Broadway and Hollywood "Movies" (Jan - Aug 1934)

“ MOVIES’ ' 33 studios has been undertaken in view of the success enjoyed .by “ Nothing Ever Happens." the Vitaphone burlesque of “ Grand Hotel." Herman Ruby is chief of the studio's scenario staff ; but Eddie Moran and A. Dorian Otvos wrote the screen play. Roy Mack directs. The short will be included in Vituphone's series of “ Broadway Brevities.” Gertrude Michael has been chosen by Paramount for the leading role in "Death Takes A Holiday.’’ She will support Fredric March. Evelyn Venable and Sir Guy Standing under the direction of Stuart Walker. Miss Michael, who appears as Mae West's rival in "Fin No Angel.’’ is an Alabama girl who went to Hollywood after a few appearances on the New York stage and after "Movies” magazine had recommended her for picture work at both the Long Island and the west coast studios. Her work in Dorothea Wieck’s "Cradle Song’’ and in "Wayward” with Nancy Carroll won her this leading role. She also appeared in "Ann Vickers” for RKO-Radio. in "Sailor Be Good” for Jefferson Pictures, and in “Unashamed” for M-G-M. Dave Mountan. president, announces The Big Race as the fifth picture produced by Showmens Pictures , Inc. It stars Boots Mallory, Johnny Darrow, Paul Hurst, Frankie Darro, Phillips Smalley, James Flavin and Katherine Williams. Merian C. Cooper, Vice-President in charge of all production at the RKO Radio studios, returned to his desk about the middle of December to resume active supervision of all production activities, according to B. B. kahane, President. Cooper has been absent from the studio for some weeks due to illness. Mr. kahane visited the production executive in San Francisco over the week end and found him completely recovered. Cooper is going on a cruise for tw'o weeks, after which he will go to New York to line up stories for next season's RKO Radio program, returning to the studio in December. Congratulations on your recovery, Merian! ' Paramount has purchased an original story, “ A Son Comes Home ” and a Broadway hit, “ Pursuit of Happiness ” for production on the 1934 schedule. “A Son Comes Home” is the work of Julian Josephson, veteran Hollywood writer responsible for many early Charles Ray successes. Grover Jones and William Slovens McNutt, will prepare the screen play and direct. “Pursuit of Happiness” by Alan Child and Isabelle Loudon, is a comedy of early American Revolutionary War days. DIRECTOR Stephen Roberts left Hollywood, Cal., some time ago for the mountains of Northern Arizona, accompanied bytwo of his assistants, a cameraman and a member of the studio art department. They are on a location hunt, the object of which is a suitable site for the background of "Lives of a Bengal I.ancer,” in which Gary Cooper. Cary Grant, Richard Arlen and Sir GuyStanding wil have the leading roles. A satisfactory screen script of Francis YeatsBrown’s novel has finally been made by Achmed Abdullah and Waldemar Young, after a number of other writers tried in vain to satisfy the producers. Bull Montana is said to be recovering, at Hollywood, from an attack of arthritis. He teas operated upon recently. “Bull” is a wrestler and stage and screen actor . . . The Trans-Lux Theatre, on Broadway, New York City, is packing 'em in regularly. A good show of short subjects and up-to-the-minute news reels comprises their daily program, admission being reduced to “ two bits.” The wave of kidnapping exploits which is terrorizing all sections of the United States is responsible for Rupert Hughes’ writing "Mrs. Fane’s Baby is Stolen,” the original story which Paramount will transfer to the screen with Baby LeRoy in the featured role. Six months ago this magazine, “Movies,” demanded that a kidnapping story be put on the screen to expose this nefarious racket. “ 'Mrs. Fane's Baby is Stolen’ is pure fiction,” Hughes emphasizes, “but in view of things which are happening in broad daylight, with people disappearing from their homes, their cars and from trains, it is highly plausible.” Sari Maritza appearing in RKO-Radio Pictures’ “The Right To Romance,” learnt to speak Chinese before she did English. The exotic and charming Miss Maritza was born in Tientsin, China, and as a child, was taught Chinese words and phrases by the natives. Having finished their work in featured roles with Maurice Chevalier in Paramount’s French version of “The Way to Love,” Jacqueline Francell and Marcel Vallee returned to France on the S.S. Lafayette. Mile. Francell is Chevalier's leading lady in the French version and Vallee plays the comedy role enacted by Edward Everett Horton in the English production. Even the “Three Little Pigs,” put out by United Artists, was made into a French version. Dorothy Lee is another of Hollywood.’ s budding aviatrices. A few more lessons and she will be entitled to a private license to fly her Gary Cooper big Fairchild monoplane. " Flying and tennis are the recreations I prefer,” she explained between scenes of “ Take A Chance” the June Knight film musical produced for Paramount in New York by Laurence Schtvab, William Rowland and Monte Brice. “Of course I swim like a fish. That's one of the reasons I got a job as leading woman for W' heeler and Woolsey. But I’m rather proud of my tennis and think I play pretty well. As jor flying. There’s nothing like it except heaven, maybe.” Harrietle Lake, Columbia’s blonde “discovery” is to be the screen star in Columbia’s first musical of the year, “Let’s Fall in Love,” described as a spectacular feature of studio life in Hollywood. Two of the most versatile personalities of screenland. Edmund Lowe and Gregory Ratoff, will support Miss Lake in the elaborate production. Mr. Lowe will lie seen in the part of “the director,” while Ratoff plays "the producer.” "Let’s Fall in Love” was written by Herbert Fields, with Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler doing the music. David Burton is directing. Lowe, prominent as a romantic hero and matinee idol since the silent days, achieved his greatest success with his performance of Sergeant Quirt in “What Price Glory.” “The W itch of Wall Street,’* story by Dudley Nichols and Lamar Trotti dealing with the adventures of a woman operator in New York’s financial mart, has been purchased by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a May Robson vehicle. This will be a Lucien Hubbard production, and gets under way in the near future. That Ann Harding, now starring in “The Right to Romance,” for RKO-Radio Pictures, hopes to produce and direct pictures designed solely for children when she retires from the screen. “Dinner I Hate” is the title of a two-reel burlesque of the feature picture, “Dinner At Eight,” being filmed by Vitaphone. The short, which is in production at the Brooklyn film