By: Luella O. Parsons
Hollywood, Calif. Feb. 13 –
What price fame? You will never know the suffering these screen favorites endure until you hear how many noses are re-made, the number of teeth that need fixing, and the countless ears that have been jerked back into place. So when the candid camera reveals heretofore unsuspected defects, what is the poor star to do but to remedy it, even though it calls for a painful operation.
Kay Johnson, beautiful and good actress, found that jobs were becoming scarce. She thought it must be her nose that stood in the way of contracts. So she had it re-made until it rivaled the most perfect of Greek features. Carmel Myers, sensitive about her nose, had a plastic surgeon turn it into the shape she liked best.
Johnny Weissmuller, champion swimmer, after a taste of the movies, visited a plastic surgeon and emerged with a synthetic nose.
Much more dangerous and painful an operation than a mere re-made nose is often endured for the sake of beauty. The late Lya de Putti had breasts that did not concur with her ideas of a perfect body. She had them lifted so that she might be a better screen subject.
STRENUOUS DIET
We all remember when Molly O’Day, in despair over the failure of her diet to remove superfluous weight, went into the hospital for treatment. She had the fat removed from her stomach and arose from her sick bed many pounds lighter.
Joan Crawford never considered an operation, but she dieted strenuously until she removed 40 pounds. When I first saw her she was a plump, round-faced child. Today she is as slim as the proverbial mouse. It wasn’t easy to cut out all the things she liked to eat. Joan had the perseverance of a Spartan. She weighs 108 pounds and she has fasted so long I doubt food would increase her weight.
Producers, who know how fatal a plump figure is to beauty and how weight has often destroyed a star’s popularity, take steps against this contingency. Dorothy Mackaill’s contract with First National called for a certain weight. If she put on any extra poundage, she automatically broke her contract. Other contracts have the weight clause.
GARBO TOO PLUMP
Greta Garbo, who was plump when she came to this country, was put on a diet as soon as she made a hit in “The Temptress.” Marlene Dietrich said proudly last time I talked with her, “look how slim I am.” Her hips were much wider and she looked as if she had lost at least ten pounds.
I interviewed Vilma Banky when she stepped off the boat from Germany. She was a nice healthy looking fraulein. In Germany the boyish figures had never been heard of and her figure was all right. According to American standards, however, she was too fat. Poor Vilma was put on a strict diet of lamb chops and pineapple. How she rebelled, but she learned it was lose weight or have her contract cancelled. When she was finally introduced to the fans, it was a slender, ethereal Vilma who looked out from the screen at them. No one knew the sacrifices she had made to attain that beauty.
EARS PULLED BACK
Elinor Glynn was the first one to try to improve Conrad Nagel’s ears. She put an elastic tape back of them and when Conrad was photographed he became a new romantic leading man.
There has been much talk that Clark Gable had an operation to remove some of the cartilage back of his ears. But no one has ever determined whether this is merely one of the many yarns told about him, or a true story.
Elissa Landi’s teeth failed to impress Fox executives when she appeared for a test. She was sent to a dentist who immediately changed the shape of her teeth. Polly Moran had an unusual experience. She bought herself a fine new set of teeth and became so good looking the fans rebelled. They wanted their old Polly back and she had to have a set of teeth made with all the defects of her own teeth.
Loretta Young is now wearing a brace to straighten her teeth. This is only a partial list of the stars who have suffered to improve their looks. We haven’t the space to write about them all.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
COCKY CAGNEY IN GOOD TALE ON STATE FILM
Star Cast in Role in Which He Can’t Control Either His Fists or His Eyes
By Wood Soanes - Feb. 13
Cocky Cagney – James to the bill-boards and the starring contracts – is at the State theater this week tough as leather, hard as nails, and as perky as a belligerent bantam illustrating with crisp dialogue and short arm jabs how a 1932 model Romeo conducts his love affairs and a 1932 Napoleon runs the business of state.
In Cagney’s case it is the taxi business, and the story by Kubee Glasmon and John Bright, to whom the star owes a rising vote of thanks for tailor-made roles, has for a background the taxi war that raged in New York and other cities not so long ago, when the organized interests and the independents decided to fight it out.
Cagney is Matt Nolan, who simply can’t control either his fists or his eyes, and who is firmly convinced that he is both the answer to a maiden’s prayer, and that he is the anointed trust-breaker. When the “Consolidated” kills off old “Pop” Reilly, leaving his lovely daughter, Sue, to shift for herself, Nolan declares war without fear or favor.
“Taxi” starts out in a high-powered way with the crushing of old Pop and the harangue Nolan delivers to the Independent taxi drivers. It is a brisk dramatic start and it maintains that pace to the melodramatic climax, when Nolan outwits the police and sends his ancient enemy crashing to death without becoming involved in the murder.
The story is similar to the ones that have taken Cagney step by step from the shadows into the spotlight of Hollywood, but it contains many twsits of plot that keep it bright and swift. Cagney’s type of pictures is aimed at the populace rather than the select, but his work is nevertheless commendable in most instances.
This picture is a good bit better than “Blonde Crazy,” his last release, although it does not reach the heights of realism achieved in “The Public Enemy,” which sent him soaring on his way. It is given a good production by Warner’s and Cagney is furnished with excellent support featuring Loretta Young as the girl who loves and forgives.
She and Cagney play a difficult scene in the hospital ward most effectively. It is here that the veneer of toughness breaks for the taxi driver when he realizes that his young brother has had to pay with his life for a matter over which they had no control. It is hokum, of course, but so was the major part of “Emma,” “The Champ,” and “A Free Soul.”
