Hi Nellie (Warner Bros.) (1934)

.. Keature Stories’ PaulMuniOwnsFirstHome After Years of Wandering Bought a Ranch One Sunday and Said Goodbye To Life in Hotel, Apartment or Trunk FTER living all his life in hotel rooms, apartments and wardrobe trunks, Paul Muni likes to stretch his legs in front of his own fireplace and have a place he can call home. Muni’s ‘‘home’’ is the walnut ranch he bought unexpectedly one Sunday afternoon during the filming of ‘‘The World Changes.’’ ing a place in California for more than a year. He and Mrs. Muni had talked about buy They had talked about other places, too, for that matter, places like Long Island or Connecticut, but nothing had ever come of that talk before. But on this particular Sunday morning Mrs. Muni started out early by herself to look at ““places.’’ She had the names of dealers and a list of advertised ‘“ranches’’ torn from the Sunday morning papers. She knew that both she and Paul wanted to live in the ‘‘ranch’’ district of the San Fernando Valley because they had already bought a place out there for Mnui’s family and had looked at others for themselves. Four hours later Mrs. Muni came home, tired but triumphant. ‘“‘T’ye found a place I like rather well,’’ she announced, ‘‘I wish you would go out there this afternoon and look at it.’’ Muni went, grumbling a little, and quite sure he wouldn’t like it. Four hours later he came back. ‘<How was it?’’ demanded Mrs. Muni. ‘<T liked it,’’ admitted Muni. ‘¢T liked it so well I bought it.’’ Home At Last! So, after years of hotels and apartments and wardrobe trunks the Muni’s have a real home. They hardly knew what to do with it when they got it. They didn’t own a stick of furniture. They had never actually had a ‘‘house’’ before. They drove back to the valley that same night and wandered around the dark acreage by themselves. They fumbled through the house, the lights having been turned off when the previous occupant moved out, and planned changes and color chemes and furniture purchases. ‘*T’ll have four weeks to myself before I start ‘Hi, Nellie!’,’’ explained Muni. ‘‘We could get settled in that time.’’ ‘(Hi, Nellie!’’ is Muni’s latest film play, which is now showing at CHE ss grec Theatre. They moved in the day after ‘““The World Changes’’ finished. The painters left as the furniture store vans backed up to the entrance. In almost record breaking time Mrs. Muni transformed a house into a home and Muni had ehanged a ‘‘yard’’ into a garden. The house is interesting and spacious in a mcdest way. A large, high-esilinged living room is featured by a terraced fireplace not quite in the middle of its longest wall. At ons end enormous grilled gates open into a marble floored solarium. At the other end steps lead to an aleove dining room, which is separated from the living room only by those steps and another elaborate iron grill. Cpening off the living room on either side are two apartments. That, to the left, is Muni’s bedroom, study and bath. That to the right is Mrs. Muni’s bedroom, sitting room and bath. Muni’s quarters are carpeted in midnight blue with antique walnut furnishings. The eglor scheme in his wife’s quarters is old rose and gold. Comfort the Strong Feature Service quarters and at least one additional guest suite are located back of the dining room, Deep comfort and soft colors are featured throughout. The house is strictly informal. They planned it particularly to look as unlike an Page Twenty-four Drama At The City Desk Author of Newspaper Drama Once Reporter Sidney Sutherland, who collaborated with Abem Finkel on the Warner Bros. newspaper sereen drama, “Hi, Nellie!” which is now showing at the ................. Theatre, is a famous newspaper writer, known from Coast to Coast. He has worked on twenty-nine papers, altogether, as well as having been a staff writer for Liberty magazine and contributing to many others. Paul Muni has the stellar role in “Hi, Nellie!”, playing the part of the managing editor who is sentenced to do the Heart Throbs column for displeasing the publisher. When editors disagree. Paul Muni and Douglas Dumbrille in a bit from the current feature at the Strand Theatre, Warner Bros.’ hit “‘Hi, Nellie!’ Others in the cast are Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks and Robert Barrat. Mat No. 8—10c apartment or hotel room as possible. The west windows of the living room look out across a large, tilelined swimming pool to a bath house and party room. As yet unfurnished, the Muni’s have interesting plans for this smaller building. Months of disuse had left the grounds in an unkempt and sunbaked condition. The pool was a floating reservoir for fallen walnuts. The trees had grown untrimmed for at least one season. The fences were fallen and the automatie entrance gate, which opens electrically from the house when @ driver sounds his horn, was out of repair. With a gang of workmen Muni set to work to change all this within the four week period between picture assignments at the nearby Warner Bros. studio. In old trousers and a sweat shirt, Muni himself acted as foreman of the gang, helped clean the pool, trimmed the trees, set out new gardens and completed extensive repairs to house and grounds. Perhaps the thing he was proudest of when he was through, was the wood house wing of the main ranch building, which he had transformed into a giant cedar closet. Best Time of Life ‘*Tt’s big enough to hold everything,’’ he declared. ‘‘ All those trunks we have lived in. All the costumes I’ve been keeping. All our winter clothes and furs and anything else we want to keep safe and moth proof.’’ After a month of this Muni deeared he had never worked harder nor had a better time in all his life. ‘*We won’t live here the year around, of course,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ll probably be going back to New York each season to do a play, but, whether I do or not, we’ll always have this to come back to. “It won’t cost us as much ‘o keep this place up as it has tor all the hotel apartments and flats we’ve leased and then had to leave unoccupied because our plans changed. I bought the place for little enough—not as cheaply, by the way, as I could have bought it a year earlier—but still cheaply enough, “We like it. I like the feeling that it is ours. The fireplace really works and I can stretch my legs out in front of it and enjoy life. ‘<Like almost everybody else I’ve lost a lot of money in investments. This is different. This isn’t an investment. It’s a home. ‘And, after all those years in hotels and trunks, that means something. And we can come back to it whenever we return to Hollywood.’’ The Munis expect to spend the winter in New York, but will return to Warner Bros. in the Spring to start work on another screen production. In his latest picture, he has the role of a high powered newspaper man who is condemned to write the levelorn column because he has disagreed with the publisher. How he wins back his position as Managing Editor by getting the biggest scoop of the year forms the entertaining story’s plot. The picture, in addition to its excitement, is filled with hilarious comedy. The story is by Roy Chanslor and was dramatized for the sereen by Abem Finkel and Sidney Sutherland. Glenda Farrell has the role of a@ star woman reporter with whom Muni is in love, Cthers in the east are Ned Sparks, Robert Barrat, Kathryn Sergava, Hobart Cavanaugh and Harold Huber. Mervyn LeRoy, who directed Muni in ‘‘T Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang’’ and ‘‘The World Changes,’’ directed ‘‘ Hi, Nellie!’ too. Bath In Cocoanut Milk One Of Star’s Beauty Pointers Kathryn Sergava, Exotic Actress and Other Hollywood Beauties Go Back To Nature ITH millions of American women spending many hours and dollars annually in beauty parlors, it is a surprising fact that a number of Hollywood’s paragons of beauty actually are going back to Mother Nature for their beauty helps. Kathryn Sergava, the exotic Russian actress, who is now playing in support of Paul Muni in ‘‘Hi, Nellie!’’ now show ing at the Theatre, and being groomed for stardom by Warner Bros., caused something of a furore at the studio when she was seen drinking the milk from a cocoanut—native fashion. ‘‘T do not fuss much with my «*T do, not believe much in trying out all sorts face,’’ she explained. of things about which I am not The skin is too precious to But I do know that cocoanuts are a great beauty sure. experiment upon. food. I eat lots of fresh cocoanuts, and drink their milk daily. I also bathe my face in it, and sponge my body with it. fine for the complexion, and marvellous for the teeth,’’ Miss Sergava added. ‘‘Cocoanuts are She has a dozen of them delivered to her home daily. Bette Davis drinks goat milk, which physicians long have recommended for its skin enriching qualities. Glenda Farrell goes Lillian Gish one better, and eats raw carrots on the set, between meals. Lillian, you will recall, crashed newspaper headlines a few years ago by nipping at the carrots during a court trial. Jean Muir, who is the tall, athletic type of young girl, indulges in plain walking, to keep her beauty. She walks the three miles from her home in the heart of Hollywood to the Warner Brothers studio, in North Hollywood. ‘‘Walking is my only beauty aid,’’ she said. ‘‘I enjoy it, too, except it’s annoying having to refuse the offers of kind motorists to give me a lift.’’ Joan Blondell—or is it Joan Barnes—goes right down into the earth, taking old-fashioned mud packs to preserve her winsome appearance. Ruth Chatterton and Mae West are great believers in getting lots of sleep. They manage to get ten or eleven hours sleep each night. Barbara Stanwyck, a fine swimmer, uses this favorite pastime as a beauty help. She swims the length of her pool under water a number of times, The deep breaths required for this feat are fine for the circulation. Kay Francis, despite her city training, believes in the down-onthe-farm practice of using rain water to wash her face and hair. Where does she get the rain water in Sunny California? She stores it in the back yard of her home. Sergava, however, goes the other stars one better. in her methods of keeping fit for screen work. She is highly individualistic and likes to do things in her own way and different from that of other stars. In the Muni picture, ‘‘ Hi, Nellie!’’ she has an important role which she handles in a unique and pleasing manner. ‘‘Hi, Nellie!’’ is a_ stirring newspaper story, both hilariously funny and dramatic, in which Muni, a brilliant editor, is sentenced to write the lovelorn column because he incurred the displeasure of the publisher. Other members of the cast include Glenda Farrell, Ned Sparks, Robert Barrat, Hobart Cavanaugh and Harold Huber. Mervyn LeRoy directed the pieture from the screen play by Abem Finkel and Sidney Suther land, based on the story by Roy Chanslor. A Hot Tip And a hot number. Glenda Farrell who takes the feminine honors in Warner Bros.’ hit “Hi, Nellie!’’ With the star, Paul Muni.are also Ned Sparks and Theatre. now showing at the Strand Robert Barrat. Mervyn LeRoy directed. Mat No. 3—10c