This and That From Here, There, and Everywhere... "Broadway Serenade", M-G-M's new musical attraction starring Jeanette MacDonald, will be the Easter week attraction in Loew's Valentine. Lew Ayres, Ian Hunter, and Frank Morgan are the masculine leads in the film.
MITCH WOODBURY REPORTS
On the Movies
It would be nice to report that no Easter eggs were laid by any of the new film attractions which were hatched on local screens yesterday. But, alas and alack, such was not the case. However Hollywood can be credited with two hits in three times at bat. And a .666 average is a good figure in any league (even the celluloid league, which abounds in good figures).
Shirley Temple's "The Little Princess" and Jeanette MacDonald's "Broadway Serenade" are the productions which pounded out hits. Martha Raye and Bob Hope's "Never Say Die" is the movie which misses fire. S'funny. For with Martha and Bob present one feels there is a Raye of Hope for the picture. But alas and alack again, it's nearly as bad as that pun - not quite.
However, "Never Say Die" is coupled on the same bill with "The Little Princess" at the Paramount. And Shirley's latest effort is such a surefire serving of sugar candy that the Raye-Hope effort is more-or-less forgotten in the shuffle - and saccharinity.
"Broadway Serenade" is in Loew's Valentine Theatre. It bears the M-G-M label. The studio certainly raided its own coffers to a goodly extent to give the feature gloss and finish. For it's a costly and lavish bit of cinematic bric-a-brac. Which is just as well, considering its story is one of those trite dime-a-dozen concoctions.
Let us give you a dash of the plot. Jeanette and Lew Ayres, he's her leading man, are ambitious entertainers. She sings. He composes. A lucky break gives her a big opportunity and she zooms to stardom. The backer of the show is friendly and helpful. It's all platonic, of course, but Lew misunderstands, gets drunk and causes a separation. After many months in a drunken stupor, he gets a hold of himself and writes his big symphony. It's accepted. You can guess the rest.
Fortunately for the authors, Miss MacDonald's vocal efforts, Mr Ayres' sincere and telling portrayal and M-G-M's generosity in giving the star some gorgeous gowns and backgrounds overcome the familiar qualities of the plot. Thus the film carries a definite appeal for the MacDonald devotees - and they are legion.
Their favourite is found in fine voice and she certainly looks quite fetching in the smart raiment fashioned for her by the studio's style creators. Most of the songs given her to sing are tuneful with "One Look at You" being the most haunting. A spectacular finale in symbolic modernism must be credited to Busby Berkeley. It's eye-filling - but plenty.
"Broadway Serenade" is being single featured at Loew's, thank goodness. Its surrounding bill of short subjects, all commendable featurettes, includes a new "Crime Doesn't Pay" film anent the loan shark racket, a Pete Smith novelty, and the latest news-events.
"The Little Princess" is an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel of the same name.
...Glory be. Loew's Valentine will SINGLE FEATURE Jeanette MacDonald in "Broadway Serenade" next week.
Hair Mask to Shelve Wigs
HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 30 (U.P.) -- The "hair mask", which replaces the wig, is the latest quirk of the Hollywood makeup men.
The thing is made of silk and lacquer. Made in any style hair-do or colour, the mask fits over the person's head and saves hours of hair-dressing or wig-fitting.
Jack Dawn, veteran makeup man, perfected the affair for use by Jeanette MacDonald in her latest picture, "Broadway Serenade".
Dilemma: Frank Morgan is in a pretty pother and, goodness, he doesn't know what to do. It's his moustache. In "The Wizard of Oz" he wears a dandy moustache, but in "Broadway Serenade", which he is making at the same time, he wears none. It means he must pop in and out of moustaches until he is dizzy, and he turns up on the wrong set with a moustache where he should be smooth shaven, or vice versa, until Morgan is turning masochist. Jeanette MacDonald, star of "Broadway Serenade", has a solution, but Morgan doesn't think much of it. "Just shave off half your moustache," she advises, "and then show half your face in one picture, and the other half in the other picture." This is all a bit half baked, but it lets you know what occupies our minds here.