David Landau does another good job as the villainous hireling of the Consolidated; Leila Bennett gets a lot of fun out of a gabby, dumb belle; and George E. Stone, Dorothy Burgess, Guy Kibbee, and Ray Cooke make the most of small roles. Roy Del Ruth handled the direction, In addition to the picture, there is a diverting list of short subjects.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
February 13, 1932
ACTOR LEO CARRILLO SEEKS BOY TO ADOPT
Hollywood, Feb.13 (UP)
Leo Carrillo, the actor, is seeking a second child to adopt, this time a boy, who would be a younger brother and playmate for Marie Antoinette Carrillo. He adopted Marie Antoinette, now 14, seven years ago. She is now with Mrs. Carrillo at her Long Island home, and plans to enter Vassar.
RIDE, COWBOY, IS AGAIN SLOGAN ABOUT HOLLYWOOD
Ride ‘em cowboy.
And how they are riding out Hollywood way these days.
Our western, or cowboy, stars who were rather forcibly ejected from film activities when the talkies became king, again are finding themselves as welcome as April showers.
Tom Mix, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, Ken Maynard, and Col. Tim McCoy, all veterans of the “horse operas,” are finding themselves greatly in demand.
And there are some new ones – George O’Brien, Tom Keene, and occasionally Warner Baxter and Richard Arlen.
U.S. FILM STAR MEETS JAPANESE PRINCES
Tokyo, Feb. 13 (UP)
Hollywood and the Japanese imperial family were represented in the crowd of social and government leaders attending a formal tea dance to open the new United States embassy here today.
Richard Barthelmess, screen favorite, and his wife, moved through the throng which gathered about Princes Chichibu and Takamatsu, younger brothers of Emperor Hirohito, and foreign minister Kengichi Yoshizawa.
United States ambassador and Mrs. W. Cameron Forbes were hosts at the function.
Barthelmess has just arrived from the United States. He said he will continue to Manila, Hong Kong, French Indo-China and Siam.
JEANETTE TO TOUR
Jeanette MacDonald plans to make a world tour to start shortly after she completes work with Maurice Chevalier in “Love Me Tonight.” She will begin her tour in Honolulu early this spring, and continue into Europe by way of Manila, Tokyo, Singapore, Calcutta and Bombay.
DOUGLAS IN HOLLYWOOD
Melvyn Douglas, Broadway stage player, has completed his role opposite Claudette Colbert in “The Wiser Sex” at the Paramount New York studio and has reported in Hollywood to begin rehearsals with Lupe Velez and Leo Carillo for “The Broken Wing.”
From Luella O. Parsons:
A lot of people will be pleased to hear that Nils Asther will once again make screen love to Greta Garbo. These two were so effective in “White Orchids” that there were many hints about a romance between them. Even though, at that time, the Garbo-Gilbert affair was flourishing. Nils will play the male lead in “Letty Lynton” opposite Joan Crawford before he emotes opposite the mysterious Swede. George Fitzmaurice, the director, has a lot to live up to in “As You Desire Me.” “Mata Hari” has broken so many box office records that he will be expected to give the world an encore. The producers are funny that way, expecting their directors to repeat a success. Well, Pirandello’s play ought to be a better story than “Mata Hari.”
Vivienne Osborne, all for the sake of art, is blondining her dark locks. She plays a blond in “Two Seconds.”
NANCY CARROLL RETURNS
Nancy Carroll, whom we have not seen on the screen for some weeks, returns this week in a new film, “Personal Maid.” It will be shown the first two days of the new week. Pat O’Brien and Gene Raymond are her principal support.
“Personal Maid” is a Cinderella story, but very modern. The story is the behind-the-scenes drama of a young girl from New York’s East Side who enters the beau monde through the servants’ entrance and comes out under a canopy, a gilded bride, wiser, but perhaps no happier.
NEW ORPHEUM PROGRAM BEST IN MANY WEEKS
“Prestige” Is Tense, Ably Acted Film
In so many words, the new bill at the Orpheum is the best in weeks. It has an excellently acted, directed and photographed motion picture called “Prestige.”
“Prestige” is a tense, if, it must be admitted, occasionally dull story of a French girl whose army captain is sent to a remote penal colony in the Orient as commandant. There he gradually disintegrates through loneliness and liquor until he is in danger of losing his honor and his commission. To save him, she goes into the jungle and marries him. The inevitable cruelty of the jungle, the monotony, the heat, the treachery of the native soldiery prey upon her but she keeps her head even when her husband proves beastly to her.
Ann Harding is the wife, beautiful, superbly poised, and courageous. She sets the spirit of the play with the slightest of histrionic displays. Melvyn Douglas, as the husband, gives a characterization of great strength and sincerity, devoid of posturing or trite declamation. Adolphe Menjou is the rejected suitor, suave as always, but creating the impression of a polish which is hard, to cover its shallowness.
TALLULAH BANKHEAD BILLED AT BROADWAY
“My Sin,” drama featuring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March, and “The Cisco Kid,” with Edmund Lowe, Warner Baxter and Conchita Montenegro will be the feature attractions at the Broadway theater Sunday and Monday.
“My Sin” tells the story of the redemption of two human derelicts, almost submerged, one through wild living, the other by the touch of remorseful circumstance. Miss Bankhead and Mr. March carry the burden of the story.
“Pleasure” and seven special featurettes comprise the new program which opens a two days’ engagement at the State theater tomorrow.
Conway Tearle, Carmel Myers and Lena Basquette have featured roles in the comedy-drama of modern day life.
The supporting program includes Mickey Mouse in “Fishing Around,” Eddie Russell in “Redmen Tell No Tales”; “Facing the Gallows,” a Nick Harris detective thriller; Thelma White-Fanny Watson comedy “Of All People”; “Sport Slants”; Animals of the Amazon,” and the “Globe Trotter.”
