Photoplay (Jul-Dec 1938)

; L 0 S E LONG SHOTS Favorite love story of the month star ring two discoveries: Richard Greene . . JY RUTH WATERBURY . . . and Arleen Whelan. What saved their romance could happen only in Hollywood $' ®rc. PORTRAIT of an Editor Thinking Out Loud ... I wonder if Warner Brothers were at all influenced by Photoplay's editorials on naking simple, homey pictures about real p30)le when they made "Four Daughters" ... I'd ike to believe they were . . . certainly this is it departure from the usual Warner blood-andhunder plot which they produce so superlaively . . . though they've done this lovely, genie story superlatively, too . . . John Garfield's liscovery alone would have made it worth while . . but the whole thing is perfect. . . . Funny how some people can get by with breaking all the rules . . . take Ronald Colman . . he never does any of the things that are supposed to be necessary for success in HollyWood . . . never goes places, never gives parpies, never gets talked about, seldom grants interviews, rarely signs autograph books, doesn't , spend his money, never bothers with publicity; ;out he's been a major star for fifteen years now .and "If I Were King," his next epic, is rumored I :o be the finest thing he's ever done ... if you 2ould see him as he is off screen with his skin tanned mahogany and those dashes of grey at his temples I believe you'd agree with me that tie is easily the handsomest man in Hollywood. . . . Why do they pick on actors for losing their jheads in Hollywood when a solemn, supposedly Uuperintelligent investigating committee for the i United States Congress goes so goof-nuts that it comes forth with the frightening (to mice) information that Shirley Temple is a red dupe . . . what happened they couldn't discover the genuine Communists in the town? . . . everybody in Hollywood knows several big shots who claim such allegiance. . . . Does it look a bit more than mere coincidence to you that Fred Astaire, after having snubbed it for a couple of years, suddenly got palsywalsy with the press, just before "Carefree," his newest production, was released . . . and do you suppose the flop of his "A Damsel in Distress," the picture he did without Ginger, as opposed to the success of the pictures Miss Rogers did all by her pretty self, could have had anything to do with this. . . . MY Favorite Love Story of the Month (starring two — count 'em two — Cinderellas) : Not so very long ago there was a young, handsome but quite poor young actor in London who was discovered by a talent scout and brought, unexpectedly, to Hollywood . . . and at the same time there was a young, beautiful but quite poor young girl in Hollywood working as a manicurist . . . she, too, was discovered by a talent scout and brought to the same studio where the young actor was working . . . their names are, as perhaps you've guessed, Richard Greene and Arleen Whelan, for you may have heard that those two are utterly and completely in love . . . what I do not believe you've heard is that the movie business has done everything it could to stop those kids being in love ... it really isn't good business for starting stars like that to have eyes for no one save each other . . . Twentieth Century-Fox tried to give the handsome Greene lad the usual romantic build-up by having him photographed in glamour spots with glamour ladies . . . but while the boy tried to do just as he was told when he was on the studio time, when he was free he was always with Arleen . . . but what saved their romance would only happen in Hollywood ... it was the fact that neither of them clicked quite as big as was expected . . . young Greene may build up since it is easier, what with the shortage of leading men, to build up a male personality . . . but the pretty little Whelan, for all her charm, just seems to lack the great dramatic spark . . . slated for the lead in "Jesse James" she was replaced by new-discovery Nancy Kelly . . . success would probably have separated them as it did Irene Hervey and Bob Taylor, or Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power . . . the happy ending to this is that these setbacks have only drawn the two lovers closer . . . you can expect the wedding bells to ring out any day now . . . and what is a girl's career compared to her finding her ideal love and isn't it the true stuff of which romance is made to think that fate picked them up, unknown and half the world apart, to bring them together for just one another? .... (Continued on page 15) NOVEMBER, 1938