Vol. 35 Pasadena Junior College, May 10, 1944 No. 24
Tracy Brings Preview For OMD Assembly
Use Ticket 23
A. S. B. Books
OMD takes pride in announc¬
ing that as an impetus to this
weeks OMD Stamp and Bond
Buying Drive and in appreciation
of the successful cooperation
shown by students in the many
patriotic drives and campaigns of
this year Spencer Tracy, top-act¬
ing twice-Academy Award winner
will appear in person at Friday’s
3:00 assembly. The show will be
a double-header of entertainment
since Tracy is bringing with him
a major studio preview, “The
White Cliffs of Dover” star¬
ring Irene Dunne and Alan Mar¬
shal. Two days after the picture
is shown here it will be previewed
in New York.
“We feel, said Ruth Cham¬
plain, “ that by giving this free
show to the student body mem¬
bers only, that they in turn will
back our stamp drive whole¬
heartedly.”
The drive officially opened Tue¬
sday as OMD members took turns
in war stamp salesmanship be¬
hind their black and white draped
booth in the main hall. Under
the chairmanship of Lucille Cov-
iello, the drive has steadily prov¬
en its financial worth and stamp
totals are expected to reach a
high peak by Friday’s assembly.
Those buying a bond today
will receive a reserved seat tic¬
ket and $10 dollars worth of
stamps bought Thursday will
entitle the holders to “saved”
seats in the expected-to-be-pac¬
ked auditorium.
School will be dismissed at 3
Friday and students must use ex¬
change ticket no. 23 in their stu¬
dent body books.
Picture Synopsis
Visiting a staid, uninteresting
London in the early days of 1914,
Susan Dunn longs for a sight of
the England of her imagination -
her story book land of earls, lords
and kings. A fellow lodger, Col¬
onel Walter Forsythe, senses her
eagerness for a view of the real
London, and arranges to escort
her to the city’s mogt famous
function — the Duchess of Waver-
ly Ball.
There in the spacious ball¬
room of pre-war London, Susan
meets John Ashwrood, a young
English nobleman. It is a fairy
tale come true. Their ride
home in a hansoim cab thru the
vast city of London is the beg-
ginning of their love story.
After a whirlwind courtship,
Susan and John are married,
but their life together is inter¬
rupted by the rumble of war.
John is sent to the front ami
Susan returns to the ancestral
home in Devon where their son
John is born. When the son is
three months old, word comes
from the front that his father
has been killed in action.
Growing up on the family es¬
tate, John, a typical young Eng¬
lish lord, carries the responsi¬
bilities of the great lands on his
youthful shoulders. Throughout
England, there is a growing fore¬
boding of a new war to come.
Young John carries on the trad¬
ition of his father and his father’s
fathers, and when the war again
breaks out, Susan finds the cour¬
age of her American forebearers
and of those of her adopted
country to send her boy away.
In the concluding scenes of
the picture, Susan finds heart¬
break and bitterness, a dream
and a hope of a new world that
will be guided by the mistakes
and ideals of the past; a new
world which will grow' and be¬
come the tomorrow' of vision
and beauty.
Any account of the life of Spencer Tracy should be written in lyric meter and recited
with an Irish brogue. It is the story of boy and man influenced by the heritage of Eire,
happy victim of the wander lust, spurred by discontent. As a youngster he was always will¬
ing to go in any direction except away from a fight. He was born in Milwaukee, on April 5,
the son of John Tracy, general manager of a motor truck company, and Carrie Brown Tracy
who traced her American ancestors to pre-Revolutionary days. Almost at the outset of his
school life, the boy disliked study. He played hookey and baseball at eighteen schools before
he finally settled at Ripon Col¬
lege.
Tracy emerged from St. Rosa’s
parochial school in Milwaukee
with a diploma, entered St.
Mary’s and Rockhurst Prepara¬
tory in Kansas City, then return¬
ed to Milwaukee. There he en¬
rolled in West Side High School,
then went to Marquette where
he was in his third year when
World War 1 offered adven¬
ture.