Movie Tag Line:
Caught in the frenzy of life’s surging whirlpool.
In New York – where life rushes faster than the heart-beats of its money-mad millions!
Where drama has a double power. Where it steps in two-time!
Where thrills-by-the-minute brings excitement aplenty
in
”24 Hours”
With
Clive Brook
Kay Francis
Miriam Hopkins
Regis Toomey
All seats 25 cents
Saturday, October 25, 2008
MAE MURRAY, COURT VETERAN, FACES $1,750,000 ACTION
Los Angeles, Feb. 12 (AP)
Mae Murray won screen stardom, married a prince, and now her days in court bid fair to exceed those of any other motion picture actress.
The biggest suit of her career, one for $1,750,000 against Tiffany Stahl productions, Inc., to which she charged the “artistic failure” of her picture “Peacock Alley,” is set for hearing in March.
“Several other suits over beauty treatments and clothing are pending,” Vernon Bettin, one of her attorneys, said today – “just minor ones. And the $29,000 bank loan suit is up next Monday.”
When Miss Murray and Prince David Zahn built their beach home in Playa Del Rey, she had to sue the city of Los Angeles for a permit. Later, the city sued and compelled her to move her beach fence back to mean tide so the public could pass.
She won a $50 suit over Omar Pasha, a pedigreed Great Dane dog, she claimed she never received, and another $395 over miniature colored photographs of herself she said she did not order. She got a “break” when Paul Porlet, Paris designer, sued another girl of the same name by mistake.
Miss Murray wears attractive, modish gowns to court and her testimony is lively. She lost a suit for $2,125 to Mrs. Sylvia Ulback, masseuse, for keeping her in the pink of condition on a vaudeville tour. Mrs. Ulback’s attorney asked if Miss Murray had not borrowed $25 from the masseuse for Prince M’Divani and if Mrs. Ulback had not referred to him as “a bum.”
“My dear man,” replied Miss Murray, “you may not realize it but I am a lady and when you address me as such, I will be able to answer you.”
She fainted at a hearing at Santa Monica when the judge dismissed the charges against her for forcible entry to “The House That Jack Built.”
Miss Murray purchased this said home from Jack Donovan, who said he was a cowboy film star and architect, and Mrs. Jeanette G. Donovan, his mother, in 1926 for $56,000. Later, she sued to cancel the contract on the ground that many of the claimed antiques were not real, others had been removed, that she was disappointed in the pipe organ, and the washing machine would not work.
Mrs. Donavan admitted she had replaced a Louis XV bed, but said it was falling to pieces, so she had a planing mill make a new one.
The superior court gave Miss Murray judgment for $32,295, the appeals court reversed it, but she finally won out last month in the state supreme court. In the meantime, however, she had stopped payment on a $29,000 bank loan secured by a trust deed on the house, and it was sold for a sum reported at $500. The bank now is suing her for a deficiency judgment.
Miss Murray lost a suit to Natacha Rambova, who once was Mrs. Rudolph Valentino, for $1,652 for clothing and jewelry, and another more recently for $1500 for income tax services. She sued to real estate men for $80,000 over an exchange of houses and lost.
There have been numerous other legal actions over wage claims, insurance, notes and usurious money rates. Several were filed in New York on which records here are incomplete, one against the Fox Theaters corporation for $250,000 over an injury to her left foot.
February 12, 1932
NILS ASTHER GETS MAIN ROLE IN LETTY LYNTON
From Luella O. Parsons:
You may expect to see Nils Asther in an important role: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer leading man, before the year passes. What plans are now being hatched for him!
One of the first roles will be as Joan Crawford’s leading man in “Letty Lynton,” and he draws Clarence Brown as director.
He now is playing an important role in Robert Montgomery’s picture “The Truth Game.”
Mr. Asther, for a time, was handicapped by his accent. He has now subdued that considerably and, since good looking young leading men who can act are scarce, Nils’ opportunity, it seems, has arrived. The fans, I might add, have never ceased to urge that he come back.
Mrs. Asther (Vivian Duncan to her public) will make some public appearances while her husband is busy at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Miss Asther, thank you, is doing nicely.
I’d say the Irish have it in “The Information Kid” at Universal. Let’s count the sons and daughters of Erin. There is Jimmy Gleason, just added to the cast, Maureen O’Sullivan, Tom Brown, Mickey McGuire and Andy Devine. Interesting story about Gleason, when he was the star of “Is Zat So?” on Broadway, young Tom Brown was twelve years old and in his company. Young Brown has always had a hero worship for Jimmy and when he found that Jimmy was going to be in the same picture with him, he was overjoyed.
Florence Rice, one of the prettiest girls who has come to Hollywood in a long time, was lunching with Phillips Holmes. Local gossips say Phil is much interested in Grantland Rice’s daughter.
WARREN WILLIAM CAST IN ‘JEWEL ROBBERY’ LEAD
I thought Jack Warner was up to his old trick of playing a joke when he told me that The Jewel Robbery was a coming Warner event.
I hate to show my ignorance this way, but The Jewel Robbery is a New York play and it’s all its name implies. In fact, Warner was enthusiastic about it and thought that the leading role was one that would particularly fit Warren William. Warners have great plans for William. He, as their Clark Gable-Ronald Colman, is being given roles that will suit him.
Another Warner player who is being groomed for bigger and better roles is Bette Davis. She is running neck and neck with Marian Marsh, another blonde youngster. Miss Davis will play opposite Warren William in “The Jewel Robbery.” Given a few years experience, she may really do something worthwhile, for she has a personality.
The Harold Lloyds were celebrating nine years of marital bliss by inviting a few friends to dinner, and later attending the theater.
