The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 30

30 BROOKLYN EAGLE, SlWPAY AUSflVr 1943 Pants Will Make PLAYTHINGS $5,000,000 Opening Night Goal 1 1 Bond Drive bonds can be secured at booths throughout the city, at station WJZ, as well as all leading depart ment stores. With a. star-studded array of tal ent, "Ice Capades" will this year present a cast or 152, whose -magic on ice'1 will be weaved into a pattern of 30 acts. Included in the cast are such fieures as Donna Atwood, 1941 national champion; Eleanor O'Meara, Canadian and North American champion: Nate Walley, undefeated world's champion; Rob ert Drnch and Rosemane Stewart, British cold medalist; Markhus and Thomas, who have won nation wide aDulause as the "Old Smooth "Red" McCarthy: Phil Taylor, originator of stilt skating, and Lots Dworshak, America's No. 1 rhythm girl.

With Music, New Clothes and filling them in with colors when the idea seemed to elude him. Eventually his job was done. Whereas, to Florell the original costuming of "The Merry Widow" was quite characteristic of what he calls "the clothes horse" era, his theme for the modernized version has been to take off the lumber, to remove the museum qualities of the costuming, guide it toward the modern. He achieves the peak of this plan in his third act, which describes as a "psychological strip tease, or the undressing of 'The Merry A very serious young man, Florell attributes his success in the world theatrical fashion to a firm belief in his own imagination. Daringly, he has fashioned hats and gowns for a decade now.

but in this relatively short span of time he has achieved the everlasting patronage many of Hollywood's most glamorous women. Be it Gloria Swan-son, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Rosalind Russell, names selected at random from the inscribed photographs on the wall of his shop, they have beaten a path to his doorway which first led all the way to Paris. In Ice Capades' "Ice Capades of 1944" starts its fourth annual tour of the United States and Canada with a limited engagement at Madison Square Garden, opening Tuesday night, Sept. 14, with a World Premiere War Bond performance. Thereafter, regular performances will be given nijhtly, with a matinee on Sunday afternoons.

Every effort is being expended to attain a $3,000,000 goal for the War Bond. Opening. Madison Square Garden, together with radio station WJZ, the War Finance Committee for New York State, and the directors of "Ice Capades," are cooperating to carry out the bond drive successfully. Arrangements have been made whereby complimentary exchange tickets will be given to purchasers of bonds. The Couldn't Tamper So 'Widow7 Gets When the producers of the modernized version of "The Merry Widow" at the Majestic Theater contemplated their plans for this sliow one of the things they settled upon was how up to date their offering should be.

The music, they agreed, could not be touched. It was written by a master, and who would dare revise a master? But as for the costumes, here, they felt, there was room for departure. And so Walter Florell came Into the picture. A prominent stylist, he was known to have the patronage of the most fashionable women on two continents. A young, dynamic personality, hardly 28.

and daring of imagination, Florell began his study of the problem by spending a month in the 42d Street Library reading all the fashion magazines of the 1906 era when "The Merry Widow" was new here. After saturating himself with all there was to know about what the girls wore in 1906, he took a vacation. When he came back he began to make the preliminary sketches. He made dozens of such sketches, redoing them as often as he of of INGRID BERGMAN is the lovely Maria, whose poignant story is told in "For Whom the Bell Tolls," pic-turization of the Hemingway best seller, playing to capacity at the Rivoli Theater. BUY U.

S. WAR BONDS AND SAVINGS STAMPS 'The Brooklyn Girl' Doesn't Live In Brooklyn and She's Surprised Unless you recognized Jane Kean as a Broadway figure which you wouldn't, unless you had Just seen "Early to Bed" because that's her first Broadway show you'd think you were meeting up with an unusually pretty young girl enjoying a vacation from boarding school. "Fresh and spontaneous," which are the words used about her by Drama Critic Arthur Pollock, are really the best possible words to describe this rising theatrical star who is by no means as young as she looks. To think that we thought she was about 15 was a laugh, Miss Kean said. She is 20.

Miss Kean also looks taller than she is (which is 5 feet 4) due, no doubt, to the fact that she is built like a willow wand and has lovely long legs and wears very high-heeled sandals. She is glad she looks taller than she Is, because she would like to be tall like her sister Betty, who is in the films with Universal. But Miss Kean, whose blond hair is longer, thicker and curlier than anybody's, does not look a bit more unsophisticated than she is. Frankness is one of her particular charms. In "Early to Bed," which as people generally know by now is a musical comedy with a very comical theme, Miss Kean is referred to, and refers to herself, as "The Girl From Brooklyn." She is not, however, the girl from Brooklyn, and has never lived here at all.

