"DRAMA ON TAP"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23773, 28 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

"DRAMA ON TAP"

I't> like to introduce you to a few of the odd-job men of Hollywood, writes Peggie Hollier in a London paper, Gene Donovan, for instance, supplies the IJollywood studios with the newspaper inserts we see'in many films. He operates a small but modern shop where he publishes papers in Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, and practically every known . language. The shop possesses every kind of printer's type obtainable, for 500. newspapers—replicas of papers, past and present, published in all parts of the" world—are printed there every year.

Beer Makes "Frost"

If Jack Frost is wanted on the set at the Goldwyn Studios, Paul Widlicska calls for two gallons of beer. No, the beer is' not for inspiration. He lets it go stale, mixes in some epsotn salts and paraffin, and boils briskly for several hours. -When it is cool, it is painted on the windows to bo "frosted," and the job is done. Tears are as necessary to pictures as water /to a watering-can, though players can't always turn them on at will. But Bill Ivissell, Warner's property man, is never at a loss. Using a glass tubo containing menthol crystals loosely packed in cotton wool, he blows a littlo into the actress' eyes, and then the cameraman steps in for a quick closeUp. ; Did you know that the bullet-holes that spring up all over the place in "action" pictures, are first.made with a gimlet? They are then filled with a small I charge of gunpowder, covered over to match the surrounding surface, and exploded electrically from belund

Bullet Holes, Screams and Tears

the scene. Ernie Tate makes "antique" furniture. His ageing process includes marring the new furniture with a blow lamp, and rubbing various ingredients into the scorched parts to complete the "antique" illusion. Then there is Freddie Wells, who is indispensable when the script calls for plenty of dust —old houses, _ for instanco, where dust is half an inch thick on the furniture. Using a pair of bellows of his own design, he blows brown talcum powder on to the shiny surface and so produces "dust." But Sarah Schwartz has, perhaps, the strangest job of all. She just yells for a living! When the heroine is beset by the villain, it is usually Sarah who obliges with the screaming.