March 20, 1932

GLORIA MAY AWAIT BABY IN ENGLAND

London, March 19 (US)
Indication that Gloria Swanson may await the birth of her baby in England was given today when the American film actress and her husband, Michael Farmer, leased a house on Farm street, Mayfair.




RENEE ADOREE WINS FIGHT FOR HEALTH

Prescott, Ariz. March 19 (INS)
Renee Adoree, dynamic screen actress, has won her uphill fight for health, it was revealed to-day. For more than a year the one-time popular movie star has battled for her life in a sanitarium here. She will leave the institution before April 1, but will remain here for an indefinite period of recuperation.




TOM MIX REMARRIES IN FRONT OF 3000

Yuma, Ariz. March 19 (UP)
While more than 3,000 persons looked on, Tom Mix, cowboy screen star, remarried Miss Mabel Hubbard, aerial performer, tonight.

Mix and Miss Hubbell said they wanted to have an American marriage to dispel any doubt of the validity of their recent marriage in Mexicali.




MARY NOLAN APPEALS

Nine Errors of Judgment Charged in Conviction

Los Angeles, March 18
Mary Nolan and her husband, Wallace T. Macrery, who were convicted on March 9 of failing to pay the wages of employees, filed an appeal in Superior Court today setting forth nine asserted errors of judgment by the lower court and sex sections of the State Labor Law that are allegedly unconstitutional.

A copy of an agreement between Miss Nolan and her husband whereby she lent him the use of her name for the gown shop which he operated, was attached to the statement.

The actress and her husband, at liberty under $200 bond each, are under sentence to thirty days in jail.




FILM YEAR BOOK OFFERS SURPRISES

New York, March 19 (Special)
Hollywood, prideful of its status as film capital of the world, will get a few surprises when the new issue of the Film Year Book drifts out there.

For instance, I have just learned from this chronicle that Japan turned out 900 features last year and thus beats the production records of this land.

And what do you think broke all the long run records? None other than that tuneful little German piece, “Two Hearts in Waltz Time,” which went along for 50 weeks without stopping. Nothing quite like that has been known in film history. While the largest amount of coin to be collected in any one box office went to the Roxy when “Delicious” was playing there. The “draw” was more than $130,000.

A few more interesting statistics from this annual show that: The attendance of children has dropped to but five per cent of the audience totals; that seventy-five millions attended the movies each week; that 60 per cent of American schools now use some form of educational films, and that nearly 30,000 miles of film are handled daily in the United States and Canada.




JOAN CRAWFORD PICTURE

Joan Crawford has begun work on “’Letty Lynton,” her new picture. Robert Montgomery, who has just completed a role in “The Truth Game,” will be co-starred with her, and Nils Asther will play in the same film. Clarence Brown is directing.




JACKIE COOPER BUSY

Production began on “Limpy,” Jackie Cooper’s new picture under direction of Harry Pollard. In the supporting cast are Charles “Chic’ Sales, Dorothy Peterson, Helen Parrish, Andy Shuford, and Gus Leonard. “Limpy” was adapted to the screen from the novel by William Johnson.




SIGN IRENE DUNNE

The tests that Irene Dunne made for Fannie Hurst’s “Back Street” were so successful that John Stahl asked Carl Laemmle, Jr. by long-distance telephone, to sign her up immediately. Irene Dunne will be the Ray Schmidt in “Back Street” which starts this week at Universal City.




CAST ANNOUNCED

Phillips Holmes and Anita Page will have the leading roles in “Night Court,” the story by Mark Hellinger and Charles Beahan. Other members of the cast so far selected include Walter Huston and Lewis Stone. W. S. Van Dyke is directing. Holmes has appeared in such films as “The Broken Lullaby,” “Two Kinds of Women” and “An American Tragedy.”




RETURNS TO PICTURES

Polly Walker, former Broadway musical comedy favorite, has returned to RKO-Radio Pictures studios where she made her film debut in “Hit the Deck.” Her contract was purchased from Warner Brothers.




ADDED TO CAST

Nils Asther has been added to the cast of “The Truth Game.” Robert Montgomery is the star of this adaptation of Ivor Novello’s stage play and in the supporting cast are Nora Gregor, C. Aubrey Smith, Heather Thatcher and Edward Everett Horton.




