May 5, 1932

PLENTY OF FIGHT IN JANET GAYNOR

And She Usually Wins Her Fights With Studio Over Pictures, Too

She’s The Main Star On Fox List

By Robin Coons – Hollywood, May 5

There is a lot of courage and fighting spirit in the tiny, starry-eyed and red-head miss called Janet Gaynor. You might not suspect that little Janet, with her sweet voice, can speak with authority and almost always have her way. But twice in the past two years she has done it.

When she didn’t want to play in “Liliom” she walked out and went to Honolulu. When she came back she got what she wanted. Recently she turned down “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” as a vehicle, insisting on “The First Year” instead. She got it.

Underneath that disarming sweetness Janet has a good sound head. She says:

“I didn’t object to ‘Rebecca’ because it was so much the type of picture I’ve been doing. I really don’t mind being typed as the character fans know. I think it’s silly to talk about my wanting to be a ‘new’ Janet Gaynor, because I know I can’t. I know I can’t be a Garbo or Shearer ever.

“My part in ‘The First Year’ isn’t heavy or dramatic, but it has some depth to it. That’s what I want. I think all I really have is sincerity. That’s what has carried me through in the change from silents to talkies. My voice has been criticized, brutally sometimes, and I think I’ve gotten by only because I am sincere.

I couldn’t be sincere in ‘Rebecca,’ and besides it is a part for a comedienne, which I am not. That’s why I objected to playing it. But we didn’t fight about it. We just talked it over and they agreed with me.”

(Small wonder they “agreed” with Janet at that. She’s the ace of box-office attraction on the Fox lot, and that isn’t forgetting Will Rogers, either.)

Janet, I know, lost $50,000 in salary by walking out on “Liliom.” Even to a star that’s a lot of money, and Janet likes the things money buys.

On her return from Honolulu she played in “The Man Who Came Back,” in which she played a sweet girl who turned narcotic addict. She knows she wasn’t very convincing in the part, but believes it did her no harm. For then came “Daddy-Long-Legs,” a typical Gaynor role, and the contrast made it the more welcome. “Merely Mary Ann” and “Delicious” have been on the same order and she believes “Rebecca” would have been just too much.

A lot of the big stars who don’t like the way they’re treated talk about accepting salary suspension. Few of them do it. Janet, who looks like a child, had spunk enough to prove the exception. And you can believe that studio respects her for it.




ACTRESS ASKS FOR PROBATION

Los Angeles, Cal., May 5 (AP)
Having lost their first move to evade serving a thirty-day jail sentence, Mary Nolan, actress, and her husband, Wallace T. Macrery today indicated, through their attorney, that they would apply for probation, or appeal to the state supreme court.

The pair was convicted of violating the state labor laws on March 11. The appellate department of the superior court yesterday upheld the conviction and sentences.

Miss Nolan, formerly known on the New York stage as Imogene Wilson, and Macrery, were convicted of failing to pay employees of a gown shop which they operated in Hollywood.

Miss Nolan is now on a theatrical tour. She has forty-eight hours within which to surrender, and five days within which to final an appeal. Her husband is said to be accompanying her on tour. Both are at liberty on $200 bonds.




MIRIAM HOPKINS DIVORCE EXPLAINED

Hollywood, May 5 (INS)
Miriam Hopkins, who adopted a baby boy in Chicago yesterday, divorced her husband, Austin Parker, playwright, in Juarez, Mexico, by airmailing a divorce complaint from Hollywood to Juarez, her attorney, Manuel Ruiz, announced here today.

Miss Hopkins obtained the divorce through “mutual consent,” Ruiz said, but he declined to reveal the date.




HOLLYWOOD MEDIC UP ON DOPE CHARGE

Los Angeles, Calif., May 5 (AP)
Dr. R. Jesse Citron, once a physician to prominent Hollywood and Beverly Hills personages, was called into federal court today for trial on charges he illegally supplied narcotics to the late Alma Rubens, motion picture actress.

Mrs. Theresa Rubens, mother of the actress, is to be the principal prosecution witness. The case will be heard without a jury.




GILDA GRAY WON’T CONFIRM BETROTHAL

New York, May 5 (UPI)
Broadway hummed today with a rumor that Gilda Gray, the dancer, plans to marry again. Her prospective husband was described as “a wealthy Bostonian.”

At the Savoy-Plaza hotel, Miss Gray said: “I won’t confirm the report, but I won’t deny it either. Maybe I’ll say something about it in a few days.”




HOLLYWOOD SEEKS STUDIO-ACTOR TRUCE

Hollywood, Calif., May 5 (UP)
Hollywood will try to settle its own differences without resorting to courts of law.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has called a special meeting to consider what action, if any, should or must be taken in the controversies between studios and actors.

These cases involve Marlene Dietrich, Josef Von Sternberg and James Cagney, all of whom have been suspended from their studios.

The conciliation committee of the academy in the past has brought about the adjustment of numerous disputes.




MONTY BANKS MAKING TOUR

New York, May 5 (AP)
Monty Banks, divorced in California a week ago, sailed for Europe last night, waving good-bye to his former wife, standing on the pier.

In his divorce petition, the screen comic charged his wife disappeared for five days without an explanation. Following the divorce action he came East, Mrs. Banks following.

She called on him yesterday before sailing time, taking him a bunch of gardenias. Neither would discuss the matter of a reconciliation, but as the boat moved slowly from the pier it was observed he was waving to Mrs. Banks – and wearing a gardenia.




