Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1942)

From Bautzer ... to Shaw ... to Martin went Lana — and then Tonnmy Dorsey blew his trombone and she stopped to listen to the tune Lana would honestly like to cooperate. But what can she do, twenty-two years of vivid age, with a mind made of equal parts of stardust and firecrackers? HER latest elopement may seem to echo of heedless, headstrong impulsiveness. It should, for all of Lana's actions have that same breathless quality of unbridled impulse. Take, for instance, that bond-selling trip from which she returned just before her madcap marriage to Stephen Crane. M-G-M was deUghted to comply when the Treasury Department asked for Lana to tour the Pacific Northwest and over to her home town of Wallace, Idaho, selling bonds. Lana was delighted, too. At the mere thought of all the dignity that would accrue to Lana from the bond -selling trip, Metro practically rolled over and buttered itself. They reckoned without their problem child. She wanted to sell a lot of bonds and her own generous impulses, her own lively imagination, did the rest. Without thinking to ask anyone's permission, she flamingly announced when she arrived in Portland, Oregon, late one evening, that she would kiss any man who bought $50,000 worth of bonds. Before she had even had her breakfast next morning, five guys turned up, all with the necessary cash. In less than five seconds, Lana gave five kisses, took in a quarter of a million dollars. Metro shuddered. Of course, the papers wenl for it big and it was at once terrible and wonderful. Or take the day that, right in the midst of production, Lana didn't like the color of the hose she was wearing. She wanted one certain shade, one certain quality that one certain store 32 in Beverly Hills had. Now Lana, for all her madcapness, is a big star. In a recent popularity survey conducted by one of the country's leading public opinion experts, Lana ranked second among all feminine personalities! When a big star wants anything so simple as one particular pair of stockings from one particular shop, she gets them, even if she wants to get them herself. Lana did want to get them for herself, so she went dashing away from the studio, over to Beverly, right to the steps of the store. There on the steps was a man selling a great Dane dog, a beautiful dog, a super dog. Uh-huh, that's what happened. Lana bought the dog, rushed back to the studio to show him off, completely forgetting the stockings. She's still got him, plus three others of three other breeds. IT didn't really take her wedding to Crane to prove that romance and Lana are one of those combinations as felicitous and inevitable as moonlight and roses, coffee and cream, and champagne and laughter. Recorded in Lana's heart lines have been the names of Greg Bautzer, Artie Shaw, Tony Martin, Tommy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Howard Hughes, Robert Stack, to mention just the more famous of them. One big name being awash with love over another big name always creates a story — regardless of whether or not the story has truth in it. When Lana, still at Warners, started going with Greg Bautzer, the lawyer, Hollywood didn't care. That the pretty kid was completely in love was okay by the town. There are so many pretty kids under contract who never get anywhere. Bautzer wasn't any celebrity and if Lana was suffering from a generally unrequited love, Hollywooc regarded that as her own agony The story at that time was tha the Turner-Bautzer quarrels begar when Greg wanted Lana to give up acting as the price of marriage, she arguing that why couldn't she be wee and still make one teeny weeny picture a year. At that time Lana wa^ getting SIO.OOO a picture and that sunadded to the nominal amount ever the most successful young lawyers earn looked big to her. When finalh they broke it ofT, any observer coulc see that Lana was the more hurt That separation was the propitious moment for Lana to have given up love for her career, as many an ambitious girl has done before her. Bu' she chose to continue on her harumscarum way mid the cries of the Hollywood venerables. "I wish they'd let The Punk alone,' said Mervyn LeRoy, discussing hei and perhaps with the elopement fresh in his mind. Mervyn always calls Lana "The {Continued on page 76) m PMIWII Sflltl 7 JLana '~J-iixnet: Appearing ir M-G-M's "Somewhere I'l Find You" paf« *' jcliii C /iiT'fielA: Appearing in W a r n e r s' "Air Force" . . pagt SO C/cczifC <Saitileti: Appearing in M-S-M's "Her Cardboarc Lover" and Loew-Lewin's "The Moon and Sixpence" /'"f" , lliiixccn ^ j^Lira: Appearing in 20+h Century-Fox's "Block Swan" pn.v 4' ,~J_^^uiiiii I'^ccd: Appearing iM-G-M's "Apache Trail" CjcTtt/jiiu —'^i/jtjcTuLl: Ap pearing in Warners "Watch On The Rhine ' P"!>f i ' ^ I luxij ^ I Lirliii: Appearing in Poromount's "Happy-GcLucky" /'<».'/'' cr-\(<< J-nyiiic: Appearing Warners' '"The Hard Way" PHOTOPLAY coidbined U'i(/i movie mirrc