Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1951)

WHAT HOLLYWOOD’S WHISPERING ABOUT BY HERB STEIN How-modest-can-you-get department: Shelley Winters telling Leonard Lyons she’d been offered a job as a radio columnist but had to turn it down “because I’m toe busy making news and don’t have time to write it!’’ Sam Goldwyn furious with Farley Granger for going on that New York trip with Shelley. Tried to get Universal’s boss, Bill Goetz, to talk Shelley out of it — and what the Winters gal told Goetz isn’t printable . . . Betty Hutton’s boy friend Pete Rugolo — a great talent — signed by Paramount to do the musical arrangements for De Mille’s “Greatest Show on Earth,” which kept him near Betty almost around the clock . . Jane Powell, who never buys anything new for a home, is decorating her current house via auction sales and secondhand furniture stores. The elaborate wardrobe and snazzy car for Howard Keel in “Callaway Went Thataway,” a picture ribbing Westerns: His petrol wagon in the flicker will be snow-white with black trimmings and loaded with every kind of Western ornament imaginable . . . Esther Williams, who’ll be the first actress to swim the English Channel in M-G-M’s “Everybody Swims” . . . Debbie Reynolds, despite her success at Culver City, still playing the second French horn in the Burbank Youth Symphony. Joan Fontaine, looking and yearning for the right man . . . Clark Gable’s claim that he’ll go it alone from this writing out and duck all future matrimonial ventures . . . The Hopalong Cassidys doing the New York niteries, with Hoppy in “civvies” . . . The town’s most eligible bachelor: Carleton Carpenter, twenty-five, Vermont’s gift to Hollywood, dating the younger set . . . June Allyson, whom M-G-M had trouble “aging” for years, is being made younger in “Too Young to Kiss,” in which she’ll play not only herself, but her twelve-year-old kid sister. Mercedes MeCambridge arriving in town with a haircut that made her a dead ringer for Ruth Roman . . . Tony Dexter, who almost believes he’s Rudolph Valentino . . . “Strictly Dishonorable,” musical film version, which will put Janet Leigh in the same “forward class” as Jane Russell and Marie Wilson . . . Jack Benny’s line: “Phil Harris would like to be the kind of lover Vic Mature thinks Errol Flynn is” . . . Dan Dailey looks sensational these days and his frequent date Barbara Whiting looks even better . . . Shirley Temple’s oldie, “The Little Colonel,” making the rounds of neighborhoods for Saturday kiddie matinees. Betty Hutton, Pete Rugolo INSIDE Pouting Pigeons: It’s the same old story and as usual, there are two sides to the situation. When U-I brought Tony Curtis to Hollywood, he was completely unknown and inexperienced. It was a gamble, but they paid him so little, even his agent didn’t ask a commission! Jeff Chandler, who came straight from radio, was unknown to movie audiences too. His own studio put him in mediocre pictures, but he soared to success on loanout at Twentieth. Now both boys have been offered new contracts which they aren’t about to sign! Being as how their pictures bolster the box office, Jeff and Tony would like to share more than the glory. The studio’s stipulated raise in salary (according to Hollywood standards) could best be viewed through a magnifying glass! A Stitch in Time: This probably won’t endear us to the glamour kiddies, but the best place to see them these days is Ohr'oach’s on Wilshire Boulevard. Now that the economy wave’s hit Hollywood, custom-made clothes are considered a luxury. So such budget-minded beauties as Ann Sothern, Loretta Young, Merle Oberon and Rosalind Russell grab their gowns in the popular apparel house. There they sell those wonderful copies of original French models— but not at those original French prices! Like women everywhere, the movie stars get a big boot out of their bargains. Snake in the Class: “Don’t print it until we’re ready to break the news,” cautioned Cal’s good friends, Annelle and Mark Stevens, “then it’s your scoop that we are expecting a baby!” Cal kept his word, but so help us— we were doublecrossed by their four-year-old son! It happened in school when each child was asked to tell the class about his parents. “My father takes the bus each morning and my mother cleans the house,” said one. “My father works in an office and my mother sells dresses,” said another. Two Pecks share in a bushel of fun at Ciro’s, where Sophie Tucker Errol Flynn appeared with a cane — and wife Pat W yrnade her Hollywood debut. Greg’s a busy man these days. Besides more at Ice-Capades opening. He s still limping from his film work, he’s in the midst of play production at La Jolla his accident. And sore about those parting Illinois! 14