Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1936)

On the Air in Hollywood [ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 47 ] An exceedingly moving moment in Radio Theater came last month with the heartfelt tribute to Irving Thalberg by Cecil B. DeMille on the evening of the day that Thalberg's sudden and unexpected death so shocked Hollywood. I don't know how it sounded over the air, but there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. Which brings up Norma Shearer's beautiful too bad they don't let people in the house for final rehearsal. I think I would have had more confidence if I had been able to get an audience reaction!" Which left all the "protectors" feeling pretty silly. The opening of the Eddie Cantor Texaco show was a high spot of the month. Did you see those huge life size posters of Eddie lettered " I'll be with you Sunday night with Meet the new Mayor of Texaco Town! He's none other than our old friend Eddie Cantor, snapped with four of his five daughters. The boy is Bobbie Breen, sensational child singer, whom Eddie called his adopted son on the air broadcast of "Romeo and Juliet," with its tragic potion scene, for Louella Parsons on Hollywood Hotel — just the week before real tragedy struck at Norma. Irving was vitally interested in the success of this. He took an active part and worked almost as hard as Norma and Ralph Forbes, who played Romeo, in preparation for it. He was present at all conferences and rehearsals — not saying a great deal, but listening quietly and putting in his potent word now and then. He was there in case Norma needed him. He checked the final rehearsal from the control room, but i in night of the actual broadcast stayed at his desk at M-G-M and caught the show over the air, telephoning Norma immediately afterward. I EST Norma be nervous at rehearsing those "—deathless and poetic scenes in front of an audience, it was decided to bar all visitors from rehearsal. Accordingly, without telling Norma about this, orders were given that the audience which usually trickles in early, be not admitted until show time. Even the stage was pretty well cleared so as not to have Norma embarrassed or harassed in any way. It was, <>f course, a gesture toward a fine actress of the cinema who might not be as accustomed to audiences as an actress of the theater. But no <me counted on the fact that Norma is a great trouper despite her lack of actual stage experience. Said she, as the rehearsal ended, "I guess it was all right, but do you know I think it is Texaco!" that the gasoline company has at their various service stations? Eddie sent one of those to Ida, his wife, in New York, bribed a bellhop to put it beside the dresser in her hotel room while she was out. It was lettered as follows: "I'll be with you every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights if you'll only come home to me!" She came home. Were you surprised when George Burns refused to go on the air without Gracie Allen, who was compelled to cancel because of illness? The truth of the matter is that Gracie and George have never, since they made their first professional appearance together twelve years ago, gone on a program singly. They have built their success jointly and anybody who thinks one will go on without the other is just plumb crazy. It's partly devotion, partly tradition and partly smart show business. P\ICK Powell and Frances Langford were sub^stituted at the very last moment and there was such a rush to whip a script into shape that it was dispatched as written, page by page, to the rehearsal hall. Not that Dick minded even the feverishness of it for, as you may remember, when he had laryngitis last year Gracie and George substituted for him. It was then that Dick sent Gracie a huge bouquet of flowers with a card saying, "I'll do the same for you some day." Well, he did. The excitement attendant upon Dick's marriage to Joan Blondell kept the Hollywood Hotel folks in pretty much of a dither — to say nothing of Dick — those last two California broadcasts before the honeymoon. Remember how the orchestra plaj'ed Mendelssohn's "Wedding March"? Dick was just as surprised as you to hear it. He blushed too — the usually so poised Mr. Powell. I wish I could convey to you, accurately, some of the excitement and some of the tension backstage just before a major radio show goes on the air. I've been backstage on many a first night in the theater; I've sat through some difficult takes in movie studios, At the celebration over the Lux Radio Theatre on Mickey Mouse's eighth birthday are (front row) Walt Disney, creator of both Mickey and Donald Duck, with Carol Ann Beery. (Back row) DeMille, Clara Kimball Young, Wallace Beery (Carol Ann's father), Marjorie Rambeau, Cecelia Parker and Eric Linden 82