March 4, 1932

CHILDREN OF FILM STARS ARE PLACED UNDER GUARD

Hollywood, Mar. 4 (INS)
A corps of quiet faced, inconspicuous men moved into the residential sections of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the beaches to-day to guard the children of half a dozen motion picture stars from possible kidnappers.
Several screen notables admitted the precautions had been taken and were prompted by the fate of the child of Colonel and Mrs. Lindbergh.
Ann Harding, the blonde stage and screen star, who had one scare from a threatened abduction, employed guards for her little daughter, Jane. For some time employees on the estate of Harold Lloyd, the comedian, have been equipped to handle a possible extortion raid, but a pair of private detectives was added to the guard to-day. The Lloyd children are Gloria, Marjorie, Elizabeth and Harold, Junior.
Marlene Dietrich, German film star, would not comment on a report she had private detectives guarding her young daughter.
It was said at the studio, however, that Barbara Bebe Lyon, 4-months old daughter of Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, had been placed under surveillance.
The police were not enlisted in the movie guard, because it was said the picture folk wish to avoid attention.

From Luella O. Parsons:


(Merian C. Cooper, Marguerite Harrison and Ernest B. Schoedsack)

Los Angeles, Mar. 4 –
Ernest Schoedsack and Merian Cooper, travelers, film experts and producers of the never-to-be-forgotten Chang, are together again. Their reunion takes place at Radio Studios where they combine to produce The Most Dangerous Game, famous short story.
Perhaps you’ve read The Most Dangerous Game, voted ninth best story in the entire world by one of the magazines, and included in every anthology of best short stories. Unlike Chang, Grass and the rest, it will be made right within the Radio studios, and it’s the first of a series to be produced by Schoesdack and Cooper.
In these days of hard time talk it’s worthwhile to note that Chang only cost $100,000, but that it grossed over $2,000,000. You see, it isn’t always the costly pictures that do good business.



If all actors had as easy a time after they started free-lancing as Edmund Lowe they wouldn’t have to worry. I know four companies that were trying to sign up the erstwhile Fox favorite. Columbia finally turned the trick. Eddie will be starred in Revolt based on the life of William Fallon and written by Jo Swerling. Irving Cummings will direct. This, we are told, in no way conflicts with The Great Mouthpiece written by Gene Fowler.



Janet Gaynor is recovering from the lost of a nasty, nasty wisdom tooth.
Edith Wilkerson went air-riding with Wallace Beery, her hero. Both deny an elopement. Also, Billy Wilkerson and Mrs. Beery deny Wally’s intentions are matrimony.



Evelyn Brent has lost her sun tan. She spent hundreds, too, on sun arc lamps to keep it. Shows the real sun has no rivals.

Harold Lloyd is using artificial rain in his new picture. He should have made it a few weeks ago when it rained every day.

HER LIFE QUIET, SAYS ACTRESS

Dorothy Peterson says nothing exciting ever happened to her.
She, who has been in fifteen films, of one nearly every month she has been in Hollywood, prosaically tells about being born in an unnamed little Illinois town, of college in Chicago, of being “fired” after a mere week in vaudeville.
And also of earning her first spurs with a Chautauqua, of eventually playing in New York a part that brought her some fame and other and more important roles.



SAME FREDRIC

Fredric March’s second dual-role is in “Strangers In Love,” and while the picture is but a pleasantly entertaining thing and improbable, March continues to prove his right to fame as an actor. And while only lately have critical hosannas been turned in his direction, he’s the same Fredric March who made an inconspicuous debut opposite Clara Bow in her first talkie, “The Wild Party,” nearly three years ago.



FILM DIALOGUE SHOULD BE BRIEF

The telegram should serve as a guide for the writing of talking picture dialogue, according to Ernst Lubitsch, Paramount director.
“Whenever writers of dialogues develop the feeling that they are shaping a telegram and that every superfluous word costs them money, they will have attained perfection for such scenario work,” explains the director of “Broken Lullaby,” featuring Lionel Barrymore, Nancy Carroll and Phillips Holmes.
“We must use speech only to express moods and situations that cannot be effectively expressed in pantomime,” Lubitsch declares.

PARADOX CITY IS HOLLYWOOD

Hollywood, the “film city,” is not a city but a suburb.

A trailer is an advertising film shown in advance of a picture.

Sound pictures can only be made where there is silence.

Film stars can make all the noise they want to when still pictures are taken.

Most “long shots” last only a few moments on the screen.

