March 28, 1932

WEALTHY WOMAN SUES AL JOLSON FOR $150,000

Phoenix, Ariz., Mar. 28 (UP)
Hattie L. Mosher, wealthy Phoenix property owner who expresses her individuality by dressing in the styles of a bygone day and who wears moccasins, has filed suit against Al Jolson, film and stage star, for $150,000. She alleged he “burlesqued and ridiculed her” in the Fox Theater here, the management of which is also made defendant.

The alleged damages were suffered by the woman, she claims, in the suit filed in federal court, as the result of Jolson’s stage appearance here on March 15.

The plaintiff, who has large real estate holdings and who frequently has been involved in litigation concerning it, at one time being arrested for blocking a city alley by digging a ditch with a Negro helper, was an unsuccessful candidate for state senator years ago.




FILM ACTOR DIES

Los Angeles, Mar. 28 (AP)
Paisley Noon, 35, film character actor, died to-day following an attack of appendicitis. Noon entered motion pictures several years ago after a long experience in vaudeville. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Noon, who lives here.




From Luella O. Parsons:

If Greta Garbo does pack up the old carpet bag and head back to Sweden in June to live, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is not going to be left in the lurch. In other words, they believe in preparedness. One evidence of this is the signing of Diana Wynyard, talented English actress.

Now about Miss Wynyard. One of the M.-G.-M. executives saw her in “The Devil Passes,” Basil Rathbone’s current New York stage play, and was so impressed he signed her on a contract. She comes west to Hollywood and Irving Thalberg is now looking for a play that will give her the best possible chance.

Miss Wynyard’s introduction to the stage was in “Petticoat Influence.” She played the part in London Helen Hayes created in America.




The few days given Ann Dvorak between pictures are about up. She was just enjoying her honeymoon with Leslie Fenton when word came that she was to replace Marian Marsh in “Competition,” Chic Sales’ next picture.

Marian reports on sick leave again. She has been ill with the flu and this is a continuation of her illness, which has kept her out of several pictures at Warner Brothers Studios lately. Wonder what is going to happen now that Ann Dvorak is married? Will Warner Brothers continue to build her or will there be more indifference? Sometimes marriage helps, but sometimes it hinders a career. It will be interesting to see just how Ann’s marriage works out.




Ann Harding turns off her telephone to all but outgoing calls. Her splendid gesture in sending out an announcement of her divorce speaks for itself.

AMERICAN WOMEN AFRAID TO BE ORIGINAL, SAYS CAROLE LOMBARD

Tied Up With the Red Tape of Convention, They Live Their Lives According to What People Will Think and Say;

They Have Yet to Acquire Poise and a Sense of Proportion, Says Petite Film Star


In an Interview With:
Alice M. Tildesley

The modern American woman is used to having adjectives such as hard, cold, fickle and temperamental hurled at her by representatives of other nations or by the opposite sex. To these she merely shrugs and smiles. But now comes Carole Lombard, one of her fairest sisters, and makes another charge.

“American Women are afraid to be original,” declared Carole, holding a slim white hand toward the fire leaping in her living room hearth.

“Perhaps it is because we are new and haven’t acquired poise and a sense of proportion; but whatever the reason we are tied up with the red tape of convention. We live our lives according to what people say and whether or not it is the ‘thing’ to do what we should like to do.

“Abroad, people are much freer. They do as they please in everyday life without bothering about how, when or where their neighbors would behave under the same circumstances.

“For instance, if it is the ‘thing’ in our set to have luncheon at 1 o’clock, we have luncheon at that time, no matter how inconvenient, or whether or not we are hungry. The time to serve this meal is at one hour after noon, and that’s that.

“In Europe or in England, if a woman felt like having the meal served at 12 or at 2 or even at 5 o’clock, she would do so and think no more about it.

If it is the ‘thing’ to be seen walking in the park at a certain hour in the town where we live, that is the time we will walk in the park. It may be sunnier at an early time, or cooler later on, but no, we will go when everyone else does.

“If we see a woman wearing a black satin dress, a gray fox fur and a small black hat, we all rush out and buy black satin dresses, gray fox furs and small black hats. That is, if we have been told authoritatively that such a combination is smart. It doesn’t occur to us to regard ourselves in the mirror and decide if we shall look well in the costume, or if something green or blue or a larger hat would suit us better. There we go, a parade of women all alike.

“We’re not original. We’re too used to doing what we’re told, too accepting as true any statement made with the ring of authority.

“If it is the ‘thing’ to dine at a certain hotel or restaurant, that is where you will find the so-called smart American woman. It won’t matter that the charges are exorbitant, the food is inferior, the service casual, all that counts is that ‘everybody’ goes there.

“Yes it may be true that many American women wear the clothes they can afford, or those they happen to find in their local shops, but the same lack of originality is shown by women who can and do buy their garments in Paris.

“French women never take gowns, hats or wraps that are given them by their modistes simply because ‘it is all the rage this season.’ They insist that the line and the color and the silhouette become them, that the garment will enhance their charm and set off their personality.

