February 22, 1932

VON STROHEIM TO BE OPERATED ON AGAIN
Hollywood, Feb. 22 (UP)

A second operation to remove a tumor will be performed on Erich Von Stroheim, motion picture actor and director, some time today. Von Stroheim underwent an operation for the same trouble last week.
Other ailing screen folk were reported improving.
Edna Purviance, former leading lady for Charlie Chaplin, was said to be “much better.”
Maurice Costello, father of Dolores and Helene Costello and himself once a leading film star, was removed to his home because he recuperated quickly from a cerebral hemorrhage he suffered last week.

Marysville, Feb. 22 (UP)
Michael Purviance, 84, father of Edna Purviance, was found dead in bed at his home at Biggs, late Saturday, according to word received here today. The body was found by William Hurd, a neighbor. Death was due to natural causes.

HOYTS TO WED THIRD TIME
Tallulah Bankhead’s Sister Will Remarry on Riviera

Nice, France Feb. 21 (Wireless to the New York Times)
Mrs. Eugenia Bankhead Hoyt, sister of Tallulah Bankhead, actress, has just arrived here from Hollywood to marry her former husband, Morton Hoyt, for the third time. They were married first twelve years ago. Since then they have been divorced and remarried and redivorced.
Mrs. Eugenia Bankhead Hoyt, daughter of W.B. Bankhead, Representative from Alabama, and Morton McMichael Hoyt, Solicitor General in the Roosevelt and Taft administrations, were first married in about 1920. In April, 1927, they were divorced at Reno, Nev., but were remarried in December, 1928. A second Reno divorce followed in December, 1930. In July, 1931, also at Reno, Mrs. Hoyt obtained an annulment of her marriage to Wilfred Lawson Butt, to whom she had been married after her second divorce.

ON AND OFF THE STUDIO LOTS




Impressed by the success of Paramount’s “Shanghai Express,” which arrived at the psychological moment from a publicity standpoint, although unbelievers hold that it is Miss Dietrich and not the war the film enthusiasts are interested in, RKO is rushing into production with “The Roar of the Dragon,” starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne. The story is not yet completed, but it will have the current unpleasantness as its background, with Mr. Dix’s chin prominently in the foreground.

B.P. Schulberg, Paramount’s production manager, made an interesting statement this week when he said that the “pretty boys” of the films are through. He said that they have been on the wane for some time and that the attention that America will give to the Olympic Games this year will definitely turn audiences to the more athletic types.
Mr. Schulberg pointed to the success of fictionalized sporting stories and the popularity of full-length features of complete football games made during the past season. He attributes public interest to the desire for ruggedness rather than to any interest audiences may have had in the teams and games photographed.
It is known, however, that two or three of the studios are preparing stories with an Olympiad background to be filmed while the games are in progress here.




Production began last week on “Limpy,” which will present Master Jackie Cooper as a crippled newsboy. Harry Pollard is supervising the piece for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Its genesis is a novel by William Johnson. Assisting Master Cooper in the cast are Chic Sale, Dorothy Peterson, Helen Parrish, Andy Shuford and Gus Leonard.

“The Woman in Room Thirteen,” a play by Samuel Shipman and Max Marcin, has been purchased by Fox for comparatively early production. Guy Bolton is preparing the screen play. Elissa Landi, it seems likely at the moment, will have the principle role, with Ralph Bellamy for a leading man.




While Will Rogers is renewing old acquaintances around the country after his Chinese excursion, the Fox people are preparing another picture for him to step into. He is scheduled to get started on it in a fortnight. The title is “Down to Earth.”

“Scarface,” the long deferred gang film by Howard Hughes, will be titled “The Scar,” when it is released next month. And this, says United Artists, may be taken as final, since the Hays office voted down the title “Scarface.” Mr. Hughes has been casting about for a suitable label. He hit on “Shame of a Nation” a fortnight ago, but that suited him about as little as did the healthy excisions that the censorial cutters took out of the picture. “The Scar” is ready to be shown.”



Ramon Novarro’s new film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will be “Huddle,” a football story, with Sam Wood directing. Those in the supporting cast include Madge Evans, Una Merkel, Frank Albertson and Martha Sleeper.

Nils Asther will have the lead opposite Joan Crawford in her new film, “Letty Lynton.”

Harold Lloyd, who works pretty much when he pleases these days, is preparing to make another comedy. It is scheduled to go into actual production this week at the United Artists studio. Actual news about the piece is limited to the bare announcement that the comedian has borrowed Constance Cummings from Columbia for his leading lady.



Raymond Massey entrained for Universal City and a career in American films last week. The English actor-producer is going to Hollywood to direct pictures, but a Universal spokesman hints that he may very likely to step out in front of the cameras if he finds an attractive role. Mr. Massey signed his film contract a month ago.

It seems that plans to collaborate James Dunn and Janet Gaynor in a wistful romance has been temporarily abandoned by Fox. Mr. Dunn, meanwhile, is assigned to report to duty in a the leading role of “Society Girl,” which started out in the world as a play by John Larkin, Jr. and Charles Beahan.

The Warners have acquired the motion-picture rights to “The Jewel Robbery,” the play by Ladislas Fodor. Warren William and Bette Davis, according to present schedule, will play the leading roles.




Jimmy Durante has been added to the cast of “The Wet Parade,” now in production at the Metro studios under the direction of Victor Fleming. Others in this picture, based on Upton Sinclair’s novel, include Walter Huston, Dorothy Jordon, Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Neil Hamilton, Wallace Ford, John Miljan, and Lewis Stone.

From Luella O. Parsons

Cedric Gibbons’ cable bill to Dolores Del Rio in Hawaii will be enough to keep a poor family for a year. He cables her every day.
Joel McCrea, who is good at sports, is attracting attention in Hawaii, according to our correspondents, on the surf board.

Sally Eilers and Mrs. Reginald Denny are giving a miscellaneous shower for Joan Bennett, February 27.