Jfep ! T) f I ' X '1 FROM THE STUDIOS AND SOCIAL
D.W bIW VI IWaWaW Iff WWK I
By Jane '
Looking 'em Over
WITH
GAIL GARDNER
Five Star Motion Picture Editor
Hollywood.
DEAR FOLKS:
I bumped Into an odd incident out on the Fox
lot this week. It's the sort of thing that makes
these childlike movie people the most superstitious
aggregation in the world.
Director Harry Lachman was doing a sequence
with Warner Oland and another actor, a blue
python, in "Charlie Chan at the Circus."
Olund was suppoHcd to bo asleep in a train berth.
He was to awaken to find a python sitting on his
stomuch. The "business" was gone through a
tau. , JU. VMS ,
Wnrnor Oland In
"Charlla Chan at th Clroui.'
couple of times and Director Lachman made sev
eral takes. Then getting "a hunch" he abruptly
called a halt on the filming.
Olnnd thought a better take should be attempted,
but Lachman refused to shoot the sccno again.
"But," Interrupted S. W. Allman, movie reptile
purveyor and expert, as he reached for the snake,
"there is absolutely nothing to fear."
Juat then the python, without warning, ripped
into the first finger of Allman's left hand. He was
given emergency treatrpent and later anti-tetanus
injections were administered.
Allman said later it was Lachman's fear which
made thq snake react to hlB own fearful thinking
. . . but it was a strange happening, wasn't it?
'
I ALSO dropped in at M-G-M to see Janet Gaynor
as you wished me to do. Janet was on the set
going through a little sequence from "Small Town
Girl," when I arrived. In this picture she plays the
part of a wistful hick who rebels at the humdrum
life of her narrow environment and in order to get
away from it all she elopes with Robert Taylor, a
sophisticated city doctor.
There was Janet "out in the country" sitting
comfortably under a tree. She was telling Taylor
all about her dreams of life in a big city.
"I know the city is wonderful," she was saying.
"I know how grand the ladies dreos, that they wear
Robert Taylor and Janet Gaynor In "Small Town Girl."
thin chiffons that cling around them, and that they
go to gay parties and ..."
Taylor leaned over and reached for a large black
insect with four legs which crawled off the tree's
bark on to Miss Gaynor's shoulder, ,
"Sorry to interrupt the dialogue," Taylor said .
laconically, "but if this bug gets in your ear, Janet,
you'll appreciate the city a darned sight more."
"Cut" yelled Director William Wellman while the
prop men and Taylor laughed uproariously at
Janet's horrified look. : . , ' ; '
,v: ' . ' ; ' . ,
EANWHILE, I learned that the last shots were
being . made of that long, long story
Juat because Henry Fonda aald he'd Ilka to get married, Hollywood'a eligible baohelora are up In arm, maintaining
that he'a threatened their aeeluaion. Here are aome of the young men determined to atay bachelor, regardleaa.
Left, Cary Grant tried matrimony, found It a failure. In circle, Robert Taylor aaya, "Nix." Fred MacMurray. ahown
with Aatrld Allwyn, whom he frequently eacorta, And the alngla Ufa la beat. Next above la Fonda, who atarted all
the blokerlng. Below, with hla pet terrier, la Mlohael Whalen, who aaya, "I can't Imagine a guy wanting to get
married." Right, Erlo Linden. He, too, la dead against alliance.
Henry
Fonda's Yen For Married Life
Upsets Belligerent Film Bachelors
Because He Wants To Tie Himself Down, Fellow Players Fear They'll Have A New Fight For
Freedom Mike Whalen Wants A Debate On The Subject
By Donna Risher
PVER since Henry Fonda made the candid ad-
I
Donna Risher
M
mission thnt ho was tired of single blessedness
and wanted to get married, the love lives of Holly
wood's eligible, independent yes and smug
.. bachelors have not been the same.
These unmarried ones and there' is a ( large
number of them who revel in their freedom from
the marital ties young Fonda re
gards as desirable, now look upon
the young New Yorker as being
something like the man who
stalked dramatically out of the
house after saying to his wife,
"Everything is over between us.
You will never see me again,
goodbye" then had to go back
for his hat.
In other' words, these film
bachelors claim that Fonda, by
leaving their ranks and closing
the door upon bachelorhood to
champion marriage, has placed
them in the spot where they must return and fight
for their lonely, but desirable, solitude all over
again.
BACHELOR MICHAEL WHALEN, being Irish
and independent, is the first to challenge
. Fonda's desire for marriage.
Mike is comfortably established now in a brand
new hilltop home in Hollywood and he is enjoying
his freedom to the fullest.
Therefore, he felt he could not let Fonda's an
nouncement go by without saying a few words.
"If that guy Fonda will meet me in open debate,
'Resolved, That Bachelorhood Is a More Desirable
State Than Marriage', I'll lick him before he opens
his mouth," Mike retorted.
"I can point myself out as a living example of
"Anthony Adverse" and I galloped over to Warner
Brothers to see the finishing touches.
Director Mervyn I Roy was putting his troupe
through a Venetian crowd scene.
