Screen Life in Hollywood

By Hubbard Keavy

Hollywood, March 13 – The romance that led to the marriage, in London several years ago, of Jill Esmond and Laurence Olivier, began under uncommon circumstances.

I can’t begin to tell you the story, peppered with English phrases, as well as Miss Esmond tells it, but the facts in themselves are interesting.
Love (the first sight kind) nearly went bounding out of a stage door when Olivier became Miss Esmond’s leading man in a play she had revived and had been appearing in for some time.

The piece, “Bird in Hand,” was one written by Jill’s father, the late H. B. Esmond, playwright and actor. Olivier had played in it long before Jill had.
Laurence joined Jill’s cast determined to play his scenes as he had played them before. Which he did.

“I was some upset when Larry demanded changes,” Jill recalls, “because I believed I had been doing right well.”
“I thought, during the first rehearsals, that I wouldn’t like this young nobody who was telling me, daughter of a stage family, how to play a scene.”
“But I discovered that every change he suggested made the play that much better.”

Of course, the Olivier-Esmond nuptials took place not long afterwards.

Both came to this country about a year ago to star in “Private Lives.” Both signed movie contracts with the same company at the same time.
Perhaps you saw Miss Esmond in “Once a Lady” and “Ladies of the Jury.” Olivier’s roles have been in “The Yellow Ticket” and “Friends and Lovers.”




FILMDOM NOTES:

Fame counts: Before George E. Stone made a name in pictures, he was in vaudeville at a pretty fair salary. Now, in the two and three-a-day, he gets six times as much.

Village earmarks:
There are two watering troughs for horses on Hollywood boulevard, filmdom’s chief artery.




BACK TO THE STAGE:

Ann Harding and her husband, Harry Bannister, share the opinion that most of Hollywood is dollar-goofy.
They think there is more to life than earning money and that, after one has a reasonable amount of it, he should retire.

That’s what Ann and Harry are planning to do when their film contracts expire, a year and a half hence.
By that time, Bannister estimated the other day, they will have enough movie dollars to take care of them the rest of their lives.

Neither will make any more pictures when their contracts end, they declare.
“I feel sorry for movie and stage people whose interests are limited to their work,” Bannister said. “When their popularity fades, they fade.”
“The apparent inability of picture players particularly to stop work and play and enjoy their money after they have earned fortunes is amazing. It’s the desire to make more money that keeps them in harness.”

“Miss Harding (he never calls her Ann or Mrs. Bannister) and I have never been abroad. We want to take a leisurely trip and hope to do so soon. You know, we’re on this earth a short time. We should spend some of it seeing the rest of the world.
We both, fortunately, have interests other than acting.”

A joint interest of the Bannisters is the stage and both intend to go back to it.
Bannister outlined their plan. For 20 weeks every year they will go on the “road,” in some worthwhile play starring Miss Harding.

No matter how well their play takes in New York, Bannister insisted they will not extend their run nor will they stay longer than a week or two in the other cities.
Bannister explained that their annual tour would not be fore money-making purposes.
Rather, it will be in the nature of an adventure for both and to “allow Miss Harding to express her creative impulse.”




A FILM VETERAN

Anna Quarentia Nilsson - if fate is kind, her tests satisfactory, and directors want her – will be back in pictures before long.

She has been ill for 4 years, bed-ridden part of the time. She was thrown while horseback riding, the accident breaking her hip.

She believed, after two months, that she was well enough to work again.
The bones had failed to knit, and although she was still in some pain, she completed a picture (“The Whip”). Braces, months in a hospital, operations and considerable pain were the consequences of her haste.

Completely recovered finally, Miss Nilsson went home to Sweden in celebration. She came back two months ago, 31 pounds overweight - “from too many Swedish dishes.”
Anxious to take up her career again she dieted so rigidly that her resistance was lowered. She caught cold, pneumonia developed, and another hospital term followed.
Despite these continued painful and disagreeable adversities, Miss Nilsson has retained her enthusiasm. Fortunately she is blessed with an optimistic outlook.
“I never at any time felt that I wouldn’t get well and take up where I left off,” she told me a few days ago.

