Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

Pointed comment on cinema affairs and people Th by W. H. FAWCETT Publisher of HOLLYWOOD Magazine PAGE Husband Material A Curious-minded Person asked 143 chorines appearing in Wonderbar to name the ten men who they considered would make the best husbands — and only one movie star was included in the list — Jimmy Cagney, never ballyhooed as a great screen lover. The other nine were John Jacob Astor III, Lindbergh, Jack Dempsey, Mussolini, Ernest Hemingway, "Cotton" Warburton, the Prince of Wales, Prince Alexis M'Divani and Gandhi. One obvious conclusion must be drawn — chorus girls nowadays are not the flighty, empty-headed creatures of legend. Jimmy Cagney The New Technique For Years Cleopatra has been looked upon as a supervamp but now Ginger Rogers declares that if Cleo lived today nary a man would give her a tumble. Forone thing, Cleopatra was a heavyweight — with too much emphasis on the right curves in the wrong places. And, Ginger declares, her technique was pretty bad — any young modern girl could vamp rings around her. Ginger may be correct, but we know DeMille will present a Cleopatra who will have all the agog. The great filmaestro probably could have •for movie purposes. Ginger Rogers modern misses given Cleo pointers even in her day IV. C. Fields is an accommodating fellozv and therefore he readily consented to appear as master of ceremonies at a recent, important social function in Hollyzvood. Dressed in his best bib and tucker, or rather szvallozv tails, he appeared on a Tuesday night prepared to be his funniest. The party zvas held Monday! Hollyzvood is still chuckling over the way De Mille's announcement that he zvas looking for an actor of Caesarian birth for the role of "Julius Caesar" in Cleopatra zvas gobbled up by the press. De Mille, with tongue in cheek, is a veritable fount of such impossible hoaxes — and they're all good for publicity. Loretta Young Loretta's Handicap Age Is A Woman's greatest enemy always . but in the case of Loretta Young this cruel truism probably will be revealed at its worst. The public believes that all women, and especially movie stars, have a habit of subtracting instead of adding years to their age as the birthdays roll by. It will believe in a few years that Loretta is about ten years more than her actual age. Loretta, now just past twenty-one, entered pictures when she was seventeen and was married and divorced within the next couple of years. The public won't believe she could have crowded all that experience into the few years she has been in pictures. Poor Jimmy Durante suffers and suffers. He has made no secret of his unrequited love for Greta Garbo (for laugh and publicity purposes) and declares the only reason she didn't marry Manwiilian zvas because she couldn't forget Jimmy's magnetic "poisonality." Mysteries of Hollywood Hollywood Is A Strange place — oh, pardon us; you have heard that before? What brought this on was the case of Irene Dunne. Irene, possessed of a very fine singing voice, was signed for the screen because of that voice. Then musical films died out and Irene was through — unless she could learn to act. Learn to act she did and won fame as a fine dramatic actress. Then musical films came back and Irene begged for a chance to sing. She was politely but firmly turned down. Why? Because she was too fine a dramatic actress! At a studio conference to devise a publicity campaign for George Arliss and The House of Rothschild, a press agent seriously suggested having the actor knighted for the occasion! King George V will be interested to learn hozv easily those things are done! Irene Dunne Fame Is Not For Sale Katharine Hepburn M* [oney Alone Can't buy a screen career as Kitty O'Dare, dancer and singer and reputed heiress to $1,250,000 will discover. Kitty is now in Hollywood, entertaining lavishly in an effort to break into pictures. She is reputed to have spent $19,000 within a few weeks and plans to pursue this campaign for recognition for six months. But unless Kitty has talent her campaign will be in vain. Katharine Hepburn had plenty of money but fame came to her solely because of her ability. All the money in the world couldn't have made her a screen success otherwise. Idea For a Comedy Universal Probably doesn't care, because The Invisible Man was a huge box-office success, but they must feel very much like "Merton of the Movies" who put his heart and soul into a serious drama only to discover to his chagrin it was released as a comedy. Audiences everywhere laughed at The Invisible Man despite the fact that it was a serious mystery drama. They were laughing with the picture, not at it. Pants running around without anybody in them are bound to make people giggle. There may be an idea in this for a comedy that will set an all-time box-office record. HOLLYWOOD The Invisible Man