Screenland (May-Oct 1938)

ANNABELLA'S actor husband Jean < Murat has returned to Paris, acting bids not flooding in on him here. So she's been spending her spare time sightseeing with the Charles Boyers. They've done the Southern California playspots and most recently have ventured to Phoenix. Practically no one recognizes the trio. Mrs. Boyer is Pat Paterson. They don't dress fit to kill, nor behave conspicuously. BETTE DAVIS has been having an unmentioned fight, too. According to report, it's with her agent, Mike Levee. As soon as he releases her from his contract, which provides that he shall represent her on business deals, it is said, she'll sign with Leland Hayward, equally prominent agent who's Margaret Sullavan's husband to boot. Bette conducted her recent Warner tiff herself, Levee being not in sympathy with it. She says she's changed since coming Encore love! Joel McCrea tells Loretta Young he loves her to beat the band that's playing. Above, Stuart Erwin courting Marjorie Weaver. to Hollywood, and about reading gossip of all things! "When I was on the stage I never cared what other people did. But out here I'm like all the rest now. I find myself eagerly reading the lowdown columns and speculating avidly as to exactly who the columnist was taking the crack at! I should be ashamed to admit it, shouldn't I ?" NATURALLY the fireworks which have to explode in the film version of "You Can't Take It With You" have to be seen and not merely heard. So there was quite a quandary for a spell. Jean Arthur had visions of her come-back (she was on strike against her studio for a year) going up in rockets and Roman candles. But she was relieved when informed that cold fire, thoroughly non-inflammable, was being employed in the fireworks scene. When Jeai began in pictures she was on the receiving end of custard pies, in two-reel comedies. On the Fourth of July she'll add fireworks to her list of taboos. She can't stand pie in any disguise ! THERE'S something about portraying I movie detectives in one picture after another that brings on nervous breakdowns. First Warner Oland had to get away from Charlie Chan for a prolonged rest. Now Peter Lorre has had to watch his health since he's' been Mr. Moto-'mg it so mysteriously. Indeed, Pete's been troubled by insomnia to the point where he was quite upset. He finally has been cured by the combined efforts of two doctors. Whimsically, he's taken the two physicians to Arrowhead as* a special treat. Maintains they need a rest cure after fussing with him ! BURGLARS have been annoying the stars. Louise Fazenda went East for a couple of weeks and thieves stole all her valued keepsakes in the jewelry line. The Fred MacMurrays went out to a bridge game and returned to discover a man had been there taking his pick. Miriam Hopkins visited her husband in his house across the street and had to call the police when she'd said good night and had come home. Carole Lombard dated Clark Gable and was she sorry they drove in the moonlight so per A new Columbia contract "in the bag,' Marlene Dietrich vacations abroad, before tackling new radio and film jobs. sistently ! While gone $25,000 worth of favorite possessions were stolen. She particularly missed a jeweled watch which Clark gave her. Who says she isn't sentimental, regretting that most? IANE WITHERS had established the J fact that she was quite a grown-up lady round home. She was treated as such, to her glee. But her new reputation is' ruined. In her last picture she pulled a table cloth from a table, leaving all the dishes on the table and whole. She politely finished dinner at home one evening when there was company, and when she'd been complimented highly on her sweetness in person. The gush was too much for Jane, who thought a bit of startling action wouldn't be amiss. Nonchalantly she rose and, with a deft flip of the wrist, off came the table cloth. With all the dishes smashing on the floor ! There was a stunned silence. Jane explained she'd done it at the studio. "But Jane," her mother reminded her, "they had a trick kind of table cloth there !" Ah, me. NOT all of these Hollywood Cinderellas are in the Kg money, however. Arleen Whalen, for example. She and her family have moved from the unfashionable part of Los Angeles to a more select section nearer the studio where she's being groomed, but — believe it or not — Arleen still wipes the dishes after supper. She worked in the beauty salon in the Roosevelt Hotel on the boulevard for a year-and-a-half. Simone Simon used to tell her she ought to try for pictures. But Arleen never thought she'd do at all. One day in walked a director, next day she was tested, and the following day she signed on the dotted line. Today she has a dressing-room not far from Simon's. IOHN HOWARD is the steppingest J young man in all Hollywood. But at last he seems to be concentrating— on Laurie Lane, a young actress who is in the stock company at Paramount, where Johnny's a leading man. In spite of his click he still lives in a very modest bungalow with his mother and father. Laurie's earnestness got him. She's even been spending her own money to have her teeth straightened. Usually studios attend to such details; when they didn't care enough about Laurie's smile she budgeted more sternly. 69