“At first I missed my work and then I grew accustomed to just waiting to get better. It’s only within the last week that I made up my mind I wanted to get back in the harness.”
“I was in a studio yesterday for a test, and while I was putting on make-up I was as nervous and excited as I used to be on the first day of a picture.”
“I think there’ll be a place for me – there was for 16 years.”

Anna started in pictures 20 years ago in one and two reel comedies for the Kalem Company. She appeared in countless films, although only one now is generally remembered by the public – “Ponjola.” It was shown in 1923.

Miss Nilsson has no illusions; she expects to resume acting in small roles and not as the star she was when she was forced into retirement.

But to explain her middle name: Every day on the Swedish caledar is named, and from that on which she was born Anna’s father coined “Querentia.” It is taken from a Latin word meaning “ever-seeking.”




PUGILISTIC COINCIDENCE

It is an odd coincidence that Marian Nixon is playing the wife of a prize fighter (James Cagney) in “Main Event.”
Marian’s first husband was Joe Benjamin, professional boxer.
The picture will have a happy ending, of course.




CLOSED SEASON

An unnecessary amount of attention has been drawn to “Scarface,” called the ultimate in gangster dramas by the failure of the Will Hays office to give it a clean bill of health and by the refusal of the New York board of censors to accept it.

Despite (or maybe because of) this double handicap, Howard Hughes, whose money paid for it and United Artists are releasing it soon and hope other censors will not emulate (as they often do) the New York board’s action and that the suppression will have and advantageous reaction.

Its reception will affirm or deny the belief prevalent in Hollywood that moviegoers want more of the brutal warfare of the underworld as entertainment.
“Scarface” is, however, entertainment. It moves so fast and so loudly, it is so expertly cast and contains so many fine directorial touches, that it cannot be classed as otherwise.

Coming as it does after the comparative absence of such films, it amounts to almost a revival.

Paul Muni, in the title role, is vindicated by his performance.
Here two years ago, Muni failed to register, mainly, I believe, because Fox was unable to find vehicles suitable to his acting.
For the first time in any gang picture, there is no sympathy for the “hero.” Muni portrays an ignorant, lusty, craftful brute who turns yellow at the end.


Victor McLaglen is an amateur surgeon. Whenver the ducks, chickens or geese on his four-acre estate become ill, Vic operates. Most of the fowls live, too. His surgery is in one end of his gymnasium.

Ramon Novarro’s sister, Sister Lenore, who has been teaching for several years in a convent in Spain, has been transferred to an orphanage in Los Angeles.

Bill Boyd, he who used to be William before the stage actor came to Hollywood, is free-lancing now after seven years with one studio – seven years during which he became the screen’s most consistent uniform-wearer.




COINCIDENCE

Ann Dvorak, whom Joan Crawford may have adopted as a protégé because she very much resembles Joan, is playing opposite Doug Fairbanks, Jr. in “Love Is a Racket.” It’s more than a coincidence, however.

When Joan was trying to “promote” her, Miss Dvorak was a frequent visitor in the Fairbanks home.
Joan’s husband agreed that Ann had picture possibilities, but neither his nor Joan’s efforts in her behalf were successful.

At the first opportunity, young Doug recommended Miss Dvorak as his leading woman. She was available and he got her.

Ann, who pronounces her last name “Vor-Zhak,” is indebted to Karen Morley.
Karen, cast in “Scarface,” suggested Ann as the other girl in the picture.
Tests that impressed the director made a featured player of Ann and took her out of the extra ranks and choruses for good.




CLARA’S COMEBACK

There’s nothing official about it yet, but town talk has it that Clara Bow may make her “comeback” in Tiffany Thayer’s “Call Her Savage.” (Tiffany also wrote “Thirteen Women.”)

