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How Life Seems to a Movie ActorFormer Lincoln Countian Relates His Experiences As An Extra in the Jesse James Picture Now Being Filmed.How would you like to be standing on a street corner in the town you had picked for your vacation and have someone walk up to you, touch you on the arm and say, Hello, fellow, how’d you like to be an actor?This is exactly what happened to Leslie Davis, of St. Louis, son of Mr and Mrs, John Davis, of TrOy, as he stood on a street corner in Noel, McDonald County, last Thursday where he had arrived a short time before, with Mrs. Davis, on a brief vacation trip.He knew that Noel, a town of 421 inhabitants, was in the throes of a boom due to the fact that the studios and actors from the Twentieth Century-Fox, of Hollywood, had just set qp on location at Pine-ville, a few miles away, to start the filming of the story of the life of Jesse James. The stars of the picture, the extras brought along from Hollywood, and the crew that is to make the picture all are living at Noel while the scenes of the picture are to be laid at Pineville.With 125 extra residents moved into Noel, hurried and stringent preparauorts have been made to accommodate them and prices for food and lodging are soaring there. Lodging that was formerly $1.50 a week, says Mr. Davis, now is $1.50 a night. Food has doubled in price even to the point where a 25 cent breakfast of bacon, eggs, and coffee now is at 50 cents. Mr. and Mrs. Davis spent two nights in the town and, upon arising Saturday morning, they found their landlady already up and waiting in a great hurry for them to pack and be out of her way. Carpenters were coming that morning, she informed them, to partition off the fair-sized room they occupied into four bedrooms, each of which was to hold a cot and, she hoped, a nightly occupant.It has been severely hot and dry in this southwest border county of Missouri and the cash that this influx of strangers means will prove a Godsend to Noel residents and to those of Pineville, too.The latter Southwest Missouri town was chosen by Twentieth Century-Fox as the background of the picture because of its natural close resemolance to the town of Liberty, Clay County, Missouri, in the days of Jesse James.The business buildings, residences, various spots to be used to give tMStorical details all are being given the camouflage necessary to make the correct background, according to Mr. Davis. Even fences are made over, board sidewalks laid over concrete dftes throughout the town, and dirt hauled and piled on the concrete streets of Pineville.But, back to our story. After Mr. Davis had agreed to becoming an actor, things began to happen fast for him. He wag sent to the costume rcom where he was given a big old-fashioned hat, a checkered shirt of the old baggy type, and trousers that tucked into big old leather boots of the days of ’61. Then a makeup artist took charge of him and gave him a flowing mustache, also of the old school.One of the many funny things that happened to him, said Mr. Davis, had to do with this mus* tache. When the makeup artist finished with him his mustache was curled, optimistically upward, giving him at least a fairly happy look. When Director King, of the Twentieth Century-Fox studios, took a good look at him he all but exploded with indignation. Turn that mustache down, he roared, “No-body ip those days ever looked that way. Droop it down and hurry up about it.” Mr. Davis hastened to obey.All the extras were ordered to appear on location Thursday afternoon, but by the time the lights,property fixtures, etc., etc., were correctly adjusted—something that Lakes in infinity of time, according to Mr. Davis—it was too late to take the scenes that afternoon and all were ordered to report the next morning.Bright and early they got into action the next morning. They went to work at 7:30 and worked until six oclock that evening. During all that time they filmed about six scenes. Of course time for lunch was taken out. The lunches are box lunches furnished by a Noel restaurant, at 65 cents each by the way, and are really good ones, Mr. Davis said.The whole picture is being taken in technicolor. That makes everything on location need a coat of paint the correct hue to photograph in the colors desired. Rust, brown, dark brown are mostly used, since the effect of the scenes must be that of old, rustic surroundings. Even the stones, if they are white, must be sprayed with a dark color.An immense movable screen is thrown around the entire scene once it is in readiness for the camera. This screen covers both top and sides and its purpose is to keep any outside object—such as a leaf, a twig, a bird, butterfly, in fact, any object whatsoever—from falling i down in front of the camera which, also, is placed inside the screen.Reflector boards arc used to correctly place the lights and shadows desired in the back ground and Kleig film lights aid the sun in providing the proper lighting effects from above.Another experience, humorous on the humorous side, but not so funny from the viewpoint of its after effects, was related by Mr. Davis.After the groups of extras had assembled and everything was ready for the ‘‘shooting’’ of the first scene, Director Henry King called to the group of men, How many of you men can chew tobacco?’ Not a hand was raised. ‘‘Now, listen here, barked King, Some of you have GOT to chew tobacco. Start [in, there. Here, and he handed f Davis a plug, Take a chew off of this!Davis took a chew.“Now, chew it; hurry up there, all of you, chew and be quick about it, and the plug was passed down the line.After that scene, of which about five shots were taken, Davis said be walked ouer to a tree, leaned up aganist it, with everything whiz-} zing around dizzily {before his eyes, and started to get rid of that tobacco in a hurry.Here, you, shouted King, “Hold on to that tobacco. You’ve got to chew sll through the next scene, too.Just such little things as that made Mr. Davis decide he’d rather chop wood for a living tnafn ue an extra, even counting the glamour of Hollywood and everytmng.Leading parts in the picture are taken by Tyrone Power, who plays the part of Jesse James, and Henry Fonda, as brother Frank. Brian Donlevy and Lon Chaney, Jr., are also among the cast. Mr. Davis was particularly impressed with the friendliness of all the cast, but Lon I Chaney, Jr., seemed to be his fav-« orite.Following his two days in the glamorous acting profession, Mr. Davis left Noel to return to his own duties as road tester for General Motors in St. Louis, where he checks about 115 to 120 cars a day and okays them for the dealers. On their way home he and Mrs Davis came by Troy Sunday to visit his parents and those of Mrs. Davis, , Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Walton. He was kind enough to give us the story of his adventure firsthand.
Newspaper Details
Troy Free Press
Troy, Missouri, US
Fri, Sep 02, 1938
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Joplin P.
MO, USA 03 Sep 2024
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