Mrs. C. Gardiner Sullivan is giving Joan Bennett a shower at the Town House tomorrow. The Bennett-Markey marriage will be a Spring affair.
From Wood Soanes:
Samuel Goldwyn announces his intentions to have production in full swing by March. He is to do “Ballyhoo” and one other for Eddie Cantor; and “Cynara” and one other for Ronald Colman; as well as one on the order of “Street Scene,” without a star.
Janet Gaynor is back from Europe and will soon be started in “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.”
Clive Brook, having finished his work on “Shanghai Express” with Marlene Dietrich, has gone to England for a vacation with his wife.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
February 11, 1932
LEOPARD PUTS STAR ON SPOT
Hollywood, Feb. 11 (UP)
Because a movie leopard lived his role too well after his part had been played, Barbara Weeks, actress, today was suffering lacerations from the beast’s claws.
A leopard which pursued Miss Weeks through an African jungle scene while cameras ground, escaped his trainer and attacked the actress as she left the set.
Attendants, assisted by Jack Mulhall, actor, dragged the animal away. Miss Weeks’ injuries were not serious.
From Wood Soanes:
Jeanette MacDonald seems to be very much in the news these days. After the expiration of her new agreement with Paramount, she is supposed to go to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for “The Red Haired Woman.” Meantime, Earl Carroll is negotiating for her and Chevalier to appear in a revue called “Rendezvous,” and she is scheduled to do “The Merry Widow” in Paris next fall.
Radio has apparently given up its play to make another Valentino out of Ivan Lebedeff. When I saw him last he was remarking in a loud voice that he would sooner jump out a window than try to ape his pal Valentino. Rather than have him make a lethal leap, Radio has dropped him from its list of contract players.
THIS RECKLESS AGE COMES TO SCREEN
The current feature attraction on the Paramount screen is “This Reckless Age.” It is a comedy-drama of parents who have dedicated their lives in supplying every want of their children, who in turn, following the “jazz” trend of the reckless age, give slight consideration to the self-denial of their parents.
Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Peggy Shannon, Richard Bennett, Charlie Ruggles, Frances Dee and Frances Starr play the featured roles.
UP POPS THE DEVIL IS NATIONAL FEATURE
“Up Pops the Devil, Paramount comedy-romance, is the National Theater’s current attraction. Skeets Gallagher, Stuart Erwin, Carole Lombard, Lilyan Tashman, and Norman Foster head the cast.
The story concerns the marital difficulties of Norman Foster and Carole Lombard, as the young writer and his ex-dancer wife.
They live in an apartment in New York City. Foster and his wife agree they will “never get anywhere” if they continue their happy-go-lucky, gin and din, existence, and so they plan a renaissance.
But the scheme hits a slump when a sugary voiced southern girl comes into the picture from the apartment upstairs.
Saturday will bring Lane Chandler in “The Hurricane Horseman” and chapter seven of “Battling With Buffalo Bill.”
February 10, 1932
From Luella O. Parsons:
I don’t know how the anonymous “Washington Merry Go Round,” with all its political barbs and its innuendos about Washington social life can be filmed. But the fact remains that it is now being discussed by Harry Cohn and Walter Wanger as the first picture to be made by the newly organized Columbia company.
You cannot say that “Washington Merry Go Round” is partisan as regards politics. It deals with both the Republicans and the Democrats. However, it is the present administration against whom most of the diatribe is aimed.
And since Will H. Hays, head of the Motion Pictures Producers association is a Republican in good standing, well, there is apt to be some fireworks if Mr. Cohn and Mr. Wanger persist in their original plan to bring this widely discussed book to the screen.
If Irving Thalberg wants my honest opinion about the “Red Headed Woman,” and he said he did, I can tell him that Clara Bow, up to now, leads in the number of votes. He asked me to invite the fans, in my column, to come with suggestions for the lead in Katherine Bush’s story, and Clara is the favorite.
She will not make the picture for Sam Rork. Tired of waiting for Harry Cohn to make up his mind about a story, Rork has decided to go ahead with other plans. He has purchased The Mud Lark, a magazine serial by Arthur Stranger, and will produce it immediately. He is aiming high. He hopes to get Barbara Stanwyck for the lead.
Mary Pickford has announced her intention of attempting to “bring the children back” through her next story, which has not yet been selected.
If she wants to do that, she will have to get a play like “Dracula” or “Frankenstein,” or impersonate Joe E. Brown. Mark Keller, of the Golden State theater chain, told me that the youngsters “go” for bizarre pictures and Brown and little else.
Clark Gable will be opposite Norma Shearer in “Strange Interlude,” it developed yesterday when work on the O’Neill story started in the M-G-M studios. Ralph Morgan, of the original cast, will again play Charlie. Alexander Kirkland is Sam, the husband; and Henry B. Walthall will be the father.
Robert Z. Leonard, the director, is employing a two-way sound system to distinguish between the dialogue and audible thoughts. Thus it will be possible to preserve the “asides” that distinguished the play.
CHIC SALE IS REPORTED BETTER
Hollywood, Feb. 10 (AP)
Charles “Chic” Sale, stage and screen comedian, who became ill of influenza while trying to get to Hollywood in a hurry to make a picture, was reported out of danger by his physician today.
CHARLIE CHAN IN NEW FILM AT PARAMOUNT
Warner Oland Again Stars As Sleuth of Earl Derr Biggers Story
A startling crime in one of New York’s sophisticated “pent-houses” starts off the adventures in “Charlie Chan’s Chance,” the new mystery-thriller opening today. Warner Oland again has the charming role of Chan, and the other featured players include Linda Watkins, H.B. Warner, Marion Nixon, James Kirkwood and Alexander Kirkland.