Clara (and 40 or 50 others) turned down “Red Headed Woman,” for which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has tested almost everyone but Jimmy Durante and yours truly. The character is a sort of she-devil and Clara didn’t think she’d like it.




When Edward G. Robinson was abroad recently, Italy was the only country where he wasn’t recognized.
That was because Mussolini, apparently Italy’s board of censors, had refused permits for Robinson’s gangster-role pictures to play there.
“I enjoyed myself most in Italy,” said Robinson, “I guess that’s evidence that I haven’t ‘gone Hollywood.’”




REALLY “QUICKIES”

The amazing speed at which small independent movie makers are working these days exceeds even that of the silent era.
The increased cost of talkie filming has made it necessary for the shoestring operators to work fast.
A recent “quickie” of nearly 300 separate scenes was shot in eight days, an unusual record.

More than half of the scenes of a picture Regis Toomey was in lately were filmed in one day. The others required five days.
The major companies average about three and a half weeks on each film.

GLORIA SWANSON “STAR” IN MOTHERHOOD ROLE

HOLLYWOOD CALLS HER “DEVOTED” AS PARENT

By Robin Coons (Associated Press)

Hollywood – To the real life role of mother Gloria Swanson brings in ample measure the grace and sincerity which makes for good performance on stage or screen.

About to assume that role again, as she announced in London, the screen star has with her in Europe the two best testimonials to her maternal instinct.

They are little Gloria, aged 11, her child by her second husband, Herbert Somborn, Hollywood restaurateur, and young Joseph, aged 9, adopted by the star when he was an infant and given equal status with her own child.



These are the two playmates who will have for playmate, as Gloria plans, the heir of her new husband, Michael Farmer.

Little is known by most of Hollywood about the Swanson youngsters, for Gloria consistently refuses to let the spotlight in which she has lived for years touch them.
But Gloria’s close friends vouch for the careful rearing, for the devotion that has been lavished on the two children.

Says one of them: “They have a governess, who has been with them for years, but Gloria, even when she’s busy, always has time for the children herself. No matter what she is doing, whether she is giving a dinner party, or entertaining, or studying, if the children have something to tell her she goes to them.”



The children attend public school in Beverly Hills, and are driven to and from school daily by a chauffeur. They are, as are the children of most famous film stars, constantly under adult guardianship to protect them from kidnappers. That is one penalty all movie children pay for their parents’ wealth and fame.



But otherwise they live much as other children of wealth. They are well-dressed, have virtually everything in the way of playthings and toys – Joseph has a leaning to airplanes and boats at the present – and quite often have little parties to entertain their friends. Little Gloria and Joseph, early, were started in musical studies.

Gloria Swanson, the star, is very much Gloria Swanson, the mother, when she travels. If it’s at all possible without interfering with their schooling, she takes the children along.
The last time she returned from Europe – when she was busily denying her marriage to Michael Farmer, and getting married – she couldn’t get to Hollywood and the children soon enough. She sent for them to join her in New York.

Hollywood concedes Gloria the title of “devoted mother.”

FILM STARS FIGHTS ARE GOSSIP

By Luella O. Parsons

Hollywood, March 12 – The deep-seated, bitter enemies that are so often mentioned in the movies are frequently only publicity stories. Often, it is true, an open feud does exist between two actresses as it probably did between Jetta Goudal and Lupe Velez when these two exotic young women were making a picture for D. W. Griffith.



Lupe, who is a primitive child of nature, couldn’t resist the temptation to tease La Goudal. This led to the expected consequences – in other words, Miss Goudal resented Lupe’s attempted playfulness.

There is a difference of opinion as to whether there really is a coolness between Lupe and Dolores Del Rio or whether it is only gossip. Lupe is not apt to curb either her tongue or her disposition if a person does not meet with her approval. She is so frank that it never occurs to her to show even a polite restraint.

