BOY STARS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21126, 27 August 1938, Page 16

BOY STARS

AGREEMENT NOT TO FIGHT Threatened with serious consequences because of fist fights among his lively troupe of boys, Norman Taurog, who directed “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” declared an armistice recently. From each boy Taurog exacted a pledge of “no fighting” while the picture was in production.

The need for an armistice became 1 acute when the company finished its first week of shooting on location at I Malibu Lake, with Tommy Kelly, | Jackie Moran, Micky Rentschler, David I Holt, Georgie Billings, and other boys in the scenes. Frequent Fights Proving they are all healthy, normal boys, they began cooking up fights just as quickly as they were well acquainted. Arguments raged over whose uncle was the stronger, who could throw the farthest, climb the highest and do Tarzan imitations the best. Like all boyhood arguments, their solution seemed to lie in a fist fight, or a series of fist fights. Peace By Treaty After a few sporadic outbreaks of : hostilities, Taurog called all the boys I together to establish peace by treaty. He told them that although a fight might seem to them to be a trivial matter, the consequences might be . more serious than any of them supposed. He told them how a black eye or a ■ swollen lip or a scratched face suffered by any one of them might force the Selznick International Company to suspend production on the picture, causing a loss of thousands of pounds, and throw out of work people whose food and shelter depended on the money they were making while working in this picture. Sober-Faced Youths When Taurog finished his explan-. ation, a sober-faced group of young- 1 sters faced him. Then he asked each of them to pledge himself that he would not get into a fight throughout the making of the picture. There was absolute silence as peace was declared, until one youngster at the edge of the group piped up: "Mr Taurog, this just means to the end of the picture, doesn’t it?” On Taurog’s yes, he said: “That’s all I wanted to know.”