THEY GET THAT WAY

Debuting as a relator of funny stories this week is Fredric March, with one about a fellow trying to sleep while through the walls of his apartment came the sounds of a party next door. At 2 a.m. he registered a hint by pounding on the wall. “Heavens,” came a feminine voice, “what at terrible hour to be hanging pictures.”




CHARACTER ACTOR BUSY

Russell Hopton, the young character actor who appears with Ben Lyon and Constance Bennett in “The Challenger” (temporary title) is one of the busiest actors in Hollywood. He has appeared recently in six important productions.




HOT NEWS

Universal has decided to use the original title of Emile Gauvreau’s book, “Hot News,” for the picture referred to in the Universal studios as “Ambition.” “Hot News” as a book ran into many editions in this country and has been reproduced in 14 foreign languages. Three million copies were printed in Russia alone. “Hot News” features Charles Bickford, Rose Hobart and Pat O’Brien.




NEW FERBER FILM

Edna Ferber, whose value to moving pictures was so materially increased by “Show Boat” and “Cimarron,” will have another 10-strike when Universal produces her story, “Glamour.” Contracts for this story, now in Cosmopolitan Magazine, were signed last week and already Dwight Taylor, son of Laurette Taylor, is adapting it to the screen as one of Universal’s pictures for next year.

HEADACHES

Deciding on a film title brings more headaches than exultations. Each studio has a title-searching department. The reason, according to B. P. Schulberg, Paramount executive, is that a title needs to meet many requirements; it must fit the story, intrigue, allure, arouse curiosity, indicate story type, and still be concise.

MOVIE BUSINESS PICKS UP WITH TWO GAMBLING HOUSES OPENING IN HOLLYWOOD CIRCLES

By Dan Thomas
Hollywood, Mar. 19 (Special)

Movieland happenings: Ronald Colman back from the Orient… And telling his friends all about the war over there. Ronnie regarded the whole affair as more of a lark than anything else.




Roscoe Ates now has learned to stutter on a piano… and is trying to find someone to listen to him.




Florine McKinney, the young Texas beauty recently brought out here by Paramount, says that she always cries at war pictures – whether they are sad or not.


The movie business must be picking up. Boys and girls are beginning to spend weekends at Agua Caliente again… And two new gambling houses have opened right here in town.




Zeppo Marx and his wife have just moved into the apartment vacated by the Clark Gables.




Tom Keene, young Western star, was wearing a beautiful silk shirt as part of his cowboy regalia the other day. Wonder how many real cowboys sport such finery.




Frank Whitbeck, well known in film publicity and advertising circles, is the new president of the Wampas. Which means that a flock of pretty young things who would like to become Wampas Baby Stars soon will be trying to make his acquaintance.

Gene Morgan’s new Pyramid Café now is open – with eight of the prettiest extra girls in Hollywood as chorus.


One actress in Hollywood who has been married only a few months decided to teach her author-husband that the least he could do was come home for dinner. So when he phoned one night and said he couldn’t get home because he had to attend a conference she replied: “That’s all right, I’ll get Bob to take me to dinner.” Bob was her leading man at the time.

A half hour later friend husband called and said he would be able to get home after all. “Sorry,” replied the actress, “but I already have a date with Bob. But you might come home and mix cocktails for us before we go out.” There haven’t been any more late story conferences in that family.




Spring is here all right – and we don’t need any robins to tell us. The Hollywood high school girls again are beginning to sit around the school yards with legs showing well above the knees in hopes that some passing director might notice them. That’s a sure sign.




But it takes more than legs to get one in pictures these days.
Did you know that Norma Shearer got her first chance in pictures because she was a diver – and knock-kneed? She came down from Canada to enter a diving contest back East. And she was so knock-kneed that the crowd laughed the first time she walked out on the springboard.

Norma took advantage of this and put on her act for each successive dive, appearing more awkward than necessary – until she left the springboard. Then she was the last word in grace.

A film producer happened to be present, was attracted by her showmanship, and decided to give her a chance in a picture he was about to start.

MANY FAVORITES OF SCREEN FANS MAY BE BARRED BY NEW LAW

March 19, 1932

In view of the revived effort in congress this week to keep out foreign stars, they have been compiling a list of them in the motion picture business. Chairman Dickstein of the house committee on immigration told opposers of the plan that “almost any kind of accent can be had among actors in my district,” which is on the East Side of New York City.

