Screenland (Nov 1937-Apr 1938)

Kay and Pat are Like That Continued from page 29 because he thinks she is one of the most talented and charming stars on the screen. And boy, after you've co-starred with a submarine, an airship, and an oil tank, a Francis with all her glamor and her OrryKelly clothes is a gift from heaven A closed set or no, and a Francis slightly aloof or no, Pat was pleased. "I never worked with Kay in a picture before" Pat told me, "though she and I were on the stage together in a none too successful play about eleven years ago. For four years my dressing-room has been next to hers on the Warner Brothers lot but we never seemed to be working at the same time so we never did get acquainted. After the 'Swing Your Lady interlude I thought well, Pat my boy, they'll probably want you to support a pipe line now." (Interruption from me: That s already been done, Pat. Irene Dunne supported a pipe line in "High, Wide and Handsome," and I thought they'd never finish laying those pipes)— "and so you can just imagine how surprised and happy I was when they told me I would go into Women Are Like That' as the romantic lead opposite Kay Francis. In the first place, ever since I've been in Hollywood I've been eager to co-star with Kay because I think she is a beautiful and glamorous woman, and a mighty swell actress. Then, too, I was pleased because it gave me a chance to get out of a uniform for one picture at least— I've been in every uniform they've got in the wardrobe department, and it gets monotonous being a cop or a sailor all the time. In this little number I'll have you know I wear white tie and tails ! Even my own mother_ won't know me on the screen." (Kids like to wear uniforms and actors like to wear tails —that's one of my little observations of life and things that don't matter.) Well, that's all very true, Mr. O'Brien, I said to myself, but I betcha you'll be glad to climb back into your uniform after a session with a suing star. But I have been wrong. And I was again. This time. One bright afternoon when I was "doing sets" at Warner Brothers, I usually _ do sets when there is a swing band in action, I very graciously remarked that we could skip the "Women Are Like That" set because I didn't wear my mittens and sudden cold gives me chilblains. But no, said my escort, that's the gayest set on the lot. You can't miss Kay and Pat romping around like a couple of high school kids. Curiosity got the best of me so I walked right past the "Absolutely no admittance" sign on the door but very cautiously took a stance near the exit so I could run easily if necessary. Oh, that's all right, said my escort whom I considered either an extreme optimist or a fool; just don't mention her lawsuit and everything's okay. Well, they were doing a scene, a most amusing scene, where Kay and Pat as husband and wife and rival advertising agents meet in the lawyer's office to arrange for a divorce. Kay thinks she wants to marry Ralph Forbes who, suffering from a severe cold (a picture cold), is stretched out on a couch fast asleep. The lawyer is delayed getting there. Kay looks at Pat and Pat looks at Kay. The office radio starts playing. "Shall we dance?" says Pat, and the next thing you know she is in his arms, and there is no need for a lawyer. Fadeout! And right here and now I wish to go on record as saying that if any of Kay's friends think that Pat isn't the romantic type they're due for a change of mind. Fernand Gravet ! Charles Boyer ! Piffle That romantic new screen love team of Francis and O'Brien is really something to write home about on pink scented stationery. Woo! Woo! At the end of the take the First Lady did not hastily retire to her dressing-room; instead she sat down on a property box and yelled "Pat" at the top of her voice. Followed by a series of giggles and laughs, and if everything else is quiet about Kay Fsancis her laugh certainly isn't. "Pat," she shrieked, "come here, I want to show you my burglar alarm. You haven't got anything like that." "You'll need one m Gopher Gulch," said Pat pulling up another prop box— and there they were as cozy and chummy as two bugs in a rug.; "It's been like this since the second day," said one of the wardrobe girls. "Miss Francis was rather aloof the first day, she was worried or something, and Mr. O'Brien seemed to have the attitude that if Miss Francis could be cold so could he. But on the second day of the picture somebody brought Mr. O'Brien the plans for the new house he is building overlooking the sea at Del Mar and in his enthusiasm he showed them to Miss Francis. She immediately sent for the plans of the house she is building in Hidden Valley, and ever since then they have been talking^ their heads off about ventilation, landscaping, etc." "Don't let all those fine feathers Kay wears in most of her pictures fool you," Pat told me. "She really doesn't give a damn about being called Hollywood's Best Dressed Woman. She'd much rather be called the Gal of Gopher Gulch. Wouldn't you know she'd choose to build her first home in California not in a ritzy sounding place like Beverly Crest or Riviera but in a canyon called Gopher Gulch! She asked me to autograph one of my pictures for her playroom and I wrote on it, 'My happiest engagement in pictures.' And I meant every word of it. Working with Kay has been a lot of fun; in fact, this picture has been more of a romp than any I have ever made. Kay is so considerate of her crew — she has had the same crew for every picture — and I guess they would just about lay down their lives for her. If anyone gets sick she is the first to visit them at the hospital. She spends her time on the set talking over bits of business for the picture, or else when she gets tired of us she retires to her dressing-room and reads a detective story. I've never seen a' woman so crazy about mystery thrillers, and the bloodier the better. No wonder she's having burglar alarms installed all over Gopher Gulch !" "But why," I persisted, after all I'm not going to sit idly by and let the First Lady be turned into a saint, "but why does she dodge photographers and interviewers.'' Unless you're an old friend from way back she will not give an interview during a picture — and not very often between pictures." That'll hold him, I said to myself. "Well," said Pat, "something I heard Kay tell a newspaper reporter the other day rather explains that, I think. It seems this newspaper guy was from out of town and had been stalled by the publicity office for several days. Finally Kay said she would see him on the set. The first thing he asked her was, 'Miss Francis, why are you so hard to see ?' 'When I was an actress on the New York stage,' Kay told him, 'I went into one of the big newspaper offices one day and asked to speak to the managing editor. I waited for quite some time. Finally I took my nerve in my hand and walked right into his office. He told me very patiently that he would like nothing better than to have a nice long chat with me, but unfortunately he had a paper going to press and he was much too busy to see me. I,' said Kay, 'unfortunately, have a film in production.' Does that explain it?" "That'll do," I muttered, "until something better comes along." The fact that there was a little lawsuit dangling didn't dampen anybody's spirits at the end of the picture, for Kay cracked through with a party in her dressing-room for the cast and crew that reached a new high in Hollywood parties. If she wins her suit she may not make another picture there but she was going to be awfully sure that everybody had fun while she was there. I recall that when Kay left Paramount for Warner Brothers some five years ago she presented nearly everybody who had contacted her at the studio with a handsome farewell present. Most stars, in case you don't know, do not bother to give presents after the people can no longer be of any use to them. Pat wasn't going to let Kay outdo him when it _ came to a party so in the midst of festivities he invited everybody out to his Brentwood home the following Wednesday for a barbecue. The entire cast and crew of "Women Are Like That" arrived practically famished, and who was it that pitched right in and barbecued a mean steak for a prop boy, a hairdresser, a wardrobe woman, and a bit player— that's right, Miss Kay Francis. "How I hate to see the end of this picture," said Pat with one hand wrapped around a steak and the other around Kay, "it's been fun." Yes, I think we can safely scribble on all the garage doors: Pat and Kay, Are That Way. Producer Mervyn LeRoy greets Fernand Gravel with the script for his next picture, as the Continental star and hi: wife retjrn to the coast. 69