International photographer (Jan-Dec 1941)

the country. Beauty ot lace and hgure. song and dance talent and ability to pass Technicolor tests were all taken into consideration. Four girls, Margaret Hayes, Eleanor Stewart, Barbara Britton and Katharine Booth, were taken from the studio contract list. Two, Lynda Grey and Blanche Grady, were New York showgirls and models. Two, Jean Wallace and Barbara Slater, had had no previous theatrical or modeling experience. The others. Kay Aldridge, Alaine Brandes. Brooke Evans and Louise La Planche, were former models, this experience being particularly valuable in the fashion show sequence. Costumes and sets were designed in color by Raul Pene Du Bois, the sets especially representing a departure in color schemes in that they parallel, in chromatic progression, the dramatic action of the story. The picture opens in grays, as though it were being shot in black and white. The first note of color seen is the red hair of the secretary in the lawyer's office. From reds and browns through greens, then blues and golds, the hues become more vivid until they are a rainbow riot in the Mardi Gras and Beaux Arts Ball sequences. The floats in the Mardi Gras parade represent a similar grouping of color for dramatic effect. The floats themselves are designed as the pirate ship of Lafitte, a dais on which Napoleon signs the original Louisiana Purchase with Jefferson standing by, a plantation float of Creole davs and the Rex float on which Hope rides as king. In addition to his singing, Hope dances, accompanied by a band of negro youngsters, for the first time since he was a vaudeville hoofer. And, as usual, he loses most of his wardrobe during the Beaux Arts Ball. It wouldn't be a Hope picture unless he lost his pants in it somewhere. The dance was one of the final scenes photographed, due to the fact that Bob originally reported to work with a firstclass sunburn on his legs, the result of falling asleep on a sun porch at Malibu. Director Irving Cummings' return to the Paramount lot was his first in twenty-five years. On his previous visit he was one of the principals in "Rupert of Hentzau." Upon completion of "Lousiana Purchase," cast and crew presented him with a twofoot-high figure of a jocky in the Cumfoot-high figure of a jockey in the Cummings colors, which he took with him as tracks. Vera Zorina Vera Zorina was born in Berlin, January 2, 1917, of German-Norwegian parentage, and christened Brigitta Hartwig. Her mother, Billi Wimpelmann. who hailed from Kristiansund, Norway, had studied voice in Oslo and Berlin, meeting in the latter city a young singer, Fritz Hartwig, whom she married, relinquishing her own career. Their daughter's childhood was entirely musical, but music to Brigitta was for dancing. At the age of eight she gave her own recital in Oslo, having composed every Looks like serious business from the expressions of Marlcne Dietrich, Fred MaeMurray and Mill-lull Leisen, producer-director. On the contrary it is Miss Dietrich's first fling into hariinirscarum comedy in the Columbia picture, "The Lady is Willing." Still hy Irving Lippman. dance number herself. When the long awaited ninth birthday occurred she was enrolled in the ballet school in Berlin, where, under the tutelage of Eugenie Eudorova, Brigitta learned the difficult technique of the ballet and its wearying exercises. In 1929 her mother took her to Paris to continue her studies under Nicholas Legat, whose pupils at one time included Pavlowa and Nijinsky. A severe illness caused the Hartwigs to return to Berlin to recuperate, where a little later Brigitta was engaged by Max Reinhardt as the First Fairy in "Midsummer Night's Dream." This engagement lasted four months, at the end of which Brigitta went to London for six months' training with Anton Dolin, after which she danced with him at Grosvenor House. Back in Berlin the 15-year-old girl rejoined the Reinhardt troupe in "Tales of Hoffman'' and resumed her study under Gsovsky. Her next engagement was with a traveling ballet company which visited Vienna, Budapest and Denmark, where she received a cable from Dolin asking her to join him in the show "Ballerina." It was there that she scored her first real success. During the five-month run of the show, she and Dolin also filled a three-week engagement at Ciro's in London. She next entered the Russian Ballet as a ballerina instead of following the usual routine of making her start through the corps de ballet. The Ballet was playing at Covent Garden and it was here that Brigitta Hartwig became Vera Zorina, it being the tradition of the Ballet that every member should have a Russian name. Zorina and her mother came to America for the first time in 1934 and during the two following seasons Zorina toured the United States, Canada and South America with the Ballet Russe. She was carried as a lesser number of the cast, but more and more compelled the attention of audiences and critics. It was while with the Ballet Russe that she turned a deaf ear to her first film offer, wishing to attain stardom first in the ballet. In London, in 1936, Zorina met Dwight Deere Wiman, about to open a London company of "On Your Toes." Two years later, in 1938, she was about to become his wife. Despite her lack of experience in speaking dialogue, Zorina was signed to a contract immediately. Again came film offers. She made her camera debut in "Goldwyn Follies." Her great triumph came on Broadway in the B. D. De Sylva musical hit, "Louisiana Purchase." She was hailed anew as one of the brightest dancing stars New York has ever seen. When Paramount purchased the film rights for a Technicolor production, Zorina was the inevitable choice to recreate her role of Mariana von Duren. Her real screen career, she hopes, will begin with that picture, which offers the ideal outlet for all her talents. «