A splendid program of short screen subjects rounds out the new program. Among these is a hilarious two-reel comedy, “On the Loose,” starring Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd; a Mickey Mouse cartoon, a new “Fishing Adventure,” and the Paramount News.
I don’t know how the anonymous “Washington Merry Go Round,” with all its political barbs and its innuendos about Washington social life can be filmed. But the fact remains that it is now being discussed by Harry Cohn and Walter Wanger as the first picture to be made by the newly organized Columbia company.
You cannot say that “Washington Merry Go Round” is partisan as regards politics. It deals with both the Republicans and the Democrats. However, it is the present administration against whom most of the diatribe is aimed.
And since Will H. Hays, head of the Motion Pictures Producers association is a Republican in good standing, well, there is apt to be some fireworks if Mr. Cohn and Mr. Wanger persist in their original plan to bring this widely discussed book to the screen.
If Irving Thalberg wants my honest opinion about the “Red Headed Woman,” and he said he did, I can tell him that Clara Bow, up to now, leads in the number of votes. He asked me to invite the fans, in my column, to come with suggestions for the lead in Katherine Bush’s story, and Clara is the favorite.
She will not make the picture for Sam Rork. Tired of waiting for Harry Cohn to make up his mind about a story, Rork has decided to go ahead with other plans. He has purchased The Mud Lark, a magazine serial by Arthur Stranger, and will produce it immediately. He is aiming high. He hopes to get Barbara Stanwyck for the lead.
Mary Pickford has announced her intention of attempting to “bring the children back” through her next story, which has not yet been selected.
If she wants to do that, she will have to get a play like “Dracula” or “Frankenstein,” or impersonate Joe E. Brown. Mark Keller, of the Golden State theater chain, told me that the youngsters “go” for bizarre pictures and Brown and little else.
Clark Gable will be opposite Norma Shearer in “Strange Interlude,” it developed yesterday when work on the O’Neill story started in the M-G-M studios. Ralph Morgan, of the original cast, will again play Charlie. Alexander Kirkland is Sam, the husband; and Henry B. Walthall will be the father.
Robert Z. Leonard, the director, is employing a two-way sound system to distinguish between the dialogue and audible thoughts. Thus it will be possible to preserve the “asides” that distinguished the play.
CHIC SALE IS REPORTED BETTER
Hollywood, Feb. 10 (AP)
Charles “Chic” Sale, stage and screen comedian, who became ill of influenza while trying to get to Hollywood in a hurry to make a picture, was reported out of danger by his physician today.
CHARLIE CHAN IN NEW FILM AT PARAMOUNT
Warner Oland Again Stars As Sleuth of Earl Derr Biggers Story
A startling crime in one of New York’s sophisticated “pent-houses” starts off the adventures in “Charlie Chan’s Chance,” the new mystery-thriller opening today. Warner Oland again has the charming role of Chan, and the other featured players include Linda Watkins, H.B. Warner, Marion Nixon, James Kirkwood and Alexander Kirkland.
A splendid program of short screen subjects rounds out the new program. Among these is a hilarious two-reel comedy, “On the Loose,” starring Zasu Pitts and Thelma Todd; a Mickey Mouse cartoon, a new “Fishing Adventure,” and the Paramount News.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
February 9, 1932
ANN HARDING’S HOME GUARDED
Hollywood, Feb. 9 (UP)
Because of kidnapping threats against their daughter, Jane, 3, guards have been placed about the home of Ann Harding, motion picture actress, and her husband, Harry Bannister, aviator and actor, it became known today.
Two police detectives were assigned to the case after Maria Lombardi, Miss Harding’s secretary, notified authorities through an attorney. Private guards were employed by Miss Lombardi without the knowledge of the parents because she did not wish so alarm them.
A letter was received at the Bannister home last week, warning that an attempt would be made to kidnap Jane. The warning was unsigned.
This was the second threat against the child. Some time ago a taxi-driver reported that he was shot in the leg when he refused to guide intended kidnappers to the Bannister home.
JOLSON ILL
Louisville, Ky. Feb. 9 (INS)
Suffering from acute influenza, Al Jolson, famous singing comedian of the stage and screen, was confined to his hotel room here today.
MITZI GREEN starts her vaudeville tour this week in the RKO theaters, opening at St. Louis. Her last picture at Radio was “Girl Crazy,” with Wheeler and Woolsey.
From Luella O. Parsons:
Slim princesses are still the fashion in Hollywood. Leila Hyams, who hasn’t any excess weight discernable to the naked eye, recently removed five pounds. She did it by eating green salad and pot cheese.
Snapshots of Hollywood: Ginger Rogers selected as the ideal type for “The Red Headed Woman,” by Grace La Rue. Mervyn LeRoy escorting Miss Rogers to Miriam Hopkins’ buffet supper. The hostess wearing pale blue pajamas with silver belt. Greta Garbo formerly occupied the house where Miss Hopkins lives. Many of the guests went upstairs to take a look at the huge, high, upholstered bed where La Garbo used to sleep.
DADDY LONG LEGS AT STRAND THEATER
Marking the first time Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter have been co-starred, Daddy Long Legs will open an engagement at the Strand Theater on Wednesday.
Made famous on the stage by Ruth Chatterton and on the silent screen by Mary Pickford, the orphaned Judy returns once more as a character for Janet Gaynor. Under the direction of Alfred Santell, modern treatment and dialogue have been added.
WOMAN BETWEEN IS FEATURE AT LYRIC
Have children the moral right to object to their father’s re-marriage to younger woman? Should they substitute hate for love because they resent her love for their father?
These are the questions which are answered in Radio Pictures’ “The Woman Between,” the Lyric Theater feature for Tuesday and Wednesday. The main players are Lily Damita, Lester Vail, Miriam Seegar, Ruth Watson and O.P. Heggie.
