Holly wood After Dark
dan Gardner lakes You For a Trip Through
the "'Real" Side of the Motion Picture Lots
QEAR FOLKS:
You write me that you are just a little tired of
reading about the glamour of the movie stars, the
super-colossal pictures and whatnot and that you
prefer some "real
ity" occasionally.
Okay. Suppose
you meet me at 7
p. m., at the big
iron gate of Para
mount studios?
There we will join
my friend Kenneth
Whitmore. He will
take us on a tour
which will reveal to
you the "real
drama" of Holly
wood. For it is not until
the day ends that
this great epic
begins. The meta
morphosis of night
accomiliphfs p
acle of change with
in the wallcu mi.. .
ors of these picture
making palaces.
New actors arrive
i
Shoes Must be Kept Sorted"
to take the place of the daytime pretenders of
emotion only these are players of practical parts.
These people hold no contracts. The time clock
evaluates their earnings, not that fabulous meter,
the box-office. Their costumes are blue shirts,
overalls, a hammer swung from a thong at the
belt, the uniform of the watchman, the worn dress
of the seamstress. '
THEIR jobs are to build great cities and a few
weeks later .-perhaps a few days destroy them.
They launch great ships, set up kingdoms, evolve
castles from wood and stone, plan crusades, send
airplanes screaming through the night only to
crash in flames.
But no matter what the job, it is theirs without
glamour. And thsse men and women, these work
ers with their hands, take them in their stride.
The night payroll clerk checks them in as the
day crews file out into the darkness. There are
hundreds of them representing every craft. The
crew bosses set them to their tasks, for the picture
business is a restless thing, of constant change.
...... !r. ' " "''''-'
UP IN the wardrobe department a half hundred
sewing machines are whirring, electric outters
shear through bolts of rich fabric. Toil-worn
hands bend over a swirl of silver fox worth a for
tune, patiently stitching it to an imported silk
that a Mae West or a Marlene Dietrich will wear
tomorrow in a make-believe scene.
SEVERAL hundred yards away is a barn-like
room the mill. There the whirr of bandsaws,
the whine of power planes and the angry snarl of
a great circular blade fills the air with a symphony
of wood working. Ten new sets must go up to
night. The intricate monorail that connects this
A half-hundred sewing machines were whirring.
huge room with the fourteen widely scattered
stages on the lot will be busy until dawn.
THE swing gang is already moving from one stage
to another. More sets must be "struck" to
make room for the new. The Alpine railway sta
tion that was here yesterday must make way for
the elaborate New York penthouse which will be
here tomorrow.
Only last week this stage was an Italian fishing
village and the week before that, the throne room
of a Saracen king.
A DIM LIGHT burns over the desk of an orches
trator in the music department. This man
must have ready for tomorrow morning a score
for a fifty-piece orchestra that will accompany
Bing Crosby in one of his numbers. To the right,
a nurse in the hospital treats a crushed rhumb.
In the cafe, the night chef and his helpers put up
300 box lunches for the company going on "loca
tion" tomorrow. A Japanese janitor wades through
the drift of paper on the floor of some writer's
cubicle, a fireman makes his rounds through the
bins and storaee sheds.
PLAY Pretense and Pantomime.
Those are for the day, my dear folks. Holly
vood's real drama begins at night.
Yours,
GAIL.
& J3 H W i A ,.7 urss&L J x
V Jr- A, fev" 1 x V
y-fMi v Y'.
The Burns family, George and Grade, whose particular Drand of Insanity for entertainment purposes boosted them Into the starring class. Left above, Grade and George with
their adopted daugnter, 1-year-old Sandra Jean, and right, Gracie illustrating how easy it is for her to lose weight while George does all the work on the rowing machine.
If You Don't Believe Dumbness Pays,
Just Ask Gracie Allen -or George
It Has Lifted Them to Stardom But Here's the Story of What You Find When
They're Off the Set, at Home With Daughter Sandra Jean ,
: By Donna Risher
won't fish but will play golf at the drop of a hat.
LOOK for George Burns and you'll find Gracie
Allen.
She will be giggling and gushing inanities at
his side, and though George feigns madness at
Gracie's silliness, this is only for effect. They both
know that dumbness pays and pays and pays.
These two are deeply devoted . . . and no wonder
. . they've never been separated in eight years
of married life a fact which led a cynic at
Paramount to remark, "No wonder they're crazy."
Both Went on the stage when children , . . Gracie
at three and George at twelve. Later Gracie started
as a leading lady in San Francisco stock with the
Larry Rcilly company . . . and quit flat when re
fused billing . showing that in youth she had
sense.
Gracie likes violets . . . sweaters . . . and little
hats . . . and she never forgets a face ... or an
injury. She is tiny and brunette ... which has
nothing to do with her chief hobby of riding bi
cycles, boy fashion . . . fishing . . . and . . . match
ing pennies.
Burns was born in New York . . . started his
career as a boy singer ... in a group called the
Peewee Quartet. He calls Gracie "Googie" '
never musses his hair . . . won't carry a cane . . .
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire
Capture Audiences With Dancing
And Songs in "Follow the Fleet"
ONCE upon a time, Fred Astaire made a brief,
screen appearance in "Dancing Lady" with
Joan Crawford the movie-going public forgot to
remember
Three years passed. Today, Astaire and his part
ner, Ginger Rogers, are out in full glory in "Fol
low the Fleet." Their combined efforts have given
the movie customers one of the
finest musical extravaganzas ever
to come out of Hollywood.
