The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-07-13
M Hollywood
BY PAUL HARRIsoN
NEA Service staff Correspondent

NEA Service Staff Correspondent
 Hollywood. - -the-mak- ing: Property men as a group al- ways perform the oldest jobs in Hollywood. Oldest of the lot right now are the duties of John Har- rison Adler. Among other things, he's a Water-muddier
 What he has to do is make sev- eral thousand gallons of fresh, warmed water look like the roily mess that moves sluggishly past the docks of New Yorks East river. Only this particular water is in a big tank on the set of Samuel Gold dwn's Dead End"
 The water is made to look muddy by adding vegetable coloring matter. It would be simpler to throw dirt in the water, but some of the ac- tors have to swim in it, and they wouldn't like mud.
 Lettuce leaves and beet tops
 cleaned, also are added for the
 sake of realism. And a little
 oil-n0t the harbor variety, but
 pure olive oil.
 Anohter of Adler's jobs was wear ing out the pair of shoes Sylvia Sid- ney wears in the picture. He took a pair of perfectly good shoes and held 'em against grindstone.
 He aged the clothes Joel McCrea wears, and also a number of mat tresses and blankets which are sene in the tenements. He took new brooms, and with pair of pliers, painstakingly yanked out a lot of the StrawS. Adler also put the barnacles on the billings which sup port the Dead End" wharf.
 The main reason that this set, a short street of tenements, was built indoors is because the sun plays an important part in the picture. That sounds paradoxical, but it makes sense.
 The story starts at dawn and ends at night, sco the sun and its shadows must correspond with the sequences. The filming might have taken years if they'd tried to use the real sun. But this way, they ca light the set with, say 10 a. m. shadows, and keep it that way for weeks.
 Fur and Feathers
 The pleasantest sort of adventur- ing, it seems to me, would be mak- ing jungle pictures. People are paid good money for seeing the world through movie cameras, and even in tropic wildernesses picture out fits travel in style. There is excite ment to be had fro the seeking, yet a Malay tiger or 8 cobra is scarce ly more to be avoided than some Hollywood producers.
 The first jungle expedition in a couple of years is about to leave Paramount for the Malay Straits, Singapore, Penang and trackless points to the north, up rear the border of Siam. It's going to make a feature titled "Booloo," meaning 'fur and feathers"
 Boss of the party is a tall, schol- arly-looking fellow namel Clyde Elliott. Originally from Nebraska, he made shorts and newsreels until 1881. when RKO persuaded him to go with Frank Buck and make Bring Elm Back Alike" He never had seen a wild animal outside circus or a zoo. In 1883 he did Devil Tiger" for Fox. Film expe- ditions, he admits, are fun.
 Elliott will have plenty of conn., pany on his trip. There1l be two cameramen and assistants. sound man and assistant, vrious tech- nicins, and even a production man. ager. The latter will build sets and boss the natives. Their equipment will weigh at least 10 tons and will include lights and generator and an engine.
 Devil Tiger" was filmed so
 close to civilization that lights
 were hooked to a power line.
 This time. though, they'll push
 up into the hills. Lights are
 necessary because tropic shad-
 Ows are so black that illumina-
 tion under the trees must be
 provided.
 Another member of the party will be Colin Tapley, a Paramount stock actor who will play the role of British scientist in the jungle and to whom will fall all the photo graphed adventures.
 His leading lady already is down there-a pretty Eurasian girl named Nah Laku. She not only can speak English, but will sing it.; two songs have been written for her and Tap ley ot croon in the wilderness against a background of native music.
 She'll be the lowest paid lead
 ing woman in cinema history
 unless she reads this and raises
 the dickens. Her agreed salary
 is 60 Straits dollars a month,
 which 1 sabout 36 American dol-
 lars.
 Ordinary native actors will get s16 a month and at that, says FL uott, will be shamefully overpaid.