Motion Picture (Aug 1940-Jan 1941)

A B W A Y HOLLYWOOD STARS ON MANHATTAN'S MERRY-GO-ROUND By DOROTHY LUBOU Mr. and Mrs. Charles Boyer (Pat Paterson) visited NYC recently to meet his mother just over from France. The Boyers are partying with Mile. Eve Curie and Reginald Gardiner at Monte Carlo Opening night they took fourteen curtain calls, which just goes to show you . . . The town's Olivier-Leigh mad . . . Rebecca broke box-office records at the Music Hall after a six-week stay . . . Gone With the Wind, Waterloo Bridge and Tzventy-one Days Together are currently playing on Broadway . . . The latter film has Larry and Vivien sizzling ... It wasn't considered good enough for American release prior to their Hollywood successes ... It is the picture that brought them together . . . You can imagine the exploitation angles ! Merle Oberon Norma Shearer, the Fredric Marches, Noel Coward and Gertie Lawrence were some of the first nighters . . . Another Juliet : Beverly Bayne's reappearance in the public eye at this time, at a benefit sponsored by Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson, brings to mind the thought that the Olivier-Leigh romance almost parallels that of Bushman and Bayne (or don't you remember?) . . . Beverly is the wife of a business man now, and son Richard Bushman is a great big lad .... But she enjoyed recalling that she, too, had played Juliet . . . Olive Borden and Viola Dana are also looking the town over . . . Viola is happily married to Jimmy Thompson, the long-hitting golf pro . . . Olive was the Dorothy Lamour of the pre-talkie era .... Temperament and wrong advice wrecked a promising career. GOTHAM GADDERS: Maureen O'Sullivan will summer in Canada where husband director Johnny Farrow is in the service . . . Melvyn Douglas had Washington waitresses, accustomed to famous names, all fluttery . . . He was a guest at the White House and flew into town with Mrs. Roosevelt . . . His work for the betterment of social conditions in California has the active support of Airs. Roosevelt and the President . . . Gaylord Hauser is around, minus Garbo, talking a book he will publish . . . ZaSu Pitts flew down to Louisville for the Derby with Arline Judge . . . Her marriage seems to have come to an end . . . Charles Boyer spent a week in town waiting nervously for the arrival of his mother on the Washington . . . Though he and Pat Paterson attended all the shows and gayer spots, Boyer has visibly saddened since his last visit . . . The grave turn the European war has taken leaves him subject to recall in the army at any moment . . . Norma Shearer planed in with the Alexander Kordas and [Continued on page 69] TOO BAD: The Bard put the brakes on that too, too in love Olivier-Leigh pair. Lunt and Fontanne's throne isn't threatened and Maurice Evans was the actor who wasn't there but should have been . . . Romeo and Juliet isn't anything to be tossed off on a rainy night . . . The huzzahs that have greeted the cinematic chores of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier and their own great love may have intoxicated the talented pair somewhat . . . Olivier took delight in being producer, director, star and even "angel" of the Shakespearean production . . . Vivien is slight, adorable, charming and altogether lovely as Juliet . . . Small wonder that they were blind to the glaring defects in their acting technique . . . They seemed to have been playing to and for each other rather than their audience . . . The critics unanimously recalled the more mature Juliets of Ethel Barrymore, Julia Marlowe, Jane Cowl and Katharine Cornell . . . Less appealing optically, but possessing a greatness that the inexperienced little Leigh girl has not achieved . . . This ambitious effort, while an artistic failure, will in no way affect the future plans of the couple . . . They'll do more Shakespeare they say, until the critics cease to regard them as just another movie couple trying to be arty . . . They adore the theatre . . . They find fun even in failure . . . 18 Norma Shearer was a recent visitor in New York, where she was seen shopping, attending the shows and night clubs. When she went to Fefe's Monte Carlo she was joined by Alfred de Liagre, man about town (left). Right, proprietor Felix (Fefe) Ferry