Modern Screen (Dec 1933 - Oct 1934)

Modern Screen EASY to clean white shoes Restore the snowy newness of white shoes with Shinola. Cleans buck, canvas, suede and kid. At all stores. Are You Sick of Hollywood Divorces? pi There's a Shinola Product for every shoe. Pastes and liquids, all colors, only lOef each. 100% Improvement Guaranteed I We build, strengthen the vocal organs — ■not with einoino io»»on«— but by fundamentally Bound and scientifically correct silent extircwes . . and absolutely guarantee to improve any singing or sneaking voice at least 100% . . . Write for wonderful voice book-sent free. Learn WHY you can now have the voice you want. No literature sent to anyone under 17 unless signed by parent. PERFECT VOICE INSTITUTE, Studio C-721 30£ No. Michigan Ave., Chicago /^jw and uour own Dresses r fit t Showinq Latest FROCKS. . . Direct from Factor u f fit No House-to-House Canvassing New kind of work for ambltloua women demonstrating gorgeous Paris-styled dresses #s at direct factory prices. You make up to of _rfS22 weekly during spare hours and get jfc-'all your own dresses free to wear and show. HZ a Fashion Frocks are nationally advertised 1 <>i ^0 No Investment Ever Required We send you an elaborate Style Presentation in full colors and rich fabrics. Write fully for details of this marvelous opportunity giving dress size and choice of color. FASHION FROCKS Inc. J^i^o. MODERN SCREEN'S DRAMATIC SCHOOL Have you read about it? If you haven't, turn to page 70 of this issue immediately and learn all about the grand opportunity which awaits all of MODERN SCREEN'S readers. {Continued front page 17) cancelled plans for starring Miss Swanson in "Three Weeks." From Gloria's representative in New York, and from the Goldwyn offices in Hollywood, came several polite explanations just why Gloria would not appear in "Barbary Coast" after she had practically been signed for it. Conflicting dates on her personal appearance tour already contracted for, were one of the explanations. A complete rewriting of the woman's role "unsuitable to Miss Swanson's type" was another. But Hollywood insiders, suddenly wise to the new dangers of divorce, wondered if the real reason was not to be found in divorce papers filed by Gloria against Michael Farmer? When Hollywood producers began to frown on Hollywood divorces, it could be caused by only one thing — the knowledge that the American public was no longer patiently excusing Hollywood's _ wrecked marriages as intriguing eccentricities in their movie favorites. The finger of the producer is constantly on the pulse of the great god, Box Office, and as red and black figures were checked and re-checked and weighed against each other, as "personal appearance tours" were followed with minute scrutiny to sense the enthusiasm of the audiences, the answer became more and more apparent. A decided reaction had set in against Hollywood's toomany divorces. A" well-known press agent in Hollywood told me that this new feeling of disapproval toward Hollywood's popular pastime was first evidenced in the disillusion and disappointment that followed the Pickford-Fairbanks separation. Previous_ to that, the disruption of the Ann HardingHarry Bannister and the Joan CrawfordDoug, Jr., "love unions" had been another great weakening influence, not to forget the dissolving of lesser idylls, Carole Lombard and William Powell, Janet Gaynor and Lydell Peck, Sally Eilers and Hoot Gibson, Richard Dix and Winifred Coe Dix, Spencer and Louise Tracy, Adolphe Menjou and Kathryn Carver Menjou, Gloria Stuart and Blair Newell, and many others. But Mary and Doug were the straw that broke the patient public's back in regard to broken movie marriages. THE men in authority at the studios were quick to sense this. The stars, themselves, have not been so keen in sensing the situation, and have blundered on, heedlessly. There is the case of the first rank star of last year who was advised by her producers to take no definite steps about her wavering marriage at this time. Her new pictures had not been too successful and those who had her interests at heart did not believe her career should be burdened with a divorce. She did not take their advice. Her contract was not renewed. The M-G-M studio was greatly upset when a woman columnist broadcast the news over a national hook-up that she had "heard" rumors of trouble between Clark and Rita Gable while Clark was on his personal appearance tour. The next day she announced in her column she was glad there had been no truth in the rumors. I daresay she was not nearly as glad as were Clark's producers that their biggest male box-office attraction and his charming wife were merely laughing at the reports and insisting they were happier than ever before. The studio publicity department did not announce the news of the separation and contemplated divorce of their box-office baby, Jean Harlow. Without consulting anyone, Jean, herself, sprang this "surprise." "We quarrelled and separated this morning," said Jean. It is too early as this is written to know what definite effect the wreck of her third matrimonial attempt will have on her future career. Though it is not generally known, Alice Faye's contract did not go into effect until after the clouds of the Rudy Vallee-Fay Webb divorce storm had more or less blown over. Alice was already in production on a "one picture" agreement with Fox in "Scandals" when Fay Webb's suit, naming her as one of several "Jane Does" in Rudy's life, broke on the front page. For several weeks the career gamblers of Hollywood would not have risked a slim dime on Alice's chances. But as Rudy returned charge for charge against his wife, as the heat of the battle between them resulted in Vallee's hasty, almost run-away from California and process servers, Alice's part in this merry matrimonial chase became less and less a news angle. By the time the picture was completed she was almost a forgotten factor in the case, and there is little doubt but that this fortunate "break" in her favor was responsible for he contract which fell her way and which had been so seriously jeopardized by the Vallee divorce action. JOHN GILBERT'S broken marriage >J with Virginia Bruce Gilbert could not have come at a worse psychological moment— for Jack. Whether or not it can be held wholly responsible for the failure of Gilbert's "comeback" chance with Garbo in "Queen Christina" is a moot question. But it was an important one, of several contributing factors. Everyone was predicting great things for Jack when Greta insisted that her former co-star be reinstated as her leading man. A great deal of public enthusiasm was built up for yesterday's Great Lover, who, it was stated, was the victim of a quarrel with powerful producers. Every sob sister in the Hollywood hills made out a case for Gilbert's plucky fight against odds, his keen happiness in his married life, his brand new daughter and the prospects for his future. The "private life" Jack Gilbert was used as a powerful wedge for the hoped-for new career of the "public life" Jack Gilbert, and there is strong indication that when his fourth marriage collapsed a great deal of public plugging for Gilbert collapsed with it. Jack, of course, is once more at war with his producers and blames them for his troubles. "M-G-M will not give me work, or release me from my contract," he recently advertised in a local trade journal. But the movie-wise will call your attention to the fact that the men who make movies are fundamentally business men, not feudists, and that if the "demand" for Jack Gilbert's appearance in future productions had been sufficiently strong, no personal grudge would have stood in the way of a new starring contract. So Hollywood asks : Did the public lose interest in Gilbert's comeback fight when 118