“When American women go to the great clothes designers in Paris, they take whatever these experts are pleased to give them.



“At the studio, Travis Banton, who is to my mind one of the best clothes creators in the business, uses discretion for us. If he is dressing Ruth Chatterton, the browns set off Ruth Chatterton’s personality; if he is dressing me, the style will be entirely different, since I am not at all like Ruth; if Anna May Wong is to be outfitted, his ideas for her will be tinged with her exotic individuality. Thus the garments for the three of us will really belong to our separate selves.

“But if Ruth and Anna May and I were all well-to-do residents of any American city, or any three American cities, and we all went to Paris for our clothes, we should very likely come marching out of Lanvin’s or Patou’s or Schiaparelli’s exact duplicates of one another, like three puppets of a toy theater, every trace of individuality gone.

“European women are sure of themselves. We are not.”

The firelight gleamed on the ivory satin and lace of Carole’s pajamas and brightened her blonde hair; it struck tiny flashes from the silver and glass on the table between us; it sent tiny shadows flickering across her serious young face.

“It takes daring to be original. I am not so myself and I don’t wish to be, because to be original is to be conspicuous in a sense, and picture people are conspicuous enough as it is. We are made to do foolish and startling things for publicity purposes; we are stared at all the time; when we can blend in with the scenery we find it a grateful relief.

“But the average American woman would do well to study herself, to develop originality in dress, to try to set off her personality.



How few women could wear the Eugenie hat – and how many tried to do so! Don’t be a Eugenie addict unless you are the Eugenie type.
“Decide for yourself. Don’t believe all people tell you, even if those people are experts in their line.”

Charges hurled against American women by the American Circle of the London Lyceum club find Carole undertaking the defense.

“They say American women haven’t as much emotion as European women,” she recollected, her cigarette making a faint blue haze between us.

“That may be true, if you mean that we are not so likely to show the emotion we feel. We are used to independence, to taking what we want instead of asking for it; we are used to managing our own lives. Husbands are not omnipotent, and we accept without question things that European women would consider favors. Perhaps we grow hard in the process of fighting for our living, but too much softness is not good for anyone.

“Temperament, which is showing emotion, has no place in a home. I have seen actresses use it as a weapon. I’ve seen them put it in as an act to get their own way; I’ve even done it myself in isolated instances when it seemed necessary for business reasons. But it isn’t to be tolerated as a domestic accomplishment.”

She laughed over the Circle’s statement that American men have hard-and-fast rules as to what constitutes the ideal wife, and then they marry an exception to their own rules.

“I have to admit that one. I think every man, American or not, believes that what he likes is a nice, domestic, docile, modest young female, whose entire world is centered on her husband, who will sacrifice herself for him, give in to him on every point and spend her life catering to his slightest whim.

“Faced with just such a woman, however, what does he do? Turns around and marries a girl who has none of those traits but who can amuse him, look well and hold her own in an argument. It is no longer fashionable to be a doormat, and I doubt if it ever paid.”

That all American women are devoted mothers may be stretching the truth a bit, according to Carole.



“But I have a most satisfactory parent,” she confided. “Her idea on bringing me up was that I should be permitted to have and to do the things that would make me happy.

“So many girls have had to fight their families in order to follow stage or screen careers. But my mother never made it difficult for me.

“When I was 10, our next door neighbor, who happened to be Al Kaufman, a director, asked me how I’d like to play Monte Blue’s little sister in a picture he was about to make. Would I like to play Monte Blue’s little sister? I nearly went mad with joy. My mother rejoiced with me, and I had a glorious time for a few weeks. After that, somehow or other, that marvelous woman persuaded me to go back to school.

“It was shortly before this opportunity came along that I had my name changed. A numerologist, a friend of my mother’s worked out my numbers because she knew how much I hated my name. I was Jane Alice Peters then. I never felt like a Jane, and was I pleased when I was presented with the name of Carole!

“Jane seemed to me a most girly sort of girl, who did girly things, and I was a tomboy of tomboys. I wasn’t interested in dolls or playing house. I played on the girls teams at school in baseball, basketball and track, but I preferred to play with boys. Girls weren’t rough enough for me.

“My model mother never once remarked that little girls might do well with a few less bruised knees and battered noses. She was always there to cheer when I won.”



Though Carole hates the term “lucky break,” she feels that her real entry into pictures was the result of just such a stroke of luck. She was 15 and in high school. Invited to a private dinner party, she was seated next to an executive of one of the larger studios.
“How would you like to be in a picture?” he enquired.

Since everyone knows the answer to that one, Carole was presently taking a screen test, as the result of which she began her career as a leading woman, never once having had to play extra roles.
“I was dreadful,” she confessed, candidly. “Even I knew that. But they let me make three more films; nobody knows why.

