Meet Tom Ewell… New Star (1951) 🇺🇸
Tom Ewell’s Hollywood story was a bit different from the usual run-of-the-mill kind which go into unending tales of how tough it was for years until that first real break came along.
by Paul Manning
Ewell struck pay dirt with his first screen role, his unforgettable portrayal of Judy Holliday’s gun-toting husband in Metro’s Adam's Rib.
Of course, speaking with a grin, Tom Ewell will say that his stage career was not quite as cushy. He waited 14 years before he got his first smash hit, in John Loves Mary, which won for him awards in the legit field. He considers himself the best “flop-conditioned” actor in the business, a pretty good background to get one over those long, lean years when the cold and ice of a New York winter seemed warmer than the stage producer’s casting office. “Brrrrr,” says Tom Ewell, now enjoying warm success in Universal-International’s Up Front.
Ewell started his acting career while attending the University of Wisconsin, a law student. He said he took the law into his own hands when he trod the shaky boards for the first time, as a replacement for a sick leading man in a traveling stock company playing the college town. Even though his fraternity buddies jeered him in a roasting reception, the company manager thought well of his first effort, and persuaded Ewell to stay with the company.
Came the dawn a few years later, and he was in New York with less than $50 in his threadbare jeans. Actors were casually starving rather than accept lowly manual labor jobs but Ewell had the habit of eating, and, via the dishwasher’s table at Bickford’s restaurant and the basement at Macy’s, he kept body and soul together.
Today, with fond recollections of dirty dishes and wrapping packages only a fond memory, Ewell has a few words to say to producers who are already reaching for him. after Up Front. Says he: “I don’t hanker to be known as one of those prolific versatile actors who will take any role from a six-year-old infant to a trained seal. I want to stick with my own brand of comedy. It’s what I know best, and do best. If that’s what the part is, it’s for me. If not, then let me stick to my bad golf, good gardening, and happy home life.”
A wise man, Tom Ewell, new Hollywood star. — P. M.
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Good Things to come from Hollywood… “Bird of Paradise”
Thanks to 20th-Fox, brilliant writer-director Delmer Daves, and associate producer Harmon Jones, this simple and enchanting tale of the South Seas is gracing the screens of the nation.
by Paul Manning
Using no device but the ancient customs of these primitive natives, sometimes charming, sometimes barbaric, but always fervent, this glorious Technicolor canvas captures the adventure cubbyhole which every moviegoer must surely have secretly tucked away in his heart. Superb performances by every member of the cast, Debra Paget, Jeff Chandler, Louis Jourdan, and others, make this story one which will long be remembered. The simple and honest love theme is brought before the camera lens in a most tender fashion. When the picture, having woven its delicate tapestry of life in the fascinating Polynesian Islands, ends, it is with reluctance that one leaves the theatre. This is entertainment which truly carries one away from the mundane cares of everyday life, and, by assuming this nature, answers the exhibitor’s every demand for screen entertainment for all types of audiences. — P. M.
In these scenes from 20th-Fox’s Bird of Paradise, Louis Jourdan and Jeff Chandler, upper left, after swimming ashore from the schooner, are greeted by Debra Paget.
At upper right, in violation of the island taboo against unmarried girls speaking to their suitors, Paget confesses her love for Jourdan.
At bottom, left, is Harmon Jones, associate producer of the film, while at bottom, right, is Delmer Daves, who directed the colorful romantic drama of the South Seas.
Collection: Exhibitor Magazine (Studio Survey), April 1951