Monday, October 20, 2008
February 8, 1932
DOROTHY GISH, MOVIE ACTRESS, SERIOUSLY ILL
New York, Feb. 8 (UP)
Dorothy Gish, motion picture star, was seriously ill today at Presbyterian hospital.
Beyond suggesting Miss Gish was suffering from a nervous disorder, hospital authorities declined to give any information about her illness.
Her nurses said she was “feeling much better.”
RONALD COLMAN GETS ‘ARRESTED’ IN SHANGHAI
Shanghai, Feb. 8
Ronald Colman, the film star, was among the excited tourists today getting a thrill out of Shanghai’s “war.”
Colman toured the settlement and chatted with the “Tommies” and the American marine “leathernecks.”
Colman was a British officer in the World War. He is in China on a pleasure tour.
Colman was picked up by the police yesterday a little before midnight while he was strolling around looking over the town.
He didn’t know it, but he was violating the emergency ordinance forbidding civilians to be on the streets between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. They warned him about it at police headquarters and let him go.
From Luella O. Parsons:
KEATON PICKS UNEXPECTED HUSBAND AS NEXT FILM:
Buster Keaton wandered into the Hollywood Playhouse last week to take a look at Unexpected Husband, Edward Everett Horton’s show playing there.
The comedy appealed to Buster and he decided then and there it would make a good comedy film for him. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer agreed with Buster and arrangements were made immediately to purchase the film rights. Jimmy Durante will again help Buster put over his nonsense. The two of them did a noble job in The Passionate Plumber.
I’d like to do a little prophesying. If Madge Evans continues the way she started she will soon be a headliner in the starring class. She looks a little like Norma Shearer and she has a Garbo personality. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is not losing sight of the fact that Miss Evans is fast becoming a favorite.
The red-haired Peggy Shannon, who a year ago was exploited as Clara Bow’s successor, has a new contract. She has finished at Paramount and has been free-lancing, but now she goes to Fox for two pictures. Her first picture for Fox will be Society Girl opposite James Dunn. I have an idea this will be about the only picture in which Dunn will have a leading lady other than Sally Eilers, as it is Fox’s intention to team these two youngsters.
STARS’ INFANT GOOD ACTRESS
Hollywood, Feb. 8
A new baby star who wasn’t a bit temperamental, will be seen in the next few days on the news screens.
She is Barbara Bebe Lyon, five months’ old daughter of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, screen players, and her first appearance before the “mike” was in a silent picture – fortunately.
The occasion was Miss Bebe’s christening, which was quite a movie stars’ function at Hollywood Congregational church.
Baby Bebe, all dolled up in a white lace cap and gown, behaved wonderfully. She didn’t scream at the director or anything, but permitted the camera men to grind away, just as they wished.
She looked a trifle indignant when the officiating minister sprinkled the christening water over her head, but apparently decided that it’s all in a movie star’s day.
KAY FRANCIS STAR IN NEW PRODUCTION
The first starring picture to be made by Kay Francis at the First National studios entered production on the west coast this week. The title of the film has been changed from “Working Wives” to “A Dangerous Brunette.” The tentative release date of March 27 has been set for the picture, but this may be subject to alteration following completion of the production. To date, David Manners, Una Merkel and Andy Devine have been announced as members of Miss Francis’ supporting cast.
“MONKEY BUSINESS” BILL AT CENTURY
The Four Marx Brothers in “Monkey Business” will be the feature attraction at the Broadway theater Sunday and Monday.
“Monkey Business presents the brothers in a story that has to deal with stowaways and yeggmen aboard an ocean liner. The four brothers are the stowaways and practically anybody is a yeggman.
Supporting the brothers are Thelma Todd, Tom Kennedy, Ruth Hall and Rockliffe Fellowes.
Bing Crosby, in his latest comedy, “I Surrender Dear,” Metrotone News and a variety of short subjects make up the balance of the program.
ANOTHER NEW TITLE FOR SALE’S PICTURE
“Old Man Minick,” the new “Chic” Sales starring picture which Warner Brothers have just produced, based upon the memorable story by Edna Ferber, will apparently not be released under the title “Slice of Life,” as was announced a few days ago. Instead, Miss Ferber herself will select a new title, and she is now engaged in the search for one. When she arrives at the decision the new name of the picture will be promptly made public.
NEW CAGNEY FILM READY FOR SHOW
“The Crowd Roars,” James Cagney’s latest picture, has been released by the cutting room in Hollywood and a print will be sent East by airmail within the next day or two. The film was directed by Howard Hawks, who wrote the script in collaboration with Seton I. Miller. It deals with the adventures of an auto racer (played, of course, by Cagney), and in the supporting cast are Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Eric Linden, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, William Arnold, Leo Nomis and Charlotte Merriam.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
‘FEUD’ OF GLORIA-CONSTANCE PROVIDES HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP
The most sophisticated drama of the film colony is being woven around the supposition that when two actresses contend for Hollywood’s queenly crown and have loved the same man, they automatically become friendly, polite enemies, according to a writer in Picture Play magazine. Persons in the drama are Gloria Swanson and Constance Bennett as the principal players with the Marquis Henri de la Falaise de la Coudraye the pivital player.
The Swanson-Bennett-Falaise triangle is Hollywood’s most subtle to date. It is smart, gay, flavored with intrigue. Its locales fluctuate between Paris, Cannes, Monte Carlo, St. Moritz, New York, Hollywood and Sylvia’s massage emporium.
