p•• two lool(ingat hollywood with edsullivanwemt th.ir ro-m a dc. raw, rouvh. emclr•••...

P•• e Two

Lool(ing at Hollywood with Ed Sullivan

New Rage IsSpencer

TracyBy ED SUWVAN

Hollywood, Oal.

VOTING contests that arebeing conducted through.out the country to deter-

mine the ranking cinema heroesand heroines reveal that Ameri·can girls are switching fromRobert Taylor and Tyrone Pow-er, or at least the type they rep-resent, to the more stalwart typeof hero suggested by SpencerTracy. Every poll shows thatTracy is gaining by leaps andbounds, and theater managerssay that the bulk of his votes arecoming from girls and women.who have become a trifle weariedof gentler heroes and want theirromance raw, rough, and reso-lute. ."A matinee idol, wit h my

face? " grinned Tracy when yourcorrespondent apprised him ofthis new switch in .heartbeats."Now, don't kid me, Edward.I'm a fairly homely guy, takenby and large. In fact, I don'teven use makeup, because thelines in my face and foreheadsuggest whatever character ap·pears on the film. Now that youbring it to mind, I wasn't even acute looking kid."We lived on Logan avenue,

Milwaukee, and Pat O'Brien, an-other Milwaukee boy,lived aboutfive blocks away. We were palsfrom the time we were 14 yearsold, but neither one of us everwon any beauty prizes at WestSide High school, or later atMarquette. So if. the girls arebeginning to like me now it'sreally a surprise. Do you realizethat I'll be 38 years old nextAprU 5? And although they saythat life begins at 40, I thinkthat's sort of a consolation prizethey hand out to us old gaiTers."

• • •Despite Tracy's disbelief, the

fact remains that he is on theupswing of a sensational popu-larity wave. Magnificent per-formances in "Fury," "S a nFrancisco," and "C!lptains cou-rageous " sent his celluloid stocksoaring higher than the kites heused to fiy over Logan avenue.Six months ago Tracy was rateda fine actor but was not consid·ered a box office draw. Todayhe is a box office attraction, andthe haste with which astuteM·G-M officials teamed him firstwith Luise Rainer in ••Big City"and immediately thereafter withJoan Crawford in " ManneqUin "indicates best his spectacularclimb. Girls and women, weariedof prettier heroes, have turnedto Tracy.I asked him to tell me about

himself." I'm Irish·American," he start-

ed. ••A lot of people think thatI'm not a Harp because of myfirst name, Spencer. That wastaken from my mother's bestfriend, a girl named Daisy Spenocer. My dad was in the truckingbusiness in Milwaukee, and wentfrom there to General' Motors.Nobody in the family ever hadbeen on the stage, but I guess Ialways had a hankering for it.I met Pat O'Brien first when thetwo of us were working in a Ium-ber yard after school. Let's see-Pat l I v e d on 29th street.

Tracy CIS the ~uglm.ck taxi clri•• r, Jo. B.Dton. lD ••BIV Clly," Th. virl faLufa. RedD.r, who play.ci the role of Jo.·. wif ••

Funny how you never forget ad-dresses and nicknames of thekids you grew up with."After finishing at West Side

High I went to the NorthwesternMilitary academy and then toMarquette. The war broke out,and I joined the navy. I was as-signed first to the Great Lakesstation and then Norfolk, butnever did get on a boat. I cameback home and went to Riponcollege to get a degree, and Iguess it was there that the stagebug really bit me. I got on thedebating team and we went onan eastern tour, and it was thedual debates against Bowdoinand·Colby that gave me an ideaof how much excitement therewas in being on a stage. Cer-

tainly it was that debating teamexperience that persuaded thefamily to let me attend the Sar-gent school in New York, whichwas the American academy.••The family didn't think much

of my stage ambitions, I guess.And I'll never forget the thrillwhen I sent my mother a letterthat I was going into the Theaterguild show, •R. U. R.' Basil Sid·ney was playing the lead. Ididn't tell my family that mypay was $15 a week, but later onthey gave me one line to read inthe show, and that boosted mysalary to $40 a week. Boy, Ithought I was really hot stuffwhen I got that first raise. Igave the doorman of the theatera dollar tip on the way out that

Abo" •• E ., • r ypoll .how. thatTracy fa VedD·lDv"'"""9lrlahaY.b.com. a trW.w.ari.cl of V.I1·tI.r h.ro •• emclwemt th.ir ro-m a DC. raw,rouvh. emcl r•• •

olut ••

night. Many timeslater I wished Icould get my handson it." The n followed

two years of stock-at White Plains,N. Y.; Cincinnati,Grand Rapids,Pittsburgh, wherever I could geta job. The bank roll was down tothe vanishing point, but it wasin stock that I got one greatbreak. In. Cincinnati we wereplaying' Buddies,' and there was

a girl in the company who wasreally a knockout. Her namewas Louise Treadwell, fro mNewcastle, Pa., and she was adarn good actress, but, just be-tween you and me, I wasn't In-terested in her acting. How. Iever got up nerve enough to askher to marry me on what I wasmaking is one of those questionsthat will never be answered. Butshe was a bit daffy, too, becauseshe said yes, and we got married.