DIFFICULT SITUATION



Dolores Del Rio, who was the first Mexican star and who is as calm as Lupe is tempestuous, was surprised, there is no doubt, at the manner in which Lupe overnight became famous. I suppose it is only human nature that Dolores should feel a little resentful that Lupe was taken into the same film company with her and should be given the same type of roles.

Magazine writers, quick to see that there was no close friendship between the aristocratic Dolores and the more down-to-earth Lupe, circulated stories that the two girls disliked each other.

I doubt if there was ever a real battle, although there was never any affection between them. In spite of their resemblance they are as different as day and night.




One of the earliest published feuds was that existing between Gloria Swanson and Pola Negri. Both were rumored as fighting bitterly for supremacy on the Paramount lot. If Paramount gave one a special dressing room the other, it was reported, demanded a better one.

When Gloria was questioned about the truth of the story that she filled Pola’s dressing room with cats because the Polish actress had an aversion to cats, she haughtily denied the story.
“I do not even know Miss Negri,” she said.

Gloria, who is a bit of a mimic, is reported as having done an imitation of Pola that had her friends in hysterics. Then gossip said that Pola came back with an imitation of the marquise when she was wheeled on the set in a Palm Beach chair, manned by a colored servant in uniform, that was equally amusing.

GARBO-DIETRICH



Certain writers have tried in vain to build up a jealousy drama between Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, Marlene always disarms those who seek to question her about Garbo by launching into her extravagant praise of the Swedish actress. Garbo, on the other hand – but when did Garbo ever answer anything or anybody?




So much was written about the bad feeling between Clara Bow and Alice White, Clara wondered if Alice really did dislike her. On the other hand, Alice began to believe Clara was, perhaps, talking against her. It all started when the resemblance between the two was discussed. Someone figured Clara must resent having another star of the same type on the screen.



I happen to know neither girl had a quarrel and that Alice was one of the first to go to the defense of the red-headed Brooklyn madcap when there was so much undesirable publicity being printed against her. Alice made a fine speech at a woman’s club in behalf of Clara.

March 13, 1932

FILM ACTRESS MUST ENTER SANITARIUM

Hollywood, March 12 (UP)
Joan Blondell, film comedienne, has been sent to a sanitarium for an indeterminate length of time.
The actress was ordered to take the rest by her physician who said Miss Blondell was suffering from nervous strain and was six pounds underweight.




ACTOR’S PAYCHECK HELD ON ORDERS OF EX-WIFE

San Francisco, March 12
Ian Keith, stage and screen actor appearing here, went payless today when his salary check was attached by Miss Ethel Clayton.
Two weeks after obtaining a divorce from Mr. Keith, Miss Clayton, stage and screen actress, filed suit in superior court seeking recovery of $4827.50 she says she loaned her husband during their four years of married life.
Her action was filed through an attorney, S. L. Fendel. Miss Clayton is said to be in southern California at present. Keith is now appearing at a local theater as the star of “Grand Hotel,” German melodrama.
In her suit for divorce heard in Los Angeles, Miss Clayton testified that Keith acted toward her in an “ungentlemanly and unhusband-like manner.” She charged him with spending so much money on liquor that he was unable to support her. The couple were married in Minneapolis in 1928, and the divorce decree was granted February 26 last.




FOR THE MARX BROTHERS

Hollywood is already snickering over the Marx Brothers. The general idea of their next comedy “Horse Feathers,” is responsible, although not a gag has been revealed. It will be laid on a college campus with Groucho as president, Zeppo as his son spending his fifth year as a freshman, Chico will be an iceman, Harpo a dogcatcher. Both go to college to play on the football team. Imagine that!

From Luella O. Parsons:



Hollywood, March 12
You must admire Mrs. Cooper for the way she is raising Jackie. The little boy has no idea of his importance in the cinema world, neither does he have any notion of the amount of money he is earning. Jackie gets 50 cents a week for spending money and hordes it as carefully as any other youngster. Last week his mother took Jackie to the beach and he saw a little boy playing extra for an independent company. The two boys got together. “How much money do you get?” Jackie asked the little extra. “Oh, I get $5,” replied the child. Jackie looked at him with envy and said “Gee, you must be making a lot of money. I only get 50 cents a week.”



