The times-news., 1938-12-30
Miller's
Pet Aversion Is
Moving Pictures
Cinema Prop Man Knows
Too Much About
Them Already
By FREDERICK c. OTHMAN
u. P. Hollywood Correspondent

HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 80. tCPO.
Johnny Miller, who hates TO watch
movies with a loathing gained
from experience yesterday reveal
ed the secrets involved in making
a fish exhibit intelligence, bun
ion grow on a lady's foot, and a
live moth light on Clark Gables
lip. ......
Johnny, who ran away from
home in Hartford, Conn, when he
was ii and spent the next 'lS
years, with Il circus, eventually
became one. ,of M-G-M's. most
versatile prop men. He spent
four years gathering the portable,
scenery used in "The Good
Earth." He labored seven months
with the fish in "Captains Courag-
eous." And that's only the be,
ginning of the story of the weird
experiences which. have befallcn
johnny Miller in the movies. .
+, "For instance" he said, 81 was
sitting. in my. office one day fig
uring out what I'd need on the
picture, RED Dust when Vic
Fleming got the bright idea that
it would help the scene if a flock
of moths flew in across the table
and sinterferred with the meal that
Clark Gable and Chester Morris
were eating. And he thought it
would be still funnier, this Flem'
ing did, if one of these moths
would light on Cables lip while
he was trying to talk.
$50 Fleming told me to get
some moths and fix one Of 'em 50
it would light on Cables lip. Just
like that, he told me. So it was
the wrong season for moths
There weren't any. We went out
and got 'em anyway-and how we
did that is a story in itself and
pretty soon we showed up in the
studio with 5000 moths.
"Now you can't train moth,
l know, because | tried. But | did
figure out Il scheme which had
about one chance in q million to
work, and tried it. ! took one
of those moths and put little
glue on it, | shut, my eyes and
threw that moth at Gable and 1t
landed smack-dab on his lip, just
like Fleming ordered"
Another picture found one OF
the studios actresses in a scene
with her tired feet in pan OF
warm water.
$50 the director got the inspira
ton on the spur of the moment
that she'd look funnier if she had
a bunion plaster on her foot"
Miller added. ale old me to bring
a bunion plaster, quick. didn't
have any bunion plaster. But |
did have a package of those pep
permint candies, with the holes in
'em, in my pocket. So / took one
OF these and stuck it to the lady's
foot with a piece of adhesive tape
and it worked swell"
The educated fish in Captains
Courageous" still gives Miller the
jeepss: Co., y h
said. "One morning, / come down
to the studio to find eight. tons, OF
frozen cod from Boston, SO ] had
ta .thaw 'eni out FOR the scene
that day. And that night ] sent
'ah down. to a. cold storage plant
for refreezing. Next morning. !
thawed 'em out again.
+, "That wouldn't have been so
bad except that had to follow
the same procedure with the same
fish every day for seven months.
Of course the director had to
have some trained fish which
would follow direction. They had
to wagele their tails and stuff.
"Now a fish is as hard TO train
as a moth. So the best | could do
was to get me 400 rubber. fish,
with electric motors inside. They
worked fine except when they got
short-circuited."
Miller's current job is outfit
ting a complete hospital for -Four
Girls in White" and it isn't much
fun either. He had to get more
than 5000 scissors, splints, break
ers, test tubes, bunsen burners,
bottles, jars, cabinets and what
not. .. -
That done, he hunted up Az
first aid kits for train wreck
sequence, in which. the Misses
Florence Rice, Ann Rutherford,
Una Merkel and Mary, Howard
were nurses. Then he had to find
a crane large enough to drop a To-
.: ,,d Snvn,a1 Pullman