GIGANTIC SETS MADE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page VII (Supplement)

GIGANTIC SETS MADE

I? UY DEL RUTH, who directed the new musical extravaganza “Born to Dance” was amazed at what art directors aud set constructors accomplished with sets for a musical picture.

“There are seven sets, one for each of the songs written for ‘Born to Dance,’ by Cole Porter,” he explained. “The smallest of the sets covers an entire sound stage, while the largest is more than 25 feet higher and 15 feet wider than the ‘Pretty Girl is Like a Melody” number which was seen in ‘The Great Ziegfeld.’ “This set, featuring the ‘Swinging the Jinx Away’ number, is made of crystal, glass and silver, which is highspotted by a huge back cloth covered with 10,000 stars, more than 1000 over the number that can be viewed at the Mount Wilson Observatory. The set itself, designed by Merrill Pye in association with Cedric Gibbons, chief art director, represents a battleship built as a modernistic fancy. Weighing more than 120 tons, it took more than two months to complete construction.

“The other sets include a replica of a submarine, two exterior submarines, a tender, a modern penthouse, a huge Broadway theatre, a night club and six other novelty exterior sets,” concludes the director, who was responsible for “Broadway Melody of 1036” and other musical successes.

OAB CALLOWAY and bis baud started work recently in a onereel Warner Bros. Vitaphone musical film entitled “Hi-de-ho” at. the company’s Brooklyn studios. In addition to Calloway and the orchestra, a large supporting cast will appear in the film, including Dynamite Hooker, dancer; Ed Frye, Alberta Perkins, Ethel Purnelo and many others.

’J'HE use of 900 costumed extras in a single scene in Frank Lloyd’s production. “Maid of .Salem,” for Paramount. classes it in size with the gargantuan “.Intolerance” and “Birth of a Nation,” silent epics.