Modern Screen (Dec 1952 - Nov 1953)

Hollywood |3) O W*^t. continued from his Korean Army duty with two ribbons and a battle star. Remember when Eddie used to date Marilyn Morrison, who married Johnnie Ray while Eddie was away? Doris Day acted as stand-in for her stand-in! The gal, one of Doris' best friends, is expecting a baby. . . . Mala Powers, who has been very ill, is expected back before the cameras and completely recovered by the time you read this. Despite parental objections, Carol Lee Ladd and Bill Evans, son of the Rev. Louis Evans (Bill's brother Lou married Colleen Townsend) are planning on getting married. Sue Ladd fears that Bill's ministerial background and Carol Lee's show business background are definitely NOT hand-in-glove. And Sue'll be sore at me for saying this but it's gospel ! . Alan, by the way, was prostrated for three days in England by the news that Jezebel, his favorite dog, had died of poisoning. . . . Ursula Thiess went to Ciro's by her lonesome one Wednesday night and sat in the same booth occupied the previous night by the oncemarried Barbara Stanwyck and Bob Taylor. 'Twas Bob's first night away from Ursula, his new amour. . . . Idle thought: Debbie Reynolds talks too much in movie houses. . . . And somebody should tell Debra Paget that 9:30 a.m. is MUCH too early to go strolling in Beverly Hills in a taffeta cocktail dress cut down to HERE, a mink stole— and barefoot! QUICK QUOTES: Jimmy Stewart walked up to Ray Milland after a screening of The Thief and said, "Ray, if I could only act like you!" ... I told Shirley Booth she deserves an Oscar for her acting in Come Back, Little Sheba. She replied, "It was such a pleasant experience working in California, it would only seem like gilding the lily to have an Oscar for it" . . . Olivia deHavilland asked Cobina Wright how she thought Olivia's starring role in My Cousin Rachel ought to be played. Cobina replied, "Play it like the kind of woman we all know, dearest Olivia— the kind who can attend the same party with her lover without another soul there knowing that they ARE lovers!" . . . Rock Hudson writes from England, where he's reported feuding with his Toilers Of The Sea co-star, Yvonne De Carlo: "As yet I haven't found a girl who is attractive enough to make me lose my head." FUNNIES: Eavesdropped in Schwab's: "I refuse to believe that dollar bills carry germs. A germ couldn't live on a dollar today!" . . . Scott Brady says he knows a tobacco outfit that wants to sponsor Bishop Fulton Sheen's television show and advertise a cigarette called Holy Smoke! . . . Oddest sight of the month: Macdonald Carey standing in horrified silence while the priest baptized his fourth child — using the wrong 14 name! . . . David Selznick Brady Stewart buries his head in a pillow and mumbles into it while interviewing secretarial applicants. The gal who hears him best gets the job. . . . James Wong Howe, the ace cameraman, was getting ready to shoot Tallulah Bankhead in her first movie in years, Main Street To Broadway. Tittered Tallulah, "Throw away that gauze you were going to shoot me through, James — the only way you can cover up MY wrinkles is by shooting me through linoleum!" Rocky Cooper went to the Marion Davies party for Johnnie and Marilyn Ray with Gary but almost wound up solo when Dusty Miller caught Coop's ear while he was en route to the washroom . . . Chata Wayne stagged to the same party with Patricia Vanderbilt, who the very next day sued Cornelius Vanderbilt for. divorce . . Some sideline observers think that the thing that broke up Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Meeker was the news leak that Ralph is only 29, compared to Babs' ???... Before Rita Hayworth left for Paris she promised Aly Kahn she would try to guide her life, not his. Rita knew all along she could never control the latter . . . Dorothy Arnold DiMaggio, Joe's ex-wife, had some photos taken by Tom Kelley, the photog who shot that famous calendar photo of Marilyn Monroe! SEX APPEAL: Jane Wyman displayed the prettiest legs in town at the Masquers Revels, a benefit for the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital. Janie danced and sang the part of a burlesque cutie . . . When will glamorous movie stars learn that glamorous movie stars don't sit at drugstore counters in Hollywood eating tuna fish sandwiches — and •I'm not naming names ! . . . Lex Barker is happier making Westerns than he is in the Tarzan