The list so far as made up of by alien players is:

Charlie Chaplin, Maurice Chevalier, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Ramon Novarro, George Arliss, Marie Dressler, Mary Pickford, Clive Brook, Dorothy Mackaill, Paul Lukas, Victor McLaglen, Fifi Dorsay, Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez, Elissa Landi, Maureen O’Sullivan, Pola Negri, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Jill Esmond, Laurence Olivier, Ivan Lebedeff and Reginald Denny.



It would be virtually impossible to replace that group with new American-made stars in less than five years’ time. And without the money they now draw into the box office, the film industry would be up against it.

There also are lesser foreign players who still are tremendously popular in minor roles. Among this group are:

Sari Maritza, Claude Allister, Nils Asther, Conway Tearle, Olga Baclanova, Lionel Belmore, Andre Beranger, Billy Bevan, Cyril Chadwick, Ricardo Cortez, Albert Conti, Rockliffe Fellows, Alec Francis, Emily Fitzroy, Huntley Gordon, Lawrence Grant, Holmes Herbert, Jean Hersholt, Stuart Holmes,
Crawford Kent, Claude King, Doris Lloyd, Montague Love, John Loder, Alan Mowbray, Anthony Bushell, Matt Moore, Antonio Moreno, John T. Murray, Greta Nissen, Warner Oland, Gilbert Rowland, Duncan Renaldo, Ned Sparks, George Sidney, Slim Summerville, Ernest Torrence, Raquel Torres, H. B. Warner, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Henry Victor.



In addition to these players, a few of our outstanding directors, whom it would be rather difficult to replace, are foreign-born. Among them are Ernst Lubitsch, Lewis Milestone, Josef von Sternberg, George Fitzmaurice, Edmund Goulding, Herbert Bernon, Paul Stein, James Whale, Frank Capra and Michael Curtiz.

Film magnates may seem to be getting unduly excited over this situation, but in their opinions, somebody should get excited.

TEMPERAMENT EXPLODED AS ANOTHER HOLLYWOOD MYTH

By Jessie Henderson, Special Correspondent
Hollywood, March, 19

Pretty soon Hollywood will be known as the village of disillusionment. Already the stars don’t have gold bathtubs and now they don’t have temperament. Of course it’s hard to be temperamental without a gold bathtub, but it’s even harder for the average citizen to visualize a collection of stars without a single tantrum.

Where are the good old days when the celluloid leading ladies gnawed chunks from the drapes or the director? Where is the celluloid leading man who used to tear his collar into a million pieces, kick over a camera, and exit roaring?

Roland Young, who has played opposite most of the beauties of the current screen, says he never saw a star throw a dirty glance at anyone; much less a vase or a piano. And Richard Wallace, who has directed plenty of stars, both men and women, says he never heard one of ‘em utter a screech unless the scenario called for it.

TEMPERAMENT IS OUT

“Temperament is the most misused word in Hollywood,” Wallace explained today. “It supposedly abounds in film actors and actresses. I don’t know how or where the rumor started, but it goes the rounds right here in town as well as in places far distant.”

“Tearing the hair and rushing with loud cries to the dressing room is something seen about as often in Hollywood as a buffalo on the boulevard. And tearing the hair isn’t temperament anyway. According to Webster, temperament is the physical and mental character of an individual.”

“But just for the sake of argument, let’s say that temperament means tantrums. Still the word is misused here. Players are hard working, serious people. If they argue now and again it is because they are striving for the best possible result in their pictures. Their contentions on these points are usually reasonable and often result in making the picture better.”

“Anyhow, as a rule, we don’t have these discussions after the picture begins. Most differences of opinion have been settled in story conference.”

NOTHING BUT RUMOR

“Every now and then the whisper goes around Hollywood that so-and-so is terribly temperamental and that the director’s going to have a dickens of a time with him or her before the picture’s finished. More than once I’ve been enough interested in these rumors to follow them to their beginnings. And I’ve found no screeching or hair-tearing connected with them at all.”