Jack Oakie may not be a hero to his valet, or even to his friends at Paramount studio, but he is all right with his niece. The little girl whose name is Virginia Lindbergh places Jack on a pedestal along with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Her teacher was telling her the famous story of George Washington and the cherry tree, ending with “and George said to his father ‘Father, I cannot tell a lie.’ Now, children” said the teacher, “do you know any other famous saying by famous Americans?” Up went Virginia’s hand and she said “Jack Oakie always says: ‘Keep in touch with me.’”



Marie Dressler’s convalescence has been made happy by seeing motion pictures of many of her studio friends. Sidney Cohen, formerly associated with Pat Powers, sent a portable sound machine to Miss Dressler’s home and Louis B. Mayer has kept her supplied with movies. The portable is an invention recently completed. It can be taken not only into a home but also aboard a ship or on a train. The cost is much less than the expense of equipping a home with the sound paraphernalia.

Hollywood has been “Cyrano de Bergeracked” to death. First Richard Bennett and then Walter Hampden. Everyone has been talking about Rostand’s play and comparing the two performances. Jimmy Durante was asked why he didn’t play the part. Said Jimmy, “They tried to get me but it wasn’t a big enough part for me.” Speaking of Jimmy and that famous nose of his, I heard him say the other day, “I’ve got a better profile than Barrymore because mine begins where Jack’s leaves off.” No wonder Jimmy is popular when he can laugh at himself.



Dear, dear, dear. We had so many laughs over Helen Hayes’ real name being Psyche Flannigan and here it isn’t true. James Mitchell, star reporter on the Los Angeles Examiner, received a letter from Miss Hayes’ mother, Mrs. Brown. Says Mrs. Brown: “I ought to know my daughter’s real name. She was born and christened Helen Hayes Brown.” The Psyche Flannigan, it appears, is the name of a character Miss Hayes played on the stage some years ago.




ED ROBINSON PLAYS ROLE OF CHINESE

Edward G. Robinson comes to the Majestic theater today in his latest characterization, that of the heroic Wong Low Get in “The Hatchet Man.”
Gorgeously staged and photographed, the thrilling scenes of the melodramatic romance are laid in China – at Hangkow and on the Yangtze river – and in the Chinatown of San Francisco.
As the honorable Mr. Wong he is commanded by his tong to execute an enemy, Sun Yet Sen, who had been a boyhood friend. Sun wills Wong all his property and secures his promise to marry his daughter, Toya San, then but six.
The story recounts the exciting adventures of Mr. Wong as protector, and later as husband of pretty Toya San – whom he gives up to her half-caste lover, and finally rescues from slavery in old China.
The cast includes Loretta Young as Toya San, Leslie Fenton as her evil lover – Dudley Digges, Tully Marshall.

STATE CUTS PRICE IN FAMILY CIRCLE

The smoking balcony at the State theater has been rechristened the Family Circle and will be opened to patrons Friday with the inauguration of the new show, Ernst Lubitsch’s “Broken Lullaby.” Smoking will be allowed in the Family Circle and a new low price prevails in order to make State entertainment accessible at a cheaper rate to those who attend as family parties.




FEMALE SPIES FILM FEATURE

With a refreshing newness of locale – mysterious St. Petersburg and glamorous Bucharest – and a lively sky theme with romantic highlights, ably cast, Ivan Lebedeff first starring picture, “Gay Diplomat” opens Saturday.
The film features Genevieve Tobin and Betty Compson with Lebedeff in a story which intrigues the interest with its fast action and excellent direction.
It is all about spies – seductive, unscrupulous women who barter their loves and honors for diplomatic information – and of falcon men who search them out. Mystery, romance, and the fury of battle on the Russian front combine with the magnificent sets and natural outdoor tableaux in a picture worthy of extreme praise.




