We Nominate for Stardom — Buster Crabbe (1933) 🇺🇸

Motion Picture presents the coming stars — They’ll be your future favorites!

His pal, Johnny Weissmuller, set America on fire as a jungle hero. And it looks as if Buster — who’s an Olympic swimming champion, too, and a handsome six-footer besides — will do likewise. He gets his big start in King of the Jungle.

Buster Crabbe — Paramount

Twenty-one  years ago, an Oakland family moved to Honolulu. The son of the family, aged two, found the beach at Waikiki the best playground possible and the warm Pacific a friend. Dressed only in scanty trunks, the boy grew up on the beach, in the water, and under the sun. Swimming was as natural to him as walking. No wonder that in the years to come, Buster Crabbe (pronounced “Crab”) was to win two Olympic championships, and hold five world swimming records.

His real name (which he loathes) is Clarence Linden Crabbe, but the friendly “Buster” suits him better. He is six feet, one inch tall, weighs one hundred and eighty-eight pounds, and is all muscle. He has just finished working his way through the University of Southern California.

After Paramount had vainly searched the ranks of professional actors for a Lion Man for “King of the Jungle” who would be physically attractive and have acting ability as well, they opened the competition to the public. Buster, a pal of Weissmuller, won the rôle.

We Believe in Him

• Because, in thirty-five screen tests, his naturalness and poise equalled those of professional actors.
• Because Paramount has signed him to a seven-year contract.
• Because after he was selected as the Lion Man, the studio decided to spend much more on the production than had been planned.
• Because he has strongly marked and handsome features and a marvelous physique.
• Because Johnny Weissmuller made a success.
• Because he isn’t married or in love, and hence is qualified to be the hero of a million imaginary romances. Because he is determined not to “go Hollywood.”

Series Number 10

Twenty-two years ago this month, Picture Magazine discovered the first screen star. And we are still in the star-discovering business. Glenda Farrell and Buster Crabbe are the tenth set of newcomers for whom we have predicted stardom in the last ten months.

Our previous Nominees for Stardom have been:

All eighteen of these newcomers have shown, from the very first, the kind of talent that brings fame and fortune to unknowns. Since we nominated them for stardom, all of them have garnered big rôles in big pictures.

Watch for them in coming pictures — for their names spell good acting. And check up on our prophecy of stardom for Glenda Farrell by seeing “The Match King,” “The Wax Museum” and “Grand Slam,” and for Buster Crabbe by seeing King of the Jungle. More Nominees are on their way! — Editor.

Source: Motion Picture Magazine, February 1933