The New Movie Magazine (Jan-Sep 1935)

Poor Jimmy Cagney is always being cast in aviation pictures. "Devi! Dogs of the Air," in which he appeared with Margaret Lindsay and Pat O'Brien, was only one of them. Yet Jimmy has a tummy which can't even stand elevators. CAN ACTORS BE THEMSELVES? "If only I were a movie star," people sigh, "things would be different." But the stars are held back by the same human frailties we all have 9 By RICHARD ENGLISH H OLLYWOOD with its background of emotion, populated with artists, writers and glamorous people from the ends of the world, should be the happiest city in the universe. In how many pictures we've seen Hollywood extol the virtue of obeying one's emotions. In how many articles have actors and actresses stressed that "free thinking" was essential to the career of an artist! If ever there was a citadel of free souls it should be in the cinema city. Yet not a star in pictures is free from some phobia — some fear that may be pathetic, may be humorous, frightening or foolish, but is always human. One of America's most beloved actresses still saves every pair of shoes that she has worn. Her fear is caused by knowing what it means to do without. One prominent actor has a great and honest dread of "being an actor" while another is afraid of awnings! Some have quite commonplace fears, such as gaining weight or losing it. One of the screen's most dynamic males is worried most over what "the hometown folks will think of him." They all may step out on the screen to be gay, daring, Bohemian — but they have their own private nightmares just as you and I. MYRNA LOY was so long cast as a vampire, preferably Oriental, with vipers, snakes and slithering pythons at her beck and call that it's really funny to learn that she's frightened to death at the least mention of snakes! In three pictures at least she was the "lure," employing sex appeal, witchcraft and hissing reptiles to get her man. But in person! Nosiree, not for little Myrna! As a freckle-faced kid in Montana Myrna once stepped on a rattlesnake with no harm done to anything but her nerves. Today she can't even stand the sight of alligator leather. Carole Lombard finds her greatest harassment is in endeavoring to live up to her reputation of being the screen's gayest off-screen young lady, past master of the fine art of repartee. And if you don't think so you should hear her tell it! Her phobia is that, if she ever lets herself down, Hollywood will think she's lost the shining sparkle that makes her so glamorous on the screen. No sparkle, no stardom ! An incident that her secretary, Fieldsey, tells is representative of the Lombard dilemma. On completion of "Twentieth Century," which met with the executives' wild acclaim, one of them asked Carole what manner of present she'd most appreciate. Carole smiled a bit ruefully and said, "I'd like to be able to stay home a few nights without Hollywood thinking I'm getting ready to retire to an old ladies' home!" Just as incongruous as Myrna Loy's pet fear is that of Jimmy Cagney. Jimmy has been cast more than once as a dashing, swashbuckling cavalier of the air lanes — a pilot, no less. But just try and get Mr. Cagney up in a plane! He's, the screen's best little stayer on the grounder, and with good reason, too; for Jimmy has a chronic dyspeptic stomach that rebels at even the sight of an elevator. As you probably know, he is also an ardent pacifist in the sense of avoiding any (Turn to page 62) The bold Mae West lives in mortal terror of black cats and numbers 13 and 23. Bull -40* Left: Ruby Keeler dreads the thought that she has succeeded thanks to Al Jolson's name. And Jean Harlow is so afraid of newspaper gossip now, that she is scared even to have her picture taken with William Powell. 32 The New Movie Magazine, September, 1935