• ••

A. the happy·vo.lucky Memu.l iD ••CaptcdDa CoufClveowl,,"

"By the time we got back toNew York we were down to ourlast few dollars, and the panicwas on. When they sent for meto tryout for George M. Cohan'sshow, •Yellow,' it was a reprieve,a message from Garda. We satthere on the stage of the Hudsontheater in New York reading ourparts and s 0 r t of sneakingglances up the center aile to seeif Mr. Co han was arriving.•Don't be nervous,' HumphreyBogart whispered to me. He wasshaking worse than I was. Thatfirst meeting with Cohan wasthe greatest thrill I ever got outof the theater. He was swell,too. I played in several of hisshows and learned more about

\".i-.:e .1 tl.e ~.~ie .F•• Letrers published in this department should be written on one side of the paper.If you wish a personal reply plecue inclose a' stamped, self-addressed en"elope.

Dear Miss Tln~e: May I tOS8a big, bigbouquet? It goes to Don Ameche! He'sfar handsomerthan Bob Taylor;his voice, bothspeaking andsinging, Is indeedbea u tiful. Be-sides all this, he'san excellent andversatile actor.Another thina

I admire him foris that he adoreshis wife and chll-dren. It is a re-11 e f to find anactor who reallyloves his wi f e.Long may DonAmeche reign alking II wish you

would print a bigpicture of Don. Thanks a lot. Sincerely,

JOYCE REMPE.Editor's note: Y<>"r hero, 1 see/ And

here his ptcture be. ('BCU8e,pliss.)

DON Alt.4ECHEF.n thInks he I.

handsome.

Dear Miss Tin~e: Your critic in yester-day's Tribune 'of ••The Road Back" wasin my opinion somehow unfair. As onewho reads your critic. with re~larity, Ihave alway. preferred your criticismin its unfiattering boldness to other crit-ics who merely try to fiatter and thusare of little value.In the case of "The Road Back," how-

ever, you appear to be lacking much (if notmost) of the facta fo~ the backgroundagainst which the story of ••The RoadBack" plays itself. As a German-Ameri·can who hal actually witnessed" The Road

••A matiD.. I cl0 Lwith m y f a e • ? "V rill D • cl' Sp.Dc.rTracy, ••Now, clOD't

!dcl m.': ' .

acting and the theater from himthan from anybody else."Then •The Last Mile' and

the part as Killer Mears thatreally attracted attention to me.You know the rest of it, Ed. Youshould; you know that you werethe first to come right out andsay that I was going to be agreat dramatic star. You wroteit in a movie magazine, and I'vestill got it in my scrapbook." ,So much for the chronological

details of Tracy's career. Whatsort of a person is he face toface? I hear you asking.He's a quiet sort of a guy, with

a nice smile to relieve his grav-ity. He has a grand sense ofhumor, and his comments aftereach camera "take" are alwaysamusing. Director Frank Bor-zage tells me that he has rarelyencountered a performer withTracy's gift for rememberinglong stretches of dialog. Herarely blows up in a scene. Hedelivers his lines in a very lowand very natural tone of voice,underplaying them. In the earlydays of sound in. movies theywould have had trouble pIckingup his tones. The fishpole ex-tension "mike" made him amovie natural. Men like himinstantly, and of late womenhave developed what amountsto a national crush, He livesquietly in Hollywood, and whenhis wife is out of town you'll gen-erally find him with his bosom,companion, Bill Grady, M·G-Mtalent scout, sitting at a walltable at the Trocadero, local sup-per club, rendezvous of the moviepeople.