ELISSA LANDI WIGWAM STAR

“The Yellow Ticket,” unfolding a dramatic picture of the days of barbaric splendor preceding the gigantic uprising of 1917 that ended in the execution of the czar and his family in Russia, comes to the Wigwam theater today with the glamorous Elissa Landi in the leading role.
Featured with her in this Fox photoplay are Lionel Barrymore and Laurence Olivier. Miss Landi portrays the role of the Russian peasant girl who is compelled to apply for a yellow ticket which brands her as a social outcast. Barrymore enacts the role of the chief of the secret police who persecutes her until she is forced to kill him, and Olivier, an English journalist, who falls in love with her.




‘BOUGHT’ AT MAJESTIC FRIDAY

Stephany Dale, heroine of “Bought,” the Warner Bros. modern drama starring Constance Bennett, coming to the Majestic theater Friday, has but one desire, and that is that she elevate herself to “high” society.
Her mad career leads from mannequin to social secretary and finally to engagement with a rather unstable member of the fast set. It is her father, whose identity she does not know, who finally helps to bring her back to a right sense of values – and incidentally to the youth whom she had cast aside because of his poverty.




‘SEED’ AT GRANADA, BOLES IS STAR

“Seed,” Universal’s domestic drama which comes to the Granada theater on Tuesday, is John Boles’ first talking picture in which he has not sung, but the picture is said to give him the greatest acting role of his career.
Boles is seen as a devoted husband and father of a large family of children, until the sweetheart of his youth, now a worldly sophisticated woman of the world, comes into his life again and brings about a great change in his ideas of life and conduct. Genevieve Tobin is seen as the sweetheart, while the role of Boles’ wife is played by Lois Wilson.

SHALL THE GIRLS “POP THE QUESTION”?

March 12, 1932
excerpted from the article by Alice L. Tildesley

Leap Year Gives Them the Right to Choose Their Mates

But Film Stars Agree They Prefer to Land Them in Their Own Way


OPINIONS OF MALE STARS:



DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.:
“In this day of woman’s independence, men rather admire the girl with nerve enough to ‘pop the question.’ Why shouldn’t she, if she wants to marry the guy?”




STUART ERWIN:
“How little it matters who does the proposing, just as long as the two persons who love each other get married.”




REGIS TOOMEY:
“The kind of a man a woman gets when she proposes isn’t worth the words she might use to persuade him to give her his heart and hand!”




WARNER BAXTER:
“God bless them, is all I can say. When you speak of women who propose, you speak of all women. We men may think we have something to say about it, and it’s well for our vanity that we do. I believe that, given a fair on circumstances and propinquity, any woman can make any man propose, and if she accepts him the chances are ninety-seven to three that he’s lucky.”




RALPH BELLAMY:
“Women in their subtle way do most of the proposing, and if they didn’t, most of us men wouldn’t marry, worse luck. Men as a whole are too selfish to marry, and if some sensible and determined girl didn’t take matters into her own hands and in her clever way make the choice of her heart propose to her, the man would never have a chance to find out whether two can live as cheaply as one.”




JAMES CAGNEY:
“I must confess that I never found out what men think of girls who propose, because I couldn’t wait until leap year. I proposed myself and now I know what girls think of men who propose!”




JIMMY DURANTE:
“I don’t like this leap year thing. It’s O.K. for sheiks like Bob Montgomery and Clark Gable, but its tough on hard-looking mugs like myself. In the odd years we can put on a lot of pressure and talk a girl into saying ‘yes’ before she gets to comparing bargains. But in leap year she’s out shopping and we have no hope of fooling her. No, I’m against the institution.”




ROBERT MONGOMERY:
“It wasn’t leap year when I became engaged, but if it had been I think it would have worked out the same anyhow. If two persons like each other tremendously, a little thing like a legendary convention isn’t going to stand in their way.”




