Boxoffice - Feb. 17, 2014

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: February 17, 1940 [i:
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Leo Roars at Port Huron Premiere
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Continued from preceding page)
Huron were plenty busy on Monday shaving
off all that excess foliage the men
grew for the celebration.
Rooney appeared indefatigable. He was
rushed for autographs throughout his
three-day stay in Michigan, and was on
the go morning, noon and night, without
ever apparently getting tired of it all. And
he always came up with a fresh idea for
each newspaper photographer who wanted
"just a little different" picture.
Rooney's remark that since he has appeared
in "Young Tom Edison" he never
turns on an electric light without thinking
of the greatness of the inventor, was good
for quotation by practically every scribe
here.
All along the line of the special train
from Detroit to Port Huron there were
literally thousands. At villages, such as
historic Smith's Creek, now with a 254
population, Fraser, 600; and New Haven,
774, there were thousands at each stop
from the surrounding countryside. And
even at every crossroad there were clumps
of hundreds of watchers.
Harold Marshall, Indianapolis, was the
official getter-upper the morning of the
special train-ride. He was romping over
the hotel from floor to floor banging on
the newspaper folks' doors.
The Ford photographic crew—both stUl
and motion pictures—was out to film the
event . . . Jack Lieb and Everett Ryan of
M-G-M News of the Day, Chicago, took the
events, too.
The crush of the crowd at the Port
Huron station was so bad that even Police
Censor Charlie Snyder of Detroit had
trouble crashing through the police lines.
Once, during the trip up from Detroit,
the 1850 engine lost a ^^-inch nut from its
drive shaft. The special was stopped, and
a similar nut taken off the new modern
engine pulling the train, put on the little
Tallow Rails to
See a Star
Port Huron, Mich.—Contending their
only objective was to see Mickey
Rooney, three men pleaded guilty in
circuit court here to charges of placing
fallow on 300 feet of track 20 miles
south of here to slow down the M-G-M
premiere train of ancient vintage carrying
notables to the "Young Tom Edison"
debut.
Railway officials said the train rolled
over the tallow-covered stretch of rails
at ten
miles per hour.
old-timer and the trip was continued.
We liked Police Censor Charlie Snyder's
Americanism remark about Port Huron
luncheon where state troopers were on
duty: "We can be thankful we ate under
the protection of state troopers today and
not the hounding of storm troopers."
Typical premiere events included stowing
away of a 15-year-old high school lass
at one junction "just to get a glimpse of
Mickey;" appearance of a young 26-yearold
nurse at Port Huron in an ambulance,
due to a broken back, who also wanted to
see Rooney.
Bill Potts. M-G-M checking supervisor
in Chicago, formerly in Detroit, and J. E.
Watson, Cincinnati exploiteer, got caught
in the mob at Port Huron station with
four typewriters for press headquarters.
With them was Wilma Conlon, red-headed
press-room stenographer who helped
throughout the three-day events. They
could not get a taxi. So they commandeered
a local resident's car, slapped on a
special-car sticker and still could only go
at a snail's pace through the thousands.
They finally arrived, though, at the headquarters,
the Harrington Hotel, and
Warren Slee, Detroit exploiteer for crowds there seeing the special car, parted,
M-G-M, had a five-day beard growth, but hoping for Mickey Rooney who had not
shaved it off a day or two before the premiere;
figuring maybe the home office and pair when they learned it was only a press
yet an-ived. The resultant moan of des-
west contingents might not recognize him. car, echoed up and down the main street
for fully 30
Ed Beatty, Butterfield president, was
host to the visitors in the presidential
suite of the hotel. And plenty of refreshments,
and not the kind Michigan's puritanical
governor, Luren Dickinson, likes
either, flowed everywhere throughout the
day, press headquarters, at all the town
pumps, etc. And that etcetera takes in a
lot of territory.
Everyone, of course, liked the picture.
But we heard one wag remark, after seeing
the added scene of Thomas A. Edison's
portrait being reversed by Spencer Tracy
and the off-stage comment on the film
about the forthcoming "Edison the Man":
"Gee, that's a swell 7,500-foot trailer for
'Edison the Man'."
Several Detroit exhibitors drove up for
the evening premiere, while all of the
M-G-M Detroit office sales staff was also
on hand. Ed Hartley, National Theatre
Supply sound department head. New York,
was another visitor here.
Port Huron was gayly bedecked in holiday
bunting, with large paintings of Rooney
and Edison on every sidewalk light . . .
The traditional arc-lights, so reminiscent
of Hollywood premieres, were of course
present.
Ted Pio Rito and his orchestra played
for a half hour preceding the premiere in
the Desmond, where all the visitors attended
the showing.
Special cachets carrying data concerning
the trip of the Edison Train and with
At Mayer Luncheon—
A group of United Detroit Theatres
men at the luncheon given in Detroit
for Louis B. Mayer on the eve of the
"Young Tom Edison" premiere at Port
Huron. Clockwise, starting at the
left, around the table they are: Hyman
Blum. Varsity Theatre: Don
Dunn, Alger; Clark Field, Cinderella;
Don Kuhn. State; Earl Hudson. L. H.
Gardner, UDT home office; Harold
Brown, booker, and Frank Upton.
Riviera.
Says Heavy Metro
Campaign Due
Detroit—Howard Dietz, M-G-M advertising
and publicity head, here for the premiere
of "Young Tom Edison," said that
due to the numerous big productions com-,
ing from the studios, the company will attempt
to concentrate equally as hard CD'
all pictures forthcoming.
He said that the momentum started on,
"Young Tom Edison" will be continued
when Spencer Tracy in "Edison the Man"
is ready, and that the fUm probably will
be world-premiered with equal fanfare
somewhere in the east appropriate to the
occasion.
A quarter-of-a-million-dollar campaign
will be used on "Northwest Passage," ready:
for release late this month.
special stamps were available to stamp collectors
as the train left Detroit. They
were post-marked both from Detroit and
Port Huron, before going to their addresses.
Aboard the special train, printed copies
of a message from Henry Ford was handed
to every guest on Western Union blanks,
as used during the days of Edison . .
Similarly, at the Port Huron luncheon
every guest received a copy of the telegram
sent by Charles Edison, secretary of the
navy, and son of the inventor, and received,
at the luncheon by B. D. Barnett, vicepresident
of Western Union. These were
also on old-style telegraph blanks.
Special editions of newspapers, the Detroit
Free-Press and the Port Huron Times-
Herald, were placed aboard the train .
Both contained reprints of the same paper;
from the days of Edison.
The 50,000-watt electric bulb dedicatet
by Mrs. Mina Edison Hughes in honor o;
the inventor, is said to be the largest electric
light bulb in the world now.
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