She is the girl from Hartford, who went to Hollywood, because her sister Betty was in pictures and went to London, England, because her sister Betty was in a show there. Jane was 12 then, and she went to the Fay Compton Dramatic School, which is the only pre-stage training she has had. Singing and dancing, as a matter of record, were what she had In mind when she embarked on a stage career, four years ago, mora or less. She played In theaters out on the coast. Getting Into what has turned out to be a Broadway hit was a bona-fide break, she is the first one to explain, because everybody knows you can have oodles of talent and scads of looks and still gather dust on a theatrical agency bench unless you get a break, To outline the course of events that led to Miss Kean becoming "The Girl From Brooklyn" In "Early to Bed," It is necessary to go back three years to a show called "Crazy With the Heat," in which Richard Kollmar was an actor and Jane Kean's sister Betty was an actress.

Because of this situation Jane got to meet Mr. Kollmar, who got to know that Jane could dance and sing and wanted to go on the stage, and was getting to go on the stage, too, in a small way. Now we will skip lightly over the three years and here we are, In the recent past of just a few weeks ago, and this Richard Kollmar, who used to be the juvenile leading man in several past successes, is now a producer, and in fact about to embark on his first solo producing venture, which' is called "Early to Bed." He is figuring on this one and that one for his show and he happens to meet Jane Kean at a drugstore soda fountain or some place, and he tells her about his new show and says maybe she can sing and dance in it. So Jane Kean goes around to the casting office and has a try-out, and some one says, "This girl would be better for that comedienne part than Just singing and dancing." It was quite a surprise to Miss Kean, who had never figured she was a comedienne, but maybe the violent emotional actress type, like Bette Davis. But she tried being a comedienne and golly, she was just that.

This is the way that Miss Jane Kean got to be a Broadway celebrity and the surprise hasn't yet dimmed out of her aquamarine blue eyes. She likes it fine, however. For violent emotion she can wait. J. C.

PAT O'BRIEN and Anne bombardiers perform in "Bombardi Shirley watch the student 1 er," made with U. S. goes into its second week at "All By Myself" is added. Army co-operation, which the Albee next Wednesday. Stadium Closes 26th Season, Giving 'La Boheme' Twice 1 1 'T.

5 4 'v i. The Lewisohn Stadium programs for the remainder of its 26th season, which closes next Wednesday night, include: Monday and Tuesday, the opera "La Boheme," with Bidu Sayao as Mimi; Armand Tokatyan as Ro-dolfo, and MargitBokor as Musetta. Alexander Smallens will conduct. Wednesday's program, the last of the season, will be given under the baton of Alexander Smallens and will have as soloists three members of the orchestra: First horn, Wel-don Wilber; Coneertmaster John Corigliano, and first violin, Zoltan Kurthy. Messrs.

Corigliano and Kurthy will play the Mozart "Con-certante for Violin and Viola." Mr. Ingrid Learned From Book, So: P. S. She Got the Part J) tr Joan Roberts of Violates a Few Traditions 'The Iron Major' There Is a pleasant tree-shaded grra plot, a bit like the Yard In the Quad, surrounded by two-story buildings In the heart of RKO Radio studio. Quite often movie-making goes on there, for It is an outdoor setting which frequently fits.

But today the goings-on have even custom-calloused studio workers leaning out the windows. For one big man is dragging another over the grass and paths by the feet, while three others walk along, eying the dragging with professional interest. Yet there isn't a movie camera In sight. "That's about it," says one of the three watchers. So the tugger pauses and the tuggee slowly turns over and over at command.

"Yes, that'll do," says the speaker. They are football pants. They are the football pants Pat O'Brien presently will put on for a movie scene in "The Iron Major." Pat, enacting the real life roje of the late MaJ. Frank Cavanaugh, first World War hero and famed football coach, will wear them on the field in coaching Fordham. The three grave men, the tug ger and the tugged, all walk away to the studio wardrobe department.

When Pat comes to get into his football pants he'll find them artistically skinned, muddied and grass-stained instead of brand new. Wilber will play his own arrangement of the Handel "Concerto for Horn and Strings." The program will also include the Cherubini Overture to "Anacreon" and the Beethoven "Fifth Symphony." Weldon Wilber is a native of Kansas, He started his musical career as a violinist, studying under Anton Witek. He joined the Minneapolis Symphony originally as a violinist. After five years, Eugene Ormandy, conductor of the orchestra at that time, made him third horn. Two years later he was engaged by Eugene Goossens as first horn of the Cincinnati Symphony.