BEULAH BONDI EN ROUTE WEST, IN NEW TALKIE

Valparaiso, Ind., May 5
Miss Beulah Bondi, who has been visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Bondy, for the past two weeks, en route from New York to California, left Wednesday morning for Hollywood via Denver, Colo.

Miss Bondi was the guest of honor at several functions while here. Sunday, Mrs. Garland Windle gave a tea to the mutual friends in her honor.

Upon arriving in Hollywood, Miss Bondi will begin work in the talkie, “Rain,” a United Artists picture being produced by Joseph Schenck. She will play the character of Mrs. Davidson, the missionary’s wife.

Her many friends will look forward to this production, having scored such a tremendous success in her character work in “Street Scene,” which the local people were privileged to see several months ago at the Premiere.

Miss Bondi will be in Hollywood the entire summer.




FILM COMPANY STARTS $18,000,000 PROGRAM

Los Angeles, May 5 (AP)
An $18,000,000 production program, the largest in the history of the studio, was announced today by Universal Pictures Corp.

Carl Laemmle Sr., president of the corporation, said the studio had decided that business trends were turning upward.

The program calls for 26 features, 26 two-reel comedies, 32 one-reel comedy shorts, cartoons, novelty releases and 104 news reels.

Casts will be sent to Greenland, Tahiti, Africa and the Malay archipelago during the year to make several of the feature productions.




MOTION PICTURES IN 3d DIMENSION SHOWN

San Francisco, May 4 (UP)
Motion pictures in the third dimension were screened here today.

A 35-year-old inventor, Charles Monroe Stitt, came to San Francisco from a small town in interior California and demonstrated movies possessing the long-sought stereoscopic effect of depth at a private showing to representatives of the United Press.

“With natural color and sound already added to the motion picture,” Stitt said, “we feel that in giving the dimension of depth, the illusion is complete.”




FILM DOCTOR KILLS HIMSELF

Hollywood, May 5 (INS)
Dr. George T. Boyd, physician prominent in the film colony, today committed suicide in a manner as dramatic as some of the screen plays of his celebrity patients, according to police.

Sitting in his car in a lonely spot in the Hollywood hills, and looking down on the city, he chose between two ways of death – a physician’s hypodermic needle and an automatic.

Dr. Boyd selected the needle, and while waiting for the drug to kill him used his prescription blank to write a note to his wife explaining “You will be better off without me. My insurance will tide you over until times get better…”

He died, authorities said, before completing the note.




STARS PASS MAKE-UP ROLE WHEN THE TASK IS A DIFFICULT ONE

By Robert Grandon
Recently I received a letter from an enthusiastic fan questioning as to the ways and means of studio makeups. “Do the actors apply their own makeup?” the letter went on, “or does some expert do the work? Or how is it accomplished?”

Like everything else, it all depends upon the character and the difficultly. For ordinary straight roles, the actor puts on the grease paint and wields the rabbits foot himself. But for a character part, or some difficult undertaking, it is a different story.

Veteran actor though he is, Walter Huston went under the hands of a makeup man for his role in “Abraham Lincoln.” Reproducing a noted historical character is best accomplished this way.

Lewis Stone applied his own makeup for the doctor in “Grand Hotel,” though it was a long and tiresome process.

The late Lon Chaney, specializing as he did in the grotesque roles, was his own makeup man.

Frederic March went under makeup hands in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” as did Boris Karloff as the monster in “Frankenstein.”



Loretta Young was on the verge of despair when they gave her the part of the Chinese girl in “The Hatchet Man.” Perc Westmore, master makeup man of Warner Brothers, made her over into an Oriental. It was one of the masterpieces of the year. Russ Westmore is another of the experts who build up characters for RKO.

One of the best known of all, perhaps, due to the tremendous advertising his products have received is Max Factor. From his studios in Hollywood he goes forth to create people for the screenies and to fool the camera as well as the public – a job requiring expert talent and nice discrimination.




From Luella O. Parsons
Los Angeles, May 5

Karen Morley has never really given a bad performance. You will agree with me, I know. She is one actress who can be put into any sort of picture and she manages to make good on it.

That is why she is to play the role in “The Claw” opposite Lionel Barrymore that Irene Fenwick created on the stage.

The picture, I have heard, will be called “Washington Life,” but Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer denies any knowledge of this change of title. At any rate, much of the story will be filmed in Washington.

After seeing Lionel Barrymore in “Grand Hotel,” I am one who is willing to say here is an artist and a great one. I cannot help who played Kringelein on the stage. To me his is the greatest of them all.




You would never in the world suspect that writer of excellent comedy, Nina Wilcox Putnam, would go serious on us. Yet that’s just what she has done.

Inspired by her successes in the movies, Nina has written a book called “American Citizen.” It is an epic on the order of “Cimarron,” except that where Edna Ferber builds her story in Oklahoma and shows the opening of that vast territory, Mrs. Putnam chooses New York as her locale.

Charles Rogers has purchased the screen rights to the Putnam novel.

He bought it from a synopsis. The development of New York city from the early days when Manhattan was purchased from the Indians and later, when John Jacob Astor, founder of the Astor fortunes, was a fur trader, will be told in a drama showing the development of New York city.




Okay Chicago! You are going to get a break at last! You are going to have a story written about your town without so much as mentioning a single gangster.

Carl Laemmle, Jr., who lived in Chicago when he was a babe in arms, and his father, who is now on his way there en route to Europe, decided to give the city a break. The picture will be called “Michigan Boulevard.”

