Actors to Heed England’s Call – 09-04-1939

September 4, 1939

Actors to Heed England’s Call

By Sheilah Graham

HOLLYWOOD—News from the Hollywood front . . . An unconfirmed report has it that Errol Flynn will form a foreign battalion to fight for England . . . Laurence Olivier says—“I will remain in Hollywood long enough to complete ‘Rebecca.’  To leave now would be to throw hundreds of people out of work.  If, when I have completed the picture I am needed in England, I will return there immediately.” . . . David Niven must report for active service immediately, and production on “Raffles,” his first starring picture, has been postponed indefinitely.

Three Beyond Age Limit

Ronald Colman, Herbert Marshall, Nigel Bruce are exempt from service—all are well beyond the age limit . . . Brian Aherne wants to return to England and enlist in the royal air force (he has a pilot’s license), but Bride Joan Fontaine is begging “Don’t.”

And here’s one for the book—Victor McLaglen has offered the entire personnel of his light horse brigade, his private air force and his unit of women on horseback to the local British consul.

Bette Davis created a minor sensation when she recently visited the theater in Cape Cod in which she started her acting days as an usherette.

Not only does Sonja Henie roller-skate in her next picture—“Everything Happens at Night”—and, of course, she ice skates—but she will sing as well.  And act—maybe.

Irene Dunne entered with her dentist-husband for the golf tournament in Del Monte.  (Nice to hear of such a peaceful pursuit at this troubled time.)

Says Basil Rathbone—“I will not be giving any more parties—if I can help it.”  He means if Wife Ouida can help it.

Marlene Dietrich has gone in for the quiet life.  She is looking for a small house that must be minus swimming pool and tennis court.

The Spokesman-Review

In the Same Paper. . . . .

Rescue Lubitsch Girl From Sunken Athenia

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Sept 4—Motion Picture Director Ernst Lubitsch received word from London today his 10-monts-old daughter, Nikola, and her nurse had been rescued from the torpedoed S. S. Athenia.  A relative sent a cablegram, “Baby safe and proceeding homeward.”

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Laurel & Hardy Troupe Help Family – 08-27-1939

August 27, 1939

From “Fidler in Hollywood,” by Jimmie Fidler:

. . . And here’s an item that sounds like a page from Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.”  The other day the Laurel and Hardy troupe, making “Flying Deuces,” jaunted out to Encino for location scenes.  While they worked, a shabbily-dressed scrawny little girl stood on the sidelines, watching.  Finally someone started asking her questions.  And she led them to her “house”—a one-room, ramshackle cabin there in the hills.  In addition to her father and mother, there were four other children there—ragged and starving.  Another child had died the week before.  One look and the whole troupe dug deep.  They made up a collection of cash and sent the property man to a nearby grocery to purchase a big supply of canned goods.  All this, mind you, within a few hundred yards of some of the movie colony’s most palatial homes.  Well, that’s one family that has a brighter future, for, in addition to the immediate help supplied, every member of the troupe pledged himself to the task of finding the man a good job.

. . . Despite reports that “Gone With the Wind” is ready for release, studio insiders say that Selznick will order another month’s shooting on battle scenes. . .

Vince Price, who stopped in this morning, wants you to know that he feels like a can of smoking tobacco after playing Prince Albert in “Victoria Regina” and Sir Walter Raleigh in “Elizabeth and Essex.”

St. Petersburg Times

Also from the St. Petersburg Times:

Wed:  Johnny (Tarzan) Weissmuller, swimmer, and Beryl Scott, San Francisco society girl; Brian Aherne, actor, and Joan Fontaine, actress.

Sued:  Jackie Coogan, for $30,000, by a Hollywood hula dancer, charging defamation of character.

Slain:  A daughter of Musician Bruno Walter, by her husband, a German refugee, who then killed himself, in Switzerland.

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Hollywood Gossip! – August 18, 1949

August 18, 1949

GOSSIP!

From The Toledo Blade

“Calling Dr. Kildare!”  This familiar call will again ring forth—but on the air, not the screen.  MGM, which has gone into the business of packaging air shows, has made a deal with Lew Ayres to repeat his famous medical character for radio.  But the film version won’t be revived.  Lew feels he would be going backwards to return to the “B” picture series.

The Mickey Rooneys (Martha Vickers) and the Wally Cassells (Marcy Maguire) are expecting family additions about the same time in January.  Cassell is Rooney’s protege and was beat man at the half-pint star’s wedding.

Bob Hope will return to his old-style monologue on his air show this fall, he says . . . This shows you how little film titles mean:  “Interference” is not called “Easy Living.”  Don’t ask me why.  (Hedda Hopper’s Column)

HOLLYWOOD, Aug. 18—“Torrid trousers!” shouted Milton Berle when a chair exploded under him for a comedy sequence in Warners’ “Always Leave Them Laughing.”  A burning powder wad had taken him in the seat of the pants, where it seared a hole and caused considerable discomfort.

Something to see:  Danny Kaye goes to bed in a hand-embroidered pink nightie in “The Inspector General”

According to which paper you read, Bob Hope suffered either “severe contusions of the spine” or “a spasm of the right lumbar,” when he fell off that hobby horse in a scene for “Fancy Pants.”  In the meantime, the famous comedian has completely recovered.

Lovely Eleanor Parker’s pretty knees are black and blue from scrubbing floors as a prisoner in “The Cage.”

Grapevine report says the bathing suit to be worn by Joan Fontaine in “September” has been mailed to Italy in a letter-size stamped envelope.

Six months ago, while screen star Joseph Cotten was en route to Vienna, his luggage was seized by Russians at the Italian-Austrian border.  He finally got it back last week, via express to the Warner Bros. lot where he’s co-starring with Bette Davis in “Beyond the Forest.”  “And all that was missing,” the star exulted, “was 12 bars of soap!”  (“Chatterbox” Column)

From The Evening Independent:

LOS ANGELES—Ginger Rogers admits to being a bit premature in announcing a financial settlement with her third husband in filing a divorce suit a week ago.

The 38-year-old actress filed an amended complaint yesterday, reiterating the charge of cruelty against Actor Jack Briggs.  She said they signed the financial settlement on Tuesday of this week.

Miss Rogers asked return of her legal maiden name, Virginia Katherine McMath.  She married Briggs, 29, in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 16, 1943.  They parted July 30.

She was formerly married to Vaudeville Actor E. J. Culpepper and Actor Lew Ayres.

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