The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

Barbara Pepper, Richard Brodus and Jacqueline Wells at the Fox studio gate Junior Hollywood GOSSIP MANY times some of the young stars, particularly the girls, have told me of the great unhappiness they have experienced on the set due to the unkindness of some more important player in the picture, or a director or producer. But Ken Goldsmith, producer, seems to have struck the perfect note of harmony. On the set of "Little Men," one moment would find him joking with Phyllis Fraser, or roughhousing a bit with Frankie Darro and Trent Durkin, and the next moment we would find him holding Dickie Moore on his lap, sharing a bag of candy. Yet no time was wasted, nor was there any disorder, and that is something, with a cast of twenty-live children. It is not seldom, you know, that a star will resent a good performance given by one of the featured players, and he will often demand that certain punch lines be taken away from the other player and put in his own script. But there was none of this on "Little Men." THOUGH everyone has learned to love Anne Shirley since seeing her in "Anne of Green Gables," Anne has discovered that her new little dog is not quite as popular as she had hoped. A few days ago, Director George Nichols of RKO presented Anne with a little Scottie puppy. The dog, a thoroughbred from the John Considine Kennels, was immediately christened Angel Cake of Shi-Nic (you guessed it — half of Shirley and half of Nichols). However, all is not angel food for good old Shi. The first scathing look he received was from the superintendent of the apartment house. But that didn't daunt Miss Shirley. She was sure her friend, Cynthia Lawton, would like to see her new dog, so Anne hurried to Sunset Boulevard to catch a bus. The buses stopped, but as soon as they got a look at Shi, they went merrily on their way without the two passengers. So to Hollywood Boulevard and the trolley car line; but there Anne met the same complaint — no dogs allowed. Anne then phoned her good friend, Glen Boles, over at Warner Brothers, and he came to the rescue in his car and drove Anne and the dog on a round of calls. Some fun, thought ShiNic, but Anne seemed to be a little worse for wear. DHILLIP REED, I think, is the most deserving, up and coming leading man of the year. Phil is now under contract to Warner Brothers. Under his own name of Milton LeRoy, Phil served an apprenticeship of eight years in and around the New York theaters. I say "around" because even Phil admits much of the time at first was spent in stage entrances trying to catch the show manager on the way in. With two years of Sunday School Eastern pageants behind him, Phil landed his first role in a Hoboken legitimate, at $10 a week — but not until he had glibly rolled tons of words off his tongue, telling of years of experience in stock companies in the Middle West. I don't know why it is, but the "Middle West" always seems to get it in the neck. When an actor goes to New York without experience and tries to crash the stage, he invariably makes up stories of his acting experience in the Middle West. The same goes for young actors descending upon Hollywood. I have yet to hear of an unprofessional who will admit he only pulled the curtain in graduation exercises at Hampton High. Anyway, Phil had it in his blood to be an actor, and nothing Henry Willson takes you on another trip through movieland with the younger players . . . Notes on Anne Shirley's dog . . . Mary Blackford's real life drama; and Alice Moore's birthday party TWENTY of Alice Moore's young friends helped celebrate her birthday the other night at the Benedict Canyon home of Alice's step-father, Clarence Brown. Alice Moore, who is starting a film career and is one of the more attractive of the Hollywood younger set, is the daughter of Alice Joyce and Tom Moore. Present were: Nick Grindy, Clarence Brown and Cynthia Hobart (daughter of Henry Hobart, the director), Virginia Reed, Sarah Dudley, Ben Alexander, Johnny Downs, Dorothy Wall, Marie Wilson, Bob Boyle, Claire Myers, Felix Knight, Eddie Bellande, one of America's leading air pilots; Johnny Newell, producer, Marion and Mildred Wilson, Ella and Billy Wickersham, Sidney Burnap, and yours truly. You will see the lovely Alice in Hal Roach's latest feature, "Babes in Toyland." WHEN Betty Furness left on a Tuesday morning with her mother for Palm Springs, it wasn't twelve hours later that Bill Henry had secured permission from M-G-M to get a few days of much needed (according to Bill) sun-tan. There's no place like Palm Springs for that, you know, so Bill went to Palm Springs. We mentioned something like "Oh, Betty went down there this morning, didn't she?" but Bill only blushed. He didn't have the tan yet, so it was easy to see his blushes. THANKS so much for the wonderful letters many of you have written to cheer up Mary Blackford, who is still lying in the hospital as a result of that terrible automobile accident. Mary gets such a thrill out of hearing from you all. You undoubtedly have read all about the benefit that the group of Hollywood's younger set put on for Mary Blackford, at the Cocoanut Grove — the profits of which went to pay Mary's doctors' bills. You've heard of the tremendous work they all did and the success the occasion was. Cold chills of thrilling real live drama went up our spines as Will Rogers stepped up to the microphone, disregarded all rules of radio, and talked directly to Mary over the Coast-wide hook-up. Mary, as she lay there on the hospital bed, listening to the radio, was completely surprised and overcome. The voice of Will Rogers rose as strains of Fiorito and his orchestra died down — "Hello, Mary darling, how are you tonight? Gee, this is a wonderful thing all your friends have gotten together and put on for you here at the Cocoanut Grove tonight, Mary. Every one I ever read about is here — you know, it's the first time I was ever in this place — but I'm telling you, Mary dear, the next time I come, it's going to be when I bring you." The tears streamed down Mary's cheeks, as Benny Rubin followed Mr. Rogers with a further tribute to her. All she could say, when we talked to her a few minutes later, and the nurse held the phone up to her blond head, was "It's so wonderful — but why are they doing all this for me?" She is thrilled over the letters you readers have sent her, and she asks me to thank you. Phyllis Fraser sneaks up on Frankie Darro to discover him reading (between pages of his script) a dime novel. could keep him down. At the end of five weeks they raised his salary to $12.50. One thing led to another and Phil found himself singing and dancing on Broadway. He was picked up by picture scouts and brought to Hollywood. He hasn't sung or danced since, but then that's Hollywood. However, Phillip Reed has shown great promise in a couple of his recent Warner Brothers pictures — and I assure you he'll be one of the outstanding leading men of the screen before he's very many years older. Watch out for him! Phillip Reed (real name Milton LeRoy) keeps in trim by playing tennis. 40 The New Movie Magazine, March, 1935