It’s an original by Eleanore Dolkart and it tells something of the beauties of this city. Most of the exteriors will be made there and it will be a romance in which Lake Michigan, Lincoln Park and other landmarks will be pictured.




A line or two concerns Dorothy Burgess, reported engaged to Clarence Brown, who has become one of our most “engaged” men. She plays opposite Monte Blue in “The Stoker.” It’s a story by Peter B. Kyne and M. H. Hoffman is bringing it to the screen. Chester Franklin, brother of Sidney and W. K. on his own, will direct.




Ralf Harolde, who is one of my favorite villains, I mean on the screen, plays a part in “Hollywood Speaks” opposite Genevieve Tobin.




John Wayne, the boy who will always be remembered in “The Big Trail,” principally because he didn’t make the goal expected of him, is at Paramount. He is playing a part in “The Challenger,” George Bancroft’s next picture.

Gilbert Roland is at First National. He will play an important role in “Life Begins” with Loretta Young.




Around the luncheon table this week we were discussing various studio phases. One writer said a star cannot be better than her director. Most of them are dependent on good direction. I don’t intend to go into that because I value my life too well. But the fact that Harry Cohn has selected Frank Capra to direct Barbara Stanwyck in “Brief Moment” means a good picture.

Barbara has had mostly good pictures at Columbia. Not all of them have been good at First National, curiously enough. Perhaps because of her directors. “Brief Moment,” by S.R. Behrman, will be put on the screen by Jo Swerling.




Snapshots of Hollywood:
Pretty titian-haired Virginia Bruce with Jack Gilbert at the Olympic Stadium. Sitting next to them was Harpo Marx, playboy of the Marx family. A dark-haired girl, this time, was the recipient of Harpo’s smiles. Marian and Zeppo Marx were also in the Gilbert party.

Ruth Roland expected this week after an absence of many months.

Eric Von Stroheim bringing 30 to the final dance of the season.

John Gilbert host to 10 people at the Mayfair Saturday night.

Gary Cooper renting a beach house.

Roscoe Ates and his pretty daughter, Dorothy, doing some special dance steps at the frolics.




From Wood Soanes:

Tomorrow Douglas Fairbanks returns from his jaunt to the South Seas on the Monowai, so his knight of the typing machine, Mark Larkin, hastens to inform me, bearing with him most of the film that will eventually be shown as “Robinson Crusoe of the South Seas.”

““Man Whom Devil Fears” is the sobriquet given Fairbanks by the South Sea Islanders,” Larkin writes.

“In Polynesian, this nom-de-plume is reverently spoken: ‘Ena matau Ta tiaforo Ita taato ora.’

Doug was curious to know how he gained this appellation and found it started when the natives learned that mosquitoes never bit or even bothered him.

“This was strange and unusual for a white man. It is probably explained by the fact that Doug is tanned, and even much darker than most Polynesians. At all events, the name had its drawbacks. A scene in the picture calls for Doug to dive from the highest mast of the yacht into the waters of the lagoon. The cameras were being placed in position and he started up the mast.

“Suddenly, there was a loud cry from the natives who occupied hundreds of boats in the water. The lagoon began to fill with man-eating sharks. Eddie Sutherland, the director, relayed the news to Doug, who promptly descended.

Then the natives, now safely on the shore, set up another howl – the sharks wouldn’t dare touch him, the man the devil feared – the sharks should be taught a lesson.”

But the Man Whom Devil Fears wisely took no chance on the sharks who may never have heard about the devil.




Plans are being made in New York to present “Grand Hotel” on the stage again at two-dollar prices, which would put it in direct opposition to the movie version. And the stage version of “Cavalcade” has been filmed to enable Frank Borzage, who will direct it for Fox eventually, to get the British atmosphere.




JACK HOLT IS STAR OF FILM AT AMERICAN

“Behind the Mask” Opening Tomorrow, Features Summer Cut in Prices

The American announces new and reduced summer prices, which will go into effect on Friday. The same type of first-run selected pictures will be screened, together with high class short subjects, it is announced.

Friday’s feature will be “Behind the Mask,” starring Jack Holt, Boris Karloff of “Frankenstein” fame, and Constance Cummings. This picture is claimed to be equal to any horror film ever made for thrills and chills. The plot concerns a dope ring that is ruled unmercifully by the unknown power, “Mr. X.”

How a private hospital, where sorceries are practiced, and which is a clearing house for enemies of the dope ring, is brought into this theme, goes to make for unparalleled shudders, it is announced.

Selected short reels and Hearst Metrotone News will also be seen. Thursday night will be marked by the final performance of “Platinum Blonde,” starring Jean Harlow and Robert Williams. Loretta Young is also seen in a leading role.

CURTAIN CALLS

By Wood Soanes

May 4, 1932
There are almost as many ways of getting into the show business as there are actors, but Ginger Rogers, who is gracing the stages of the Paramount this week may lay claim to the adjective unique in her history.

She became an actress because her mother, Helen Rogers of Fort Worth, drama critic, was adamant in her decision that daughter should not get her golden locks stained with printer’s ink – and the staff of the Record, since defunct – the paper, that is to say, not the staff – agreed heartily.

It seems that Ginger’s idea of a perfectly swell way to pass the time was to stroll into the Record office armed with her ukulele and annoy the editorial staff at edition time with tunes and near-tunes. And when the instrument was wrested away, she practiced the Charleston.

