The shade of a merry and rotund 19th century Irishman may well have haunted the rotunda of the Roxy Theater last Friday night during the premiere of A Yank in the R.A.F. His name among the living would have been Tyrone Power (1797 � 1841) and his object in being there would have been to check on the hullabaloo surrounding a motion picture in which his great-grandson and namesake, Tyrone Power 3rd was starred.

For it is exactly 100 years since Tyrone the 1st died in a shop disaster, leaving to this world an acting heritage and a name that has never since been absent from Broadway.

Consider a Broadway premiere of 1833. The celebrated Irish actor Tyrone Power, is making his first American appearance in the newly rebuilt Park Theater as Sir Patrick Plenipo in "The Irish Ambassador."

The name of the player, the name of the theater and the imposing structure of the city hall, which the theater overlooked, would be familiar to present-day New Yorkers, and little else. An actual canal ran the course of what is now Canal Street. Power, making his way unescorted from an inn to the theater, had to pick his way through mud.

A far cry indeed room this playhouse and premiere to the fanfare of the Roxy opening of A Yank in the R.A.F. with Klieg lights that outshone the bright lights of Broadway. Modern ballyhoo, pooping camera bulbs, bands loudspeakers and a parade of celebrities were lacking at the first Tyrone Power premiere. The Park Theater, for all of its new-fangled lamps, scrolls and pillars, was a dingy barn as compared to a modern motion picture house. But, as the ghost of a jolly Irishman may have observed, the top billing was the same, as it had been for 100 years.

In 1848 one finds the son of the first Tyrone, Maurice Power, striving, although with indifferent success, to continue the tradition. Then a grandson, Tyrone Power the 2nd, father of the present-day screen actor, surpassed the eminence of the earlier one, sharing stage honors with such luminaries as John Drew, Richard Mansfield, Maurice Barrymore, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Beebohm Tree and Sir Henry Irving.

Through Tyrone Power the 2nd, too, the link was established with motion pictures. At the very end of his career the screen claimed him, and he was playing character parts in Hollywood. He was never one to discount the march of events. Indeed he foresaw them. When the present Tyrone was a small boy, his father made this prophetic remark about him in an interview:

"Mrs. Power and I have a little son and naturally all our hopes are centered on him. And when he grows in years, the art of motion pictures will do much for his education."

I don't need a numerologist to tell me that "400" is an unlucky number. We had planned to hire 400 horsemen for our big battle scene in the picture. Jack Stubbs, handling props, looked up an Italian opera-outfitting house for our weapons

"I shall bring you every spear and helmet in Italy," said the opera outfitter. He produced enough armor and medieval hardware to rig out at lest eight warriors.

"But I need 400 lances alone for the horseman!" shouted Stubbs.

"Why 400?" asked the outfitter. "Why not reduce the number and have them fight on for?"

Eventually, we had all our spears, swords, crossbows, catapults (equipped with railway car springs) and 400 tin helmets, lined with sponge rubber. These helmets were beautifully embossed works of art. Only one thing was wrong: all were size 6.

The case of the 400 war steed I would prefer to forget. After some red tape with a few individuals, we found a man who claimed he could corner the Italian horse market for us. He returned with two batches. The first was a bizarre collection of battered working nags, veterans of the horse-taxi, plow, junkwagon and riding academy, one of which a giant white with a hanging head was alleged to e Mussolini's horse, General.

The second batch of horses looked like a walking spareribs factory: they were borrowed from the Sienna Medical College, where they had been used throughout the war for the manufacture of antitoxins. Our work was cut out for us.

Misunderstanding

Although one of the interpreters we used during the filming insisted the correct word for "gun" was "boom-boom," we ran into language difficulties only once.

When you see the picture, take a good look at what the villagers are throwing in the air in that gay festival scene near the end, which we shot at San Gimignano. I sent a messenger out for 100 pounds of confetti in Italian stands for Jordan almonds, and we didn't have enough time on or shooting schedule to change matters.

The City Fathers in Venice, where we filmed scenes of Tyrone Power and Wanda Hendrix, were delightfully cooperative, as were all other power-driven craft away from our cameras. In other locales along canals, the city even temporarily removed all phone and light poles, wires and anything else that clashed with the Renaissance atmosphere.

