Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

FROM HOLLYWOOD co's ace matador, to instruct Georgie Raft in the art of tossing the bull . . . Clarence Brown drew an offer of $100,000 for directing The Merchant of Venice for a British talkie concern . . . yet he's hesitating . . . They had to do a lot of censoring on Eddie Cantor's The Kid From Spain before it could be shown in Barcelona . . . Fox is starring Lily Damita in its French-made productions . . . Ramon Novarro plans a Mexican concert tour ... it will be the occasion for his first visit to the land of his birth since he left there an unknown eighteen years ago . . . Universal is bringing Jan Kiepura, Polish tenor who scored in Be Mine Tonight, to Hollywood for four musical nickers . . . National That Widely -Heralded Embassy club brawl in which Artist Peter Arno, Social Lion Drexel Biddle Steel and Actress Sally O'Neil hurled fists and chairs, was merely a publicity stunt for Richard Dix lost no time in dating up his one-time fiancee, Lois Wilson, after the courts granted Winifred Coe's plea for a severance of the marriage ties. Adolphe Menjou's decree won't be final until next August, yet he is already laying plans for his marriage to Verree Teasdale, who is very, very proud of the solitaire Adolphe gave her. And the Prince, Too Prince Serge Mdivani temporarily wipes Mary McCormic and her legal actions against him from his thoughts when he steps out with Kathryn Carver, the ex-Mrs. Menjou. Dick Powell has been free only a year, but those in the know insist that he'll bestow his name on Gwen Heller, Jack Warner's niece, early in 1934. Spencer Tracy and Louise Treadwell are merely enjoying a matrimonial vacation, yet all Cinematown is talking about his romance with Loretta Young. King Vidor is forgetting Eleanor Boardman, his "ex," while he coos in Betty Hill's ear. And so it goes in Hollywood! Specs For IT Girl CLARA BOW used to don shellrimmed glasses as a disguise when she ventured forth along Hollywood boulevard. Now she's wearing them on an oculist's orders in an effort to correct a marked astigmatism. The Cost of Fame Sally Rand Is Back in the movies to cash in on the publicity she drew while thrilling Century of Progress patrons with her fan dance. Sally has thousands of newspaper and magazine "clippings to show for her artistic endeavors in Chicago. Five years ago Hollywood was hailing Sally as the most beautiful blonde in the films. She was under contract to Fox FEBRUARY, 1934 in that era. Now Paramount is casting her as a dancer with Carole Lombard and George Raft in Bolero as a build-up before permitting her to do more important things in Murder in the Vanities. Judith a Redhead EVEN Wrestler Gus Sonnenberg might find it a bit difficult these days to pick out his ex-wife, Judith Allen, in a crowd. Judith's once brown tresses are now a vivid red. Mae a Producer? Colonel Mae West — one of the Kentucky colonels, Suh! — is giving serious thought to the question of producing her own talkies. Rumor has it that she will sever her connections with Paramount after her next production, It Ain't No Sin. But while Mae is debating the matter in her own mind, there is another actress in Hollywood who looks with envy upon Mae's healthy — and regular — paychecks. The lady is none other than Gloria Swanson. Gloria now realizes that she might have been the silversheet's richest star had she been willing to let others do the financing of her vehicles. After almost ten years of playing a lone hand, she finally is anxious to find a spot on somebody's salary roll. Gloria is ready to admit that $10,000 a week was a heap of wealth back in the days when she declined that figure to stir her own. Swanson has but little left out of the Steel's chatter broadcast over a national network ... It was Charlie Chaplin's overwheming desire to be of service to the country that made him rich that caused him to forget his fear of microphones and radio an appeal for NRA support. events in Movieland and doings of the stars as seen and complete detail by our star reporter — Elmer Fryer Erica Newell was ap~ pearing in Strike Me Pink on the New York stage when she was offered a film contract