A Humpty-Dumpty View of Jeanette
WHAT has happened to Jeanette MacDonald? Has she deserted the thinning ranks of true music lovers for swing? Before my very eyes I have seen a lovely, refined, cultured woman, with a beautiful, often magnificent voice, succumb to the lowest form of music - swing.
It became evident in "Sweethearts"; it was increasingly noticeable in "Broadway Serenade".
I had thought that Jeanette and Nelson Eddy would be the last to lower their high standards of music and beauty and it pains me to see her fall from the pedestal on which I had placed her.
Please, Nelson Eddy, you, at least, remain the intelligent and wonderful artist you are. With so much swing and unrefinement in pictures, I at least hope that one person will uphold the refreshing ideals that have made the MacDonald-Eddy pictures so different and appealing.
Lucille Weaver, Indianapolis, Indiana.
Jeanette MacDonald, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer star of "Broadway Serenade", entertained singing star Miliza Korjus at luncheon yesterday. The two singers had never met.
For weeks now, ever since "Broadway Serenade" started shooting, one of the constant headaches has been a running gag wherein Lew Ayres tosses a hat onto a peg wherever he and Jeanette MacDonald, the star, goes.
Countless rehearsals and "takes" have been necessary to get each one of those successful peggings. Now comes the scene to which the gag leads. Lew, after he and Miss MacDonald quarrel, flips a hat for a peg - and misses.
"This is a cinch," says Director Robert Z Leonard. "A one-take scene. All right. Camera. Come on, Lew."
Ayres enters. Dejectedly he removes his hat and lazily sails it at the peg on the wall. Suddenly, everyone groans.
Without a waver, the hat has settled squarely on the peg.
Busby Berkeley will stage the elaborate finale number in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture, "Broadway Serenade", starring Jeanette MacDonald.
Jeanette MacDonald, who has been happily married these 18 months to Gene Raymond, plays the wife of Lew Ayres all through "Broadway Serenade".
"Is a very touching scene as Jeanette and Lew kneel together on the floor before a packed suitcase. Jeanette is going away to try her luck as a singer in the big city. Finally the look of despair on Jeanette's face becomes so intense Director "Pop" Leonard stops the camera and asks:
"Are you trying to convey the idea that your knees are beginning to ache in that strained position, Jeanette?"
And Jeanette laughs and replies: "We're not as young as we used to be, Pop."
SIGMA PICTURE PACKED WITH MUSICAL HITS, MUCH ROMANCE
Packed with musical, romantic and eye-filling thrills, "Broadway Serenade", starring Jeanette MacDonald, opens at the Sigma theatre. Definitely one for the "must see" list, "Broadway Serenade" hasn't missed a trick in including all of the elements of top flight entertainment.
Unlike most films in the musical category, this one contains a story which holds interest from the first scene until the fadeout. In brief, it is the tale of a young married couple, she a singer, he a composer-pianist. As a team they play most of New York's cheap night clubs until a lucky break starts the girl climbing high on the ladder of musical-comedy success. The boy is left behind to battle for recognition as a composer and to master the jealousy which eventually breaks up the marriage. The story moves in two extremes of locale, the glittering show-world of which the girl becomes a part and the garret-room where her husband is struggling to bring himself a success of which she may be proud.
Seldom has Jeanette MacDonald had a better opportunity for both her dramatic and vocal abilities. For the first time since "San Francisco" she carries the vocal honours singly. Her songs have been wisely selected to please diversified audiences. There are favourites of the Gay Nineties, grand opera selections, and a dash of the day's hit tunes. In each case the songs are set against colourful backgrounds.
AT THE VALENTINE
Jeanette MacDonald, the newly-elected "Queen of the Screen", in M-G-M's new tuneful cody, "Broadway Serenade", is the Easter week attraction now playing in Loew's Valentine theatre.