“There are two people, an actress and an actor, about whom the rumor of temperament has been circulating lately. It just so happened that both this actress and actor were assigned to a picture that I’ve been directing. The actress was said to be high hat, invariably late for appointments and inclined to scrap if anyone asked for an autograph.

“I found the lady to be a quiet little girl whose high hat consisted only in her refusal to capitalize on the social prominence of her family. She had broken an appointment because her maid sprained an ankle and the actress delayed in order to take care of her. Instead of getting mad when some fan asked for an autograph, she merely avoided premiers and other public events because she is nervous and uncomfortable in a crowd.

REGISTERS NO KICK

The man to whom I refer is supposed to bite directors’ heads off, but mine is without a single toothmark. The rumor about temperament started because he’s a free-lance actor and always declines to play any role to which he isn’t suited. Once he has signed for a picture, he registers no kick, whatever happens.



“The actress is Tallulah Bankhead, an exotic type who often does the unexpected because her spirit is adventuress.



The man is Charles Bickford, whose business interests bring him in enough money so that he can afford to pick and choose his roles. I can see how it was easy to start this temperament myth about each of them.

Aw, listen, Mr. Wallace, I pleaded, doesn’t any one of these movie people ever get the teeny weeniest bit mad and throw a chair at somebody? Wallace said, no.

“Throwing things would not be temperament in the popular sense of the word,” Wallace replied, “and if there’s that kind of temperament in Hollywood I haven’t seen it. Temperament is a waste of time and in this place nowadays, every minute counts.”

March 19, 1932

MOVIE STAR BRIDES MEET AT DEL MONTE HONEYMOON

Del Monte, March 19 (AP)
Joan Bennett and Betty Bronson, both recent brides, exchanged confidences about their husbands here yesterday, but declined to discuss their conversations except to say that they were both very happy.



Miss Bronson, now Mrs. Ludwig Lauerhaus, and Miss Bennett, now Mrs. Gene Markey, arrived with their husbands for a short honeymoon visit.

Lauerhaus, who registered from Asheville, N. C., said: “We’re just going to keep driving for awhile.”

Markey, a playwright, said he and his bride would spend the weekend here.




MIX PLANS REMARRIAGE
Yuma, Ariz. March 18 (AP)

Tom Mix, western screen star, and Mabel Hubbell, circus aerialist, married recently in Mexicali, Lower California, announced their intention today of being re-wed here to-morrow night. They explained they were going through the second ceremony to dispel any legal technicalities over their first ceremony.

Mix is filming a picture here. Earl A. Freeman, Yuma’s marrying justice, will officiate.




CHEVALIER RETURNS TO HOLLYWOOD HOME

Maurice Chevalier, who left Hollywood some weeks ago on a concert tour across the continent terminating in an engagement at the Fulton theater in New York, has returned to California to resume his work before the cameras.

He began his starring role in “Love Me Tonight” upon arriving in Hollywood. The film is directed by Rouben Mamoulian. Jeanette MacDonald has the feminine lead.




ROBINSON QUITS GANGSTER ROLES

It’s strange what pictures will do to an actor. Before coming to Hollywood, Edward G. Robinson was known as an actor with a high artistic sense and gentle nature, best emphasized by his roles in “The Kibitzer,” “The Goat Song” and other similar productions of the Theater Guild in New York. Then he entered pictures and made “Little Caesar” and immediately became known as a ruthless racketeer.

So successfully did Eddie submerge his own personality in his hard-boiled screen roles that he found himself being regarded as this type of person in real life. Needless to say, that legend which became attached to him has caused him no slight embarrassment.

“To further the impression that I actually am a racketeer with racketeering principles, I even have been reported as criticizing my associates on the screen,” Robinson said. “I actually have been quoted as making derogatory remarks about the work of my friends. Naturally, such remarks are wholly untrue.”

“John Barrymore, George Arliss and Walter Huston are among my closest friends and I have respect for them as artists. I still regard Barrymore’s ‘Hamlet’ as the most magnificent performance I ever have seen. No, I will not play ‘Caesar’ with my friends no matter how much good acts might do my screen career,” he says.




MIRIAM HOPKINS TO PLAY DANCER

Miriam Hopkins, petite blonde and blue eyed girl from Savannah, Ga., who in a multiplicity of film roles last year established herself as one of the most versatile actresses of the screen, has signed a new long term contract as a Paramount picture player. Miss Hopkins will next be seen as a taxi dancer and singer in a public dance hall.




