April 11, 1932

MINNA GOMBEL JUST FRIEND, SAYS BANKER, DENYING TROTH

Sefton Says Report In New York Press Is A Myth

San Diego, Calif., April 11
Minna Gombel, screen character actress, under contract to Fox, and J. W. Sefton, vice president of the San Diego Trust and Savings Bank, are “just friends” and their reported engagement is a myth, the banker said today.

Mr. Sefton’s statement resulted from the publication of the report in a gossip column of a New York tabloid newspaper yesterday. It read:

“The engagement is untrue. I have known Miss Gombel for a number of years, and she is a very fine girl but there is no truth to the report that we are engaged. I suppose someone has seen us together quite a bit in Hollywood and started the report.”

Miss Gombel, a legitimate star on Broadway in several Myron Fagan shows, came to the coast more than a year ago to serve Fox as a coach for younger players and to occasionally take film roles herself. Her work in such pictures as “Bad Girl” led to a new contract and her definite assignment as an actress.

Minna Gombel is widely known among stock fans through her several years as leading woman with the Knickerbocker players, jointly owned by Howard Rumsey, who subsequently became her husband, and Frank Wilcox.

Her withdrawal from the stock field some several seasons later came simultaneously with the fading of her romance with Rumsey. After her divorce, she married Ferdinand Eggens, theatrical promoter. That marriage also ended in the courts.




MICHELE BRIDGET GLORIA’S NEW BABY

London, April 11 (AP)
Gloria Swanson’s baby daughter will be named Michele Bridget, it was announced today. The baby was born last week at the home of Miss Swanson and her husband, Michael Farmer, wealthy Irish sportsman here.




ACTRESS SUES FOR HEART BALM

New York, April 11
A $350,000 breach of promise suit by Marguerite Finley, musical comedy actress, against Phillip M. Plant, heir to the millions of the late Commodore M. F. Plant, has been set for trial in the supreme court here.

Plant is the former husband of Constance Bennett, motion picture actress.

The action was not disclosed until a notice of trial was filed. The complaint has not been filed. It is said that Miss Finley, known to the stage as Margie Finley, charges that Plant proposed to her in October, 1930. Plant is represented as having made a general denial of the charges.




ACTRESSES PAY FINES ON SPEEDING CHARGES

Los Angeles, April 11 (UP)
For her second speeding offense within 10 days, Aileen Pringle, motion picture actress, was fined $20, and Kay Johnson, also an actress, paid $10 on a similar charge, traffic court records revealed today.




WEARING SPURS

Nils Asther has one claim to fame, according to Clark Gable who often rides with him. “Asther is one of the few riders who buckles his spurs correctly,” says the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer player. “Most people put them on with the buckles inside, where they’ll wear on the riding boot. I’ve even seen motion picture cowboys do it. Apparently they teach you better in Sweden.”




WALLACE BEERY FLIES TO RENO

Wallace Beery, motion picture star, who is also an aviator of considerable note, flew from Los Angeles to Reno this afternoon in a little over two hours and will remain there over night. He brought his ship down on the Blanchfield airport.




BREWSTER TO WED BEAUTIFUL SINGER

Hollywood, April 11 (INS)
Brewster’s millions have vanished, but love has not, and today Eugene V. Brewster, one-time millionaire magazine publisher, announced his engagement to Dorothy McCormick, 25, a beautiful brunet opera singer.

“Dorothy is the dearest gril in the world,” Brewster said.

“Whatever Mr. Brewster says goes,” declared Miss McCormick, who was reticent, however, to discuss the engagement.

Brewster met Miss McCormick and her mother, Mrs. Grace McCormick, six months ago.

Brewster and his wife, Corliss Palmer, film actress, separated some time ago.

“Coriss has told me she wants me to be happy and I suppose that when she is ready she will file a divorce action,” Brewster said.




DO YOU KNOW

That “Spanky,” three year old member of “Our Gang,” never cried as a baby, has never been really sick, and likes castor oil?

That Oliver Hardy was graduated from the law college of the University of Georgia?

That Stan Laurel has been the same weight for 10 years?




From Luella O. Parsons:

Los Angeles, April 11
Talked with Carl Laemmle, Jr., just before I took the train for a weekend away from telephones and telegrams. He had just signed Paul Kelly and expressed hope that Kelly on the screen might do as well as Sylvia Sidney. The two of them had a tremendous success in the stage version of “Bad Girl.”

Kelly comes back to Hollywood and to many friends who have been happy over his return to the stage and his subsequent success.

Once he gets here there will be plenty of jobs waiting for him. One under discussion is the sergeant in “Rain” at United Artists, but this is not yet a certainty. In any case, Hollywood friends who stood by Kelly during his troubles are still loyal.