“I loved the work. It was fun, especially the Westerns I did with Tom Mix and Buck Jones. But I felt that I hadn’t enough experience and I saw no way to get there, so when Mack Sennett offered me a contract I accepted.



There was no training better than Mr. Sennett’s in silent-picture days. Look at the stars who graduated from that comedy lot – Gloria Swanson, Charlie Chaplin, Marie Prevost – dozens of them!”



Luck isn’t a term to use about romance according to Carole.
But her own romance was as sudden and unexpected as any lucky break could be.

She had been called back from a season of picture-making in New York to play a part in William Powell’s starring film, “Ladies’ Man.”

“Perhaps you’d better meet Mr. Powell,” somebody suggested, when Carole arrived at the Hollywood studio.

“Perhaps,” said Carole, who has a reputation for causing less trouble and being a better sport than any one else on the payroll.

She was ushered into an office. Someone mumbled the two names, moved out and closed the door. She and the star talked about the picture. They must have gone on to other topics, for after an interval they discovered that it was 6 o’clock and four hours had passed since the closing of the door.

“I haven’t said half I had to say,” complained Bill. “Couldn’t we have dinner together?”

They had it together.

Other dinners following. Presently all Hollywood knew that Bill Powell was “that way” about Carole Lombard.

Once upon a time, when I asked Bill’s opinion on time-limit marriages, he scoffed: “Sure, I believe in them. The time limit should be 24 hours.”

That was before he met Carole.

After he had seen her fragile-looking loveliness, that isn’t really fragile at all, he changed his mind. “When will you marry me?” was the recurring burden of his conversation. At length Carole decided the only way to make him talk about something else was to set the day.

She calls him “Junior” or “Willie,” and refuses to chant: “We’re so happy!” according to regulation Hollywood custom. It’s bad luck. Most of those who rave about Hollywood bliss land in divorce courts before the year is ended.

“No woman is very original in love,” she laughed. “I’m not finding fault with my sex on that score. We all think our choice in husband’s can’t be improved upon; we all believe our man is the man; some of us keep our illusion through life.”

Bill Powell, who had refused to come down to share the little table before fire, appeared as I was saying goodbye.

“I left you alone because this was Carole’s story,” he explained. “I remember times when I’ve been supposed to be interviewed on the set, and along would come another actor and sit beside me and I’d let him talk. When the story came out, I would be merely mentioned and the other actor would have the whole thing. Don’t take chances, Carole.”

“Is that original?” smiled Mrs. William Powell.

Screen Life In Hollywood

By Hubbard Keavy
Hollywood, March 27

A unique and deep-seated comradeship between Roscoe Ates and the stepdaughter he is legally adopting has sprung up between the two in the last 12 years.

She is Dorothy Marcella Adrian, and was six years old when Ates married her mother, a vaudeville performer.

During those 12 years the family never was separated for a day. They toured in vaudeville together, in good weather and bad, in good times and hard times.
The other day, after Ates had formally asked a Los Angeles Court to sanction the adoption, he said he always has introduced Dorothy as his daughter and that he regarded her as his own.

Mrs. Ates had wanted a more tangible relationship than the one which had existed and for many years suggested the adoption proceedings. But Roscoe believed Dorothy ought to have a say in the matter, when she became of legal age. When she was 18, the action was begun.

Dorothy, who is taller than her step-father, dark-eyed and red haired, was his partner on the stage for seven years.




No studio, so far as is known, is planning a picture based on the kidnapping of a child, despite the intense interest aroused by the Lindbergh case.

John Bright, a scenarist who specializes in crime stories, expresses the feeling of Hollywood when he said it would be a mistake for a company to capitalize on any story that has caused such sympathy and curiosity and assumed such importance as the baby Lindbergh kidnapping.




NO WIG FOR GABLE

Clark Gable will do almost anything necessary to make a characterization perfect, except wear a wig. He even grayed his hair a platinum blonde color, he says, for “Strange Interlude.”

His aversion to wigs dates back to a stage engagement with Jane Cowl. There was business of removing a hat and throwing it away angrily. When the audience howled, he discovered the wig had gone with the hat.




SMART DIALOGUE

Jean Harlow’s hair looks like silk, despite its frequent peroxide baths.


The smartest dialogue I’ve heard lately is delivered by Ben Lyon in “Lady With a Past.”




Dorothy Lee’s perpetual pep is amazing.




It’s my opinion that “Mata Hari” would be pretty dull without the ever-alluring Swede.


The broadest “humor” I’ve heard lately is in the lines of Winnie Lightner in “Play Girl.” Pictures like that one cause Will Hays to spend time combating censorship.

Junior Fairbanks actually wears that old green hat.




I wonder how Mary Astor always manages to appear so cool.

“The Gay Caballero” is the nearest approach to old-time melodrammer I’ve seen in a long time.




A pretty sight: Dark-skinned Dolores Del Rio in a white satin evening gown.




CHARMED BY MUSIC

“Set music,” considered necessary during silent picture days to help players work up their emotion and to keep them from getting heavy-hearted during trying days, is infrequently used now.

