BEHIND THE SCENES.

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 15

BEHIND THE SCENES.

REBUILDING AN OLD WHARF BAR On the New York waterfront in the late 'nineties there existed a notorious gambling and drinking saloon known as the “Sand Bar.” It was a dilapidated structure of weaving walls with sagging floors and ceilings and it witnessed many dark chapters of riverfront history. A replica of the old saloon was constructed recently at the Paramount studios, for certain scenes in “The Docks of New York,” starring George Bancroft. Old drawings mellowed with age were unearthed by the research department of the studios as also were old magazine photos and newspaper clippings. A 50-year-old billiard table was resurrected from the basement of a storage warehouse. Old calendars, pictures, hanging lamps and furniture were picked up here and there in pawnshops and the backrooms of ancient bars. Gambling machines that had long since ceased to function were also among the hundreds of other articles discovered. The reconstruction was necessary to preserve the correct atmosphere of the story around which the picture was being produced. The romantic atmosphere of Naples, the struggle of two souls for happiness, woven together by a master hand, that is “The Street Angel,” a Fox Films super-production. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell are co-starred in the picture, which was made under the understanding and sympathetic direction of Frank Borzage, who directed them in “Seventh Heaven.”