So it was with a sigh of relief that the members of the fourth estate who were on the record payroll learned that Ginger had not only entered herself in a Charleston contest but that she had won the first prize and was about to make an appearance on the stage strutting her stuff.



And about this time Mother Rogers began to have serious qualms of conscience. Maybe the newspaper racket wouldn’t be so bad after all in contrast to the stage. Unfortunately for domestic peace, and fortunately for the theatergoers, Daughter Rogers had, and still has, red hair.

“I really believe I would have given in,” she confided in this cubicle yesterday, “but the fates have decided against me.

“Having won the contest, I became more or less public property. I danced at the first ‘personal appearance’ and when I tried to evade the subsequent ones, I was told that I must appear whether I danced or not. When I appeared, I danced and that was that.



“I might have remained a dancer had it not been for the interest Ed Lowry took in me. He was one of the ace masters of ceremonies for the Skouras chain in the east and it was he who taught me how to ‘sell’ a song, how to routine my dances, and how to get over comedy. Now my problem is to convince producers that I am a better comedienne than an ingénue.

“I worked on the Skouras chain for a long while, mostly with Lowry and Paul Ash, and then went into a musical revue called ‘Top Speed.’ I was hired as a dancing comedienne and thought that I was launched on a career. Imagine my disappointment when the next role I got was as leading woman in a musical comedy.

“Now leading women are all right, on the stage and the screen. You have to have them, of course, to give the tenors something to look at when they sing. But usually they are a pretty namby-pamby lot and it isn’t much fun playing them.”



The talk then shifted to the differences, distinctions and preferences of stage and screen. “If I had my choice, it would be the screen,” the youthful star replied. “One of the chief satisfactions of acting is to have an opportunity to play a variety of roles – that is particularly true of the younger player who can only find by trying many things which is best suited.

“In Hollywood, especially if you are on contract, it is not uncommon to play a different role every six weeks. On the stage, if your vehicle is any good and you always hope it will be, you are in the same role for an indefinite period, and much can happen to you in six months or a year.

“I was on a contract for a time at Paramount and more recently became a free-lance player. I was relieved of the contract at my own request because I felt that I could go ahead faster alone. It was a mistake because the studio I first went with in more important roles was taken over by another studio and I was lost in the shuffle.

“Mother and I have established our home in Hollywood now, however, and when this engagement is over, I plan to return there and start my career anew. I have enjoyed the present season but it is hard work. I don’t believe the public realizes what a try these four-shows-a-day are on the actors. Since we started on tour I have spent most of my waking hours in the theater and have been catching my meals on the fly, mostly sandwiches.”



Miss Rogers is an attractive little red-head, intelligent, pleasant and a ready conversationalist. She will be at the Paramount in “Girl Crazy” until tomorrow night giving way to the old maestro Ted Lewis who is bringing in his band for a week on Friday.

May 4, 1932

HELEN KANE IN $250,000 SUIT

New York, May 4
Nobody is going to “boop-a-doop” and make money out of it if Helen Kane, screen and stage star who rode to fame on a “boop,” can help it.

She has filed suit here for $250,000 damages against the Paramount-Publix corporation, Max Fleischer, cartoonist, and the Fleischer Studios, charging that they pirated her “boop-a-doop” in a series of animated cartoons called “Betty Boop Series.”

“Plaintiff,” declared a brief submitted to the supreme court, “originated and still uses a method of singing songs in a novel manner, consisting of the interpolation at frequent intervals of the sounds “boop-a-doop,” or “boop-boop-a-doop,” or similar combinations of such sounds, or simply, “boop” alone.”

The animated cartoons, Miss Kane charges, are an imitation of this legally described “novel manner” of singing and she wants damages and an injunction.




MIRIAM HOPKINS ASSUMES MOTHER’S ROLE

Divorced Actress Adopts Baby Boy

Chicago, May 4 (AP)
Miriam Hopkins, film actress, adopted a baby boy in Chicago Wednesday and left this city in a huff because press and public were too curious.

Officials of the Cradle society, orphanage in Evanston, said they did not expect Miss Hopkins to take the child from the home for several days. The child’s last name is Wilson, a woman attendant said, but further information was not forthcoming.

“I hate all this publicity,” Miss Hopkins told reporters after a county judge had granted permission for the adoption. “I can’t give you any reason for it. It’s just a fact.” She later declared “I have nothing to say.”

The blonde actress revealed at the court hearing, however, that she has been divorced from Austin Parker, playwright. She claimed to be leaving for New York Wednesday, and the orphanage expected her to get the child on her way back to Hollywood.

In court she said she would rear the child as her own and had already set aside a trust fund for the boy.




MOVIE INDUSTRY FACING REAL STRUGGLE

Hollywood, Cal., May 4 (AP)
Hollywood today “dug in” to face a “three to five year struggle” which lies before the motion picture industry.

The screen will be lucky if it can adjust itself to new conditions within that time, Sidney R. Kent, new president of the Fox Film Corporation, last night told approximately four hundred members of the industry, at an “all-industry conference” sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Handing out the sackcloth and ashes of “cold, hard facts,” Kent advised all members of the business to don them and face the situation united.

“The industry is in a very serious condition,” he declared. “The next few months in my opinion will be the most critical months the industry has ever faced. Grosses are going down and we haven’t yet been able to cut expenses enough. We have got to strike a balance, on the work of executives as well as of stars and directors. The industry must get down to brass tacks.”

