At Southbridge

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 16, 28 February 1939, Page 7

At Southbridge

"IN OLD CHICAGO"

The Los Angeles Fire Department sat calmly by and let the place burn down, sat idly by, while scores of men struggling to operate clumsy apparatus of the vintage of 1871 tried ineffectually to quell the blaze that was sweeping over the vast 20th CenturyFox lot. One of the most expensive and extensive bits of scenery ever made was whooping up in smoke. Thousands of people were milling about in the holocaust, expensive stars like Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Alice Brady, and many humble extras, several crews of not so humble cameramen; all were somewhere in the blaze and still the Los Angeles Fire Department made no move. Just as well they didn't of course, for they would have ruined takes of "In Old Chicago."

Half of Hollywood was there watching the fire from a grandstand erected across' the studio version of Lake Michigan. All of the home studio force was there, of course, and an assortment of big shots and little shots from all over the place.

When "In Old Chicago" is presented at Southbridge next Saturday, it will offer Darryl F. Zanuck's master contribution to cinematic history. The 20th Century-Fox production has Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche in the leading rotes. They head the star scintillating cast of the great American motion picture which includes Alice Brady, Andy Devine, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks, Tom Brown, Sidney Blackmer, Berton Churchill, June Storey, and Paul

Hurst.