Motion Picture Classic (Jul-Dec 1930)

Explosives, High and Low By cedric belfrage IT seems like years since we first heard that Dolores Costello, otherwise Mrs. J. Barrymore, was going to present her husband with a descendant. But the event happened at last, and Dolores Ethel Barrymore is with us — a 7-lb. ii-oz. infant. John, in his inimitable way, remarked as he heard the happy news: "I'm the happiest man in the world!" The event, happening when It did, was certamly a curious coincidence, or quirk of Fate, or something. For it was Dolores Costello, of course, who married Barrymore on the screen in the silent version of "Moby Dick"; and it was just as John was courting Joan Bennett, his heroine in the new talkie version, that little Dolores came on the scene. Fate, to my mind, is just w^onderful. Hollywood Hilarity T7N passant, have you heard about the actor who reliIj giously collects tinfoil olF champagne bottles to send to the local orphanage.? He just wouldn't be happy, he tells his friends, unless he was doing something to help those less fortunate than himself. Then, too, there is that whimsical little anecdote about Eddie Cantor, who is in Hollywood to play the lead in "Whoopee." He had half an hour with nothing to do and asked an assistant director what was doing on the sets. "Oh, nothing much," was the reply of the bored assistant. "They're only shooting 'Lincoln' on Stage Five." "What, again.?" cracked the irrepressible Eddie. Oh, yes, of course, everyone roared. Luther's a Card BUT the most hilarious Hollywood story of the month, without a doubt, is this one from RKO. Luther Reed, the director, was rehearsing a Negro scene for "Dixiana," it seems. Several things went wrong and he began to lose his temper. After listening to the rehearsal of a chorus by forty-one Ethiopians, he looked as if he was going to say things he might later regret. Hut what do you suppose he did.? With consummate aplomb, he folded his arms over hij chest and said: "The situation is getting darker an( darker each minute." You can imagine how everyon^ roared. It's little sallies like this that make the studio pec pie one big, happy family, as Jack Benny observed i| "The Hollywood Revue," with a throat-slicing gesture Apologia AL L m y l\ digs in the matter of Lotti Loder's importation from far Budapest seem to have been quite uncalled-for. Lotti IS to play the leading part in a picture called "Come Easy," thereby coming into her Hollywood ownSo far as I know, this is the first time in history that one of these completely unknown and inexperienced "importations" has been given something worth while to do except pose for a few publicity pictures. I grovel in abject humiliation at the feet of the brother Warner, whom God prosper! The Host Has Tea SAM GOLDWYN threw another of his de luxe receptions in honor of Florenz Ziegfeld, and everyone who writes anything was there, to help demolish a sumptuous array of provender. Sam is the starving man's friend; and he does not entirely omit to provide for the thirsting man. The net result is that all we pen-wigglers vie with one another to find soothing epithets, for application to Sam, and everything that is his. Flo Ziegfeld looked benignly on the scene; and Sam, who is always doing something unusual, drank a cup of tea, although it was a tea-party. This is a record. Thought for the Month THE American public is defii' ' ' ' nitely trade-mark conscious, " the Metro-Goldwyn chappies have concluded on the return of Leo, their pet lion, from his tour of the country. Leo drew a crowd second only to that which turned out for Cal Coolidge. The Mayor of Los Angeles made a welcoming speech for the benefit, as the studio press gan<i put it, of "the street crowd and those craning from skyscrapers." There were loud cheers. {Continued on page 86) 12