Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

WITH THE NEWS SLEUTH All the news of the month as noted by our ace reporter while hobnobbing with the stars at work and at play — Elmer Fryer A breath of Ireland is seen in the bonny smile of Maxine Doyle, junior star on the Warner lot, who will appear in The Key By HAL E. WOOD Marie Beating Back Marie Dressler is recuperating from another illness, and her vast army of fans will utter a prayer of thanks. The beloved picture-stealer has been sicker than even her closest friends realized, but now is believed on the road to restored health. Her next vehicle has been ready and waiting for several weeks. Garbo Frowns Again GRETA GARBO is anything but pleased over the action of Metro in assigning Victor Fleming to direct her in The Painted Veil. In fact, there are rumblings to the effect that the Swede is dusting off that over-publicized line of her's, "I tank I go home!" It isn't that Greta has anything against Victor. It's just that she wants Rouben Mamoulian to megaphone her again! Love Grows Apace The Rudy Vallee-Alice Faye romance goes merrily on, rumors to the contrary notwithstanding. Three thousand miles apart, the crooner and his protegee -fiancee are continuing their billing and cooing by telephone and telegraph. Ria Is Happy NO ONE is more delighted over the enthusiastic manner in which femininity swooped down on Clark Gable during his New York stay than is his own wife. Ria never has been jealous of Clark's screen popularity. Instead, she is praying that it continues to mount. Georgie Ignores Mae George Raft looms against the cinema horizon as the man in a million. He's the first Hollywoodian to decline Mae West's throaty invitation to "Come up'n see me some time!" George even went so far as to threaten another walk-out should Paramount officials insist upon his playing opposite Mae in It Ain't No Sin. George argued that the story gave Mae 99 per cent of the breaks which, he pointed out, wouldn't appease his own fan public. HOT FROM HOLLYWOOD Foreign Affairs Jack Oakie of Yorkshire, England, has written Hollywood's Jack, revealing that he won first honors at the Yorkshire fancy dress ball with his impersonation of the latter . . . Edna Murphy, who preceded the Warner heiress as Mrs. Mervyn Leroy, will resume her residence in Spain as soon as she winds up her current Hollywood sojourn . . . despite all the hue and cry over the Lee Tracy incident, Mexican government officials have put their okay on the completed Viva Villa film . . . Thomas Meighan is back in Florida after walking out on the British talkie in which he was to play opposite Norma Talmadge . . . and to make matters worse for the Englishmen, Norma fled, too . . . Metro's London barristers have appealed that court decision awarding $125,000 to Princess Irena Youssoupoff, who charged she was libeled in Rasputin and the Empress. National Movie Producers and their expensive aides are all a-twitter over the airing of their heavy salaries and bonuses in the United States Senate . . . Sam Goldwyn can't understand why Congress would want to pass the Dickstein bill clamping down on foreign artists on the American screen . . . and the boys in Washington are going to have to put up some tall arguments to convince Sam that Maurice Chevalier has done any harm in this country, or that Norma Shearer's draw in England isn't a fair trade for Ronald Colman's take on this side of the Atlantic . . . the War De Eartment has commissioned W. S. Van •yke, roving megaphonist, as a captain in the army reserve . . . ZaSu Pitts and 26 HOLLYWOOD