Screenland (May-Oct 1930)

112 SCREENLAND ON LOCATION WITH RICHARD ARLEN — Continued from page 89 on Eugene booming out the command like the trump of doom? "I wanted everyone to know that I was doing my bit to keep everything under control." By that time George Abbott was in a partial convulsion from laughter. The Pallette humor and delivery has certainly gone over with his director. This was rather a complicated location because there were two sections, the water section which included the under-water stuff only, and the land section which included the above-water stuff. Otto Brower directed the undersea stuff and George Abbott the above water and dramatic stuff. Mr. Abbott also wrote the screen story, adapting it from the novel, "The Lost God" by John Russell. During the morning we took land scenes and traveled in automobiles around and around the terraced hills to the cove adjoining the Isthmus. I said automobiles, but it seemed as though everyone climbed into ours. Eleven people fitted themselves into a seven passenger car. It isn't clear just how, we did seem to bulge out over the running board a trifle. Every time we rounded a sharp curve on the narrow road we'd yell "Watch yourself" to those clinging to the fenders. Fay Wray appeared in an attractive cream flannel skirt and silk tailored blouse. The scene taken that morning was supposed to be after Fay's and Dick's fight with the cannibals. "We'll have to muss you up a bit, Fay," said George Abbott looking as though the job was one he wouldn't mind tackling himself, and he did! At least, he helped and we all gave suggestions. With a pen knife he slit the pretty waist here and there while Fay tore great gashes in her skirt and the property boy gleefully threw mud over the costume and smeared it down here and there. Her tennis shoes were cut and frayed and muddled and in ten minutes she was about as far removed from the chic young lady she had been as anything you can imagine. Fay had three of these outfits, all exactly alike. In a picture of this sort where costumes have to be wet or soiled or ruined it often happens that the last scenes are taken first. As in this case, Fay is on a boat, goes ashore and has a scrap with cannibals. The cannibal scenes were taken before the scenes on the boat, where her dress was whole and clean. Why don't they take scenes in order and sequence? Oh well, go into pictures and find out for yourselves! It would take too long to explain. There are a million reasons why it can't be done. The first scene was taken on such a steep slant of the mountain that a rope had to be tied around Fay's waist to let her down to the desired level. Scattered all over the road were the sound trucks, mixing machines, location chairs and props. The script girls had their typewriters balanced on their knees or on rocks or the flat side of the hill if they could find one. While the mussing up scene featuring Fay Wray was in progress, Louise Woodcock, one of the script girls, had a swell time trying to talk Fay out of her clothes. "You wouldn't be wearing stockings, Fay," George Abbott told her. "Goody! And I wear her size." Louise was joking but Fay said, "Well, you may have them then and save me the trouble of keeping track of them." Whereupon Louise declared it must be her lucky day and looked about for more things Fay might not need. "She wouldn't need that blue suede belt either, would she, Mr. Abbott?" she asked, impishly. "Oh, no. She'd have lost that." "And as she had been on the boat, shipwrecked, she would probably have saved her petticoat so she could wear it when her dress gave out in case they weren't rescued before then, don't you think so?" "Go on, authoress, you're doing very well," laughed Mr. Abbott, but Fay had a sequence of her own to add: "Oh, yes, she would, too. You may have the petticoat if there is anything left of it afterwards but it stays on me in this scene. I'm nothing but rags as it is!" Dick arrived, all bright and shining, to be greeted with a loud guffaw. "Boy, you don't know what you're in for," one of the assistants laughed. Dick grinned as he looked at Fay's bedraggled state. "Oh, that's easy! Three minutes and my own mother wouldn't know me." "He wouldn't have a shirt left to his back and his undervest would be torn and stained," mused the property man proceeding to qualify as an artist. "And what these tennis shoes would look like is nobody's business," added Dick, operating upon them with a penknife. "What on earth are you made up for?" laughed Walter Huston, who had dropped in to see his pals working. "Oh, just a bright boy who got into an argument with some cannibals," grinned Dick. We all sat on the edge of the cliff