Joan Crawford and Norma Shearer are two of the few who still demand music between scenes.

Joan has an electric phonograph operated by her maid. Norma hires a violinist and an organist, who has a portable instrument to play for her.




PERSONAL STUFF

In three years I’ve talked to approximately 900 more or less prominent movie persons with the object of learning something interesting about them to fill this space.

I think Clark Gable is about the frankest I’ve listened to and that Tallulah Bankhead is the most amusing.

And that Irving Pichel, George Arliss and John Griffith Wray are the more intelligent among the men.

The most astute feminine thinkers and talkers are Mary Pickford, Ruth Chatterton, Ann Harding and Marie Dressler.

The dullest person I ever interviewed is a middle-aged comedian. (You can’t make a story out of “yeses” and “noes”)

Erich von Stroheim is the most talkative.




SEEING STARS

I have been unable to keep only one appointment. That was with Mary Duncan. She lived in the hills and I couldn’t find her house.

Several have failed to keep appointments. Laurel and Hardy and Neil Hamilton are among them. Hamilton apologized the next day by letter.




Gene Markey who married Joan Bennett the other day hoped to finish the manuscript of a new Garbo picture before his marriage, but hitches developed and he still was working on the picture the night before the wedding.

Gene was granted a week’s leave for his honeymoon on condition that he take along the Garbo script – and work on it.

Incidentally, newspaper men felt like cheering the youngest daughter of Richard Bennett when several days before her wedding she declared she would not keep them waiting outside as Connie, her sister, did when she was married.




ELISSA OBJECTS

Elissa Landi objected strenuously by telegraph to her publishers when her newest novel, “House for Sale,” appeared with this explanatory line on the jacket: “A novel of remembered loves.” She said it was no such thing and demanded new jackets. And new ones were printed.




Lila Lee made two unsuccessful attempts to get back in pictures after being away from them for more than two years.

Production of the first picture was called off soon after she got the role. She became ill a day before the second one was to start.

Now she has the lead in “Radio Patrol” because Mae Clarke, who was in it, became ill.




Motion picture stories frequently resemble others that have gone before, but no one thinks much about that. However, the great similarity in theme in the Bennett girls’ latest films is causing no end of comment among their co-workers.

Constance’s newest, “Lady With a Past,” was first made and has already been released in some circles. Joan’s picture was started before her sister’s was finished. It is “Careless Lady” and will be released next month.

Here are the parallel stories:
Constance and Joan act and dress like wallflowers – if you can imagine that! – and so are unpopular with men.

On the advice of friends, they decide to acquire pseudo-experience and therefore a “past.” The adventures of both are laid in Paris. The stories end differently.

The two similar stories are only a coincidence, I am sure.

Something else about the Bennetts: There’ll be two - no, it can’t be written that way. Here it is: Constance is married to a marquis (Henri de la Falaise) and Joan is married to a Markey (Gene).




LITTLE THINGS

It’s the little things that count in Hollywood, as well as in life.
They’re still talking about director Tay Garnett’s clever main titles in “Her Man.”

The name of the picture, cast and credits were written in sand and washed away as the waves rolled in. Each receding wave disclosed a new portion of the title.

In “Scarface,” the passing of time, during which the gangman shoots his way to greater power, is conveyed by means of a machine gun’s bullets tearing the leaves from a calendar. Howard Hawks, the director, thought of that touch.

The daring concluding scene of “The Public Enemy” – wherein the hood’s body falls through his mother’s doorway after he is slain by gangster rivals – elicited praise. But the gruesomeness of it was criticized.

The possibility of talking remakes of two well-remembered silents is being considered. They are “The Big Parade” and “What Price Glory?” Spencer Tracy and Ralph Bellamy are talked of as the principals in the latter.




HARPO’S COOPERATION

A party including James Gleason and Monte Blue went into a restaurant late one night for a bite. Upon removing his top coat, Gleason discovered he had on a sweat shirt.

When he apologized for his informal attire, blue suggested they all remove their coats and vests – so Gleason wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable.

Harpo Marx, sitting at an adjoining table, arose and bowed graciously to Gleason and the coat-and-vest removers. Then he took off his trousers and had a waiter check them.




The film offers made Noel Coward never got to the money stage. He turned down two or three producers’ agents without even inquiring how much they would give him to stay in Hollywood.

It is probable, given Coward’s ability to manufacture plays – such as “Private Lives,” “Cavalcade,” “Bittersweet” and “The Vortex” to name a few - and his popularity as an actor in New York, that any film company would gladly put him on its payroll at a starting salary of no less than $5000 a week.


The great Garbo, so one of our beach spies phones, is swimming these chilly days in a white bathing suit.

