Looking fem Over
-' WITH
GAIL GARDNER
Five Star Motion Picture Editor
Gossip
From the Studios and Social Centers
of Hollywood
by Jane
Anita Lou lie
IN A popular Boulevard cafe the other evening,
absorbing sustenance, looking and being looked
at, we . saw Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Hughes, Ann
Page and Jack Warner, the Warner Baxters and
the Charlie Butterworths . . . and they looked as if
they didn't have a care in the world.
Casting directors say J. Farrcll MacDonald
looks exactly like "the ordinary man." Wonder
what a composite picture of the ordinary man
would look like?
Jack Oakie's mother used to introduce Willian
Jennings Bryan, in the good old days, to Chau
tauqua audiences . . . Galli Curci is building a .iev
home in Beverly Hills . . . Clau
dette Colbert is shopping fo.
new furniture.
.
For a very young actress, Anita
Louise has become a veteran
night clubber. It's a poor week
when Anita is not dining with
some juvenile lead. . . . Her
mother, Mrs. Ann Bresford, thinks
its good relaxation for Anita
after a day's work at the studio.
Gloria Swanson's favorite song
is "Penthouse Serenade," while
Billie Burke favors that nice oldtimer, "Alice Blue
Gown."
Hard faces . . . white sunlight shining obliquely
against dusty pavements . . . feet moving quickly
along the Boulevard . . . gold gloves ... color fad
ing into a thousand patterns behind the mountains
. . . hands clutching after vanished dreams . . . dis
illusion . . . that is Hollywood in January.
English author, James Hilton, just over from
dear old London to adapt "Camille" for the next
Greta Garbo picture, is getting his first close-up
of "these unusual Americans." He has published
nine novels and is in his early thirties,
The order has gone out at M-G-M to "build up"
Allan Jones, whom Louis B. Mayer believes will
be the Clark Gable of the coming year. Jones did
some good work in the Marx Brothers comedy
and is now slated to carry on in "The Student
Prince," which was originally planned for Nelson
Eddy.
Myrna Loy, always exclusive, has disappeared
completely from Hollywood's social life since she
built her cabin in the San Bernardino mountains
... a great combination that ... to be in love and
to own a cabin in the mountains at the same time.
Since Joan Blondell's divorce
she has become the popular din
ner and dancing partner of all the
bachelors in town. Joan, always
a good looker, is taking a new
fling at life since she gained her
marital freedom. Nothing helps
so much, in a fling, 'tis said, as a
brand-new wardrobe, a slimmer
figure and a new style of hair
dress all of which Joan has.
After Sam Goldwyn gets back
from Europe he is going to put "Come and Get It,"
the Edna Ferber novel, into production. Edna has
finished the ending she would like to see in the
movie version, She was never satisfied with the
ending of her novel. The pulchritudinous Virginia
Bruce cops the lead and that's a big break for Vir
ginia. Jimmy Gleason withdraws to his workshop when
bored with life, to make hobby horses and pogo
sticks . . . the David Selznieks (Irene Mayer) are
preparing to greet a second heir within a month
or two . . . not to mention the Norman Fosters,
who will shop for a cradle about mid-summer.
That mythical guy, the follow who writes open
letters to the editors of newspapers, is to be seen
on the screen.
In "Exclusive Story," Charles Trowbridge will
portray the follow who is unseen but not unknown
in every newspajx'r office in the world.
The Columbia studios have started on a new
cycle .of high-Hwored productions. Richard Dix
is doing "Devil's Squadron," Bruce Cabot is work
ing in "Money Mad," and Gary Cooxr is taking
the lead In "Opera Hat."
Cowboys and Indians are back with us at the
RKO Radio studios. Three hundred extras aponr
in some covered wagon scenes of .Wheeler and
Woolsey's current comedy feature, "The Wild
West."
Ralph Forbes, English actor, is before the
cameras this week in a C. C. Burr production
called "I'll Name the Murderer."
Ray K. Johnson is directing.