Back," I went to see the film at the Palacetheater yesterday and found it the mostmoving and the most stirring picture I'veseen since ••Cavalcade."You must not forget that in the case of

••The Road Back" we see a great peoplegoing down in one of the greatest defeatsof history. Everything these people hadbelieved and fought for for four years sud-denly seemed to betray it, all hope hadgone, and so in an admirable contempla-tion the German soldier decided to takethe road back, because it must be remem-bered that conditions leading to this roadback came rather from within Germanythan from without.In 1918,when the end of the World war

was near, I was visitlng.a business collegein Karlsruhe on the Rhine, and I haveseen with my own eyes scenes almost ex-actly as they are projected now on thescreen, and these scenes took place longbefore the armistice was signed.With all these memories alive, you wlll

understand that the drama of ••The RoadBack" deserves a somehow more benevo-lent critic, especially so if we realize thataround this story is one of the saddesthours in a people's existence. I really wishthe people in Germany were ~llowed to seethis film as I have seen it, because theywould gain a better understanding of allthey've gone through. Remembering thatthey've been first betrayed from within,they well know that they also havebeen betrayed from without, and the storyof ••The Road Back" would in my opiniongive them something like an observer'sseat in the turmoil of their present strug-gle. Sincerely yours,

OSCAR LOHNER.. Editor's note: Your letter makes mewOfIder if you read my review of "TheRoadBack."

Dear Miss Tinea: I heard ••Stella Dal-.las" over the radio. I enjoyed it verymuch and intendto see the movie.Ann e Shirley,

who played in'the movie, saidshe was married.Would you please ,print a brief blog·raphy and tell mewhen she wasmarried and towhom?I enjoy your

column verym u c h, Thankyou.A constant

reader,RUTH

METZGER.Editor's not e:

Anne Shirley Was bom in New York City,ApriZ 17, 1918. She's 6 feet 8 inchea tall,weighs 100p01'fIds, and hall red-gold hairand amber eyes. Educated Lawlor Pro-fessional school. Her hobby is reading.On Aug. 88 of this year Miss Shirley mar·ried John Howard PaJl'le, screen actor. Itmakea me happy to know you enjoy thecolumn. Thank8 for taking the time totell me that you do.

fame and also for his ability to play Ilghtcomedy rOles with ease and perfection.3. To Spencer Tracy for his magnificent

portrayal of Manuel in ••Captains Coura-geous."4. To Barbara Stanwyck for her ability

to portray any character sincerely enoughto make the audience really feel the part.5. To Loretta Young for her delightful

sophistication in any rOle she plays,6. And last, but certainly not least, to

Deanna Durbin. Honestly, there aren'twords enough to express my praise for her!Her sweet personallty and beautiful voicehave me spellbound. Incidentally, concern-Ing Miss Durbin, I read recently that sheIs not 14, as publicized, but actually 17, Isthat true? Gee, I hope not!This is the first Ume I have ever written

to you, and I know the letter must sound a'bit amateurish. However, I think yourcolumn is swell, and the same goes for yourreviews.So best wishes from a 14-year-old fan,

BE'M'Y WEBER.Editor'a note: Well, 1 think you were

swell to Write and tell me you think thecolumn'lI awell. Thank you. Deanna Dur·bin Wasbam Dec.• , 1988.

•• •At the moment he is the most

conspicuous of the performerswho have been graduated to Hol-lywood from Illinois, Indiana,WisconsiQ, Michigan, and Iowa,which form their compact mid.dIe western state group.It is amazing to reilect on the

performers who have come fromthat section of the country-Car.ole Lombard, Fred MacMurray,Charles Butterworth, MargaretLindsay, Pat O'Brien, Billy andBobby Mauch, June Travis, Char.lie Winninger, Harriet Hilliard,Richard Lane, Jean Chatburn,Alan Curtis, Betty Jaynes, NatPendleton, Robert Young, JackBenny, Beulah Bondi, Don Ame-che, Dennis O'Keefe, SuzanneLarsen, Walt Disney, MarshaHunt, Frances Dee, Bill Fraw.ley, Bob Baker, Judy Garland,Joe Penner, Stanley Morner,Doris Weston, John Litel-justa few from these five states.Put them all together, wit hSpencer Tracy, and you'd havethe nucleus of the gosh-darned.estmctton picture company inthe business.Particularly so now that Speno

cer Tracy has become a 1938model Romeo.

ANN" SHIRLEYShe's been nl.rrled

sInce Au;ust.

Dear Mae: Would you please settle anargument and tell me how tall the Mauchtwins are? Also a short story of their Ufe.A regular reader of your column,

ARLEEN N.Editor's note: Well, this ought to settle

it 0fI8 wall or another. They were bom inPeoria, Ill., JuZy 6, 198'+. They're identicaltwi"" and, it is said, cannot be told aparteven by their mother UfIle81 th81l"Gre dif-ferently dre8sed. They have blue eyesandbrOWfl hair. The i r height is rap(cU1I.changing, but according to the last reportth81lwere" feet 11 inchea talZ.

Dear Miss Tinea: Reading your columneach Sunday makes me feel' like adding my••two cents' worth," so here goes.An orchid to each of the following (my

favorites, of course):1. To the one and only Tyrone Power for

his clean-cut boyishness and truly enter-taining actina.2. To Don Ameche for h1a quick rise to