Movie Go Round

By Luella O. Parsons
Hollywood Calif., March 27

BREACH OF PROMISE

The breach of promise suit filed by Gladys Feldman against Leslie Fenton is probably the most surprising news of the week. Breach of promise suits have sort of gone out of style and it is not often that the modern girl resorts to that method to show her broken heart. The girl in question is exceedingly pretty. She looks like Estelle Taylor, has the same dark eyes and hair and the same exotic beauty. At least that is the description given me and I was interested because Ann Dvorak is such a sweet girl and it seems such a pity that the days that should be the happiest of her life should be filled with this unpleasantness and worry.




WAR PICTURES

It’s almost impossible to film a war picture in a neutral vein. Several of the film companies had elaborate plans to make Japanese-Chinese war pictures and they discovered that a mere narrative of the war held no dramatic interest. There had to be action and suspense and you cannot picture that without giving one side or the other the best of the situation. For that reason several of the companies have called off all productions on Japanese-Chinese pictures. There are too many Chinese in this country and too many Japanese who go to motion pictures to make such pictures advisable or profitable.




VOLUNTEER GRETAS

If P. T. Barnum were alive he’d probably try to run a contest on Greta Garbos. I had no idea and I’m sure you haven’t any idea of the number of girls throughout the country who think they resemble the Swedish star.

Some of them look as much like Greta Garbo as Flora Finch looks like Mary Pickford. We have had pictures of tall girls, small girls, blondes, brunettes and redheads. We also had letters from all over the country. Each one of the girls begged for a chance to play opposite Clark Gable in “China Seas.” Hope dies hard and there are still girls throughout the country who feel there is a place for them in Hollywood.




ROBERT’S FIRST LINE

Robert Young’s first appearance on the stage didn’t presage any glorious future. He was one of a group at the Pasadena players who had a single line to speak. He determined to make that line so impressive that everyone would say “Ah, another Edwin Booth in our midst.” When his turn came he shouted so loudly that everybody else on the stage forgot his line and turned to look at the shouter. Mr. Young can laugh at that experience today but it was a tender subject with him at the time. His future is bright now and he is on the upward grade, so much so that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is giving him every chance.




DISAPPEARING BASEMENT

They thought they had a first class mystery on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot last week. But alas, it was solved almost immediately. Joan Crawford’s bungalow on stage six disappeared. It couldn’t be found anywhere. Bungalows cannot walk away, neither are they small enough to hide, so where it had gone nobody knew. Just when everyone was getting ready to call out the fire department, the police department, the Pinkerton detective agency, the Burns detective agency and a few more, a terrified maid appeared on the scene. She had been sitting in the bungalow when all of a sudden she felt herself going down, down to the basement. It seems somebody pressed the wrong button and the bungalow was carried to the basement with Miss Crawford’s maid inside.




A MEMORY FILM

An interesting short is now being made by Ralph B. Staub in Hollywood. He is calling it “Memory Lane” and stars who have passed on are featured. Rudolph Valentino, Louis Wolheim, Mabel Normand, Rudolph Schildkraut, Robert Ames, Robert Williams, Alma Rubens, Lya de Putti, Tom Santchi, Milton Sills, Wally Reid, Barbara La Marr, Larry Semon, Otto Matieson, Dustin Farnum, Lon Chaney and others.

The opening speech is made by Hobart Bosworth and continues through the entire picture. Columbia will release it as a special screen snapshot and there is no doubt it will be popular for it is a nice tribute to those who have passed on and whose memory is still green.





FILM VOGUES SWAY WITH THE WIND

By Luella O. Parsons
Hollywood, March 26

Paris dressmakers are credited with creating style vogues. Paris hairdressers set the pace for milady’s coiffure, Eugene O’Neill for introspective drama, but it’s the motion picture patrons who are responsible for the vogue in motion pictures. Someone once said that every good picture starts a vogue.

“The Big Parade” was responsible for an avalanche of war dramas. “Little Caesar” brought a deluge of gangster melodramas in its trail. When those gangster dramas were still bringing in plenty of money, Universal stepped out with “Dracula.” The tide changed and in an incredibly short time there were dozens of these thrillers. “The Shanghai Express” was the first of the Japanese-Chinese war dramas, but it won’t be the last.

Up to the time Norma Shearer starred in “Divorcee,” the heroines were as spotless as the driven snow. “Divorcee” was a sensational success and every company in the business started buying sophisticated modern plays and books.

THE CURRENT SWING

Sex and problem plays were in full swing when demure Janet Gaynor in “Daddy Long Legs” changed the current again. Sweet comedy-drama with a love interest seemed to once more please the motion picture patrons. The public showed an impatience with too highly sophisticated dramas.

Vogues have never lasted long because so many inferior imitations have followed successes. You can have too much of anything. Most of us are fond of strawberry shortcake and fried chicken, but if we had them day after day we would call loudly for apple pie and beefsteak. Once a vogue is done it’s as dead as yesterday’s newspapers.



Theda Bara was the original vamp. She beaded her eyelashes with heavy mascara and she became the obvious screen homewrecker. All such old-time melodramas as “The Fool” featured her. Other companies tried to get a vamp that looked as much like Miss Bara as possible.