There must be a general concord on the matter of adjusted salaries, Kent emphasized, for the time has passed, he said, when the misfortune of one company is the good fortune of another. Those who refuse to accept a cut in salary may find themselves holding contracts that are worthless because the companies making them have passed into receivership, he warned.

“In my opinion,” he said, “a three to five year struggle lies ahead of the industry. I too would like to see a complete recovery by August 1, but I am not sure that would be best, for it is important that the industry come back right rather than it come back in three months with a half-cure.”

Kent blamed over-expansion in prosperous years as a cause of the picture business’ present difficulties, as well as problems arising from the introduction of sound into films such as limitation of the market.

“I am optimistic in a long-range viewpoint of the industry, for there is nothing in the world that can kill the motion picture business,” he declared.

J. L. Warner of Warner Brothers-First National, corroborated Kent’s statements regarding the crisis in the picture world, told of his own company’s being overburdened with theaters, and declares the acceptance of salary cuts essential to the survival of the industry.

The exhibitor’s viewpoint was presented by M. A. Lightman, Memphis, Tenn., president of the Motion Picture Theater Owners of America, who declared for “fewer pictures but good ones.” He advocated the closing of many theaters to solve the problem of over-seating, as well as the present need for the producers to meet the surplus theaters’ demand for product with quantity rather than quality.

Many pictures have been superb, he said, but a public weary “of just sound, or wisecracks, of sophisticated vulgarity” wants above all else sincerity – “not necessarily brutal naturalism but not sentimental trash. It wants human stories told sincerely and artistically, directed by strong forces that can feel and live the parts of all the characters and can thus inspire convincing interpretations.”

Lightman’s statement that “the belief that the public wants broad indecencies is a fallacy,” brought applause.




THE BEST BETTE IN THE MOVIES

Richard Bennett, father of Joan and Constance Bennett, film stars, told charming Bette Davis that she was an exact cross between his two daughters.

So that’s why, maybe, Bette left Boston to enter films.




MOVIE STARS PRESENT AS HOLLYWOOD CLUB IS RAIDED BY DRY AGENTS

Hollywood, May 4 (UP)
Twenty Hollywood celebrities had an evening’s entertainment disrupted last night when Federal prohibition agents raided Tony Luci’s Night Club, one of the most exclusive in Hollywood. None of the guests was molested.

The establishment, in the heart of the film studio district, catered only to film celebrities.

The agents seized 500 bottles of choice wines and liquors and arrested two men and a woman on charges of violating the prohibition act.




From Luella O. Parsons:

My favorite boy friend, Jackie Cooper, writes to say that he is having a swell time on his vaudeville tour. “Chicago is a keen town,” writes Jackie. “I went to a play where they tell you about the moon and I saw it in a picture, too.”

Jackie says he is working hard but he misses Hollywood and “please,” he says “write me and tell me what is doing there.” He spells “Holly Wood” in two words with a capital H and a capital W. We miss him, too.

If Jackie hasn’t heard, I can tell him he is due to make a circus story with Wallace Beery. The name is “O’Shaughnessey’s Boy,” and Sam Wood will direct it. Wally sent him a message over the radio at the “Grand Hotel” opening.



One sure way to get in right with the movies seems to be to knock them often and to retell rumors that nine times out of ten are based on fiction.

Walter Winchell, whose radio talks roused great ire in Hollywood, has had nine offers to play in the movies. Winchell, who broadcast many rumors that were resented in film circles, is being sought after by the very people he publicized in this fashion.

Felix Young of Universal studios went to Santa Barbara to try to get Winchell to play a lead in a picture. Winchell is too smart to listen to any of these offers. He is smarter, it would seem to me, than the people who are making the offers.




Three cheers and a tiger for Colleen Moore! She had to prove to these screen producers that she is no amateur when it comes to movies. They were colder than the proverbial iceberg to Colleen after the advent of the talkies, but now they are all on her trail and want to sign her. “Church Mouse,” a stage play, did it.



Chatter in Hollywood:

Germany has been watching the Dietrich-Von Sternberg-Schulberg discussion with interest. It wouldn’t hurt the feeling of U. F. A. if Marlene didn’t make any more pictures in America, because they’d like to have her back.

She received a cable, I hear on excellent authority, asking her to return and assuring her of everything she wants in the way of story, cast and direction.

I asked Marlene if she were going back to Germany with her husband. She said no, she hadn’t made any such decision. But I shouldn’t be surprised if, after she talks over the matter with Josef Von Sternberg, she did return to make a picture.



Snapshots of Hollywood:

Edgar Allen Woolf, the local Beau Brummel, illustrating what the well-dressed man wears at the opening of the play Ruth Chatterton directed. He was escorting Mrs. Jack Warner, wearing a New York creation of blue, and Mrs. Harry Rapf in white.

Ruth Chatterton slipping into a back seat with Laura Hope Crews to hear the last act of the English play. Ralph Forbes, one of the stars, bringing Ruth out on the stage in response to repeated calls.

John Gilbert host to ten people at the Mayfair Saturday night. Eric von Stroheim bringing thirty to the final dance of the season.

Maurice Chevalier, sunning himself on the beach with Marlene Dietrich and her husband.

Barbara Bebe Lyon calling on Maria Sieber. Marlene’s young daughter had the distinction of having Chevalier sing “One Hour With You” for her sole benefit. Irving Berlin, Jr., accompanied by his father and mother, who are also well known, called on Barbara. Irving Jr. was so indifferent to her charms she retaliated by pulling on his blonde curls.