Wishing to get away from it all, Clark Gable's
next holiday will be sont in a lonely valley about
a hundred miles from Taos, New Mexico, where
trout fishing is said to be excellent. Clark doesn't
PAGE FOUR
Joan Blondell
f
' I it V. i ;:r;" -
mAjv mi -.'-
Actually they aro Mr. and Mrs. Franchot Tone, but their domestic life is reserved tor themselves and ot the movie
fans. Publicly, of course, she's Joan Crawford. s
'.-'
Marriage and Career? Joan Crawford
and G Husband Have Both and Like it
Domestic Side of Her Life With Franchot Tone Hidden But on the Screen, They Seek Fame Together
By DONNA RISHER
FRANCHOT TONE will never be "the man Joan
Crawford married."
This well-mannered young man with a wistful
smile is, and will remain, a personality in his own
right, a player of stage and screen distinguished
from other players by the fact that he has a good
speaking voice and an unnamed quality designated
as "something" apart from personality.
And his marriage, if he is able ts maintain the
independent stand he ha3 taken with his studio,
will forever remain a thing apart from his career.
To this Joan agrees.
In fact, the Tones have already refused to sub
mit to "homey" pictures taken together for pub
licity purposes. It is their wish to live within their
own palatial walls, secure from the eyes of news
paper readers. Unless they undergo a change of
heart, there will be no pictures of Joan in a morn
ing negligee pouring the morning coffee at the
breakfast table, with young Tone gazing fondly
at her on the other side of the urn.
Such intimate glimpses of their happy domes
ticity, tho studio reports, are not to be photo
graphed, not for a minute.
Meanwhile, few movie fans know much about
the youthful groom.
ANEW YORKER by birth, he comes from a
wealthy family and when or if his popularity
should wane in Hollywood, he can return to the
family circle and enter into the carborundum busi
ness an artificial compound of carbon and silicon
which his father, Frank J. Tone, heads.
This chance to enter business, however, was
turned down by young Tone while a student at
Cornell. Thiro a desire to express himself in the
drama grew within him after he was elected to
the presidency of the Cornell Dramatic Club.
Upon graduation, he entered stock in Buffalo,
leaving the next season for New York, where he
received his first real training in the Group Thea
ter, the Thentcr GuiH and the New Playwright's
Theater in Groenwich Village.
In Hollywood he has been cast as a "gentleman"
by the movie-working officials. Tone doesn't mind
the role, but he does prefer parts which would
allow him to "dig in" to ."work inside, mentally,"
instead of from "v:thov.t."
He looks upon his -vork, in "Mutiny of the
Bounty" with pleasure because he said it was an
inspiration to him to work with Charlie Laughton.
He had "more fun." however, in the pictures
where he appeared with Joan, such as "Today We
Live" and "Dancing Lady."
"But if you noticed," he declares, "I always lost
her to some other fellow."
IF THE time ever comes when Tone and his wife
can get a leave at the same time from their
studio, they want to visit New York and jointly
appear in a stage play.
Neither has any compunction of merging their
careers, it seems, in the consciousness of the pub
lic; it is only their home life that must not be
exposed to public view.
Both Franchot and Joan have become more or
less exclusive during the last three years, taking
little part in the social life of Hollywood.
Young Tone objects to the movie center, on the
ground that everything is either all social or all
work. He thinks the atmosphere here is not con
ducive to the happy medium of living good con
versation and inspiration.
His intimates are few and when he is not work
ing he is indulging his fondness for music and
books. A collector of books in a small way, he has
acquired some valuable tomes on the art of acting.
Seldom does he go in for sports like so many
of the actors in Hollywood..
No strenuous hor3cback riding or golf can lure
him away from his own fireside during leisure
hours. In fact, he considered the horseback riding
he did in "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" enough
to last him a lifetime.
' He is of Irish descent, the French-sounding
Franchot comes from his mother's people.
say whether he will be lonely in the lonely valley
or not. Probably not.
Warren Williams rides to the studio in a new
portable dressing room.
It is equipped with radio, wardrobe racks, phone
and a couch.
Herbert Mundin has challenged Edward Arnold
to a checker duel. The losrr must take the winner
and his wife to Palm Springs for a week-end.
Donald Woods was born with the name of Ralph
Louis Zink in Erandon, Manitoba, Canada.
He has appeared in more than 350 stage plays
during his career in stock.
A Shot at Some Real Fans Who Tell the Stars What to Do '
Arc fo
- X
mm V
fry
12l
Bette Davis
Leslie Howard
Smle Trscy, the daughter of Spencer Tracy, is getting a lesson in lariat throwing from her dad at the left: center
Is Stuart Erwin, M-G-M comedian, who doesn't look so funny with his recently arrived daughter, June Dorothea:
right, Chester Morris and his small daughter Cynthia tnjoy a swim In the Morris pool at their Beverly Hills Horns.