After five years in Cincinnati he join id the Philharmonic-Symphony as first horn this Summer. But nobody asked her! Then one day the Swede met the author of the novel and he autographed the book to her as the girl who should play the heroine. Hollywood was testing almost every actress on the screen and stage but could not find the right girl to play the role of the heroine. Then they cast a girl in the part because, as they said, "we can't get the girl we know is ideal for the role because she is under contract to another studio." The picture went into production and the girl they cast didn't work out so good. So Paramount straightened out the Swedish girl's contract difficulties and asked her if she'd play the part.

"Certainly," said Ingrid Bergman. "I've been wanting to be Maria in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' for almost two years!" to Beat Censor scenes out came the fact that here was a letter from an American soldier in Africa who didn't know Marcy but had seen her in "Seven Days Leave" and was doing a rave. She was this, she was that, she was everything for page after page. And at the end was a footnote: "You're a better man than I am if you can wade through all this. I can't.

So it goes uncensored. By the way, I saw the picture too, and you're swell. (Signed) Censor." Freckled Marcy, with the Irish blue eyes and the tip-tilted nose, got a fatherly pat on the back when Kay Kyser had absorbed it all. His comment. "That censor doesn't know us actors.

Hey, Marcy? We can take it." very first, Gene's rise in Hollywood has been rapid and sensational. Brought, west from her successful portrayal of the ingenue in the Broadway hit "The Male Animal." Gene went immediately into a lead role in an important picture. There was, for her. no long novitiate if posing in bathing suits or working in horse operas. For her very first essay at screen acting she was featured opposite Henry Fonda in "The Return of Frank James." The same year, she appeared in "Hudson's Bay" and "Tobacco Road." That, was 1940.

The following year, in her fourth picture, "Belle Starr," she received star billing mast unusual for a sophomore. The demand for Tierney was insistent, and Twentieth Century-Fox, her home studio, loaned her out to United Artists for "Shanghai Gesture" and "Sundown." At 23, Gene's star is firmly established In the Hollywood firmament. BING CROSBY makes with the music for Dottie Lamour in "Dixie' Technicolor hit musical, now in its third week at the Paramount. Co-feature is "Aerial Gunner." It is October, 1940. A Swedish girl recently from the old country is learning to, read, write and speak English.

She is using America's best-seller as her school book. She is having great difficulty and has to look up about every other word. Every day she reads aloud and soon she falls in love with the book and the heroine of- the story be comes the most wonderful girl in the world. She would like, the Swede said, to be the heroine of that story. Hollywood purchased the novel and.

with enormous hoop-tee-do, began to search for an actress to portray the heroine. The Swede heard about the search and was dying to tell somebody that she loved the book and would give almost anything if they'd allow her to play the role. 1 in niirniii i trTiiMiin -r 1 1 mr i nr" 'm uu i mi m-mwmsnstFKam Marcy McGuire's Writing Fan dling the roles Miss Roberts found a job in Summer stock, playing in "The Student Prince," "New Orleans," "Irene'' and "The Chocolate Soldier." In order to gain poise and further experience, she tried several engagements in night clubs, including a seven-week appearance in the Rainbow Room. Then, when the opportunity came along, she took advantage of it to appear in a Broadway production. It was the Romberg-Hammerstein operetta, "Sunny River," produced by Max Gordon last year.

Last year Miss Roberts went to the West Coast and was starred in "Hit the Deck" with the Los Angeles Civic Opera Company. Then, traveling East, she stopped off in St. Louis long enough to play "Girl Crazy" and "No, No, Nanette" with the St. Louis Municipal Opera Company. This Spring New York's home town gall came back to take the lead in the Guild Theater adaptation of "Green Grow the Lilacs," which, as "Oklahoma!" is still being raved r.bout from coast to coast.

Little Joan is still continuing in her own unique fashion. She shares top honors with James Melton on the Summer Texaco radio show. She has had offers from every major studio in Hollywood, and she takes enough time out to take singing, dancing and French lessons. During the afternoons that she has free she works as a nurses' aide at a midtown hospital. JL I mil JANE KEAN, "The Girl From Brooklyn" in "Early to Bed," is lucky.

Her first Broadway show is a hit. Finds Out How "He didn't cut out a word of it," said the alwaj's excited Marcy Mc-Guire. "Not a single word. Look." She waved a many-page letter. "Who didn't do what?" asked Kay Kyser in his best bewildered or Professor way, peering through his specs, "The censor," said half-pint Marcy, the 17-year-old dynamo out of the Chicago niteries, whose warbling and personality in RKO Radio's "Seven Days Leave" made such a hit that she now is being featured before the camera, along with Joan Davts and Mischa Auer, in Kyser's musical frolic, "Around the World." When they got Marcy quieted down on the set It was between Three theatrical traditions were broken with the successful of the musical, "Oklahoma!" at the St.

