Hollywood (Jan - Oct 1934)

Sparkling, authentic notes concerning doings of the stars at work and at play presented by our star reporter by HAL E. WOOD Roger Gets a Thrill There Is a broad contrast between reel and real-life kisses, if you can believe Roger Pryor. For six weeks, Mae West had been kissing Roger before the lenses for It Ain't No Sin. Then came the final fadeout and the disbanding of the company — the latter an off-stage ceremony featured by Mae's move in planting a hearty smacker on her screen lover's lips. "I'll say that good-bye osculation was different!" Roger admitted. Who's Who With Mae! MAE WEST has Filmtown guessing in the matter of her current heart throb. Reports were that Jack Durante had succeeded Jim Timony in Mae's affections, then Murray Fiel came out from New York and the villagers had cause to question their earlier judgment But the other fight night, Mae strode down to her ringside seat on the arm of Timony, and next evening she dined out in the company of all three — Durante, Fiel and Timony. ruel Bl ows Hollywood Was still mourning the sudden death of beloved Lew Cody when extras heralded the news that beautiful young Dorothy Dell had met a tragic end in an automobile crash. Dorothy, the nineteen-year-old lass who scrimped to buy the $2.98 bathing suit in which she won the title of Miss Universe, stood out in the van of the current crop of new film beauties. Her vast store of dramatic ability had carried her to stardom's gates with bewildering speed. Dr. Carl Wagner, who was piloting the car at the time of the crash and whose demise followed Dorothy's by a few hours, was the actress' hero, due to the fact that — Bert Longworth V irginia Pine, Chicago heiress, takes time off from the studio to woo the wild waves at the beach. Her latest picture is Dames only two months earlier he had carried Dorothy's mother, Mrs. Lillian Goff, through an almost fatal siege of pneumonia. Had Collected Bonus ONLY a week before her tragic end, B. P. Schulberg of the Paramount organization was looking all over Hollywood for Dorothy to present her with a $2,500 bonus in appreciation of her outstanding portrayal in his Little Miss Marker. On the very day Schulberg launched his search, Dorothy had set out for a trip to San Francisco in her inconspicuous little roadster. The jaunt was her idea of a rest from her strenuous labors in Paramount's Shoot the Works, in which she had just completed the lead opposite Ben Bernie. May Re-make Picture Paramount executives were given serious consideration to the question of re-shooting all scenes in Shoot the Works that included the late Lew Cody when word of Dorothy's death reached them. Lew had a featured spot in the production. Two days before the tragedy, Dorothy had confided to her intimates: "Lil Tashman died, then Lew Cody. Deaths always come in threes. I wonder who'll be the next!" Hubby Makes Good MR. EUGENE FRENCKE, Anna Sten's legal mate, is a versatile fellow. Finding time heavy on his hands while wifey was working day and night on Nana, Frencke induced Sam Goldwyn, Anna's producer, to finance him in making an independent picture. He wrote, directed and cut The Girl in the Case. The film drew such raves from eastern audiences that Universal immediately contracted with him to produce another. Players Get Break After Seeing Dr. Frencke's experiment, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, famed authors turned producers, signed Jimmy Salvo, star of the Frencke opus, to a five-year contract, while Universal grabbed Dorothy Darling, college lead in the Doc's film, on a long-termer. Joan No Hi-Hat! JOAN CRAWFORD is going to open her backyard theatre to the public just as soon as she perfects her own stage technique. HOLLYWOOD