It is as sophisticated as a Noel Coward drawing-room roundelay in which brittle, ultra-modern dialogue masks age-old emotions. It is destined to go down in Hollywood’s social history as the highlight of an otherwise dull season. The two queens have played their respective rolls with the finesse of chess players. And the young king of hearts has been as debonaire as any man could be who was divorced by filmdom’s erstwhile glamorous monarch, and before the decree was granted again found himself eager to offer his title to a newly reigning sovereign.
Hollywood has watched many romantic dramas, but none has been enacted with the wit, the cleverness, and the resourcefulness of the Bennett-Swanson-marquis threesome. By comparison, even the Negri-Chaplin and the Garbo-Gilbert amourettes become obvious, graceless interludes.
Now that Constance has married the marquis, do you suppose she ever contemplates the memory of Gloria as a specter in her new world of happiness? - asks the writer. And does Gloria ever contemplate the vision of Constance getting her former title as distinctly disturbing to her memories?
“The subject is too absurd,” Gloria exclaimed with considerable feeling. “I haven’t any interest in the affairs of others. I am not a gossip, and I haven’t the slightest emotion about what anyone else thinks or does. I believe in live and let live.”
Miss Swanson did not once mention Miss Bennett by name.
When approached on this subject Miss Bennett swung one pajamaed leg over the arm of a chair, slid into it, lit a cigarette, and after blowing the smoke high into the air said,
“Well, lets talk this over. Professional rivals – No! After all, Miss Swanson was a star many years before I entered the game. Personal rivals – you mean on account of Henri, I presume? I don’t think there is anything to that. Certainly I would not have had the wretched taste to announce my engagement while he was still Miss Swanson’s legal husband. If I had committed such a breach of propriety, I probably would have been accused of considering myself the victorious rival, and all that sort of thing.”
“Now, as far as my regarding the former marquise as a specter in my life with Henri, I can’t see any reason for it. So why should my ghost, so to speak, haunt Miss Swanson, or why should hers harass me? Oh, of course there are bound to be memories from any marriage for any one, but they shouldn’t become bothersome, should they?
Gloria’s love affair with the marquis started six years ago in Paris. She was then at the zenith of her career. Early in 1929 Falaise left Hollywood for Paris, and it was generally felt that he and Gloria had come to the parting of the ways. In the spring of the same year, also in Paris, Miss Bennett and the marquis met, and soon rumors were flying that she would become the second marquise, which became true last fall.
February 7, 1932
HARLOW OFFERED WORK IN BRITAIN
Jean Harlow, the original platinum blonde, is entertaining an offer to star in a British-produced special feature. If current negotiations terminate in an agreement, Miss Harlow will sail for Europe early in April, returning to America in June, after eight weeks shooting in England and Italy.
The British producers, headed by John Amery, son of the ex-cabinet minister, have made a generous offer for the American star’s services, but have not yet agreed to the terms asked.
MOVIES POPULAR
One of the most popular forms of inside entertainment these days is showing motion pictures. Joan Crawford gave Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. a projecting machine, screen and entire outfit for his Christmas present. Since that time a private movie show has taken place in the Fairbanks Jrs home almost every night. Both silent and sound pictures have been shown. Marion Davies has had a projection machine for a long time and she usually follows her dinners both big and small with some current feature film. Buster Keaton, Norma Shearer, and the Fairbanks Srs, are among others who give their own movie entertainments.
A SCREEN COMEBACK
Can a movie favorite, absent from the screen a year or more, really stage a successful comeback? Madge Bellamy is about to try to furnish the answer. She will make a picture with Phil Goldstone, independent producer, and one of the few people who has money enough to retire any time he gets enough of the movies.
EUROPEAN STAR TO START WORK
Sari Maritza, European screen star who arrived in Hollywood recently, will begin her American film career in the continental success, “The Man Who Had No Private Life,” Paramount announces. Written by Otto Furth, the romance relates the adventures of a manicurist who becomes involved in the life of a reformer. Direction has been assigned to George Cukor.
FAKES SOUND
Lewis Stone wears a felt sole on one shoe and a wooden sole on the other to create a realistic impersonation of a man wearing an artificial limb in his characterization of a shell-shocked doctor in “Grand Hotel.” The difference in soles impars an unevenness in his tread that sounds convincing, it is said, when recorded over the microphone.
NOVEL VACATION
John Barrymore has a novel idea for a vacation. He is looking up the possibilities of sea-elephant hunting in South American waters. Last vacation it was Alaska.
FEMININE FIGHTERS
Irene Purcell and Mona Maris claim the title of champion feminine free-for-all fighters of Hollywood! During filming of “The Passionate Plumber,” starring Buster Keaton, “Purcell and Maris” were a strenuous fighting team. They portray the roles of two jealous women who finally come to blows in a terrific battle which is a climax to the picture.
OPERA STAR LATEST ROLE GIVEN TO GLORIA
All the brilliant comedy and romantic appeal which made “Tonight or Never” one of the outstanding hits of the New York stage last year appears again on the screen in Samuel Goldwyn’s production of the famous play, with Gloria Swanson playing the leading role.
“Tonight or Never” was the last success of the late, great David Belasco, grand old man of the American stage.
Melvyn Douglas, the rising young New York leading man whom Belasco had signed up for the hero’s role a year before production of the play began, is again playing the same role in the picture version. And the rest of the cast assures the same finish and brilliance which “Tonight or Never” had in New York.
It includes Ferdinand Gottschalk, Robert Grieg, Greta Mayer and Warburton Gamble, all of whom appeared in the original stage production. Alison Skipworth, who has become highly popular with talking picture audiences in such pictures as “Outward Bound,” and “Raffles,” is playing the dowager role.