ARLEN WEARS OLD BOOTS

Richard Arlen is not a sentimentalist, nor is he superstitious, but even though they pinch a little – he is wearing the same boots in “Sky Bride” that he wore in “Wings,” the flying epic in which he scored his first film success.


From Luella O. Parsons:



Los Angeles, Mar. 19
We all felt instinctively, some way or other, that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would sign Jean Harlow for “The Red-Headed Woman.” I talked with Irving Thalberg a few days ago and at that time he expressed himself as unable to find the right actress with the right kind of hair. He is sure of Miss Harlow’s popularity and sure she can play the part and, well, he figures it’s better to have platinum locks with a good performance than titian locks with a bad performance. Perhaps he is right. He usually is. But we still confess to disappointments, and we know that our readers are going to ask about the red hair. Miss Harlow will be under contract to M-G-M and this will only be one of other pictures she will make. She has been out there off and on so that M-G-M feels it is no experiment.



Ann Harding objected, and perhaps rightly, to my article that Mrs. Brock Pemberton is changing her personality. I don’t think, however, she can object to my saying that the photographs I saw on Mrs. Pemberton’s desk make her look more stunning than at any time in her career.

Her next story is “Just A Woman,” by Eugene Walters. David Selznick purchased it with Miss Harding in mind. He hopes she will like it. Ann is rarely enthusiastic about movie stories, but perhaps it is better to reserve all opinions until after a story reaches the screen.

Gregory La Cava, and I haven’t heard from him in ages, directs Miss Harding.




Most people make hay while the sun shines. Will Rogers is playing polo while his days of leisure continue. He starts work in two weeks on “Down to Earth.” And that means just what the title says – he gets down to earth.

The story, by Homer Croy, is a sequel to “They Had To See Paris,” with Pike Peters of Claremore, Oklahoma, still doing business at the old stand. Being the old-fashioned type, Pike won’t change his wife. So it is more than likely Irene Rich will be called home from vaudeville. In fact, I might add, negotiations are now on to engage her for the same role she played in the other picture.



Miss Rich has been doing very well in vaudeville. Reports keep coming in from towns where she has appeared.




Heard and overheard: One of our scouts in New York writes to say that Ona Munson and Ernst Lubitsch have made up again. Gossip separated them, says our informant. But Ernst must be pretty keen about her for he called her up and gave her a big dinner party at the Mayfair.

From the same source comes the word that Lupe Velez has ceased being the wild hoyden. She is at the Warwick and is controlling her emotions. Up to now she hasn’t even rumored her engagement to any New Yorker. Gary Cooper sails from England on the Europa on March 25. Wagers are on that there will be a big reconciliation scene for, no matter what has been said, they both still like each other. And, after all, that is the big thing.




If you’d really like to know where Greta Garbo is, find out where the “As You Desire Me” company is on location. Greta leaves tomorrow on her first location trip in three years. Not since she made “The Single Standard” has a scene been made away from the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in which she figured. All I can tell you is that the “As You Desire Me” scenes will be made at some beach.




Snapshots of Hollywood: James Cagney was getting a rousing reception at the opening of The Frolics, Hollywood’s newest night club. Edward Robinson and Victor McLaglen, two other bad boys of the screen, received an equally big hand. Marilyn Miller, in white, was dancing to the tune of Ted Fiorito’s music with Don Alvarado. George Raft, as easy a dancer as we have seen in many a day, was doing an impromptu number with Bobby Arnst. He has just signed a Paramount contract. Miss Arnst, a headliner at the café, dedicated one of her songs to Johnny Weissmuller. Fuzzy Knight and Jimmy Durante kept the appreciative crowd in good humor with their nonsense. Jimmy came from the opening of The Wet Parade with others of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer folk. Madge Evans, one of the prettiest girls at the opening, was with Tom Gallery.




DOUBLE BILL AT SENATOR

Robert Montgomery, gay young sophisticate of the screen, will come to the Fox-Senator theater tomorrow in “Lovers Courageous” with Madge Evans as his co-star.