TWO ALL-STAR TALKIES, PLAN OF PARAMOUNT

“Song of Eagle” and “If I Had Million” Are Scheduled

By Chester B. Bahn
Following the example set by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with “Grand Hotel,” Paramount will produce two all-star features for its 1932-33 program.

The schedule, as it now stands, calls for a total of 45 features. Helen Hayes will appear in one, Maurice Chevalier in two, Harold Lloyd in one, and if the Marlene Dietrich controversy is adjusted, the German star will make three talkies.

“The Song of the Eagle” and “If I Had a Million” will be the all-star productions.

Present schedule calls for Miss Dietrich to appear in “Blonde Venus,” “Deep Night” and “Promised.” “Love Me Tonight” and “The Way to Love” are the Chevalier features. “Horse Feathers” and “Movie Crazy” are the titles for the Four Marx Brothers and Harold Lloyd comedies, respectively.

Titles for the remaining features are:

“The Mirrors of Washington,” “R U R,” “I Can’t Go Home,” “Blood and Sand,” “Madame Butterfly,” “Anything for Sale,” “Not Married,” “The Glass Key,” “The Phantom President,” “The Girl Without a Room,” “A Farewell to Arms,” “The West Pointer,” “Lives of a Bengal Lancer,” “Madison Square Garden,” “70,000 Witnesses,” “Dream Without Ending,” “Riddle Me This,” “The Big Broadcast,” “The Trouble With Women,” “The Song of Songs,” “Lone Cowboy,” “Hot Ice,” “Fires of Spring,” “The Sign of the Cross,” three outdoor specials, “Hot Saturday,” “No Bed of Her Own,” “The Island of Lost Souls,” “The Red Temptation,” “Pick-Up,” “Connecting Rooms,” “The Lusitania Secret.”

Universal’s schedule for the new film year calls for 26 features, including two co-starring Slim Summerville and ZaSu Pitts.

Other titles include “Counsellor at Law,” “Laughter in Hell,” “The Old Dark House” with Boris Karloff, “The Prison Doctor,” “Manna,” “Cagliosstro,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “The Flight Commander,” “Laughing Boy,” “Left Bank,” “The Invisible Man” and “Iceberg,”



Tabloid review of the split-week feature –

“Racing Youth” is the usual hoke mixture of race thrills and romance, scarcely convincing and certainly not for critical cinemagoers. Heart interest falls to Frank Albertson as a young mechanic and June Clyde as the masquerading auto factory heiress. Louise Fazenda and Slim Summerville supply the laughs.

Last minute Rialto news –

James Cagney has offered to make three talkies for Warner Brothers without salary if the studio will cancel his five-year contract; Warners has rejected the proposition...

Arthur Caesar may adapt “Once in a Lifetime” for Universal...

Helen Coburn, legit actress, has been signed by M-G-M...

Irv. Cummings will direct six more talkies for Columbia...

Paul Muni will star for Warners in “Lawyer Man.”

Norma Talmadge has gone abroad...

Al Jolson’s talkie will be “Heart of New York.”

Emil Jannings will do a stage play in London...

Mitzi Green will star in “Little Orphan Annie.”

Hank Mann joins Jack Oakie in that Olympic games comedy...

Bob Montgomery will be opposite Marion Davies in “Two Blondes.”

Casting assignments: Kent Taylor for “Forgotten Commandments,” Joseph Cawthorne for “Love Me Tonight,” Robert McWade for “The Sporting Widow.”

Will Rogers visits the Sahara Desert in his latest starring production, “Business and Pleasure.” The story has been adapted from the novel, “The Plutocrat,” by Booth Tarkington...

“The Roadhouse Murder” will introduce Bruce Cabot to cinemagoers. He’s a husky young giant from the West.




From Wood Soanes:

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell started work this week on “The First Year” for Fox.

Fox, by the way, announces this picture as the last of the forty-eight scheduled for release during the theater season ending July 31. Seven other pictures, two for next season’s release, are now in the work.

The ones for next season are Elissa Landi’s “Burnt Offering” and Will Rogers’ “Down to Earth.”

Another item in the Fox bulletin that may please theatergoers is about the signing of Clara Bow to a contract calling for her return to the screen in Tiffany Thayer’s “Call Her Savage.” Production will start in a few weeks.

George Arliss’ next may be “The Rise and Fall of Rothschild” a story similar, in characterization at least, to his famous “Disraeli.”

Charlie Chaplin’s next is tentatively titled “The Jester” in which he plays a deaf and dumb circus performer.

Wallace Berry with a new contract in his pocket starts work on a Russian story with George Hill as director. It was Hill who handled Beery in “Hell Divers,” “The Big House,” “Min and Bill” and “The Secret Six.” Beery’s latest work is in “Grand Hotel.”

May 3, 1932

NANCY CARROLL AT ODDS WITH MOVIE PRODUCERS

Red-haired Actress Is Fourth Artist in Insurgent Ranks

Hollywood, Cal., May 3 (AP)
The ranks of indigent motion picture artists to-day included Nancy Carroll, red-haired actress. The nature of Miss Carroll’s differences with Paramount Studios was not disclosed, although she has been off salary from the studio for several weeks as a result of disagreements.

Miss Carroll is the latest of four film artists at odds with their employers.

Marlene Dietrich, James Cagney and Josef Von Sternberg previously announced severance of relations with their studios.

Von Sternberg, returning to Hollywood from New York last night, said he would never again direct a picture for Paramount. The director and Miss Dietrich were suspended by the studio for failure to produce a story provided them. They said they considered the story “unsuitable.”

