Hollywood (1942)

I "Being tall, dark and handsome" is gratifying to many a movie star, but not to Fred MacMurray. Fred admits quite frankly that being six feet three and one half inches tall has its drawbacks. Such height requires a very tough skull, indeed. But that's not all. Beds and sleeper berths are too short; tables, chairs and doorways are too low; automobile seats are uncomfortable; bicycles not high enough. Fred MacMurray modestly says that he and Gary Cooper are the same height, but the wardrobe department at R-K-O claims that Fred has a slight edge on Gary, who looks taller because he's lanky. That means Fred is the tallest star in pictures. "Even when I was a kid I had trouble because I was tall," recalls Fred. "Going to the movies, on trains and trolleys, people stopped me, wouldn't believe I was under twelve years and wanted full price admissions or fares. If my mother was along, she could convince them, but alone, I never won. After all, who would believe a kid nearly six feet tall was only eleven? "Later, when I was playing vaudeville and trouping with the band, I always had to take an upper berth, because it's an inch longer than the lower. But getting in and out without a good bump on the head was a rare achievement. "After I got in pictures and saved some money, the first thing I bought was a custom-built bed, eight feet long! That was real luxury." Fred beamed as he added, "I still have it. It's the only comfortable bed I've ever slept in." Clothes are a problem, too. Fred can't walk into a store and buy a ready-made suit or pair of slacks; they're always too short. They must be made to order. Nor can he ever wear clothes from studio wardrobes, as R-K-O learned with regret recently during the filming of Stand By To Die. Fred and Rosalind Russell were sitting on a strip of sand, representing Virginia Beach, carefully constructed on a sound stage. Waves, created by men just out of camera range, were to roll up and reach just to the stars' feet. Unfortunately, the trick-effects men miscalculated. A wave rolled up, but didn't stop. It comp 1 e t e 1 y soakedFred. This wouldn't have been too disastrous if he could have stepped into another suit, but none in the wardrobe would fit. Heneededone of his own to encase those long legs, and it was too late in the day for him to lladdy Long By DOROTHY HAAS make the round trip to his home. Shooting was called off for the day! During the same picture, Fred, playing an aviator, was doing scenes in a small covered-cockpit plane, but kept bumping his head so hard on the hood that the effect was ludicrous. The problem was solved by getting an open-cockpit job so that Fred's head would meet nothing but wind and possibly a few stars. Fortunately the sequence was set in 1932 when open planes were common. Fred isn't very fond of dancing. Perhaps it's a subconscious reaction to his first movie, in which he had a dancing scene with petite Mary Carlisle. "I felt the camera made me look like the Eiffel Tower going around that floor." Fred recalls, "I was so embarrassed, it was the worst scene I've ever done." After Pearl Harbor, Fred decided he would save auto tires and ride a bicycle, but in all of Los Angeles one could not be found to accommodate his long legs. Eventually he ordered one specially built and extra high. The subject of transportation reminded Fred of another problem in the shooting of Stand By To Die. He and Rosalind Russell were doing a scene in a taxi. Fred's legs were just too, too conspicuous, although he turned them this way, then that. In desperation, Director Lothar Mendes had the prop man cut a hole in the floor for Fred's feet! "That wasn't really so bad," admits Fred. "In a picture a few years ago, I was even too tall for a horse! One scene called for me to saddle the nag and stow some duffle in the saddle bag. I towered so high over the horse that the effect was silly. Finally a hole was dug in the ground for me to stand in while I went through the action." Fred's bumps on the head have been many and varied. The most embarrassing occurred recently when, helping his wife prepare for a party at their home, he moved a table out from under an antique student lamp which was inverted and hanging from the ceiling. "Then I walked right into the lamp and broke both globes. My head was of small consideration. Lily can't replace those old glass shades!" he confesses sheepishly. Another bump was more serious. During the filming of Paramount's forthcoming No Time for Love, Fred played a sandhog, working in a New York tunnel. In one scene Claudette Colbert, portraying a woman photographer, is in a compression [Continued on page 33] Even bicycling presents complications for Fred. He is forced to use a specially-buili vehicle. He's in R-K-O's Stand Br To Oie