Hollywood Hotel (Warner Bros.) (1937)

Louella Parsons Makes Film Bow in Warner Bros. Musical By GLENDA FARRELL (Glenda Farrell, noted for her screen portraits of newspaper girls, interviews a famous interviewer on the set of “Hollywood Hotel’) “Well, how does it feel to be an actress?” I asked Louella O. Parsons. “Terrible!” “Listen,” I said, “that’s the way we all feel about our work nine Mat 106—15c Louella Parsons times out of ten. It is said to be the sign of the true creative artist. Hasn’t anybody told you that?” So with that we settled down to a this-and-that sort of gabfest about acting in general, and Louella’s acting in particular. It was in Miss Parsons’ portable dressing room on the “Hollywood Hotel” set. Miss Parsons had turned her dressing room into an office. On the table sat a little portable typewriter surrounded by papers, pencils and two telephones. The phones were ringing most of the time. Every time one rang, my interviewee would unhook the receiver, say “Oh, hello, darling,” listen, comment briefly, hang up and jot a pencilled memorandum. “You see, I’m holding down three jobs right now,” she said. “I’m working in this picture, running my ‘Hollywood Hotel’ air show, and getting out my daily column. It’s quite a stint, don’t you think?” “Which do you find the hardest?” I asked. “Acting,” she answered with what I have described as a “soulful sigh.” I didn’t ask her why. I didn’t have to. “People telephone me items for my column,” she continued, “and the calls are rerouted here. And details about my air show I can take care of by telephone, too. But the acting—” “Why, you’re swell,” I said. “That scene you played with us just now—why, Lola and I both said you certainly were a trouper. You know, the way you co-operate and take directions.” “Well, anyhow, I’ve been writing all my life about movie folk. I thought I knew all about the hard work you actresses undergo. But I never really realized it all. I know that now. “Why, just getting ready to go before the camera is a huge task in itself. I get up at 5:30 to answer a 9 o’clock camera call, come out here to the studio and put in two hours getting made up and having my hair dressed.” “Yes, I know,” said I. “I’m used to it, but it must be tough for you.” Suddenly she laughed —a nice round hearty laugh. “But—I love it.” Rosemary Lane Impersonates Sister in “Hollywood Hotel’ It isn’t everybody who manages early in adult life to realize a cherished childhood ambition, but that is what happened to Rosemary Lane. Ever since she was a little tyke, just about knee-high to a grasshopper, she has wanted to be like her older sister Lola. Maybe the astute Warner Bros. knew about it. Maybe they had heard, for Rosemary makes no secret of it. At any rate, they gave Rosemary the chance to imitate Lola when they cast both sisters in “Holly wood Hotel,” the spectacular big musical comedy that opens next week at the Strand Theatre. It is Rosemary’s childhood ambition come true. For Lola plays the role of a temperamental movie star who refuses to make an important personal appearance, and Rosemary is the unknown little gal who is hastily rushed in to double for her. She has to look like Lola, walk like her, talk like her, wear her gowns, and— “I love it,” said Rosemary, in her dressing room on the set. “As a matter of fact, it’s the thing I’ve really been training to do all my life, without realizing it.” It all began back in Indianola, Ia., before the five Lane sisters left the family nest. There were Lola, Leota, Martha, Rosemary and Priscilla (called “Pat’”) and Lola was the idol of all her sisters but especially of the last named two —the babies of the tribe. For Lola was known as “different.” Even as a youngster, she was the little actress right down to her fingertips. From the time they began to toddle, Rosemary and “Pat” followed her around like adoring slaves. And they paid her the sincerest of flattery. They imitated her. As she talked, Rosemary sat before a mirror in her dressing room with a hair-dresser puttering around her. A dab here, a touch of the comb there, and Rosemary’s hair looked exactly like Lola’s. Indeed, Rosemary now looked exactly like Lola in every respect. For she was gowned in a long shimmering silver satin such as Lola wears in her big scene in the picture. And fresh from two Mat 122—15c Rosemary Lane hours under the artful hands of makeup wizard Perc Westmore, she looked so much like Lola facially you would mistake her for a twin. “Actually, we are far from this close appearance,” said Rosemary. “Of course, there is a strong family resemblance. But I’m a trifle taller and a trifle slimmer and Lola’s face I know is far more vivid than mine. “But when I am playing, people tell me I look so much like Lola that it startles them. As a matter of fact, makeup and clothes couldn’t do it all. But I’m so used to imitating Lola that for the time being I am Lola. That’s the answer!” HOLLYWOOD HOTEL IS ON THE AIR! Mat 401—60c (Left to right) Jerry Cooper, Frances Langford, Johnnie Davis, Lola Lane, Dick Powell, Rosemary Lane, Raymond Paige, Louella Parsons, Ken Niles, Mabel Todd and Ted Healy, principals in the cast of the year’s biggest musical show, “Hollywood Hotel,” which also features Benny Goodman and his Swing Band, and comes to the Strand Theatre Friday. Se PIE SE HEALS POUCA EIS RS EL ERLE A RE EE NEN NCCE) Ly