If the Fox company hadn’t surfeited its patrons with so many Bara dramas I doubt if her vogue would have ended so suddenly. But what with Fox turning out a Bara picture every few weeks and other companies making similar dramas, the dear public grew weary of vamps and wicked ways.



THE COSTUME PLAYS

Costume plays died the same sad death. Betty Blythe in her Queen of Sheba and Cleopatra trappings did a good business for a short time. Douglas Fairbanks, who enjoys donning doublet and hose more than anyone I know, couldn’t interest the fans in a costume picture after he had made three or four. Exhibitors learned that the very name, costume picture, was enough to keep the fans out of the theaters.

I used to think when certain old favorite classics were ignored it was because the producers didn’t want to spend the money to make elaborate costume pictures. Then I talked with the owner of a chain of important theaters and he told me that he wouldn’t book a picture that he knew was a costume play because his patrons wouldn’t come into his theater. I knew then that the producers didn’t dare make a costume picture.

Perhaps some day Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will star Greta Garbo and Clark Gable in a costume drama and the jinx will be broken. A good picture nine times out of ten starts the vogue.

Washington stories are an exception. The presidential election and the seething political turmoil of the moment are responsible for the coming political pictures. Four companies at this writing, are preparing scenarios that deal with the political and social phases in Washington life.

When these Washington films hit the screen all about the same time, and there is a race on to see which will be finished first, what will be the next vogue? What will follow war dramas, gangster stories, Chinese plays, sex and problem plays, thrillers and Washington stories?

Well, if we could tell, we would be a prophet in our own home town.

March 27, 1932

SEX AND GANG FILMS DEFENDED BY LUBITSCH

‘Why Should We Dream of Roses and Honeysuckle?’ Asks Director

By H. Allen Smith
New York, March 26

Present day tendencies to delete sex and gang warfare from motion pictures were discussed today by Ernst Lubitsch, Hollywood director, just before he headed for the coast “to rest up from my five week vacation.”

“The most dramatic conflicts in life are the conflicts of sex,” the little black haired man said. “The conflict of man against woman and woman against man has provided high drama throughout the ages. Why should we close our eyes and dream of roses and honeysuckle?”

“And as for gangster pictures. Yes, maybe it is not nice to have such things. But don’t we have gangsters? If we had no gangsters, we would have no gangster pictures. If we had not sex, we would have no sex pictures.”

FIVE HECTIC WEEKS

Lubitsch is extremely high strung, with black hair slicked across his head and darting black eyes. He has been five weeks in New York attending parties by the dozen, riding the subways, catching up on the new plays and generally enjoying himself.
“But it is not a vacation – New York,” he explained. I have to go back to Hollywood to rest.”

Lubitsch naturally takes issue with those persons who deny that the talkies are art.
“Certainly the talkies are art! We can do things on the screen that they cannot do on the stage. We can express reality more than the stage. On the screen we can magnify a little bit of life – something that seems insignificant – and make it tremendously important. A finger. A hand. The movement of a finger or the movement of a hand. The twinkle of an eye. Those things are missing on the stage, and so many, many other details.

STORY INSIGNIFICANT

“I think the story in a movie is insignificant. It is how the story is told. The bare fact that a man dies isn't startling. Men die every day. It is how he dies. That is important. In the screen we can show how he dies.

“The sex, the gangsters, the drabness of many lives, these can be presented now. It used to be different. I remember seeing a silent film in the early days where the poor girl refused to marry a rich man because he was something of a villain. Not today! If the poor girl refused to marry into riches now, they would stone her. The crowds would go away muttering that she was a sap. “



Lubitsch said Greta Garbo was no mystery. “She is a real Swede,” he said, “and I have known many Swedes. They are shy, afraid to meet people. It is natural for them to keep in the background. But Garbo – she has a fine sense of humor. She is pleasant company, once you get to know her. That is the problem.





JOHN BARRYMORE PLANS STAGE TOUR

Mexico City, March 26 (INS)
John Barrymore plans to return to the stage shortly, Richard Bennett, the stage and screen actor, revealed here today. Bennett said Barrymore would first reappear on Broadway, and then tour the country in the title role of Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac.”




“Winner Take All” has been substituted for “The Main Event” as the title of James Cagney’s next starring picture for Warner Bros., which started production last week at the company’s Burbank studios. The picture is based on a story by Gerard Beaumont, “One Thirty Three at Three,” dealing with the prize ring. Marion Nixon is Cagney’s leading woman, and the cast also includes Dickie Moore, Guy Kibbee, Virginia Bruce, and the well known colored actor and composer, Clarence Muse, author of “Sleepy Time Down South.” The production is being directed by Roy Del Ruth.




FAY WRAY RETURNS

Fay Wray is back, after a long absence from the screen, playing the lead in “Nikki,” the New York stage play written by her husband, John Monk Saunders. This young lady, termed one of the ten real beauties in Hollywood, recently finished “Stowaway” for Universal, in which she has the featured feminine lead.




