Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-04-20

IAN actor" lack Carson
Jack says, "is
man who presumably can act, one
who can impersonate any type Of
person with believability.
"Guys I've known for years at
Warmers came up to me after see
ing Roughly Speaking with Hey,
Jackl I caught you last night. Why
didn't you tell me you could act?'
cat first I was sore as hornet.
Don't these people know they're in
sulting me?' I told myself. Then I
got to thinking it over and realized
they weren't to blame.
"They were simply following the
old Hollywood custom of tipping
guy and leaving him there to rot.
"In the four years I'd been at
Warmers I'd done little more than
COON roles"
NeUer Misses
But there were those at Warmers
who saw beyond Jacks makeup.
And among them was Mike Curtiz,
their ace director, who thought Jack
worth taking chance on.
So they took him off his bicycle
(he'd just completed five pictures in
less than five months) and handed
him the Roughly Speaking" script.
"They didn't have to tell me about
that story" Jack says. I'D read the
book and loved it. 1t was human,
real, believable. 1t was the stuff
America is made Of"
Personally, think Jacks rough
neck days in pictures are over. He's
now just about finished a solid role
opposite Joan Crawford in mildred
Pierce" honestly think since Mike
Curtiz made them see the light the
studio realizes what it's got in Jack.
Charles Ray country bumpkined
his way to obScurity. Warmers
should remember it's insistence on
tipping Allen Jenkins and Frank Nc
Hugh as Damon Runyon charac-
ters. That didn't exactly help their
careers, although both Overseas on
USO tours) managed to maintain
much of their popularity and are
probably headed for comebacks.
Edmund Lowe apparently 20,
yeahed" couple of times too often
as Vic McLaglen's tough buddy, be-
cause the customers typed him as
the big, rough marine sergeant,
and there he's stayed. Roscoe Ates'
suffering served him for years. He,
too, needed change of pace, which
he didn't get.
Came Up From Vaudeville
Jack knows all about tipping, be-
cause he came from vaudeville, a
questionable art form that finally
gasped, ratified and died because it
refused to change with the times.
He and guy named Dave Will
lock teamed up while at Carleton
college at Mortified, Mimi, in sort
of happy chappy act that sprouted
corn from every seam.
Dave and Jack sang and danced
and said what they hoped were fun
ny sayings in whatever public houses
they could get bookings. From high
school auditoriums they progressed
to chautauqua, very smalltime
vaudeville, and broadcast over our
watt radio stations until they
reached comparative big time by
appearing at the Paramount theater
in New York City. That's when
vaudeville gave up the ghost, and
Jack, having nowhere else to go,
headed for Hollywood.
RKO, Jacks first bosses, must
have seen him only as a man who
should lose the girl in pictures, be-
cause for six straight films Jack lost
Ginger Rogers to other guys, includ-
ing Ronald Colman. Warmers must
have liked the way Jack lost his
ladies. At any rate they sent for him
to lose Bette Davis to Jimmy Gag
ney in 1.-THE Bride Came C.O.D.,"
and that's how he became a War
ners regular.
ut isn't" says Jack. that l mind
clowning All ask is that the clown
ing be natural-believab
nent to the role, not just some gag
writer's idea of unrelated humor.
In other words, if it belongs there
III clown. Otherwise write me
out"
Better Late Than NeUer
When Lillian Gish is seen in "Suse
Slagle" size won't be able to do all
the parts offered her. Lillian has
quality. Don't forget John House.