The new musical, which traces the struggles of a young singer and her husband in their fight for stardom, offers Toledo music lovers the full scope of Miss MacDonald's voice. The melodies everything from grand opera to semi-classical and popular selections.
Appearing opposite the singing star is Lew Ayres, whose ace performances in recent films won for him the male lead in "Broadway Serenade". Ayres, a musician and composer in real life, plays a parallel role as Jimmy Seymour, Miss MacDonald's husband.
Frank Morgan once again lends his unique comedy to the role of a flutter Broadway producer. Ian Hunter forms the necessary third point of the film's love triangle, and Al Shean, famous old vaudevillian, gives an interesting characterisation as Herman, elderly concert cellist who befriends both Miss MacDonald and Ayres.
The story is woven about the lives of Ayres and Miss MacDonald, as husband and wife, who combine to perform a piano and song team performing at cheap night spots. Ayres' temper costs them their best job. On returning home he discovers he has won a scholarship to study in Italy, but their funds are insufficient to provide passage for his wife. Determined to sell his prize song, the two visit the offices of Producer Frank Morgan. The ensuing events result in harrowing complications. The girl continues to climb in her profession and eventually hits solo stardom. What happens thereafter forms a dramatic but intriguing climax.
"Broadway Serenade" moves in two extremes of locale; the glittering show world, of which the girl becomes a part after her success, and the garret-room where her husband is struggling to achieve attention of which she may be proud. Comedy is inserted into the tale by Frank Morgan, and Virginia Grey and Rita Johnson as two chorines who vie for his faltering attention. Miss MacDonald sings a half dozen songs during the action and there are numerous chorus ensembles in which scores of beautiful girls participate. "Broadway Serenade" was produced for M-G-M by Robert Z Leonard, who made the unforgettable "Great Ziegfeld".
REAL LIFE ROLE PLAYED BY AYRES
Lew Ayres, appearing opposite Jeanette MacDonald in her new starring picture, "Broadway Serenade", coming to Loew's Valentine Theatre tomorrow for a week, plays a real-life role in the production. Ayres, cast as a promising young American composer, has written several outstanding piano compositions and looks upon composing as his favourite hobby.
The actor has a musical heritage from both his father and his grandmother. His father was a member of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and his grandmother was formerly a concert pianist. Young Ayres was given instruction in playing the piano at such an early age that he can't remember when he wasn't perched on a bench before the instrument "performing" for guests who called upon his parents.
"Broadway Serenade", produced by Robert Z Leonard, has a cast including, in addition to Miss MacDonald and Ayres, such favourites as Frank Morgan, Ian Hunter, Rita Johnson and Virginia Grey, and Franklin Pangborn.
Short subjects on Loew's program will include a "Crime Does Not Pay" featurette; "Money to Loan", a Pete Smith novelty; "Marine Circus", and the latest news-events.
SCREEN GOSSIP
Jeanette MacDonald will vocalise for the first time with a modern ballet in sequences of her forthcoming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical, "Broadway Serenade".
$1.00 PRIZE
Just Like Ham and Eggs
WHY the division of the team of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy? Their opposite characters conform like Romeo and Juliet, ham and eggs, Hero and Leander, cabbages and kings. Nelson's smooth personality and splendid physique is a superb foil for Jeanette's scintillating beauty.
Eddy, in "Let Freedom Ring", was vocally appealing, but where was the fire and the intensity of his acting -- qualities never lacking in his performances with Jeanette? In "Broadway Serenade", Jeanette was just ordinary, and her love-making with Lew Ayres farcical. Her loves scenes in pictures with Nelson are always convincing.
In "Rose-Marie", "Maytime", and "Sweethearts", the quality and technique of this team's singing and acting were the epitome of perfection. They attained a special place in their audiences' hearts as they depicted romance in all its glory. They made tears come to the throats of millions by the tenderness and depth of their ardent moments. They transformed the world's husbands into lovers; sweethearts into husbands.
Put this immortal team in harness again! If this be (fan)-tastic enthusiasm, make the most of it.
Mrs Chester Grabeel,Perryton, Texas
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