and let our feet hang over while, from a built-out platform, the cameras recorded the first love scene of the picture. "Why don't you go in swimming, Johnny?" we asked John Engstead, who is the contact man in the Paramount publicity department. All he had brought over in the way of luggage was a comb, a tooth brush and a bathing suit which he kept tightly rolled in a paper bag under his arm. He was all set to grab the first chance of a swim. Johnny is only twenty-one and very popular with the Paramount gang. When we first arrived everyone we met called out, "Hey, Johnny! How's the boy? What do you know?" and so on from actors, grips and carpenters. And I don't mind saying right here that a good many people have wondered why Mr. Lasky or Mr. Zukor hasn't taken Johnny by the ear and led him in front of the camera. If that ever happens, girls, you'd better put a padlock on your hearts, for you're apt to lose them when Johnny smiles. But he wouldn't go swimming. His job was to take care of us and he stuck to it until we knocked off work, and then he swam to Dick's boat and back from shore. As it was a holiday the bay was alive with {Continued on page 115) ASK ME — Continued from page 102 ton. John Gilbert and Ina Claire were married May 9, 1929. Lena, New Haven, Conn. To wait two months for an answer to your question is a mere 'what have you' in this popular section of the magazine. But here we are at last and everybody's happy. John Gilbert's next picture will be "Way for a Sailor." Address him at Metro-GoldwynMayer Studios, Culver City, Cal. Irene Rich will be seen in a First National picture, "Father's Son." Richard Dix has a new leading lady from the stage, Mary Lawlor, in his latest release, "Shooting Straight." Rich's next will be a 'special,' "Cimarron." Ohio Boy from Neivark. What would the big screen stars say if I would approach them and ask several questions? Answer them, of course. Buddy Rogers has the personality that rings the bell at the box office. In his new picture, "Heads Up," he will have as leading lady a newcomer to the screen, Margaret Breen from the New York stage. Helen Kane will boop-a-doop her way through the film, also. Write to Joan Crawford at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Culver City, Cal. Gay, St. Joseph, Mo. So I hit the soft spot in your heart, do I? Now that that is settled, we can go on to bigger things. Take Jackie Coogan— no, I'll take him. He is to appear in another picture soon, "Tom Sawyer." Alice White is in "Sweethearts on Parade" with Marie Prevost, Lloyd Hughes and Kenneth Thompson, a Columbia Pictures production. Mrs. R. R. H. of Drexel Hill, Pa. Richard Arlen's real name is Van Mattemore. He is getting good breaks from the directors and his fan mail is on 'the up and up.' Delight Evans, Editor of Screenland, uses her own name in the magazine. Jack Oakie's latest picture is "The Sap from Syracuse" with Ginger Rogers. Mary De P., Cambridge, Mass. Where can you get the answers to the questions you ask me? Right here, from the wellknown 'come-hither' department. Conrad Nagel can be reached at Metro-GoldwynMayer Studios, Culver City, Cal. Conrad plays in "Second Choice" with Lila Lee, and in "Numbered Men" with Bernice Claire and Raymond Hackett. His next picture will be with Norma Talmadge and William Farnum in "Du Barry, Woman of Passion." Dolores Costello Barrymore has not made a picture since the birth of her daughter. Izzie and Ginger from Maldon. If Rudy Valee and Amos 'n' Andy were on the air at the same time, what would I do? I'd let them have it. Esther Ralston was born Sept. 17, 1902, in Bar Harbor, Maine. She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 124 pounds and has blonde hair and blue eyes. Clara Bow was born July 29, 1905. She has red hair, agate brown eyes, is 5 feet, Zy2 inches tall and weighs 110 pounds. As far as I know, neither Esther nor Clara ever went to college. Ruth, Virginia. No, I'm not related to Yoo-Hoo or Voo-Doo; I come from a very good family with a long line of ancestors, reaching 'way back. I don't remember Peggy O'Day of "The Fighting Skipper." That was a serial of 1923 and I can't remember that far back. Lane Chandler was born June 4, 1901, in Culbertson, Montana. Gary Cooper's real name is Frank J. Cooper but he didn't tell me what the J. is for. Milly. Where in Illinois have you been, not to know that Nick Stuart and Sue Carol are married? The well-known knot was tied July 28, 1929, in Ventura, Cal. Nick has been making short comedies and has been flashing his famous smile and causing our heart to skip a beat, now and then. In "The Big Party" with Sue Carol, you saw Dixie Lee, Frank Albertson and Richard Keene.