Sonja Henie “Girl In a Million”

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 97, 27 April 1938, Page 11

Sonja Henie “Girl In a Million”

SECRET OF HER GRACE ON THE ICE

(Meteor: Screening Friday.)

“Ice skating is not alone a sport —it is an art, too. I try to put some of the beauty of the dance into my skating. You see, at first I wanted to be a ballet dancer, and I studied dancing until I was twenty years old.”

Radiant Sonja Heuie, holder of more world’s skating honours than sho can remember, whose screen triumph, the Twentieth Century-Fox spectacular musical smash, "Girl in a Million,” twinkled as she confided the secret of her

grace on the ice. Sonja does twinkle when she talks, which non-Scandinavian trait Mrs. Henie explains easily—Sonja’s grandmother was Irish. Impulsive, with expressive face and accompanying gestures of the hands, Sonja recalled how, just like any other beginner, she spent most of her first days on the ice in a sitting position. Not long afterwards, following iu the flying skate-steps of her father, the second fastest speed skater in Europe, Sonja began to win honours on the ice and her first award came when she was only nine years old. At eleven she was !the Norwegian figure-skating champion. Figure-skating to Sonja being really ballet on ice, Sonja studied with the famous Russian Ballet, and a brilliant performance of dancing on ice in London resulted in a command performance for the King and Queen. Command performances for most of the monarch? of Europe followed, for by that time Sonja was twice Olympic Figure-Skat- ! mg champion. Pert, five feet two inches tall, weighing one hundred and ten pounds, blonde and attractive, Sonja was widely sought as a film actress, and her highest ambition, a breath-taking winter ballet on ice, is a spectacular highlight of her picture, "Girl in a Million.” Adolphe Menjou, Jean Hersholt, Ned Sparks, Don Ameche, the Ritz Brothers, Arline Judge, Borrah Minevitch and his gang, Dixie Dunbar, Leah Ray and Shirley Deane are featured with Sonja in 1938’s wonder show. Sidney Lanfield directed with Raymond Griffith .associate producer.

I Those who wondered whether Sigrid Gurie, Samuel Goldwyu’s lovely Nor wegian discovery, would “go Holly* /wood, ” were reassured one day on the set of “The Adventures of Marca Polo,” in which she makes her film debut opposite Gary Cooper. “It’s so funny,” said Sigrid. “I ride the street car to the studio every morning and none of the girls on the way to work .know that I have a date to bo kissed by Gary Cooper.” The production is ! released through United Artists. | Ruth Chatterton and Anton Wal- | brook, co-starred in the new drama of the Paris underworld, "The Rat,” speak French fluently. Although tho ! production was filmed in the French capital, neither was asked to use a single French word. The screenplay is based on tho New York and London stage hit by Ivor Novello and Constance Collier.