One irate Venetian burgher protested over a narrow byway being roped off for our unit, and demanded the right of way.

"But they are making a picture," the policeman on duty explained.

"That's all right," the citizen shot back. "Raphael made many but they didn't block his ways."

"If we make the proposed past contributions of material and stave off communism in Europe, it seems foolish not to protect our investments by backing them with our own brand of propaganda, expounding our way of life. Political and diplomatic advice is needed as well as material aid. Europe must have help form either America or Russia and I think the majority of the people world prefer that it came from us."

Ty reached in his pocket and handed me a copy of a story that appeared in the communist [paper], "People's Letter," published in Zareb, Yugoslavia. "Here's and example of communist propaganda in Europe," said Tyrone. "Those reds will at nothing."

"The article state that Ty had been imprisoned in Hollywood because he had been marked as a "leftist." Then it went on to tell how buster Crabbe had organized a movement to "protest against the investigation of Un-American activities against Gary Cooper, Charlie Chaplin and others."

Crabbe, according to the yarn, was finally machine-gunned at the corner of 7th Ave. and Broadway in New York; and Ty acted as one of his pall bearers.

"The story had spread to Italy," said Ty. ""Anti-Communists hissed Gary Cooper's name; and I was asked a number of times about the death of Buster Crabbe. the article did me no good either."

When Ty started flying in 1937, 20th Century officials almost had a mass heart attack. They just couldn't bear the thought of their million-dollar baby traipsing among the clouds. but Ty is a stubborn character. He kept right on soaring off into the wild blue yonder, whether the studio liked it or not.

After he returned from the war and announced that he was flying to South America, 20th Century gave in and decided not to argue with Ty about his flying, but to make his traveling as safe as possible. So the studio bought a new plane and turned it over to the actor. He took South America by storm, scattering goodwill and winning thousands of new friends for Hollywood and 20th Century Fox.

The studio took the attitude of a proud but worried parent. when Ty decided to span the ocean, it promptly got him a DC-3 and sent a press agent along, to help the star in his public relations work. The trip cost 20th Century more than $150,000, but officials figure on getting that sum back and more with Ty's increased prestige at the box office. And they're not indisposed to shelling out shekels to create goodwill for our whole industry. Other studios could wisely follow suit.

Ty's the kind of lad who could go into a cave of hibernations and still make news. Everything he does hits the headlines: his romance with Janet Gaynor; his marriage to Annabella; his service with the Navy as a flier; his recent romance with Lana Turner.

While in Italy, he visited the studio at which "Cagliostra" is being filmed. In the picture was a new Italian actress, Valentina Cortese, whom 20th Century has signed to a long term contract. Ty was asked to pose with her. And, of course, he complied. Otherwise, he never saw the girl again. But right after he got home, he picked up a paper and there he found the picture, which was captioned: "Tyrone Power with His New Girl Friend." When I asked, "Well, is she?" I thought he was going to slug me.

In the next few months, you will likely see his name connected romantically with half a dozen feminine names. Take the reports with a grain of salt. He's young and popular; so naturally he will be seen in the company of women. but he will remarry in his own good time--and to the girl of his choice. He plans eventually to raise a family.

I asked him if the war had changed him. He replied, "not exactly, but it awakened in me an awareness of people and conditions outside of Hollywood. Before the war, many of us movie people accepted life as a gravy train on which we were fortunate enough to be riding. But no more. "In the services we were brought face to face with reality and the impression it left will remain with us. We can't go back to the old days. A new responsibility has been thrust upon us, and we must accept it."

Since his discharge from the Navy, Ty has been extremely fortunate in being given a varied assortment of film roles. In "The Razor's Edge," he played a veteran of the last war who gave up ease to seek a meaning to life and to search cut his own soul. He followed that with the part of one of the most disreputable characters ever seen on the screen, the "geek" in "Nightmare Alley," who sank so low that he ate live chickens as a carnival freak to get a bottle of whiskey daily. "Captain from Castile" shifted him to a historied romance.

In that picture, he plays an officer in the army of Cortez, during its conquest of Mexico. "This Old Magic"* [*final title became, "The Luck of the Irish"] veers off into fantasy. In it, Ty has the role of an American newspaperman who goes to Ireland and pals around with a leprechaun.

