The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

// No Movie Madness for Me! // THERE'LL be no movie madness for me," exclaimed Kitty Carlisle emphatically, the very tone of her voice and the sparkle in her eyes assuring me that I had struck a most responsive chord. "Hollywood madness" may not be a pet peeve of Kitty's but if it isn't, it at least is a subject of which she is very fond. "Maybe you're not the stenographer or the screen actor or the housekeeper you used to be," Kitty will say, "but if you're not, I've got the answer. It's Hollywood madness, movie insanity, or whatever you choose to call it. "It's not at all uncommon," she will argue, "and if you think that the girl at the next typewriter or the exotic creature on the next set or the young mother next door are acting queerly, the answer is simple . . . they've gone Hollywood." And according to Kitty, one of the things about this movie madness is its geographical scope. She'll tell that "You don't have to go to Hollywood to. catch the germ. Right at home in Podunk or on Broadway or in Miami you'll find it. Even if you look in the mirror — oh well, just maybe!" THERE are few girls in the movies who have had the social and educational advantages which have been the good fortune of Kitty Carlisle. Early schooling in New Orleans, studying in Switzerland and Paris, and making a social debut in Rome, Italy, have combined to give her a sophisticated and broadened perspective. This viewpoint, she assured me, is the secret of her immunity to movie madness. "Whether it's Hartford or Hol "And you don't have to live in Hollywood to be movie mad," says Kitty Carlisle. "There are movie-maniacs right in your own home town" By JOHN T. CASEY lywood, balance is essential," Kitty will tell you, and without any ego whatsoever, she'll say, "Take myself for example. After studying most of my life abroad, I came back to the United States in 1932 and immediately struck good fortune with the leading role in a Rio Rita revival which toured for eight months. Then last Winter, I sang the lead in the successful operetta, "Champagne Sec." It was this show which brought me to the attention of Paramount and resulted in my making four pictures within the year 1934, two of which have been opposite Bing Crosby. It is this being flung into screen limelight which has made me so conscious of the causes of movie madness." Probably the most startling of Kitty's observations was the one about the absurd parties, wild romances, silly feuds, and a hundred other items which make up Hollywood scene. Mr. Crosby's new leading woman exclaims positively, "Those wild doings are really not so much a part of the town. The damage has usually been done long before most of the screen folk ever gaze upon Beverly Hills or the Brown Derby. Of course most people don't show it until screen sue cess suddenly gives them the fame and fortune they have always dreamed about. But that's only part of the problem. They would never go off balance if they had the proper background before they came to Hollywood." Following the Carlisle diagnosis, when Dotty Daffy in West Cupcake starts spending her hardearned money for mailorder screen courses, then watch out. She is probably about to subject her friends and neighbors to the highly contagious disease of movie madness. Even if she doesn't buy a course, she may be Hollywood Haywire. She may wear Dietrich trousers or pester the local paper to run her picture; she may give up home town admirers because they cannot match John Boles or Clark Gable in romantic settings; or she may show it in a dozen other ways. If she has any of these (Please turn to page 42) ^ Kitty Carlisle was practically thrown into pictures, and into Bing Crosby's arms, in "She Loves Me Not" and "Here Is My Heart." But she keeps her head! 26 The Neiv Movie Magazine, May, 1935