GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 809, 8 July 1933, Page 18

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

MANY HONOURS. Fredric March, who appears in “ Tonight is Ours,” at the Plaza Theatre, has won many honours. Last year he was given the highest honour the motion picture industry has in its power to bestow, the award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the best performance of the year. March acquired his first honour in an elementary school when he was elected president of his graduation class. He was president of his high school senior class, and also president of the senior class at the University of Wisconsin the year he graduated. At Wisconsin ; March was a prominent athlete, an honour student, a member of two prominent fraternities, leading man in the college theatrical club, and winner of a chance at a banking career. March left his position in a bank to go on the stage; there he continued his winning streak winning success this time. Then a film contract was offered him and he took it—to win the highest honour available there. Writer's Experiences Depicted. Since the success of the film “ I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang," which j will begin at the Majestic Theatre on Monday, its author, Robert Elliott j Burns, has faced a return to those hor- | rors which he vividly describes. In his j story Burns depicts the brutality of the j chain gangs, including the whipping of ; prisoners and their confinement in | sweat boxes and in stocks. Burns, who j twice escaped from the dreaded punish- : ment in Georgia, was arrested in j Newark, New Jersey, after he was so J indiscreet as to admit that he was the j writer.of the story of the film based on j his experiences, says a correspondent. He had been running an art shop in i Newark. On appearing in court a few months ago, Burns said in a broken voice to his attorney: “I’d rather be dead than go back, for I know they'll torture me.” His fate now rests on the willingness of Governor Moore, of New Jersey, to sign extradition papers. Ten years ago Burns, a war veteran suffering from shell shock, was sentenced to six years' on the chain gang for his part in a £1 hold-up at Atlanta, Georgia Three, months later he escaped. Bloodhounds were used in the pursuit, but Burns managed to reach Chicago, and later, with the financial assistance of his brother, the Rev Vincent Burns (a minister of the Union Church in New York), strove to rebuild his shattered life. He was successful in establishing on a profitable basis a business journal, j “ The Greater Chicago Magazine." and entered the real estate field. A woman discovered his past, and he married her to keep her from betraying him, but she denounced him when he fell in love with another woman. One morning, seven years after Burns’s escape from the chain gang, tw’o officers from the State of Georgia dramatically arrested him. Rendered desperate, Burns again escaped, and wandered the country.

| Meanwhile he wrote of his experiences I for a publishing house. The case aroused such interest that Warner BroI thers purchased the film rights of the story, and in the picture made him a I civil engineer. Won Fame as a Dancer. Joan Crawford, who enacts the role of Sadie Thompson in “ Rain," at the Theatre Royal, was born in San Antonio. She learned to dance almost as soon as she could walk. When she was seven her parents moved to Kansas City, where the future star was placed in a convent and, later, in a private school. It was during her school days in Kansas City that Joan Crawford won her first prize for dancing in public. Later she won a roomful of silver cups for her exceptional talent. Joan Crawford went on the stage at the age of sixteen in the chorus of a musical show playing Middle Western cities. She soon found herself on Broadw’ay, and, whilst there, augmented her income by singing in Harry Richman's supper club after the evening performances at the theatre. During her early film -career in Hollywood she played small parts, then won a fairly important role in a Jackie Coogan picture, “Old Clothes.” The part of the dancer in “ Sally, Irene and Mary” skyrocketed Joan Crawford to screen fame.

Well-known Stage Actor. Austin Trevor, who plays a leading role in “ The Crooked Lady," the British film at the Crystal Palace Theatre, was born in Belfast, Ireland. He is a well-known stage actor, and made his screen debut as Hanaud. the French detective, in the talking film version °f A. E. W. Mason's novel, “ At the Villa Ros*?." Trevor has since played important parts in many other British films, including “ The W Plan," “ Escape ” and “ The Man From Chicago.” He made his stage debut in America in 1915 as the Ghost in “ Hamlet." Will Not Desert Screen. Betty Balfour, the English film star, who secretly married Jimmy Campbell, the English song writer, will not desert the stage and screen for the kitchen. “ I will try to be a model housewife,” she said when she and her husband arrived at Southampton. England, from New' York, “ but I don’t think I w'ill retire from the stage or screen." A slip of the bridegroom’s tongue while at luncheon in Hollywood recently was responsible for revealing the news of the marriage. They were married six. months ago in the South of France. Jimmy Campbell went to Hollywood for a holiday, and w r as joined there by Betty Balfour before the pair returned to London. The marriage was kept secret because of Betty Balfour’s popularity wdth the British public. She feared that, as she produced her own pictures and had a large personal following, her audiences might consider her action unfair. When Campbell was asked for more details of the romance he smiled and said: “When Betty hears that our marriage has been revealed she will probably divorce me right away.”