He tried many, many times to get it, but a crowd
scene is unwieldy because everything and every
body has to be watched and everything has to be
perfect. -
Finally, things were just as he wanted and Di
rector Le Roy approved. His eyes roamed all over,
taking in the minutest details. Then all at once the
corners of hiB mouth turned down sharply.
"Hey!" he called irritably to an'"extra." "What
are you doing, reading a Los Angeles paper in
Venice two and a half centuries ago?" '
"Why, yes," the startled man admitted. "I didn't
think the name of the newspaper would photo
graph in a long shot like this." ..,. '
i "Well, stop thinking,',' Le Roy countered. . "This
is not a comedy and the Chamber of Commerce Is
not putting its message over In Venice." , , , .
, Apd with that I galloped back to my typewriter.
i ' : Cordially yours, , o , . i
i : . t GAIL, .
the bliss of solitude . . . wasn't that what some
poet said, -the bliss of solitude'?" .
Mike looked around his womanless domain with
a sigh of content, :,
"When a guy wants to give up freedom for bond
age," he went on, "he doesn't need a wife, he '
needs a doctor. There issomething wrong with
his head.'.'. ( '
WHALEN said it was his opinion that such
good bachelors as Fred MacMurray, Eric Lin
den, William Powell and Robert Taylor would back
him up.
MacMurray, who was making love to Joan Ben
nett over on a Paramount stage according to the
script certainly did back up Mike, one hundred
percent
Mac, it might be stated here, is the target for
many romantically-minded girls in Hollywood, but
to date he continues to pursue his policy of being
"just a good friend," -to blonds and brunets alike.
"I know when I'm well off," he said, with a broad
grin. "Marriage must be pretty bad from what I
hear. I can't imagine a guy wanting to get tied
for life, can you?" '
ILLIAM (DEBONAIR) POWELL, who calls
himself the "backyard Demosthenes," lives
magnificently alone in a modern Grecian palace,
and is an exponent of the unmarried state also.
He distinctly prefers blonds and is seen most
frequently with the blondest of them all, Jean Har
low. Still, he clings like a pair of pants to. its last
suspender button, when it comes to his bachelor
hood. "Oh, there are so many, many things," he re
marked, casually, "that can be said in favor of the
unattached.'' ' . . ; '
Nelson Eddy (who recently experienced a cross
country marathon with a too-admiring "Ariel"),
Eric Linden, Cary Grant and Robert Taylor all
staunchly defend their bachelor brotherhood.
"We're- sorry 1 for Fonda," they exclaimed.
"Imagine a guy wanting to get married!"
Hit !
Jilmtm
fit
A DISTANCE- of 100 miles separates the patio
from the living room of a Southern California
home in the picture "Palm
Springs." The patio is in the
desert and the living room is laid
inside a sound stage in the Wal
ter Wanger studio in Hollywood.
It took Sir Guy Standing four
hours to cover the distance by
automobile, a distance that will
take only a moment on the
screen. .
-
SHADES of Lon Chaney!
Charles Middleton, character
actor, had to increase his height
for his characterization of "Ming, ' 8,r Qu
the Merciless." So he called in Louis Hippy, make
up artist. Hippy made a false skull and fastened it
to Middleton s head with, cement
and liquid collodion. The jigger
was so intricate that it required
four hours to apply and two hours
to remove. .,
The other day Middleton ne
glected to open the windows in :
his well-heated dressing room.
Fumes emanating from the pan
of collodion overcame the actor
and the make-up man. They were
discovered by Director Frederick
Stephani, who came to see why
Middleton's appearance on the set
was delayed. The director took
them to the studio's emergency hospital, where
they were revived.
'.''.
WHITE sunshine aslant red poinsettias . . . a
lone Mexican girl drinking in a picture of
Del Rio ... an orange mansion set back in a grove
of redwoods ... an oil station attendant talking
about Iowa, as he helps an old lady across the
street that's a bird's-eye view of Hollywood
Boulevard.
.
A HOLLYWOOD PRESS AGENT IN THB
THROES: "Reminiscent of a moonlit night in
a Southern magnolia garden la William Lambert's
romantic formal ensemble of ivory souffle. It is
designed with floating ruffles,
crossed fichu-fashion over the
bodice, ascending over the shoul
der and narrowing under the em
pire waist to meet at the base of
the backless gown. The bodice -ruffles
to the knee and the ex
ceedingly full hem flounce de
scends to a graceful, divided fish
tail train in back - which is
outlined enchantingly by bands of
tiny oblong mirrors. An ivory
crepe mantle, completely : bor-1
dered in mirrors and fastened at
the throat with a large bow-knot
of the glittering glass, trails to
Charlea Middleton
William Lambert
the ground to
The sun won't burn Betty Fumes, not by a 20-gallon
sombrero whion sne is wearing. It la made of red, green
and blu atraw.
envelop the long train ..." If she says another
word we'll bust out crying.
;
CHESTER MORRIS held a reunion with old
friends, when he wandered onto a stage the
other day to find John Hyams and Leila Mclntire,
former famous vaudeville headliners.
. Morris first knew the pair when billed as "The
Mysterious Morris," he opened the show in which
they starred. .
, ,. y . .
BECAUSE he loves to hear the Shakespearean
lines, Nelson Eddy has been a daily visitor on
the "Romeo and Juliet" set. . : , .
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