The slower the camera is turned, the faster the action will be.

A “sound mixer” who really mixed sounds would lose his job.

Paramount studio electricians use “whistle boxes” to keep lights silent.



JOAN BENNETT CAN VOTE NOW

Hollywood, Mar. 4
Joan Bennett has, at twenty-one, a full life to look back upon. The other day, February 27 to be exact, she became old enough to vote.
Joan has been married and divorced and is now engaged again. Her marriage to writer, Gene Markey, will be taking place “any day soon.” That’s all she says – “any day soon.”
Miss Bennett has been on the stage in one of her father’s plays, and nearly three years ago she came to pictures.
She is only seventeen years older than her daughter, Adrienne Fox, who has been named “Ditty.”



OLYMPIC GAMES TO INFLUENCE FILM STYLES

With the eyes of the world focused on the tenth Olympiad, Dame Fashion will feature stadium styles this spring, it is declared by Travis Banton, designer of wardrobes for film stars.
There will be a great variety of spectator sports costumes displayed this season, according to Banton, who creates costumes for Marlene Dietrich, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard, Sylvia Sidney, Lilyan Tashman and Tallulah Bankhead. The typically smart outfits for attendance at the games, he says, will include light-weight knit frocks for cool days and shirt-waist dresses of tub silk and striped linens for warm days.

Among other important style developments of spring and summer, Banton lists the following modish items:
Long sleeves will stage a revival for daytime frocks.
Sports jewelry will demand a place of high favor.
Scarfs, bows and handkerchiefs will decorate pajamas, suits and coats.
Short pajama trousers, just below the knee, will be very popular.
Ornamental Grecian motifs will adorn many costumes.
Evening gowns will tend to cover the shoulders and part of the arms.
High waistlines will be seen in all types of clothes.
Sashes and ornamented wide belts will be very important.
Millinery will display an upward tendency at the back.
Long fringe will be chic for evening gowns.
Navy blue and white will be most popular for sports clothes,
Tan still is good, but sunburn is taboo.



EUROPEAN STAR NEW INTEREST AT HOLLYWOOD

Sari Maritza, petite European film star, who has been the focal point of Hollywood’s interest since her arrival in the film colony a month ago, is going through a number of tests in preparation for her first American performance in “The Girl in the Headlines.”
Scenes from a number of plays are being filmed daily with Charles Starrett opposite Miss Maritza in order that Director George Cukor may become familiar with her style of acting before actual work begins on the picture.



LLOYD CHOOSES LEADING LADY

Constance Cummings is Harold Lloyd’s leading lady in his next comedy which started production on February 22. Miss Cummings has been borrowed from Columbia Pictures where she is under long-term contract. She just finished working opposite Ben Lyon in a picture as yet untitled.



“KIKI” ROBERTS WANTS TO SHINE

Hollywood, Mar. 4
Marion “Kiki” Roberts has her heart set on a movie career.
The former Follies girl, sweetheart of the late Jack “Legs” Diamond, now being featured in New York burlesque, tells reporters there she has had several screen tests and that she is just waiting for a chance at the movies.
The chance, according to Hollywood’s angle, is a slim one. Hollywood long ago ceased glorifying, if it ever did, the principals in sensational news stories by offering them contracts.
There are several former movie stars around Hollywood now whose careers were abruptly ended because of their connection with such stories, and it’s scarcely logical the studios would go forth in search of more problems of the kind.
Anyway, it’s a safe wager that no front-rank movie company is going to put Marion’s name on a contract, whatever her beauty and talents may be.
There was one girl in pictures until recently who made the grade by living down unfortunate past associations, and proving her worth as an actress. But she was an exceptional case.

Messrs. Laurel and Hardy are going to Europe on a combined business and pleasure trip.

Richard Arlen is trying to sell his yacht, but can’t get an offer.



WATERLOO BRIDGE AT NATIONAL THEATER

“Each year the Universal Producing Company turns out at least one really fine picture,” according to Mrs. Lew Newcomb, National Theater manager.
“A few were “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Merry Go Round,” “Show Boat,” “All Quiet On the Western Front,” “Seed,” and “Dracula.” Into this select class Carl Laemmle, Jr. places “Waterloo Bridge” which opens at the National Theater to-day.
The cast includes Mae Clarke and Ken Douglas. The engagement closes Friday night and will be followed, for Saturday only, by Billy Cody and Andy Shuford in a western, “Land of Wanted Men,” and also a chapter of “Battling With Buffalo Bill” and several short subjects.