Under the minimum age limit
he attempted to enlist in the
Marines. They turned him
down, but Tracy was not daun¬
ted. His school chum, now his
famous colleague in pictures,
Pat O’Brien, joined the Navy
and Tracy follow'ed him.
SPENCER TRACY
Who , What, Why?
The greatest woman’s role ever written comes to the screen
with Irene Dunne ‘its heroine’ in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s pre¬
sentation of Alice Duer Miller’s poem, “White Cliffs of Dover”.
Mustered out, Tracy suprising-
ly accepted a $30 a month schol¬
arship offered to men who wished
to complete their education. He
re-entered Marquette and trans¬
ferred to Northwestern Military
Academy, then in January of 1921
he gravely entered Ripon College.
He was induced by Prof. H. P.
Boody to join the debating team.
Hearing him discourse one day,
Prof. J. Clark Graham, the dram¬
atic coach, virtually drafted him
for a campus play. That spring
Tracy played the lead in Clyde
Fitch’s, “The Truth.”
After a year and a half at
Ripon, Tracy knew that it was
acting that he wanted. He wasted
no time. Leaving school was an
old story to him. He turned up
in New York, enrolling in the
American Academy of Dramatic
Arts.
Susan Dunn (Irene Dunne) receives a warn welcome from the Duchess of Waverly (Vera Graf)
Miss Dunne, Alan Marshall,
Frank Morgan, Clarence Brown
and Sidney Franklin — five names
of note in Hollywood — combine
talents to bring to life an acclaim¬
ed poem of today’s headlines —
a poem which so captured the
imagination of the public that
650,000 copies of it have been pub¬
lished.
Once again, Miss Dunne is
the principal in an unforget¬
table screen love story. A cav¬
alcade of emotion, the role is
one ideally suited to the star
and her ability to portray poig¬
nant romance. As her partner,
Alan Marshal wins his most
important screen role to date.
He is seen as the young Eng¬
lish baronet, whose whirlwind
courtship of an American girl
brings the couple an unforget¬
table love which surmounts sep¬
aration, war and even death..
Noted for his ability to give the
human quality to any film he
directs, the story gets expert and
sympathetic handling by Clarence
Brown, who directed William Sar¬
oyan’s “The Human Comedy” for
M-G-M. It was Brown who fore¬
saw the possibility of the Alice
Duer Miller poem as a great love
story for the screen. And it was
he who bought the rights of the
poem more than a year ago and
personally supervised the writing
of the script by such top scenar¬
ists as Claudine West, George
Froeschel and Jan Lustig.
Pat O’Brien was in town,
hunting a job, haunting the
agents. He and Tracy shared
a theatrical boarding house
room. They also shared pover¬
ty, and the brilliant glow of
Broadway, in the early aer of
prohibition and post-war pros¬
perity. O’Brien wrangled a
road job and Tracy got a part
without lines as a robot in the
Theater Guild production, R. U.
R. It paid $15 a week and he
ate. When the show closed he
had a speaking bit at $42.50 a
week.
On Feb, 13, 1930, Tracy ap¬
peared as Killer Mears in “The
Last Mile.” His star rose high
that opening night and it has
continued to ascend steadily.
Broadway lost him to Holly¬
wood almost at once. He ap¬
peared in a number of pictures.
In 1935 he joined Metro-Gold -
wyn-Mayer to star in “The Mur¬
der Man.” Two years later he
won the prized Academy Award
for his unforgettable role as a
Portuguese fisherman in “Cap¬
tains Courageous.” The follow¬
ing year, 1938, he established a
precedent by again winning the
award, this time as Father
Flanagan in “Boys Town.”
He has remained in Hollywood,
and continued with the same stu¬
dio. For a boy with the blight of
the wandering foot, he is pecul¬
iarly rooted. He is the father of
two youngsters, John and Susie.
