Evening star., 1944-10-14
BY HAROLD HEFrERNAN.

dOLLY WOCJ.
II you want to get that story into
the movies try developing 1t into
comic strip first. That, according
to statistics, should increase your
chances by about 80 per cent. Story
departments always have been
funny page conscious, but today
they're scanning every possibility in
that line.
Latest in q long line OF movies to
be based on comic-strip characters
Is Brenda Starr, Reporter" new
serial getting under way at Column
bia. Red-haired Joan Woodbury.
has been selected for the title role.
Pioneer of all comic folks to
crash celluloid was Edgar Rice Bur-
roughs' "Tarzan," first shown In
1918 and still going strong. Four
Tarzans took turns being king of
the ape men, and now Johnny
Weissmuller is back with Sol Lesser
for his 10th start in the role.
Other notable comic strips of the
silent days were Little Orphan
Annie" ELLA Cinders," "Tillie the
Toiler," and Harold Teen" Colleen
Moore starred as Orphan Annie and
came back few years later to
create Ella for the screen. Marion
Davies played Tillie, and Arthur
Lake scored in three Harold Teen
features.
Then, in 1881, era OF the talkies,
Jackie Cooper came through with
"Skippy," most successful of all his
pictures. It won an Academy award
for its director. Norman Taurog.
Little Orphan Annie" was re-
made In 1882 with Mitzi Green, and
then again in 1888 with Ann Gillis.
Harold Teen" Made a sound come
back in 1884, with Hal LIE Roy play
ing the lead.
About 1887 the more adventurous
type Of comics began finding their
way to movies. Dick Tracy"
was probably the first, and then in
quick succession came "Marmaduke,
the Magician" THE Lone Ranger"
Buck Rogers" and Flash Cor
don," the latter two with Buster
Crabbe in the title roles.
More recently the field has been
held by the lighter type of funnies
There was a new version of "Tillie
the Toiler" filmed in 1941, Dixie
Dugan" in 1943 with Lois Andrews
and the currently popular Blonde"
series starring Penny Singleton and
Arthur Lake.
Tie your yarn to a comic strip
and maybe you've got something.
X \
News in nibbles: war Bond" Is
the way hundreds of sympathetic
letters from kids are addressed to
the character actor now recuper-
ating from an accident that almost
cost his leg. Bond prizes the nick
name .. Although he's away in
Army service, relations between
MGM and its top box-office star,
Mickey Rooney, are in a very bad
way. The studio is especially grieved
about his second marriage Para
mount sneaked Bring On the Girls
this week and is happy over the re-
suit. Hit OF the show was Sonny Tufts
singing the almost risque I'm
Coin to Hate Myself in the Mornin'
for What I'm DOM Tonight"
Frances Langford's stories of the
specially constructed powder rooms
on the Pacific fox-hole circuit are
worth book National Vel
vet" which reposed on the story
shelf 10 years before being COM
pleted recently by MGM, was
treated to sneak preview this
week-and the audience nominated
little Jackie (Butch) Jenkins as the
star over Mickey Rooney.
| Scene is Club 10, an intimate
little night spot on New York's East
Side. The picture. Billy Roses
Diamond Horseshoe" at Twentieth
Century-Fox. Betty Cradle in a
trailing gown of silver sequins is
giving out with the moody. And
at the piano, accompanying her. is
Carmen Cavallaro, whose band and
recordings are justly famous.
The lights are low, the audience
as handsome as only moving pic
ture audience can be- Star Cradle
finishing her song in dim blue spot
light. leaves to wild applause while
Cavallaro goes off into something
with a decidedly Spanish lilt to it
| The camera pans back, the smoke
climbs higher from a hundred Gig
arctic and every one relaxes as Di-
rector George Seaton and his stan
go into a huddle. Then the piano
is heard again. It's the same tune
with Spanish lilt to it, but it's
different somehow. "See who that
is" says Cavallaro, and the spot
light obediently shifts back to the
piano.
1t turns out to be Phil Silvers. who
plays the comedy lead in the film
He's giving his version of the tune
and he's surprisingly good.