The picture will share the bill with “Stepping Sisters,” the hilarious account of three ex-burlesque queens, Louise Dresser and Minna Gombel have the featured roles, for three days.

“Lovers Courageous” accounts in whimsical and captivating manner the story of a young man who never can make up his mind. He doesn’t know what he want to do or who he wants to love. Miss Evans is charming as the young woman who tries to think for him. Other roles are taken by Roland Young, Frederick Kerr, Reginald Owen and Beryl Mercer.

Tonight, for the final time, the Fox-Senator will present Marilyn Miller in “Her Majesty Love” and Ricardo Cortez in “Men of Chance.”




LUKAS STARS IN STATE FILM

On the State screen Sunday and Monday in “The Beloved Bachelor,” Paul Lukas will be seen in his first starring vehicle.

The story finishes romantically.

Lukas takes pity on an orphaned little girl. He adopts her, but by so doing he loses the love of a beautiful actress. Romance comes when a decade later, the child he had adopted, grown to a beautiful woman, falls deeply in love with her bachelor “daddy.”

It is a picture designed for family trade.

Dorothy Jordan, Charlie Ruggles and Vivienne Osborne head the supporting cast.

“Touchdown” with Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie and Peggy Shannon ends tonight.




SUICIDE FLEET AT LYRIC ON SUNDAY

Hand-to-hand fighting on the deck of a burning vessel provides one of the scenes of “Suicide Fleet,” the RKO-Pathe naval production of the World War which comes to the Lyric Theater Sunday and Monday.

In these battle scenes, a boarding party from a United States destroyer overpowers the crew of an enemy sailing vessel.

Bill Boyd and Robert Armstrong head the boarding party. Flames were raging aboard the sailing ship when this action was taken at sea in Mexican waters off Los Coronados Islands. Lew Lipton wrote the screenplay from a story by Commander Herbert A. Jones, U.S.N.

The feature attraction for to-day is Marie Dressler and Polly Moran in “Reducing,” a comedy.




BUCK JONES STARS IN RIALTO FILM

Buck Jones is the star in “Branded,” now showing at the Rialto Theater.

He impersonates an entirely new type of hero – one who possesses all the sterling qualities of the sheriff, and displays as well a touch of the bandit’s carefree spirit and the tenderfoot’s engaging human qualities.

Cuthbert Chauncey Dale is the gentleman’s name, and the mere fact that he manages to storm and conquer the primitive village of Falls City, handicapped by this fancy cognomen, is proof that he is a man to reckon with.

Buck Jones has a new leading lady in “Branded.” She is Ethel Kenyon, wife of Eddie Sutherland, well-known director. Others in the cast include Al Smith, who interprets the “heavy” role, John Oscar in a comedy part, Bob Kortman, Wallac MacDonald, Fred Burns, Philo McCullough and Harry Todd.

LEW AYRES BOASTS HEAVEN-LIKE HOBBY

From Robert Grandon’s TELLING ON HOLLYWOOD
March 18, 1932

Lew Ayres had me over to his house the other night to do a little star gazing… and was it an interesting session!

Lew has a half dozen telescopes, but his prize is an eleven inch, motor-driven, on a concrete base, stationed on the porch of his cliff-side home… An ardent astronomer, he’s discovered there are some stars not on the screen.

Lew’s hobby is the most unusual in the colony though other stars have unusual avocations…



Eddie Robinson, the big bad man of the screen, goes in for paintings and Chinese curios. He just paid $500 for a bronze Buddha...



Sylvia Sidney collects rare editions, as does Miriam Hopkins, who once paid $300 for an “Alice in Wonderland” when the sum represented a week’s work.



Kathryn Crawford hoards antique bottles and rare perfumes, and Thelma Todd is always purchasing odd bits of blown glass…



Ralph Bellamy has a yen for old music boxes and numbers fourteen rare specimens in his collection. .. Roland Young collects china penguins. He has more than 300 now.



Jack Barrymore started life as a cartoonist but few know that Brother Lionel is a gifted artist and musician. An expert etcher, he spends hours in his studio producing works much sought… and betimes he arranges the tunes which his musical friend, Edmund Lowe, composes.



But of all the stars, mad Lupe Velez has the most expensive hobby… She collects emeralds… Yes, Lupe is crazy… crazy like a fox.