This picture will leave no doubt
in the minds of the producers re
garding the box-office draw of
this popular dancing-acting team.
Astaire and Ginger are now on
top of the heap and their efforts
in this particular film will, un
doubtedly, make fabulous sums
for their sponsors, and at the
same time afford splendid enter
tainment for many, many thousands
Lyrics for the picture were written by that mas
ter songster, Irving Berlin. Seven of his most
rhythmic tunes are introduced by various members
of the cast, assisted by well-drilled choruses. A
newcomer, Harriett Hilliard, a New York radio
entertainer, does much towards putting over the
songs, making her screen debut a most successful
one. t
The dancing Miss Rogers turns out is the best
performance of her career. So alert and graceful
is she in her featured rfumbers with Astaire that
her every movement is fascinating. Astaire's dance
with the sailor chorus, on the other hand, is a
clever bit displaying the superlative ability of the
nimble Astaire feet
The settings, nautical in design, are extravagant
and attractive
GEORGE likes the color gray . . . has played 100
vaudeville acts, and it was while in vaudeville
that he met Gracie. She was visiting a girl friend
in a Union Hill, N. J., theater at the time . . ,
George was looking for a girl partner. Neither'had
ever done dialogue, but the audience laughed at
Gracie . . . instead of George . . . and George re
versed the act . . playing "straight" to Gracie
ever since.
Both' believe their marriage is the greatest and
most fortunate event of their lives.
Gracie says George is the world's swellest fel
low. "Because he puts up with me."
The pair got their radio break when Gracie went
on the air with Al Jolson . . . and ten days later
Gracie and George were signed together . . .. They
made their picture debut when the studio wired
them to come to Hollywood to add a few laughs
to a picture then in the making . ; . They remained
to play featured roles. Since then George writes
all their dialogue but doesn't consult Gracie. He
says he knows exactly how she'll react to any
question he "feeds" her . . . which Gracie thinks
is a compliment.
GRACIE receives as much fan mail as any of
the more glamorous movie stars ... in fact
she reached an all high once, when she received
360,000 fan letters in four days during her daft
"missing brother" search.
In Hollywood the two live quietly and their fam
ily life revolves around 12-months-old Sandra
Jean, an adopted daughter.
Gracie superintends everything in the home but
the cooking.
"For if Gracie ever tries to cook," George de
clared, "wfe'll all have to call a doctor."
J-Sas?t"
Humor and Finery In "Ziegfeld"
Fred Astaire
1 mm
Gossip
FROM THE STUDIOS AND SOCIAL
. CENTERS OF HOLLYWOOD
By Jane
: ' 5' V ,
. ...
Joan Crawford
Rosalind Russel
The Inimitable Fanny Brlce steals Sally Rand's fan dance
number In a hilarious scene from "The Great Ziegfeld,"
while pretty Lorna Lowe of Newark, N. J., left, becomes
one of the most glorified In the sams MG-M production.
WATCHING the gay parade along Hollywood
.Boulevard, we'll tell you what we see:
Joan Crawford, dressed in a
navy-blue street suit, hunting for
yellow lampshades, the only other
bit of color she has added to her
favorite home scheme of blue and
white. . . . Virginia Bruce lunch
ing with Edmund Lowe and Di
rector Ed Marin. . . . Allan Jones
looking at yachts in a shop win
dow. . , .. Claire Trevor swinging
down the street towards a beauty
shop.
REQUIRED by the script to ride
into her scene on the hurri
cane deck of a camel, Rosalind Russell reported
her first experience with sea sickneBS.
Despite the fact that the animal's lurching up
and down made the earth come up and hit her in
the face, Rosalind clung grimly to the side of the
howda, praying all the while that her ship of the
desert would not get an uncon
trollable desire to lie down and
roll over.
Three times Miss Russell went
through the scene, "And three
times," said she, "I got three
knots in my stomach."
'
WHEN three-year-old Joan
Russell grows up she can
& DaBt. that she's the only person
yr J&Jk wno evcr socked Robert Taylor
in the eye with a custard pie and
got away with It.
Joan, who is working with
Janet Gaynor and young Taylor in "Small Town'
Girl," is supposed to be a temperamental young
ster who won't eat her dinner. One bit of action
required Taylor to bend over Joan and beg her to
eat. Joan was supposed to say, "No." Instead she
socked Taylor in the eye with a piece of pie.
Director William Wellman, and Miss Gaynor
thought the action very funny. So did everybody
else except Taylor. Three times
more Joan socked him and it
wasn't until much later that the
actor learned the first "take" had
been eminently satisfactory and
the supposed "re-takes" were the
result of the practical joking of
Miss Gaynor and Mr. Wellman.
IN ORDER to offset any alibi by
I noisy people that they did not
know a scene had started, Direc
tor William Sciter has now es
tablished an olficial horn-tooter
on his sets.
The tooter blows a toy horn and a loud ta-ta-taaaa
reverberates through 1 the sound stages.
Scitcr had tried giving sigrtuls with whistles, bells,
handclasps, sirens, yells and whatnot, but none
of them worked.
HERBERT MARSHALL has signed a five-year
contract with RKO. Constantly in demand,
Marshal! in the past steadfastly refused to align
himself exclusively with any one studio.
The RKO contract, however, was so attractive
he changed his mind.
ROCHELLE HUDSON has not been in snow since
childhood, but Bhe is getting her desire for it
fulfilled on a strenuous location trip into the High
Sierras near Truckce for "The Country Beyond."
PAGE FIVE
Robert Tayltr