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Lookin3;r.0ver Li . J4 l GossiP
GAIL GARDNER L . 'V- '"X- i from the studios and social
1 VM Ma. MoT L,e EdH 1 f;; tV, )A---TT?1 CENTERS OF HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood.
rEAR FOLKS:
One time "Ma" Kennedy told me the reason
why What-a-man Hudson appealed so to the pub
lic was because all the world loved a lover.
Apropos of nothing, I was thinking of this when
I stopped in for a few minutes on the M-G-M set
to watch Robert Montgomery play the lover in
"Petticoat Fever." In this picture Bob is a lonely
operator of a Labrador wireless station who finds
adventure when to his isolated, snow-covered cabin
come Myrna Loy and her sour-faced fiance, after
a ship-wreck on the n,ear-by coast. Bob loses his
heart to Myrna at once. He holds her and her
life tfPy
It used to be that the first contract for a film player Immediately sent him (or her) into a frenzy of buying 16
cylinder automobiles equipped with symphonic horns and sun-rivaling spotlights, but those days have gone. Instead,
the modern Thespian socks away the money. Left you see W. C. Fields, basking in his modest home all paid for.
Upper center, lovely Carole Lombard, who could make a terrific splash, but doesn't. Upper right, Jack Oakle, a
leader In the simplicity school. Below, Mrs. Jeanne Colbert with her very famous and thrifty daughter, Claudette.
Flashy Actors Fade From Picture-Post-Depression
Crop Favors Simplicity
Gone Are The Day Ot Hot-Cha Plumbing in Movievilie As Present Stars Bank Then Money,
Buy Homes And Do Their Traveling In Moderately Priced Cars
By Donna B'sher , ;
Mb
Jean Hersholt
Bob Montgomery and Myrna Loy in "Petticoat Fever."
fiance prisoners until she consents to marry him.
As I approached the stage, Myrna and Bob were
sitting face to face, knees touching. Myrna was
saying in that throaty voice, "I'm sure you and
Sir James will hit it off. He's a man's man, too."
Montgomery drew his chair closer. "I'm not a
man's man," he confided. "I'm a, well, I don't get
much chance to be a woman's man up here. But I
know you are the most beautiful woman in the
world. Why . . . I . . ."
He was interrupted by the soft voice of Director
George Fitzmaurice. "I think you should be a little
more ardent there Bob."
"Pleasure." grinned Montgomery.
HE TOOK up his lines again, perfectly oblivious
to the organized flurry of activity around him.
Cameramen peered through "finders" and gave
orders to electricians, who surried about. A prop
man watched the "snow" outside the heavy win
dows to see that it didn't slip. An assistant director
gave the okay for the lights.
"Dear, I love you," Montgomery started over
again as he reached for Myrna's hand, on which
she wore the engagement ring of another man, "if
Donna Risher
3sl. ; " V''.
Scene from "Little Miss Nobody," with Jane Withers.
you leave me, life will end for me."
Director Fitzmaurice watched intently.
"I didn't know until I saw you that roses bloom,
that stars shine overhead, that birds sing to their
mates . . ."
"Ah, that's perfect," complimented Fitzmaurice.
"Sorry, but we'll end this sequence here. We've
got to do the dog scene." Myrna arose and walked
towards her dressing room. "Ta, ta. Bob," she
threw back over her shoulder, "all the world loves
a lover and are you good ?"
After the love scene I drifted over to Fox
THE "flash" actors, who used to dominate in
Hollywood in the days before the depression,
have bowed out. Old-timers say they can scarcely
recognize the place because it s
so hard to find a black onxy bath
ub or an Italian sunken garden!
The fellows with the cream
and green limousines, with auto
graphed shirts and penchants for
crashing royalty have sung their
swan song.
The new crop, the boys and
girls who have made money since
the financial bottom dropped out,
are taking things in their stride,
saving as much money as possi
ble and living simply with an eye
out for the rainy day.
There's Carole Lombard, for instance. ,
Carole has been around Hollywood quite a few
years now and she has made good money. She
could "put on the dog" in no uncertain style if she
wanted to. But she doesn't want to. Her's is a
modest "family-style" home, intimate and com
fortable. It is a house to live in, not to show off
FRED MacMURRAY is doing all right, too.
Fred lives simply in a two-room apartment
with his mother. They've got one girl, the Mac
Murrays have, for "servants." She helps Mother
MacMurray with the dishes and keeps Fred's socks
separated from his shirts.
Fred could afford a few servants, including a
gentleman's gentleman, if he wished. He could
studios where I discovered the man who started
the legend that ostriches bury their heads was
talking about ant eaters. Certainly no one in
little Jane Withers' company expected the ostrich
to stick his head through the heavy glass door
but neither did anyone expect the ostrich to do
what he did.
THE scene was a j)et shop and everything was
going smoothly until the ostrich, who had been
acting quite gentlemanly, saw some white mice in
an open glass pen.