“I am quite positive I will not direct again for Paramount and that Miss Dietrich will not appear in another picture for the company,” said Von Sternberg.

Miss Dietrich met Von Sternberg at the railroad station and left with him in his automobile. She refused to make a statement, allowing the director to talk for both of them. Von Sternberg said he had several offers for his services, but that “there are several legal aspects to be gone over before I will accept any of them.”

Cagney, star of Warner Brothers-First National studios, said he would leave for New York within the next few days, quitting his film career for the study of medicine. He had been holding out for a $2400 weekly increase in salary, although his contract already called for $1600 weekly. The studio suspended him when he refused to work.

Miss Carroll, in private life Mrs. Bolton Mallory, was reported to be en route to Hollywood from New York to discuss her differences with Paramount.




DOUG AND MARY WILL BE REUNITED IN S. F.

Hollywood, May 3 (UP)
Doug Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Hollywood’s most famous couple, will be reunited in San Francisco Thursday when Fairbanks and his company return from Papeete, in the South Sea Islands.

Miss Pickford is due here from New York Wednesday and will go to San Francisco to meet her husband.

The Fairbanks party sailed February 17 for Papeete. Included in the party are William Farnum, Maria Alba, Ed Sutherland, director, and several technicians and business representatives.




FATTY ARBUCKLE TO TRY COME-BACK

New York, May 3 (INS)
Roscoe (“Fatty”) Arbuckle, rotund comedian, who formerly thrilled world-wide audiences by his clowning antics for the silent screen, to-day prepared to achieve a comeback.

Arbuckle, with his fiancée, slender titian-haired Addie McPhail, will open in a vaudeville engagement in New York Friday night. If it is successful, he hopes to appear again in the movies.




LOUIS MERCANTON, FILM DIRECTOR, DIES

London, May 3 (UP)
Louis Mercanton, film director, died to-day. He directed “Mothers of France,” said to have been the first foreign film exhibited in the United States.

Film and stage stars who worked under Mercanton’s direction include Sarah Bernhardt, Constance Talmadge, Betty Balfour, Gaby Deslys, Fay Compton and Ivor Novello.




STUDIOS EXPECT STARS WILL TAKE PAY CUTS

Hollywood, May 3
General reduction of stars’ salaries among other companies as well as its own is expected by Warner Brothers as a result of the voluntary cut taken by Richard Barthelmess. They rely on the influence of his example in recognizing present economic conditions and will suggest cuts to players.

Under his former contract, Barthelmess received $150,000 each for two pictures yearly. Under the new two-year agreement he will receive $100,000 each for three pictures yearly, which is practically a 33 1-3 per cent cut.




ACTOR’S PASSPORT CASE IS CONTINUED

Los Angeles, May 3 (UP)
The case of Duncan Renaldo, motion picture actor, charged with making a false affidavit to obtain a passport, was continued today until the September calendar of the United States District Court.




From Luella O. Parsons:

Unrelenting in his fight with the New York censor board, Howard Hughes tells me he is going to battle and battle to a finish for the release of “Scarface.”

“It did a grand business in Los Angeles,” he told me, “and I didn’t hear people criticize it, did you? We didn’t show gangsters in any glorified light.”

All of this brings back the performance of Paul Muni in “Scarface.”

Winfield Sheehan brought Muni out here two years ago, and I looked at marvelous tests and prophesied a future for him. Fox apparently didn’t give him the right stories, and he went back to New York.

Now he is coming out again, and watch what he will do. He has been signed to play the lead in “Lawyer Man” for First National. The story is by Mark S. Potkin.




You couldn’t expect anybody on the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot to verify anything the day before the opening of “Grand Hotel.”

Ethel Barrymore is due here June 1. A long time ago we printed a story that Ethel would appear with her brothers, Lionel and John Barrymore, in a production to be selected by M-G-M or perhaps Radio. There seems to be an exchange of Barrymores between these two companies.

Saturday we heard in a New York wire that the picture will be made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but as I said you just couldn’t verify anything after all the excitement of the premier of “Grand Hotel.” Nobody was in his office, and those who were didn’t want to talk about anything but the opening.




Chatter in Hollywood:

Marlene Dietrich, slender, wearing black and on the arm of her husband attracting as much attention as any star at the “Grand Hotel” opening. She looked happy and seemed unruffled by all the publicity she has received on her broken contract.

“Every time my husband comes here he arrives just when we are having trouble,” she said. “I am glad to be here to help her, “ he answered. He is a good looking young German and he seems devoted to Marlene. When he reached here for the first time, Mrs. Von Sternberg was trying to involve Marlene in her domestic troubles. Now it’s the contract.




John Barrymore, at the last minute, got stage fright and did not attend the premier of “Grand Hotel.” His wife, Dolores Costello, however, soon to become a mother, slipped into the theater to see what everyone says is John’s most charming role. Later I saw her having supper quietly with a couple of friends at the Roosevelt hotel.




Hoot Gibson fortified himself against this recent, uncertain California weather.

Last year his rodeo was spoiled by a downpour and he lost thousands of dollars. This year he didn’t take a chance. He took out an insurance policy with Harvey Priester, local insurance man, which calls for a return of the money invested in case of rain during the hours of nine and three in the afternoon of the day of the rodeo.

