wally, your face is going to look like 'an old squash. Its been socked so often I m beginning to feel like those guvs who ve taken a fling at Joe Louis. History Of Hard Knocks

"While this isn't any complaint— they pay me well, outside of the first job I got as an extra—l've been

"Keystone offered me a job. I grabbed it, and the bobbing business started all over again. Doug Fairbanks pulled me from under a boot and put me in the role of Richard Lion-Heart. A series of villain and humorous roles followed. Too easy. So, in 1927-28 I teamed up with Raymond Hatton for 'Behind the Front,' 'Fireman, Save My Child' and 'Now We're in the Air.' The old swing-and-duck routine again. Then came 'Black Thursday,' and that didn't have anything to do with Lent. Then sound. It looked like 'Good-bve, Mr. Chips' for Mr. Beery. "Irving Thalberg came to the rescue. He reached the decision that characters should talk as they look. He cast me as Butch in the 'Big House.' It's been clear sailing ever since. There was 'Min and Bill,' with Marie Dressier, bless her. And 'Tugboat Annie.' And 'Viva Villa!' That was a honey. Those peons potted real slugs around my head. And Still Blows

'taking it.' My first real film start came m 1910 in the old 'Sweedie' was af Ben Tur Pi n - That was at the Essanay Studios in Chicago. I played a Swedish maid, dresses and all. The routine called for Turpin to knock me down. He did. Then I'd knock him down. Then came the chase—and everybody was knocked down.

wanted me for 'Barnacle Bill * 'Hpr*. it is,' I thought, 'an easy one rS be able to Joll about a boat and get a little fishing' "We w P nt r.n ~ Pedro Sr. r into the fiL w fi ked tne " rst scene - So do three -

" 'Bad Man of Brimstone' fell my way. So did fighting again. In that picture I had four big fights, getting knocked around like a bouncing ball. I even shot myself in the leg. That laid me up for three weeks. That about brings us up to my last birthday, last April Fool's Day. I was 57. The studio called me. They

■ others. Bam! We collide. I get a . fist in my face and wind up in the ; ocean. '. "It's been fun, though. And, I . expect, they'll probably give me an ; extra slap when they finally lower me for the last time. I wouldn't feel ■ right without it."