With a cry that somewhat resembled the sound
"Ork," the bird went berserk in an effort to get off
the set. His unexpected ferocity and speed gave
everyone else the same idea. Someone rescued the
camera, but the microphone "boom" was tipped
over in the excitement. One kick of the bird's giant
foot upset a counter in the pet store and another
shattered a plate glass window.
The frightened bird's trainer finally quieted him
and the director resumed the filming, I presume,
because I, taking my cue from an Arab standing
iicaiby, quietly Etole away.
Cordially yours,
GAIL.
drive a long car with all the gadgets so dear to the
hearts of the stars of yesterday. Instead, he motors
about in one of the most popular medium-priced
cars, indistinguishable from that owned by the
girl who "helps out" at the MacMurrays.
W. C. Fields lives in a ranch house with the out
doors for neighbors. Fields, who knows full well
the meaning of poverty, has carefully saved his
money through the years until he could get a "roof
over my head."
"And when I am old," he declared in discussing
the matter recently, "I will still have a roof over
my head."
JACK OAKIE, who would be suspected of being
the flashy type by those outside of the movie
colony, refuses to live in one of those Romanesque
palaces perched on a hillside which housed the fa
vorites a decade ago.
Instead, he lives with his mother quietly or as
quietly as Jackie can live in a modest home.
Claudette Colbert, being French and thrifty, has
acquired a reputation not only as a good business
woman who counts the pennies, but aa one who
saves those pennies as well.
CLAUDETTE parted with about $50,000 re
cently when she built a new home in West
wood, where she and her mother and husband.
Dr. Joel Pressman, reside.
But her best friends say Claudette can save more
money than any other movie star, except Garbo,
in the business.
Bing Crosby, who makes money faster than any
one man in the colony, indulges in hobbies like
racing stables occasionally, but he has also used
discretion in investing it.
Bing's Rancho Santa Fc will always remain the
permanent home of the Crosby family; therefore,
he paid a pretty penny for it. His investments, too,
in phonograph companies have paid him well, his
friends say, while his luck in backing prizefighters
has, to date, yielded him an income which fluctu
ates with the fortunes of the ring. ,
t. . n rl' 1
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Ginger Rogers, Frank Moran and Harriet Hllllard In a
scene from "Follow the Fleet."
YOU'D be surprised what a price tag on a new
suit of clothes can do to interrupt the harmony
of existence. But you wouldn't be if you were Jean
Hersholt, for. he was the guy in the new suit bear
ing a price tag, who had to be
followed all day by a bodyguard
to protect him from overzealous
price-tag pullers.
No one, it seems, can resist
pulling such a tag in the belief
they are doing a favor. But in
Jean's case the suit and the tag
were necessary props for a se
quence in a picture.
FIRST, the make-up man "oblig
ingly" yanked the tag off be
fore Hersholt could stop him. A
new one had to be sewed on be
fore the actor went to lunch. In
the dining room, he barely prevented two people
from tearing it off again, but a third party was
a little too quick for him.
The wardrobe man was called to sew the third
tag back on the coat and then ordered to follow
Hersholt for the rest of the day to prevent any
further acts of tag vandalism.
THE world lost a "barking actress" when Sara
Haden found her way into the movies. Sara,
who is the daughter of the famed Charlotte
Walker, used to be a dog imper
sonator for her own stories on
the radio.
She can imitate, she admits,
the yapping, barking, whining
and snorting of such varied ca
nine breeds as Chows, Pekinese,
Russian Wolfhounds, Scotties,
Great Danes, St. Bernards and
English Shepherds.
The other day out on the Fox
lot, filming was disrupted when
Sara and Jane Withers got into
a barking contest. Jane herself in
no slouch of a barker, having
dubbed animal voices for animated cartoons before
she got her break in pictures.
LESLIE HOWARD was all set to ride away into
Mantua in a scene from "Romeo and Juliet," but
his horse refused to remain quiet while he jumped
off the wall of Juliet's garden. Every time Howard
jumped the horse jumped. Without cracking a
smile, Director George Cukor solemnly read the
stage directions to the horse and, believe it or not,
the horse remained perfectly still as the camera
recorded the scene without a hitch.
"That," remarked Cukor, "is driving horse sense
into a horse."
MISCELLANY: Rochelle Hudson resplendent in
a snorts coat of the new watermelon shade.
Frank M. Thomas, recently signed from the New
York stage, checking in for a ESP
Rrreen tent. Walter Abel tolling '
Frances Sage what he saw in a
Los Angeles court. Blond Claire
Trevor in a black wig for a new
movie test, and Michael Whalcn
giving his sister Claire, who has
been ill, devoted attention.
HOPE springs eternal . . . Fif
teen years ago a screen and
stage player of international fame
with producers in Hollywood and
New York clamoring for his serv
ices; today a humble "bit" player.
But Gaston Glass is hopeful of a comeback that
will at least restore a measure of his former popu
larity. PACK FIVB-I
Sara Haden
Clair Trevor
II c