Temple Tuesday: Little Miss Marker sets, Pt. 1

Today gives a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of Shirley’s breakout lead role in Paramount’s “Little Miss Marker” (1934). I acquired a large collection of set stills that I am now pairing with publicity shots, screenshots, and fascinating tidbits to highlight the often unappreciated work that set designers and art directors do, in this case the uncredited Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman. Set number 1 was the tiny apartment of the crusty bookie Sorrowful Jones (Adolphe Menjou)



At this point, the film had only been assigned a production number; the name of it had not been settled, as you can see by the slate below. I love zooming in on the details that are chosen to be included in the set design, such as the shoes seen below:



A kitchen set built for Sorrowful’s new and improved apartment, which he rented in order to make room for Shirley:



John Kelly and Warren Hymer supplied the physical comedy relief with their not-so-bright characters of Canvas and Sore Toe:



Even the refrigerator of a movie set has to be “dressed”; anyone like carrots?



One of the scenes with Shirley and Adolphe in the kitchen:



The bedroom of Sorrowful’s  second apartment:



By combining two screenshots, I was able to achieve more of a panoramic view of the set as seen in the final film. Sore Toe and Canvas were attempting to cheer up Shirley’s character with their comic rough-housing and acrobatics:



On the nightstand you can see the children’s book, Farm Friends Story Book:



I found a copy on ebay:





By the time the film was shot, this edition was about six years old:



A closeup of the bed:



Shirley’s character, Marker, wants a bedtime story. Apparently not remembering that Farm Friends was nearby, Sorrowful takes the Racing Times and converts it into a tale to appease the little girl.



A publicity shot of director Alexander Hall with Shirley in the same bedroom:



An alternate shot of the same set:



Out in the living room, the boys play poker; in the background is a seated Warren Hymer:



How it looked in the film:



In examining the slate, you can see that the director’s name was Sternberg, as in Josef von Sternberg of Marlene Dietrich fame. Whether he was the original director or somebody didn’t wipe the slate clean from a previous production is not sure.



An alternate shot of the living room area:



This set still shows the office of hardened gang kingpin Big Steve (Charles Bickford):



As seen in the film, with Tammany Young on the left and Bickford making a call on the right:



A publicity shot of the office, with unknown actor, Frank McGlynn Sr., Bickford, and Tammany Young:



McGlynn would later play Abraham Lincoln in Shirley’s “The Littlest Rebel” (1935):



Zooming in to the office set, you can see a large shot of Dorothy Dell’s character sitting on an easel:



The same image was used on the film’s sheet music:



An alternate shot from the same photo session, showing Dell, who typically played sultry Mae West parts, but gave them an extra level of vulnerability:



The photo  is seen in a smaller size on the opposite of the set as well:



Shirley expert supreme, Rita Dubas, supplied these rare images of a poster using the Dorothy Dell image and a publicity shot when the film was still being called, “Half-Way Decent.” That title referred to the Sorrowful Jones character, who was not as crusty as he appeared. All it took were Shirley and Dorothy Dell to melt his heart. According to Rita, the film was named “Little Miss Marker” from January to April 7, 1934, changed to “Half-Way Decent” for a brief period, and then back to “Marker” by April 28th. Paramount obviously decided to put the focus on Shirley’s character by naming the film after her. They knew they had a goldmine!



More to come from this topic!
 
See more Shirley Temple “Little Miss Marker” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Little Miss Remarkable

In celebration of the release of “Little Miss Marker” (1934) on blu-ray, I am sharing a few behind-the-scenes shots from the Shirley Temple classic. In photo #1, Shirley gives a hug to director Alexander Hall. In shot #2, it would appear that she was making some paper dolls in between takes.



Shirley sits on Hall’s lap as they prepare to do the mush scene with actress Dorothy Dell:



A closeup of Hall and Temple, caught in a rare blink.



