The Bismarck tribune., 1929-01-02

GRID STAR TURNED DOWN $5OOO
BUT PICKED UP JOB IN MOVIES
Johnny Mack Brown Offered Big
Money to Play Professional
Football; Refused to Play
That He Might Aid Alma Ma
ter; Now Makes Big Salary.
BY BOB MATHERNE

BY BOB MATHERNE
This is the story Of young half.
back of few seasons ago who passed
up a chance to make himself 5OO
bucks, played in the post-seasol
football in order to be on deck II his
alma mater landed q post st-season foot.
ball game they were dickering for.
/ The point is-he passed up the 5000
bucks. played in the post-seasor
football game, and landed in the
| movies!
Perhaps this story belongs on the
movie page. but 1t is on the sports
page because the hero is Johnny Mack
Brown who. as the caption writer for
Our Dancing Daughters" wrote, is
the greatest halfback the University
of Alabama ever has had.
It isn't exactly news that Mack
Brown is in the movies, and has been
for some time. Nor is 1t news that
Mary Pickford is going to make a
talkie Of "Coquette," the stage play
which Helen Hayes is taking about
the country now after a successful
run in New York.
1t does seem news. however, to tell
how Johnny Mack Brown wanted to
make those 5000 bucks and had to be
argued out of it because Alabama had
a chance to play Washington in the
annual Tournament Of Roses game in
1926.
When Grange Turned
The news OF Red Grange having
turned pro wasn't so very cold when
Alabama beat Georgia on Thanksgiv-
Ing day, 1925, and won q second con-
secutive championship game.
It has been announced also that
Ernie Nevers, Stanford star, was turn
ing pro-for $25,000 for some games
down in Florida.
Going back OH the train that night
to Tuscaloosa, one heard a lot of talk
about Alabama's chances to play
Washington in the annual Tourna-
ment of Roses game at Pasadena on
New Years day-and also a lot Of talk
that some Of the Alabama players had
received offers to play pro football.
Brown was one of them. He had
been offered 1000 bucks per for five
games to play with Nevers' team.
Brown is not from a rich family.
Nor from one which has been dealt
with kindly by the fates. There were
several young Browns either in or
about ready for college, and $4,000
looked like an awful lot Of money to
Mack Brown.
1t reached the proportions of look
ing like as much money as Johnny
Mack Brown would be able to earn in
at least two years after he was out of
college.
Wanted to Take Dough
Those who rode on the last coach
OF that football special to Tuscaloosa
that night know that Wallace Wade
did a lot Of talking to Mack Brown in
private that night. Just what all was
said isn't known, but it is no secret
that Brown was all for wiring accept
ance to that offer.
But he didn't-because Alabama
needed him If they were to get
chance at Washington on New Years
day.
It is easy for an Alabama alumnus
to remember that Alabama beat
Washington that day by a 20-l9 score
and that two of the touchdowns were
made by this galloping Johnny Mack
Brown.
Johnny Mack returned to Tusca-
loosa. He started to sell insurance
when he left college. Then he coached
the freshmen backs at Alabama But
there must have been thoughts every
now and then Of what he could do
with 5000 bucks-if he had it.
One OF the characters in this story
must be introduced at this time. He
is Champ Pickens, known from coast
to coast as Alabama's greatest boost
cr, and one Of those fellows who know
a lot OF fellows who can do a good
turn now and then.
Introducing Champ Pickens
Pickens would look at nice looking
Johnny Mack Brown and tell him he
ought to be In the movies. What may
have been horseplay at first began to
take firmer root in Pickens' mind and
soon he was pulling the strings for
Mack Brown to have film test in
HOLLYWOOD. And when Alabama went
back to Pasadena to play Stanford on
New Years. 1925; Mack Brown was
along-to see the game and to try and
break In the movies.
You know the rest. He looked great
to Metro Goldwyn and he has been In
several pictures since that day. He
has played with Joan Crawford.
Marion Davies, Greta Carlo and
other celebrities IN pictures the past
two years, and he will be seen in "Co-
quette" In the next few months.
The moral, II there is any, is that
Johnny Mack Brown is in the big
dough now and going higher all the
time-and many times In his life.
while he was peddling insurance
around Tuscaloosa. he must have
thought over and again-about those
5000 bucks that might have been his
IL.
ET[JEI IInUIT ElInn