James Theater three months ago. They were: 1. You don't have to be born in Indiana or Ohio or some such place and come to New York and starve before you get a break. 2. You don't have to appear in motion pictures before the producers will notice you.

3. You don't have to wear out 12 pairs of shoes hunting jobs before you get a chance on Broadway. Joan Roberts, blond singer, who plays the romantic feminine lead in "Oklahoma!" never did any of these things, and yet attained her goal. In the first place, she was born In Manhattan. She made her first stage appearance at the age of six and alone.

He rmother, daughter of a famous Irish dancer and singer, David Roberts of Limerick, Ireland, coached her in Irish dances and singing Irish songs. And when an Irish club, fraternal order or any other assemblage of Irish needed a performer little Tiny Robers took over. At the St. Patrick Cathedral High School Joan played the lead in mast of the plays produced there during her attendance. At the same time she was taking lessons in singing and dancing.

As soon as she. and her mother felt that she was capable of han- Ballerina Will Sing Beautiful Ballerina Carol King, currently featured at the Latin Quarter, will sing for the first time in her career when she opens in the "Artists and Models." Carol will also have speaking lines, in addition to her featured ballet numbers. MOVIE TIME SCHEDULE BROOKLYN ALBKE "Bnmha rrl'T 1 43. 4 43, 7 33 10 33; "All bj Mysfll." 12.40. 3:42, 6:36.

9 30. FOX "BarkBrounrl to DanKPr." 12. 57, 5 54. 8.41. 11 2H; "What's Buzzirr, Cousin?" 1.32, 4.29.

7.2B, 10.13. MAJESTIC Affair." 11 15. 3. "StRtirl In," 12.30. 4 30.

6 30, 10 15. METROPOLITAN "The Youncest. 12 31. 3 53. 7 15, 10 37; "V.ign-mr-nl in Brittany 2:12.

5:34. 8 56. STRAND "Here Com Kflly." 12 3S. 3 3R. 8 2fl.

1R: "Arhcnlure In Blackmail." 2, 5, 7.50. 10.40. MANHATTAN AFTOR, "Brst Toot Fnrn'ird." 12:01, 2 n.1. 4 08. 6 13.

8 18. 10 23. 12 25. CRITERIOK "Hfrs to Hold" 11 43, 1 30, 3 25, 20. 7.15.

9 05, 11, 12 45. Mtmir HALL "Mr Lurky," 12, 40, 5 27, 8 23. Stl. 1.40, 4 25. 7:30.

45. PARAMOUNT "tn'l Far It." 12 01 2 29, 4 57. 7 23. 9 49, 12 30, StaRO, 1 29, 3 57. 25, 8 51.

11 17. Rivoi.l "For Whom in Bll Toll." 5 30 8 30. JI fe 1 DEANNA DURBIN gets a lesson in riveting at the Vega Airplane plant in "Hers to Hold," in which she is starred with Joseph Cotten. The picture is in the midst of a record run at the Criterion Theater. is Gene Tierney Shelves Films; Expects Visit From Sir Stork rr ImQ 1 ft Gene Tierney has made her last picture for at least, a year.

With the completion of her latest film, "Heaven Can Wait," Gene is retiring from the screen to have a baby. And so is Interrupted one of the most spectacular screen careers of recent years. Characteristically, Gene's temporary retirement is prefaced by a new cinematic adventure. In "Heaven Can Wait" she performs under the aegis of Ernst Lubitsch, who produced as well as directed the film. Co-starred in the Technicolor picture is Don Ameehe.

The large featured ea.st of "Heaven Can Walt," which follows "Stormy Weather" into the Roxy Theater, includes Charles Coburn, Laird Cregar, Eugene Pal-lette, ALlyn Joslyn, Marjorle Main and Spring Bylngton, Working under the deft guidance of the Lubitech touch is another feather in a cap that has been notable for the unusual. From the POLA NEGRI is back in the films again, this time as a comedienne, in "Hi Diddle Diddle," soon to make its appearance on Broadway. Martha Scott and Dennis O'Keefe are also in the film. JUDITH CAMPBELL is a romantic blackmailer in "Adventure in Blackmail," now at the Strand, with "Her Comes Kelly" ond the 3 Stooges in "Higher Thari a Kite." FRANCES BAVIER AND TOMMY LEWIS Making merry In "Kiss and Tell," the George Abbott success now occupying the Biltmore Theater. 3 35 2.40.

ROXY "Stormy WMthw," 1 05, 8 0S. 38, 1110; Bvtf. 12:10, M0, 7:40,.