There are two stories which he would give his right arm to do: "The Robe" and "Forever." He would be good in either; but his studio owns neither of them. "Forever," the lovely and delicate tale written by Mildred Cram, has had a sand history in Hollywood. Originally Janet Gaynor bought it as a starring vehicle for herself. She got it for a pittance, and sold it for $75,000, after deciding not to make the picture herself. Then Metro bought it for Norma Shearer.

The asking price for the story now is, I understand, more than $200,000.

Ty comes from a distinguished theatrical family. I knew his parents well; and I watched their son, who is about the same age as my own, grow up. His father, and grandfather before him were noted actors. Both his mother and grandmother were well-known in the theater. but the background did not create a royal road to Hollywood for Ty. He had to do a bit of starving first.

He read comics over the radio, and finally landed a job at a Century of Progress in Chicago. He worked with an organization that demonstrated how movies were made. It was at the fair that a talent scout spotted him and recommended him for films.

His first picture, "Girl's Dormitory," starred young Simone Simon, and boasted such stars as Ruth Chatterton, Constance Collier, and Herbert Marshall. But the audience latched on to Ty. After the preview, I heard many people ask, "Who was that charming boy?" Few people knew, because Ty hadn't even been given screen credit.

Nobody can say that he hasn't gotten the breaks since then, and he has made the most of his opportunities.

Clark Gable, King of the Movies of 1937, moved up to sixth place from seventh, evidence of loyal support form other cities.

Another change in the lineup is Miss Lane's climb to the second spot from third, easing Sonja down one. Alice, Judy and Deanna are hanging on for dear life, and each are still a threat to those ahead. Action in the men's division, in addition to moving Power up one to take the high spot and boosting Gable, gave us the fastest speed of the election. that was when Spencer Tracy dashed up to the fifth position from ninth. It was a speedy recovery, because the day before he had dropped from eighth to night.

The point system of scoring gives Bette Davis and enormous lead over the other favorites, but the point totals among the men are much closer.

The standing of the first three men in points is: Power, 11,698; Greene, 11,321, and Stewart, 10,036. the women's division score for the top three is: Bette, 25,391; Priscilla, 10,929, and Sonja, 10,648. Might close, Priscilla and Sonja.

Three of the cities heard from yesterday voted for Mickey Rooney for the King. They were Chicago, Tampa, Fla., and Philadelphia. Seven cities offered the Queen's crown to Bette Davis. Her following took in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Tampa, Tacoma, Wash., and Winston-Salem, N.C.

New York's largest vote for the men was delivered to Green. St., Louis named Tracy and Henie, Wilmington, Del., Gable and Judy Garland; Oakland, Cal, John Garfield and Lane.

The election of the King and Queen of 1940 is being conducted by the New and 55 other newspapers in key cities of the United States and Canada representing 22,000,000 readers. Many, many thousands of votes are yet to be counted before the winner is found. Voting in many places shows sectional partisanship for certain favorites. More changes are bound to come. Don't miss them.

Power was looking forward to a change of pace.

"These two," he said of his most recent films, "are historical romances. I didn't mind making two costume pictures in succession. Before I left--perhaps you remember?--I'd made two modern stories. That's what I'd like to do, vary them. the studio has talked about several possibilities but nothing definite. I've read no scripts."

He had found picture-making abroad highly satisfactory. Mrs. Power arrived breathless from her television rehearsal and agreed with him. Italy,

"In 'Prince of Foxes' Orson plays Cesare Borgia," Power explained, and pronounced Cesare in the Italian manner, with three syllables. "I think he's awfully good. I play one of his henchmen, sent to threaten a small principality. Wanda Hendrix is the girl married to the principality's ruler."

The story, highly romantic, has Borgia's henchmen changing sides and aiding the principality in its defiance of the arrogant Cesare. Power feels this was a picture that should have been made abroad. He declared:

"The sets are solid. You can feel that they are just by looking at the screen. they look kike real places, real buildings. And they are, of course. We were able to do so much with those sets. We traveled all over Italy for location shots, villages, cities, palaces all real. you'll realize that when you see them.

"We thought we'd have a space between the pictures. We didn't. Of course, it was fascinating, anyway. We made most of the 'The Black Rose' in Italy, but we spent quite some time in Africa too. And just before we came back, Linda and I managed to steal away for three weeks in France. That's all the vacation we had. but we had a wonderful time."