pictures, because in the Westerns he doesn't have to shave his chest. . . . And leave it to Lex, Dale Robertson and Tab Hunter to cop all the beefcake honors posing in abbreviated swimsuits poolside at the opening of the new Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. Greer Garson on the always interesting subject of Marilyn Monroe: "Marilyn is a very smart girl. Of course, she doesn't like to wear clothes— but neither do I! The big difference, I guess, is that I like to conform" . . . A fan offered Virginia Mayo a new car. A press agent asked Virginia, "Would you take it from a stranger?" And Virginia answered, "Anybody who offers me a car automatically becomes an old friend!" . . . Groucho Marx asked his five-year-old Melinda, "What do you do at school?" And Melinda replied, "We paint and go to the little girls' room." LONG HUNCH DEP'T: Hollywood's topmost glamor gals have been put on -the defensive — and will continue that way, believe me ! — by Marilyn Monroe, the likes of whose publicity hasn't been seen in this town for many a year. Among those who are going all-out for sexy publicity buildups, as a result, and de-emphasizing their home ties are Greer Garson, Jeanne Crain, Anne Baxter, Sally Forrest, and Vanessa Brown, . . . Why, do you Monroe know the first gal Tallulah Bankhead, an old pal of mine, asked to meet when she arrived here from the East? Marilyn! . . . VeraEllen knit a sweater for Dean Miller but this is one romance that'll never knit! In fact, I have a feeling Vera will never wed as long as her mother is with her. In preparation for her marriage to Dick Egan, watch for Ann Sothern to embrace the Catholic faith. Her daughter Patricia has also been taking instructions. . . . Janet Leigh has been studying Christian Science. . . . And a number of writers at Paramount have been attending services at Jane Russell's mother's chapel in the Valley. . . . Don't let anybody tell you it doesn't pay to be good in this town. Ann Blyth has held onto stardom without one hint of scandal. . . . John Agar, bound and determined he'll be a singer in addition to acting, is studying vocalizing. His first professional song stint was a duet on "Don't Fence Me In" for an airshow with Doris Day. . . . Mercedes McCambridge, who lost her baby, told me she has turned down one film role after another — "because my agents keep offering me scripts in which I would play 'Sadie Burke,' the same character in All The King's Men for which I won an Oscar. I don't want to play 'Sadie' any more, even under a different name ! Aren't there ANY other parts, preferably sympathetic, that I could play?" Well, aren't there? FINANCIAL PAGE: Irene Dunne and Loretta Young are putting $250,000 into a new clubhouse and other improvements for their jointly owned Ojai Valley Inn. . . . Dennis Day uses his own name, Dennis McNulty, when making business deals outside his own singing and acting profession. He says it prevents his being bilked by salespeople and others who always hike the prices when they know they're dealing with a movie star. . . . Louis Hayward has gone into millinery as a sideline. He's now a partner of Kenneth Hopkins, the hat designer. . . . John Wayne paid Chata $1,000 a month pending the divorce, which makes her claim that she has to do her own housework seem rather silly. . . . Incidentally, Wayne paid his first wife, Josephine, the princely sum, of $60,000 alimony last year. While making a personal appearance in connection with the opening of The Lusty Men in Oklahoma City, Marilyn Maxwell opened the Gideon Bible in her hotel room and found four $2CTbills. This sounds like a press agent gag but it's true, Marilyn swears! Tab Hunter, who got $250 a week (before taxes) from David Rose for co-starring with Linda Darnell in Island Of Desire, is now dragging down $1,300 a week for new picture assignments . . . Randy Scott gets $10,000 a week when he works on his two-pictures-ayear contract for Warners. . . . Zsa Zsa Gabor enrolled her daughter, Francesca Hilton, in Mrs. James Mason's nursery school — but Zsa Zsa and Mrs. Mason, as you probably know, are not exactly devoted to each other ! . . . Ginger Rogers was lurking in the shadows of the Los Angeles airport when Jacques Bergerac arrived here from Paris. Peter Shaw, Ginger's agent, met Jacques as he got off the plane and brought him to Ginger's royal presence Dick Powell and June Allyson bought 55 acres, including a lake, in Mandeville Canyon