The heroine’s role was taken in New York by Helen Gahagan and was at once seized upon by Gloria Swanson as a part she wanted to do when she saw the play on Broadway. Its background of romantic comedy, filled with the night-time gaiety and throbbing gypsy music of Budapest, give her exactly the opportunity she has been desiring. Mervyn LeRoy, director of “Little Caesar” and “Five Star Final,” directed the picture for Samuel Goldwyn.
YOUNG HOLMES STARS
Two of Paramount’s popular blond-haired personalities – Phillips Holmes and Miriam Hopkins, are featured together for the first time in “Two Kinds of Women.”
In this headlong, actionful romantic drama of life in New York city, Holmes plays the role of a Broadway playboy; Miss Hopkins is seen as the daughter of a South Dakota senator, a girl who has always hungered for adventure in the big city and now gets it.
Others in the big cast of popular talkie artists are Irving Pichel as Miriam's pompous crusading dad; Stuart Erwin as a clever newspaper reporter; Wynne Gibson as a smart Broadway moll; Stanley Fields as a night club muscle-inner; Vivienne Osborne as a sophisticated speakeasy habitué.
Friday, October 17, 2008
February 6, 1932
POLA NEGRI ENGAGED, BUT MAN IS SECRET
Chicago, Feb 6 – (AP)
Pola Negri says she is engaged to marry a Chicago man but his name is a secret.
She did say, however, that “He is wintering at his estate in Montecito, Cal.” Adding that “My next husband is going to be someone whome every one looks up to and admires.”
Miss Negri, who is appearing on the stage of a Loop theater, has been married twice to European nobility.
SLIM SUMMERVILLE OF MOVIES ADOPTS BABY
Hollywood, Feb. 6 – (AP)
Slim Summerville, gangling motion picture comedian, can make faces at home now. He has a new audience.
He said today that legal proceedings have just been completed whereby he and Mrs. Summerville have adopted a four weeks old baby, a boy they have christened Elliott George. The have no other children.
“And he’s gaining an ounce a day,” Summerville added proudly.
LUCILLE LA VERNE IS HURT
Actress’s Auto Driven Into a Pole on Coast to Avert Collision
Los Angeles, Feb.4 (AP)
Lucille La Verne, stage star, suffered five dislocated vertebrae today when a chauffer drove her automobile into a boulevard telephone.
He swerved the machine in an effort to avoid striking another car.
PLAYERS RETURN
Excerpted from the New York Times:
Janet Gaynor, that vivacious screen heroine, whose years from the extra-girl days to stardom under the Fox cachet were less than most, returned from a tour of Europe this week on the Lloyd Sabaudo liner Conte Grande, and glad she was to set her foot again on shore after an unusually severe winter crossing.
Miss Gaynor was in New York at Thanksgiving time and a few days later sailed on the Olympic, accompanied by her husband Lydell Peck, a supervisor at the Fox lot in Hollywood, and her mother, Mrs. Laura Gaynor.
They were in France on Christmas, and on New Year’s Day were in Italy, where they started a lengthy automobile tour through the country.
Miss Gaynor and her mother and husband went to the Savoy-Plaza where they will rest for several days before continuing to California.
On the same liner which brought Miss Gaynor back was a man whom they encountered on the road from Rome to Naples, none other than Edward G. Robinson, whose “The Hatchet Man” had it’s premier last Wednesday night. He and Mrs. Robinson went to the St. Regis, where they will remain until time to journey westward to begin “Two Seconds.”
FEW PARTIES, CAROLE FINDS
Hollywood continues to burn the midnight oil, but has stopped burning the candle at both ends, according to Carole Lombard, the heroine of “No One Man.”
“Stories of Hollywood revels lasting into the early morning hours may once have had foundation; they have none today,” she continued. “The morning after the night before has taken on a new meaning. “The night before is the only time left in the day to study the dialogue lines to be spoken the morning after.”
“Dialogue changed Hollywood’s outlook and mode of living.” Spoken lines must be studied, they can’t be properly memorized in the few minutes between scenes on the set.”
“Yes, Hollywood continues to keep late hours, but it is a studious and industrious city now – not a Hollywood at play.”
“Often it is one o’clock in the morning before I put aside my script, with my next day’s dialogue well in hand,” said Miss Lombard, “and I must be up at seven each morning to make a nine o’clock call at the studio.”
“My case is no different than that of any featured player. Of course we have time off between pictures to seek what I call ‘deserved recreations,’ but when we’re working, we’re really working. There is no time for play.”
From Luella O. Parsons:
Chatter in Hollywood: Loretta Young is wearing a sparkler on her left hand. Looks very suspicious, but Loretta says she bought it herself. Everyone is wondering. She has so many admirers, only a few nights ago she was dancing at the Biltmore Garden with a young man who sang to her as they danced.
Poor Carole Lombard, who has had more than her share of sickness, is fighting a bad case of the flu.
KEN MAYNARD STARS IN FEATURE
Ken Maynard and his horse, Tarzan, are the features of the Tiffany productions’ drama, Range Law, now showing.
Before going into the movies, Ken was a circus trick rider, and before that he lived on a ranch in Texas.
THE LAST FLIGHT COMING TO LYRIC
The Last Flight, featuring Richard Bathelmess, John Mack Brown, Helen Chandler, David Manners and Walter Byron, is to be the feature attraction at the Lyric Theater Sunday and Monday.
The story is by John Monk Saunders, who did The Dawn Patrol and The Finger Points.
A HOLY TERROR ON NATIONAL SCREEN
Crashing by airplane into a young woman’s bathroom is the method of introduction adopted by George O’Brien who enacts a featured role in A Holy Terror, the Fox picture showing at the National theater.
The role of the girl is portrayed by Sally Eilers. The principals are supported by a cast that includes Rita La Roy, Humphrey Bogart, James Kirkwood, Stanley Fields and Robert Warwick.