HAWAIIAN VILLAGE IN “PARADISE” FILM

Honolulu, T. H.
A primitive Hawaiian village of thatched huts, including all its inhabitants – grown-ups, goats, babies and birds, passed into the hands of the RKO-Radio Pictures’ production unit here making location scenes for “The Bird of Paradise,” starring Dolores Del Rio.

A single contract made with the village headman – as shrewd and wise a bargain as Director King Vidor ever met – turned the native hamlet over unconditionally for the exotic mating dance scenes which will highlight this spectacular film dramatization of the stage classic by Richard Walton Tully.

Miss Del Rio and forty brown-skinned maids participated in the dance to the red glare of torches, the barbaric staccato of tom-toms, and the shrieks of the girls as they were being carried off in marriage.

Filmed with startling realism, the scene was not a rehearsed affair staged for the movie-makers, but an event of great social importance to the Hawaiians. If the film company had not made it worthwhile to advance the date of the ceremony, the village council would have staged it at the regular seasonal period a month later.




IN MIX PICTURE

Lois Wilson is at last in a western part, and here’s hoping she doesn’t meet the fate of “Law and Order.” She played in that but the part was left on the cutting room floor. At the last moment, Lois was cast in “Death Valley Town,” in support of Tom Mix. Others in the cast are Fred Kohler, Forest Stanley, Willard Robertson and Edith Fellows. “Death Valley Town” went into production at Universal City on Monday under the direction of Al Rogell




THEY DO HAVE TO STEP ABOUT A LOT

Motion pictures demand that the actor take the bitter with the sweet – long hours and hard work are offset by interesting location trips frequently, which lessen the grind of work.

Roland Young goes all the way to London to make a picture this month, sailing from New York about the twenty-third. He will visit his family in England, where he was born and reared, and return for film work in Hollywood sometime in June.

James Gleason will be sent to New York soon for part of “Madison Square,” and Mrs. Gleason will accompany him. They will be there for a month and will be able to see the new shows, etc.

Ken Maynard is leaving at once for a trip to Mexico City, hunting a picture locale for his first Tiffany production under their new contract.

Dolores Del Rio and Joel McCrea recently returned from Honolulu where they went on location for R. K. O.

Tom Brown and James Gleason had a week in Agua Caliente this month, with the “Information Kid” company.

Lillian Bond has had several offers for picture work in England since leaving First National, if she cares to go.

Donald Cook’s parents live in Honolulu, and he is hoping for a picture assignment which will send him there.




SHOULD BE GOOD

That there is a good deal of humor in politics, except for the defeated candidate – and then it’s a joke on him – is proved by the action of the RKO-Radio Pictures Studio in announcing the forthcoming production of “Hell Bent for Election.” The election story is good-natured fun and will poke the merry finger of satire at the political maze through the person of Edna May Oliver. Helping her will be an all-star cast. The studio emphasizes the fact that it will give Miss Oliver, literally, truly and in-fact, an all-star cast recruited from the best comedy kings and queens of Hollywood.




“STREET OF WOMEN”

The completed roster of players for “Street of Women,” which entered production late last week, at First National studios on the West Coast, now reads as follows, according to latest advices from Hollywood:
Natalie, Kay Francis; Link, Roland Young; Doris, Gloria Stuart (replacing Marian Marsh, who is ill); Larry, Allan Dinehart; Lois, Marjorie Gateson; Clarke, Allen Vincent; and Maid, Louise Beavers. Production supervisor for the film is Hal Wallis and Archie Mayo will direct.

Allen Vincent, named above for the role of Clarke, is a juvenile with a considerable Broadway reputation. He was seen on the stage in “The Vinegar Tree,” with Mary Boland.




STAGE WEDDING TO START PICTURE

The showing of the widely heralded RKO Pathe human interest drama, “Young Brides,” which is scheduled for showing at the RKO Majestic starting Thursday, will be given an appropriate opening with a real life wedding on the stage at the 9 o’clock performance.

Co-operating merchants and the Majestic will be the donors of gifts to the couple chosen to be married, which will include the license, the ring, the wedding clothing worn, a honeymoon trip by airplane, hotel accommodations and other gifts.

In the leading roles of the picture “Young Brides” will be seen Helen Twelvetrees, Eric Linden, Arline Judge, Cliff Edwards, Roscoe Ates and Polly Walters.




RIALTO FEATURES OLSEN-JOHNSON

Winnie Lightner, who comes to the Rialto theatre Tuesday next in “Gold Dust Gertie,” Warner Bros. uproarious comedy, which also features Olsen and Johnson, has something to say in praise of the latest beauty baths.

“Anna Held rates credit for inventing the milk bath. Several actresses have taken credit for the champagne bath, designed for other purposes than beauty, and one famous movie star once advocated a buttermilk bath for the skin you love to touch – but take it from Winnie the fish bath tops them all!