A publicity still from the scene they were preparing for:



The movie’s leads gather for a group shot: Charles Bickford, Dorothy Dell, and Adolphe Menjou surround Temple and Hall:



The final scene where tough guy Bickford gives little Shirley a life-saving blood transfusion yields tears from even the hardest of hearts:





Kino Lorber is the company that has released “Little Miss Marker” on blu ray. I was extremely disappointed by their treatment of Shirley’s “Now and Forever” (1934). There was no restoration done to the source material, and the blu ray actually looked worse than the DVD. “Marker” had better source material and is a huge step above “Now and Forever,” but it doesn’t appear that any restoration was done on this one, either. Both movies were released by Paramount originally; the rest of Shirley’s childhood movies came from Fox. Unfortunately, Disney now owns the Fox library and has shown zero interest in re-releasing them on media, let alone doing any restoration. Bob Iger has expressed his desire to get the home media segment of Disney back in action, but Shirley’s films will probably not be a high priority, as the company stays away from putting out older product that might cause any verbal backlash from 1930’s stereotypical characters.



Note: Don’t get rid of your DVD versions of “Now and Forever” and “Little Miss Marker,” as the blu ray releases do not contain the short, “The Runt Page” (1932), Shirley’s first film (above).

See more “Little Miss Marker” photos at my main website.

Baby LeRoy

Born May 12, 1932, Ronald Le Roy Overacker was the birth name of Baby LeRoy, who is best known as a comic foil for the bombastic W. C. Fields. His career on the silver screen began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in "A Bedtime Story" (1933) and ended with a cameo role as himself in "Cinema Circus" (1937). Today's photo shows Baby LeRoy with Fields in "The Old Fashioned Way" (1934), which was his second feature with the bulbous-nosed comedian ("Tillie and Gus," 1933, was the first, and "It's a Gift," 1934, was the third).

Here's the vintage publicity blurb that accompanied this photo:

HOW ABOUT A HUNK? Baby LeRoy celebrated his birthday with a new Paramount contract, and this cake, which W. C. Fields seems to want a large slice of. The old feudists are working together in "The Old-Fashioned Way."



I guess it took four gals to help Baby LeRoy sign his contract.



There are also a number of photos that exist showing Baby LeRoy paired with Shirley Temple. This still is from the set of "Little Miss Marker." The two are held by director Alexander Hall.



In Hollywood Magazine's September 1934 issue, they ran a story titled "Baby LeRoy's First Date." Here are a few photos from that feature.





I guess Baby LeRoy was making more money at this point, as it appears he paid for the date.



Nothing like a soda fountain beverage to finish off the perfect date.



A starring role in the 1940 film "The Biscuit Eater" was to have been LeRoy's comeback, but due to illness, the director was forced to recast, and LeRoy never appeared in another film. Instead, he became a merchant seaman. In 1957, he appeared as a guest challenger on the TV panel show "To Tell The Truth." He died in Van Nuys, California on July 28, 2001.

I found this photo on the web, which is supposed to be Baby LeRoy all grown up.



See more Daveland Classic Movie & TV photos at my main website.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Happy (Early) Birthday, Rosalind Russell

In honor of Rosalind Russell's upcoming birthday, I am posting a photo from her 1942 on-set celebration.



From the publicity blurb:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rosalind Russell, who celebrated her birthday (June 4, 1942) recently by working all day at Columbia in "My Sister Eileen" shuts her eyes to make a wish as she cuts the cake presented to her by Director Al Hall ad the cast. Left to right, Donald McBride, Shirley Temple, Allyn Joslyn, Miss Russell, Al Hall, Gordon Jones, Janet Blair and Richard Quine.

Shirley Temple was in between films, so apparently had some time on her hands. As shown in a previous post, she made the rounds at Columbia that day, visiting Fred Astaire & Rita Hayworth (filming "You Were Never Lovelier"):



Former director Alexander Hall ("Little Miss Marker"), who is probably glad that the grown-up Shirley is not sitting on his lap.



See more Classic Movie & TV photos on my Classic Movie & TV web page.