REGINALD DENNY:
“The woman in marriage has the hardest job, that of bearing children. A man has only to make the money for his family. The responsibility of making a good impression should be upon him, not upon the woman. She is conferring the favor and he should realize the fact.”




RAMON NOVARRO:
“The legend takes away from a man one of his choicest possessions. The right of proposal has always meant that a man stakes his whole future life, his earning power, his happiness, on the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ of a woman. It is the most delightful gamble life offers and one every man cherishes.”




RICHARD DIX:“A number of my friends have told me that they never proposed, and neither did their wives; the fact that they were mutually attracted and had been going about with each other for a long time made them both take matrimony for granted, and only such matters as when, where and how were ever discussed.”




CLIVE BROOK:
“Oh come now, let us keep a few little souvenirs of the good old days! Let us grant men the charming custom of proposing marriage and the women the gracious one of saying ‘yes’.”




RICHARD ARLEN:
“I don’t think modern women propose. If they do, they never let the man in the case know it. It’s a male prerogative and every man feels cheated if he can’t exercise it.




FREDRIC MARCH:
“Marriage is one of the most important things in a woman’s life, much more important to her than to her husband. I believe she should propose, if necessary. There are many men who would go along for years quite happily in a state of platonic friendship, eating up a nice girl’s life, and all it takes to make these blind creatures think of domestic bliss is a proposal from the girl.”




JOEL McCREA:
“Theoretically, I approve of women proposing in leap year, or any other year that suits them. But in practice I shudder to think of the spot it puts the man on! How could a fellow say ‘no’ to a beautiful woman? And yet he might not care for her ‘that way.' Oh no, we haven’t had enough practice!”




IVAN LEBEDEFF:
“I am against leap-year proposals! Such proposals inflate the naturally large ego of the man. He cannot stand so much sincere flattery. When the man accepts, the woman forever after must hear her egotist say, when she protests at some treatment of her or at some thoughtless or cruel action: ‘Aha, madame, remember – you propsed to me! You would have me. You cannot complain!’”




RICARDO CORTEZ:
“I’m for leap-year proposals. A woman who makes one is admirable just for doing it. She has courage to overcome the conventional timidity of her sex, and I applaud her. Why should it be considered improper for a woman to obtain what she wants in an underhanded fashion rather than a straightforward way?”




JOE E. BROWN:
“I’ll tell you what men think of girls who propose. They think that kind of girl gets her man. Who ever heard of a fellow fleeing from such a proposal? He’s flattered and he sticks around willingly until the wedding bells ring.”




KEN MAYNARD:
“I’ll do my own proposing, leap year or any other year. Women are into everything. Let them leave one thing sacred to men.”




JOHN HALLIDAY:
“Leap year proposals make things pretty soft for the men. They can get proposals and receive them, too, in 1932. The unaccustomed compliment of being proposed to should be very flattering. But no, I’ve never had the experience. Sorry.”




CHARLES “BUDDY” ROGERS:
“I should think it would all depend on the man and the girl. If the advantages were all on the girl’s side, I should think she might be doing a very gracious thing in suggesting marriage to a man who was clearly desperately in love with her but who didn’t have the nerve to propose because of her wealth or fame or whatever it was. If the man had equal or better things to offer a girl, I believe she would do well to wait for him to mention marriage. That is, unless he was so shy she saw he’d never screw up the courage. Then, perhaps, he’d appreciate assistance.”




OLIVER HARDY:
“If you press any wife on the subject she’ll never admit that she was the one who proposed. She likes to have you understand that she didn’t have to suggest marriage to anybody. Why, mister, the front steps of her house were just lousy with guys every night, each one thinking up ways to ask her to be his bride the minute he got the chance! Funny part of it is that men like to think the women they marry were won after a terrible struggle against virtually every gent in the neighborhood. If women did the proposing, wouldn’t that wipe the gilt off the gingerbread?”


You tell me, but it’s leap year, 1932, and the girls can at least send out Valentines.