You take this bath in a boat, entirely surrounded by fish of every sort and condition. I am just recovering from the effects of two days spent in taking such a bath. Clad only in a bathing suit and a pair of duck trousers, without even stockings to keep the fish off my legs, endured the rigors of deep sea fish bathing with only Olsen and Johnson, as companions in my misery.




MENJOU STARS FRIDAY

Adolphe Menjou had to work hard to keep from being outshone by his fellow players in “The Great Lover,” which will be shown Friday at the State theatre.

For Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gathered together a group of unusually prominent players for their film version of the celebrated New York stage success, even going so far as to borrow Irene Dunne from another studio because she seemed the ideal type for the feminine lead opposite Menjou. Miss Dunne recently received critical acclaim for her work in “Cimarron.”

The other principal feminine player is the tempestuous Russian actress, Baclanova, back in films after a long vaudeville tour. Baclanova’s last notable picture appearances were in “Docks of New York,” “Avalanche,” “Wolf of Wall Street,” and “Forgotten Faces.”




BARRYMORES AT MAJESTIC NOW

An auspicious event of the 1932 screen season is the opening today at the Majestic theatre of “Arsene Lupin,” featuring John Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore in the first joint appearance of the celebrated stars in a motion picture. Karen Morely, John Miljan and Tully Marshall have important supporting roles in the production, which was directed by Jack Conway, who last scored with “Paid.”

The well-known mystery stories of Maurice Le Blanc which idealize the debonair French thief Arsene Lupin, supplied the motivation for the first appearance together of the two Barrymore brothers, although the picture is more directly based on the Paris stage success on which Le Blanc collaborated with Francis de Croisset.




BIG PARADE RETURNS WITH SOUND

A treat is in store for moviegoers starting Monday at the Empire theater, for “The Big Parade,” King Vidor’s masterpiece, has been reissued by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with sound effects and will be shown at this theater for three days.

Time has not lessened the effectiveness of this picture.

Sound has also been employed to advantage in the scenes in which the hysterical fever over the populace is at its height at the beginning of the war with its parades, flag-waving, good-byes to the enlisted men and other manifestations of the patriotic fervor. Again the sound of the moving trucks and marching men adds thrills to the stirring sequence in which Renee Adoree as the French girl looks for John Gilbert as the regiment moves to the front, finds him at the last minute and sinks to the roadside clutching the old shoe which he has thrown her.




SUSAN LENOX ON STRAND SCREEN

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had an eye on the box office when they handed Clark Gable the choice assignment opposite Greta Garbo in “Susan Lenox, Her Fall and Rise,” which is one of the feature picture attractions on the Strand theater program starting Sunday.

The picture is one of Garbo’s best in talkies. Modernized, the David Graham Phillips novel makes splendid material for Garbo and as her leading man Gable is more than amply romantic.

Robert Z. Leonard, who makes his first appearance as a director with Garbo in this new production, has been careful to keep the story moving. There is very little of the sitting down and talking-things-over footage in this film. Leonard has employed his camera to every advantage and given his picture a splendid screen presentation that adds vastly to its dramatic qualities.




NORMA TALMADGE FILM IS COMING

In the supreme performance of a brilliant career, Norma Talmadge, United Artists star, makes the glamorous, haunting personality of “DuBarry, Woman of Passion,” which comes to the Palace theater Thursday, step alive from the shadows of the past to again enchant mankind.

She gives piquancy and charm to the lovely milliner who brought a nation to her feet, ruled a king, and lavished the gold of the country for her whims until the red shadow of revolution swept her to disaster. Splendid support is given by Conrad Nagel, as her soldier-lover and William Farnum, as the king who tempted her with riches and power.




WILLIAM HAINES IN DRAMATIC PART

Taking the audience behind the scenes in a large national broadcasting studio to find romance and drama, William Haines and Madge Evans work out the plot of “Are You Listening?” current feature at the Aztec theater.

The film is based on the serialization of J. P. McEvoy’s radio romance by the same title. A large cast including Anita Page, Karen Morely, Joan Marsh, Wallace Ford, Neil Hamilton and Jean Hersholt enact the leading roles. This is Haines’ second straight dramatic part for the screen, his first being in “The New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford,” the performance which won him a new long-term contract.

Three sisters, Laura (Madge Evans), Sally (Anita Page) and Honey (Joan Marsh), come from a small town to the bright lights of Broadway. Laura and Honey go to work at a large national broadcasting studio as singers. Sally takes the easiest way and becomes a Broadway playwright. Laura falls in love with the continuity writer for the station (William Haines) although he is married to a nagging wife (Karen Morley) who refuses to give him up. In despair Laura attempts suicide. In a moment of frenzy, the man shoots his wife. Dragged into scandal and misery, the two lovers fight their way out their difficulties after many dramatic scenes.



A short subject program selected for its variety includes an Oswald rabbit cartoon, a color novelty, “Dream World” and a two-reel comedy, “Keep Laughing.”