And what part will Cecil B. De Mille have in remaking “The Ten Commandments,” may I ask? You just cannot think of anybody making a Biblical story unless it is C. B.

That is why I was so surprised when I was told that Paramount would make a new version of their “Ten Commandments” picture with William Schorr and Louis Garner directing. They even plan to use some of the Biblical scenes in the De Mille picture.



Sari Maritza will play the vamp in the modern story of “Ten Commandments,” and the very blonde Gene Raymond, newcomer to the screen, will be opposite her with Irving Pichel in one of the principal roles.

The dark-eyed Sidney Fox of Universal, who doesn’t look unlike some of the paintings of Esther, will play the lead.




The trip to New York that Sally Eilers has been promising herself will be taken alone. Hoot Gibson has been all tied up with movies and for days he has been working on the first of the Hoot Gibson series to be made for M. H. Hoffman, Jr. Hoot and Sally had planned this holiday in New York, but business comes first, and these days no job can be neglected. Sally does not start work at Fox for a month or more since Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell will be starred in “The First Year” instead of Sally and Jimmy Dunn as at first intended.




On a fast train headed for New York and more than likely to meet Austin Parker is Miriam Hopkins. Miriam asked for two months’ leave of absence on account of ill health and because she wanted to buy a farm in Connecticut. She had arranged to take the boat with Parker from whom she has been separated, when a change of mind kept her in Hollywood. Frantic cables may have had something to do with her deciding on the New York trip. She and Mr. Parker have never been divorced, although they have not been living together for nearly a year. The Lubitsch picture in which she will be the bright and shining light does not go into production until late June or early July.




Chatter in Hollywood: The friends of Ann Harding fear for her health. She is facing a nervous breakdown and it is taking all of her strength to finish her picture, “Westward Passage,” which she is now making a Radio. She was unable to work on Wednesday, and bad case of laryngitis and nerves kept her at home. Radio is shielding her from all newspaper reporters and from any visitors other than her personal friends. Perhaps some day more will be told about Ann’s courage. Until then her friends are respecting her reticence.




Irene Rich is bringing back her daughter Frances with her to Hollywood to see what she can do in the movies. She is a mighty pretty girl with much of her mother’s charm and since the producers are always on the lookout for new faces and talent, perhaps she will get her chance.




HOLLYWOOD-EMPIRE CONTEST ENTRANTS AT THEATER MONDAY

The Hollywood-Empire Theater popularity contest will swing into action Monday with the assembling of the entrants at the theater. That this contest is attracting the attention of the actors in Hollywood is evidenced by the receipt of a letter from Miss Joan Blondell, who is at work on a new picture titled “Miss Pinkerton,” This is a new mystery novel by Mary Roberts Rinehart in which Miss Blondell achieves stardom. It is hoped this picture will be finished to be shown here during the time of the contest; if this is not possible the winning popularity girl will see it in the studio screening room in California. The rise of this young actress to stardom is nothing short of miraculous. She is much interested in young girls and particularly so in the contest winner.



TRAFFIC BOYS TO SEE ‘TARZAN’

Fifteen hundred members of the Oakland junior traffic reserves anxiously are awaiting for Saturday morning, when they will be guests of The Tribune, the Eastbay safety council, the Oakland police department and the Fox-Oakland theater at a stage and screen show at the theater.

The picture, “Tarzan, the Ape Man,” chosen as of special appeal to members of the traffic reserve group, will be the main feature of the morning program which begins exactly at 9:15. An idea of the type of picture is given in the recent Sunday comics of The Tribune in the new Tarzan feature by Rice Burroughs.

After a short talkie picture, opening the program, Arthur W. Moore, president of the Oakland traffic reserve, will speak. He will also act as master of ceremonies and will introduce other speakers.

A half hour song and dance revue will be given by The Tribune juveniles under the direction of Beverly Swabey and coached by Miss Ivy Ford. A special orchestra will play for them.

“Tarzan, the Ape Man,” feature picture at the Fox-Oakland, will be presented through the courtesy of Phil Phillips, manager of the theater.




THE MIRACLE MAN

Probably one of the biggest arrays of “name” players gathered in one picture since “The Ten Commandments” will appear in the new Paramount production, “The Miracle Man,” which will have an early engagement at the State theater, as soon as the West Coast studio is finished with the editing of the picture.

Sylvia Sidney, Chester Morris, Irving Pichel, Bobby Coogan, Hobart Bosworth, Boris Karloff, Lloyd Hughes and Ned Sparks all have important parts in the new story, which is based on the regeneration of a band of crooks through the intervention of an old faith healer, who works “miracles” for his poor followers. Norman McLeod, one of Paramount’s ace microphone handlers, is in charge of the production, which, when it was made some 10 years ago, brought to immediate stardom Lon Chaney, Betty Compson and Thomas Meighan.