MAY ROBSON

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

MAY ROBSON

FIFTY YARDS’ DASH Now in her seventy-third year, May Robson resents nothing more than the solicitation her advanced age continually brings from other members of the cast and technicians on her pictures. “Muzzy” May’s years weigh lightly upon her shoulders, and she wages a never-ending campaign to impress

I others with this fact. Nevertheless, someone is bound to forget Miss RobI son’s attitude and when this happens | May promptly corrects the offender. i On “The Perfect Specimen” set at Warner Bros, studios recently there was a scene requiring Miss Robson to run a considerable distance—perhaps fifty yards—at a good speed. While the distance might not seem great to the average person, Director Michael Curtiz decided it was too much for a woman of seventy-three. He approached “Muzzy May on the question.

Too Far? “Grandma,” he said, using her character title from the picture. “I think i it is too far for you to run. I’ll use a double, eh?” May’s eyes widened. She said nothing for fully fifteen to twenty seconds. Finally she found the words she wanted. “Mike,” she said, “When I’m too old to run that far I’ll retire from pictures and tend to my knitting.” Venerable “Muzzy” May made the scene herself. Moreover, she ran

through it so fast the first time that the camera on a wheeled dolly, was unable to keep up with her and she had to do it a second time—at a reduced speed. “The Perfect Specimen” stars Errol Flynn and Joan Biondell. Besides Miss Robson and the two stars the cast includes such well-known players as Beverly Roberts, Dick Foran, Edward Everett Horton and Hmrti Herbert.