CHARACTERIZED by a bustle of activity, this
waning winter season finds motion picture
screerfs everywhere in luxuriant bloom.
One of the finest is "The Petrified Forest," a
gripping tale of love and heroism laid in the color
ful Arizona desert, starring Leslie Howard and
Bette Davis. It is the sort of pic
ture the whole family will discuss
when it gets to talking movies at
the dinner table, because the
story is one that could and
often does in these United States
happen indiscriminately to
most anybody.
It is based on a common event
seen daily in the newspapers
gangsters after pulling off a job,
stopping at a service station for
gas. There the action begins ano
ends.
Howard rlavs the part of a dis
illusioned, frustrated writer who has been living
off tho bounty of a wealthy wife. He decides to
regain his self-respect, to find the beauty he thinks
he has missed. His search leads him to a service
station 15 miles from the Petrified Forest. There
he also finds Eette Davis, who as Gabby, an American-French
"rirl with a flair for modern art and a
longing for love, keeps him interested.
Soon the action finds the gangsters, the lovers,
a sheriff's posse and whatnot all together and
shooting it out. Howard is snot.
But you'll like ths ending, or at
least yo'u should appreciate it be
cause the Warner Brothers, First
National scratched their heads
for days in worriment, trying to
figure out the right fadeout com
patible with box' office demands.
Breathtaking shots of the desert.
EMERGING from the open
spaces, we go farther down the
street and on a neighboring
screen watch "The Widow from
Monte Carlo," co-starring Do
lores Del Rio and Warren Williams.
Since the screen play is an adaptation from the
English stage success, "A Present from Margate,"
it abounds in Duchesses, Lords and His Majesty's
men.
Dolores plays the part of the Duchess Inez, who
' to escape the boredom of entertaining relatives, .
slips out of her home to the Casino for an evening
at the gaming tables. There she meets Warren
Williams (Major Chepstow). The designing rela
tives insist Dolores marry their nephew, Colin
Clive (Erick Richmond) of the Diplomatic Service,
but Dolores, after being compromised well, write
your own ticket.
Elaborate sets, beautiful gowns and good jpho
tography. The picture is entertaining, but not one
to further Miss Del Rio's career or improve her
box-office draw.
.
ACROSS the way the name of Benita Hume
looms in front of the theater.
Benita is the girl, you remember, who escaped
so successfully from the blind anger of Johnny
Weismuller cinematically, of course in "Tarzan
Escapes," but who does not have such good for
tune when she clashes with Edmund Lowe in her
latest screen effort, "The Garden
Murder Case."
Benita, a lovely trained nurse,
although under suspicion, helps
clear up the baffling deaths of her
patients, to the satisfaction of
Philo Vance (Eddie Lowe). Philo,
by the way, falls in love for the
very first time in his long series
on the screen. The object of his
affection is Virginia Bruce, who
gets a chance to show off some
lovely new gowns and a brand
new blond bob.
The offering seems to have
been made to order for the thousands of theater
goers who follow Philo and his Hawkshaw ad
ventures. THAT hard-fisted guy, James Cagney, is still
busting his carefree way through six reels of
this, his latest, "Ceiling Zero." Ever since "Here
Comes the Navy" became a nation-wide hit, Cag
ney and his bosses have been praying for another
picture just as popular. Luck, it seems, perches
on ineir snoulders. tor this new
vehicle contains what it takes, it
seems, to make Cagney admired.
It is a thrilling aviation story
about three pals Gagney, Pat
O'Brien and Stuart Erwin, in a
il.M.. r: J .. u : - . -
i r uiiwitoji ii i--iiuouij iu uo or die
Sg for each other. There is danger,
iuvc, Minure, puiiios ana aeain,
not to mention the pretty heart
interest in this modern flicker.
The smashing finale Cagney in
an exciting plane crash with
O'Brien in the fadeout hanging
Cagney's "washed out" sisrn on
l bulletin board. The nipture una mnrl,.
to appeal to youth. It moves fast and is intelli
gently photographed.
Jr.
Benita Hume
i ' M
James Cagney
the airport';