Modern Screen (Dec 1935 - Nov 1936)

Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth. Hollywood thinks they're married. Bride and groom. Sylvia Sid Norma Shearer holding hands ney with her new husband, with hubby, Irving Thalberg, Bennett Cerf. at a recent party. (Continued from page 15) temperamental. He knows what he wants, and he generally gets it. Right now everyone is wondering whether or not he's married to Marta Eggerth, the continental star who is now making a picture for Universal. Both Kiepura and Miss Eggerth deny the rumors, iDut 'tis said that Jan recently admitted to a writer that they were bride and groom. "However," he is reported to have said, "if you print it I'll sue you." A fan of Paul Kelly's from East India sent Paul a talking minah bird. Paul's feathered friend arrived with a distinct accent, and Paul spent considerable time working on the creature's broad A. He feels he's been successful, too, for the other day the bird greeted him with, "Hello, Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly, Paul Kelly." "Have you had your breakfast, Charlie?" asked Paul, just trying to make conversation. Without a moment's hesitation the completely Americanized Charlie replied, "Hell, NO!" I I You've practically got to climb the highest mountain if you want to see Edward Arnold these days, for he and his family have just moved into a house on one of the loftiest hilltops in these parts. There's a grand view, and the air is swell — in fact, everything is dandy until you look out one of the bedroom windows. There is a perpendicular drop of 325 feet. Eddie seems to like it, though. He says you'd be surprised how it cuts down the number of overnight guests. There is, at least, one girl in Hollywood who doesn't want to be in pictures, and that's Kaiherine Alexander's very efficient cook. One day Katharine was rehearsing a difficult bit of dialogue at her home, and after trying it several times with little success, she wandered into the kitchen, where Bessie was laundering the woodwork. Exasperated, Miss A. said, "Bessie, let's change places. I'll scrub and you learn my lines for me." Without missing a stroke on the woodwork, Bessie replied, "No, ma'am. Ah knows when I'se sittin' pretty." Maybe she's right, but no one ever heard of a floor-scrubber being furnished a stand-in. Autograph fiends have their most trying moments when they attempt to sign up the Marx Brothers, mainly due to the fact that these three zanies off the screen can hardly recognize themselves. Groucho, for instance, without the painted moustache and the eyebrows, is just Mr. Julius Marx of Great Neck, L. I. At the preview of "A Night At The Opera," we saw Groucho standing 'by himself while autograph seekers cluttered around Kitty Carlisle and Allan Jones. Trying to be a good Samaritan, we pointed out Groucho to one of the younger element, who took one 58 skeptical glance and replied: "That guy? Nuts!" Eddie Cantor's "Shoot the Chutes" barely had gone into production when one of the Goldwyn Girls announced she was on the way to the altar. Of late years, it seems the young ladies of the Goldwyn ensemble have taken the place of the Ziegfeld Follies' beauties in the racing-to-the-alfar department. Anyway, the gal in question is Charlotte Russell, and the hubby is Richard Hamm, a Coast millionaire. It would probably spoil the story, though, to add that they've known each other for years and were going to get married even if Charlotte wasn't Glorified by Goldwyn. The year's big event for Hollywood's younger set was Betty Grable's birthday party for Jackie Coogan. Betty hired a hotel ballroom for the affair, and practically all the juvenile leads in Hollywood turned out to honor Jackie's 21st birthday. Incidentally, on the same day Jackie came into a trust fund reported to total several million dollars. It just goes to show that education doesn't pay, for Jackie made most of his millions before he could read or write. Now that he's grown up and enjoying a college education he hasn't made a nickel. It's nice, though, to be able to knock off a couple million before you learn your ABC's. It sort of sees a guy through kindergarten. While we're discussing birthdays, perhaps the most pleasant of the month was Jean Arthur's. The Arthur gal was working on "If You Could Only Cook" on the Columbia lot when the big day arrived. She had just finished a scene, when producer Harry Cohen, accompanied by a full set of lackeys, presented her with a handsome bouquet and the announcement that she was to be given co-star billing on the picture with Herbert Marshall. Jean was so happy she almost gave out her right age. Patricia Ziegfeld has scorned the screen for a career and will go in for higher education instead. She's registered at the University of California in Westwood and Mama Billie Burke says Patricia's in deadly earnest about her homework. But it may be just one of the Ziegfeld follies! Hmmm, were those rumors just that and that's all about Paulette Goddard being Mrs. Charles Chaplin? Paulette, Charlie and Charlie's two small sons have been inseparable for over two years, until a month or so back when Paulette suddenly began appearing in late-spots with other cronies. The reason, she assured snoopers, being that Charlie was busy on "Modern Times," his new picture. But the picture's in the tin box, now, waiting release, and still the