AMERICA’S BOX OFFICE FAVOURITES

Southland Times, Issue 24056, 21 February 1940, Page 5

AMERICA’S BOX OFFICE FAVOURITES

Mickey Rooney has been voted No. 1 star at the box office by 12,273 movie theatre owners in the annual poll conducted by the Motion Picture Herald, a reliable trade paper. The 1939 poll is full of upsets and surprises, the biggest of all being the dethronement of little Shirley Temple from the No. 1 spot, which she held undisputed for the four previous years. Here are the 10 winners for 1939, and the percentage they polled.— Mickey Rooney, 870; Tyrone Power, 677; Spencer Tracy, 566; Clark Gable, 412; Shirley Temple, 339; Bette Davis, 315; Alice Faye, 271; Errol Flynn, 253; James Cagney, 226; Sonja Henie, 219. Rooney’s victory in this poll is a blow to Hollywood’s much publicized glamour boys and girls, and is proof that the people who pay to see movies prefer homey down-to-earth entertainment to all other kinds.

Mickey’s triumph will give all studios much food for thought. He is anything but glamorous, and there’s no doubt that he won the poll for his performances in the cheap-budgeted Hardy Family series. This poll is more important to Hollywood than even the Academy Awards. Studios find out through the poll which stars are the big money-makers at the box-office, and after all, Hollywood is in business for a profit. Exhibitors who vote in this poll are asked to “Please list in the order of their box-office strength the 10 players whose pictures drew the greatest number of patrons to your theatre in 1939, without regard to age of picture, net profit, length of. run, nature of competition, or other conditions during exhibition.” More than 8000 independent exhibitors cast their votes this year. Rooney’s rise to top place has been little short of sensational. He was listed in 133rd place in the exhibitors’ poll in 1937, but in 1938 climbed up to third spot. Now he is on top with a sweeping majority. Until this poll he was receiving 1000 dollars a week, and 10,000 dollars bonus for each, picture. Now his

salary has been increased to the 4000 dollars a week mark, and he is on a par with Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, and Robert Taylor, studio fellowworkers. The appearance of Tyrone Power in second place is one of the big surprises of this year's poll. Although critics saia he was badly miscast in most of his pictures and was called upon to play impossible roles, the people who pay their good money to see him didn t agree and evidently didn t detect any miscasting. Spencer Tracy rose from fifth place to third, and most “fans”. will be pleased at his promotion. He is Hollywood’s most unanimously admired player. CLARK GABLE’S POSITION Although Clark Gable dropped from second to fourth place his ability to stay in the first ten year after year continues to amaze Hollywood. Critics had been expecting Clark to drop right into the cellar this year because he made only two pictures, “Idiot s Delight,” which was not very popular with fans, and “Gone With the Wind, which was not taken into consideration for this poll. But good pictures or bad, Gable seems to hold the public interest and he seems destined to continue as a popular leading man. His performance in “Gone With the Wind will assure him of a ranking place next year. Shirely Temple’s slip down tc fifth place seems to indicate that fans are tiring of child stars. It will be noticed that she is the only child star to be ranked in the first 10. Jane Withers, who squeezed into tenth place last year, dropped to 13th this year, giving further proof that the child star, is on the wane in Hollywood. Shirley’s decline may have been caused by the fact that she is growing up, and her studio is still searching for the right vehicle for her. It will be interesting to see the reaction to “The Blue Bird,” one of the most ambitious pictures in which she has ever appeared.