Hollywood Studio Magazine (1977)

Pre-TV Kay Kyser was a radio and film favorite. He’s shown here with his wife, Georgia Carroll, during that era. The Kysers were back in town for the first time in over a decade on religious business. He’s now a Christian Science practitioner. Tallulah was intoxicated, sitting on the piano COMPLETELY NUDE singing “Tll be seeing you.” Dignified Miss Winwood took one look and whispered to her escort, ‘“What a pity! She has so many pretty frocks!” oe x 1939! A 25-year-old red-headed colleen was terrified to be making her Hollywood debut in “Dark Victory” with the screen’s top star, Bette Davis, known for her feuds with co-workers. Geraldine Fitzgerald played Bette’s best friend and has been playing the role offscreen ever since. Proof of Bette’s loyalty is the fact that she stayed in town after receiving the AFI Life Achievement Award to introduce Geraldine when she opened at Studio One with an evening of street songs. Geraldine dedicated the show to La Davis who came back on stage near the end of the act to accept a glass globe inscribed, “Make more worlds.” These two ladies have made quite a few worlds. The term ‘“Star-studded” is the most overworked in Tinseltown. But, for this occasion, there’s no other term. And the audience was not made up of inveterate first-nighters who go to the opening of an envelope, but establishment names who __ usually avoid this type of thing. There were such rare supper clubbers as Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Henreid, Roger Moore, Lee Grant, Martha Raye, Cecily Tyson, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Richard Dreyfull, Virginia Mayo, and John Houseman who introduced Bette Davis to the crowd. Heavier and grayer than in her Hollywood years, Ms. Fitzgerald brings the same quality to the club she brought to the stage and screen. When she married Stuart Scheftel in 1946, Geraldine retired from the screen but returned 12 years later in “Ten North Frederick.’ She retired from the stage in 1951, but emerged a few years later for “The Doctor’s Dilemma,” She says, “I’ve spent a lot of my career retiring from it. I’ve been lucky that I’ve been able to go back. Sometimes the tide is so far out for an actress she can’t launch her boat again.” oe Wild animals, trapeze artists, clowns, cotton candy and ladies in dazzling costumes! Circus Vargas, under the big top and with the sawdust on the floor, was in town. In Tinseltown part of the tented wonders are the stars and their children. To the delight of the paparazzi, Dyan Cannon was with her seldom photographed 10-year-old by Cary Grant, Jennifer. Also getting lots of attention with their offspring were Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, Edie Adams, Anthony Newley and Abbe Lane, plus Troy Donahue (hard to believe this teen-age idol of the sixties is 40) with constant companion, Pat Russell. e * Kay Kyser and his wife of 34 years, Georgia Carroll, paid a rare visit to Tinseltown. They were here on business for the Christian Science religion for which he produces films to be shown in churches and at meetings of church officials. As always, the Kysers avoided the Hollywood social scene. The only entertainment personality with whom Kay had any rapport is long-legged comedienne, Charlotte Greenwood, 83, a long-time “‘reader”’ in the Christian Science church. Char lotte served in this capacity for Doris Day when she adopted this faith. In 1954 the maestro of the “‘Kollege of Musical Knowledge.’ left show business and retired to Chapel Hill in A vs Cotton candy time at Circus Vargas for Courtney Wagner, with her parents Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner. his native North Carolina. Georgia, the world’s most famous cover girl in the forties, accompanied him into noncelebrityhood.The Kysers became parents of three daughters, replicas of their mother. Plagued by arthritis and a heart condition, Kyser gave up all activities to devote himself to religion and became a Christian Science practitioner. Three years ago, with no fanfare, the Kysers moved to Christian Science headquarters in Boston. Occasionally the famed bandleader hears from two people in Honolulu whose careers he furthered: Ish Kabibble, a real estate salesman on the island, and Ginny Simms, living there with her husband former Lt. Gov. of Washington, Don Eastvold. Now 72, Kyser pleaantly but firmly turns down all interviews explaining, “They were wonderful years, but they’re gone. My concerns today are with my family and my faith.” * OK With the same secrecy as Kyser, although in her case it’s expected, Greta Garbo slipped into town. The gray-haired 71-year old legend sat alone in first class on a jet from New York with her immortal nose pressed to the window. She was met by health faddist Gayelord Hauser, with whom she is houseguesting. They chose to walk to the baggage area rather than take the escalator, and none of the passengers at busy LA Airport recognized the star sprinting along looking neither to the right nor left. ee ote After 36 years, Cesar Romero sold his rambling Brentwood mansion for $400,000. The silver haired solo Romero (“‘Wives—they’re too much trouble’) moved into a Beverly Hills apartment. A HOLLYWOOD STUDIO Magazine 35