All the lads who play in westerns were at the rodeo. Wonder if Ken Maynard was there? His next picture is “Hell-Fire Austin.” If Mr. Maynard was there he didn’t fly. He signed for eight pictures and while he is making them his contract says he must not do any traveling by airplane. The leading lady scheduled to play opposite him is Ivy Merton, erstwhile stage actress.




Snapshots of Hollywood:
Marion Davies, home again after a vacation in the country, held an open house. Gertrude Michael of the New York stage, a guest, had just had a test made for an important role.

Gary Cooper in a very English tweed suit, just back from South Africa, told us all about that fascinating country. Randolph Scott, supposed to look like Gary, was also a guest at Marion’s.

Eileen Percy, still very tanned, Constance Talmadge Netcher in white pajamas trimmed in chinchilla, Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon, Frances Marion, Charles Lederer, Howard Hughes and others dined at Marion’s house.




From Wood Soanes:

Down in Hollywood there is another hub-bub over the walk-out of Josef Von Sternberg and the refusal of Marlene Dietrich to work under a substitute director.

From this distance it looks like a grand publicity scheme, but of course it may be a repetition of the old “Wolf, Wolf” fable. Every time there is a contract to be renewed or a picture to be released, the press agents make a special effort to land copy on the front pages.

If it be a legitimate quarrel, however, I am inclined to side with Von Sternberg and Miss Dietrich and applaud them for their effort to improve the picture product. They accepted a story only to have it returned, after another executive conference, with changes they believed were detrimental.




Robert Montgomery has been given a new contract by M-G-M. His picture “But the Flesh is Weak” will be followed by “Letty Lynton,” in which he appears with Joan Crawford. Montgomery made his picture debut in “So This Is College.”

Clarence Brown, who directed “Letty Lynton,” was also given a new contract just after he received a special transport license from the government. He celebrated both items with a flying trip east where he will buy a new plane and then make a brief tour of Europe.




LAST MINUTE RIALTO NEWS:

By Chester B. Bahn

Louise Fazenda is working in Universal’s “Tonight’s the Night.”

Helen Coburn of the Theater Guild has been signed for M-G-M films.

William Faulkner, author of “Sanctuary,” has been signed to write M-G-M originals, dialog and adaptations.

Paramount has kissed Nancy Carroll goodbye.

Peggy Shannon and Allen Davis (friend husband) are maintaining separate ménages.

Watch for a film merger with William Fox back in harness.

Doug Fairbanks docks in Frisco Thursday and Mary Pickford will be there to greet him.

M-G-M is bidding for the film rights to “Dancing Lady” by James Warner Bellah.

Leslie Banks, signed by Radio, will make his film bow via Columbia, being loaned for the “heavy” role in “The Bitter Tea of General Yen.” Herbert Brenon will direct and the femme leads will be Anna May Wong and Connie Cummings.

George Brent will be Opposite Loretta Young in “They Call It Sin.”

The Barrymore threesome talkie probably will be under the M-G-M banner.

Joan Blondell, Bette Davis and Ann Dvorak will have the leads in “Three On a Match.”




From Robert Grandon:

Oodles and oodles of real romance of the studio...

A fact which was brought to my attention the other noon as we met for luncheon at the Brown Derby. The romance of Leslie Fenton and Ann Dvorak, with the attendant breach-of-promise action, started the conversation.

“Do you know,” somebody said, “Their romance was one of holidays. They were introduced on New Year’s Eve. Next they met on the set on St. Valentine’s Day. Then they flew to Yuma and wed on St. Patrick’s Day.”

“Yes, and don’t forget that their love affair started when they were screen lovers, as have so many other romances,” was the retort.

Which is quite true. John Barrymore fell in love with Dolores Costello when they played in “The Sea Beast.”

It was after William Powell and Carole Lombard were together in “Man of the World” that she decided she loved him.

When “The Virtuous Sin” was being done Kay Francis said “yes” to Kenneth McKenna.

And Harold Lloyd fell for Mildred Davis when she played his leads.

Joan Crawford and Doug (Junior) Fairbanks middle-aisled in the studio and went right on to the church. The picture was “Our Modern Maidens.”

Sally Eilers galloped like all fury through westerns until Hoot Gibson caught up with her and took her away to his ranch.

Jimmy Dunn announced his engagement after “Dance Team.” It was June Knight whom he had met when she doubled in some of the scenes.

Donald Dilaway and Dorothy Jordan have been pairing it since in “Min and Bill.” And Wesley Ruggles wed Arline Judge after directing her in a picture.

And there are several other romances budding in a like way, though they may fall and wither before too long.They are too incipient, as yet, to report .




UNDER EIGHTEEN IS LYRIC ATTRACTION

Marian Marsh in “Under Eighteen” is the feature attraction at the Lyric Theater for Tuesday and Wednesday. Miss Marsh portrays a poor girl who tries with misguided enthusiasm to lift herself into the society of the rich. Others in the cast are Regis Toomey, Warren William, Anita Page, Emma Dunn and Joyce Compton.




NANCY CARROLL IS STAR AT NATIONAL

Nancy Carroll’s new picture, “Personal Maid” from the novel by Grace Perkins, is the attraction at the National Theater for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Glimpses of high life behind doors of Park Avenue are shown in the film. It is a modern story of a maid who finds that money doesn’t bring happiness but whose cleverness, wit, beauty and brains create a sensation in society’s foremost family.

George Fawcett and Nancy Carroll’s sister, Terry Carroll, are included in the cast. A comedy, “The Girl in the Tonneau,” and a travel talk will be shown.