GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 940, 9 December 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

YORKSHIRE COMEDIAN. Sydney Howard, who is starred in “ It's a King,” at the Civic Theatre, was born at Yeadon, near the city of Leeds, in Yorkshire. He was first employed as a printer’s traveller, but one day saw an advertisement for a “ part-time comedian.” Howard had already done a good deal of concert work, so he applied for the job, and got it. The next step was to take up concert party work on a whole-time basis, and this happened when he was offered, and accepted, an engagement at St Anne’s-on-Sea, near Blackpool. With this show Howard definitely threw’ in his lot with the theatrical profession—and as soon as he settled down to the business of making people laugh his worth was recognised, and a manager gave him a leading part in a musical show called “ The Radium Girl.” The piece proved so popular that it was produced in London, and put Sydney Howard on the high road to success. For the next two years he was under contract to Albert de Courville, now directing British films, and appeared regularly in his revues, after which he starred in variety, and toured in all the principal cities of South Africa In this w r ay Howard continued his steady climb to success, and sc*; reached the first high peak of his career in 1927, when he played the part of Battling Smith in “ Hit the Deck,” at the London Hippodrome. In the five vears which have elapsed since that memorable show was first put on, Howard has rocketed to fame. Praises Marriage. The current wave cf marital unrest in filmdom holds no terrors for Ann Dvorak, the wife of Leslie Fenton. She believes that the march up to the altar is “ the road to freedom ” rather than the contrary. “ I had always said that I would never marry,” she told an interviewer. “ I valued my independence highly; but now I’ve found something more valuable—freedom. Marriage has changed my outlook. The dropping of many petty restrictions has given me a new sense of freedom. As a single girl living with my mother, I had to be wary of companionships, the hours 1 kept and the places I visited. Now I have the only companion I wish. We are free to come and go as we please. There are no admonitions ringing in my ears when we go for long walks in the Hollywood hills or for a swim late at night. Such peace is a spur to professional achievement.” Couldn’t Dodge Stage Career. If it is ordained that a girl is to become an actress she w’ill be one in spite of any attempt she may make to avoid it. That is the doctrine of

Vera Allen, the New York stage star who makes her screen debut opposite Will Rogers in “ Doctor Bull,” at the Liberty Theatre. Because her greataunt, Florence Vincent, was a celebrated actress, Vera Allen’s relatives and friends thought she should embark on a stage career, but she did everything possible to, escape it. A graduate of Columbia, she became secretary to the chairman of English at that University, worked in the advertising department of a magazine, wrote stories, did research work in America and in London, all in her efforts to avoid the stage. When she returned to New York from England she became executive secretary of the Neighbourhood Playhouse and within a year was playing character roles on its stage. Afterwards she appeared in the “ Grand Street Follies ” and became famous for her impersonations of such stars as Katharine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, Crystal Hearne and others. Destiny guided her footsteps to the screen as it did to the stage. The Fox Film Company was interested in a juvenile of the New York stage and a test was arranged. The young man asked Vera Allen to accompany him to the New York studio and she went along, appearing with him in the test. When the film reached Hollywood, executives forgot the man and ‘became so interested in the woman that a more complete test was arranged for her, with the result that she w’as cast in the leading feminine role opposite Rogers in “ Doctor Bull.” Wages Film Wars. Home-made cannon and a simple switchboard enable one man to create spectacular wars for the “ talkies,” says the “ Popular Science Monthly.” Harry Redmond, California technician, who has waged war against 25,000 soldiers in a dozen war dramas, mows down troops with machine-gun bullets and wipes out whole companies w’ith 14in shells, yet not one soldier has he injured. Redmond does all his work while standing beside the cameras. A board, consisting of a panel on which are placed electrical contacts leading to buried explosives, and six short lengths of large water pipe fixed to heavy wooden bases constitute his principal controls and armament. From the pipes, closed at the lower end, he fires bombs containing a propelling charge and a time fuse. He has fired 5000 rounds in a single battle from his control board, and he has chased entire squadrons of aeroplanes through the air with papier mache shells from his cannon, which are set at angles so that the exploding shells will follow a plane. When troops advance in a Hollywood battle, Redmond explodes mines and shells from his memory of where the bombs have been buried. All these are placed in shallow, rounded holes. Thus the explosion goes straight up, permitting the sawdust and wood to fall in a shower on the soldiers.