Screenland (May-Oct 1938)

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New York, where he found immediate success. Not only was he in demand for advertisements but also for many magazine covers. Working diligently for a year he saved ample funds' for a European vacation, and sailed for Paris where he remained for some time. This vacation led to his first motion picture experience. One day he was introduced to a charming Russian actress who, through an interpreter since Alan could not speak French nor could she speak English, asked him to consider making a travelogue for an automobile manufacturer. The offer was accepted and immediately they set out with a French director on a three weeks' tour of France. The picture was a silent one wherein Alan and the Russian lady played the parts of a young couple on a honeymoon, but at the end of the trip they were speaking off the screen only by means of an improvised sign language. From Paris, Alan went to London. Later he returned to New York and was' offered a screen test which turned out to be successful. This resulted in the role of a sailor in "Winterset" and a motion picture contract. He then played small roles in "Between Two Women" and "Bad Guy" but his work in those two productions at years. Her Freshman year was spent at the University of Kentucky and while there the ROTC make her an honorary Colonel, a rank which she also holds as one of the famous Kentucky Colonels. While she was at school she took part in dramatics and excelled in other extra-curricular activities, notably swimming and volley ball. When those who have not seen Marjorie do see her on the screen for the first time the chances are that they'll ask themselves, "Where have I seen that girl?" The answer is that they have seen her before — on the covers of nearly every magazine in America. For while she was in New York (her prize in the national contest was a dance scholarship in New York upon her graduation from the university), she managed to find time to pose for some of the biggest advertising accounts in the country : Chesterfields — although Marjorie doesn't smoke ; Budweiser — although she doesn't drink, and Lux. Marjorie's name seldom if ever appears in the movie columns among those mentioned as being present at this or that night spot. She takes her film-career too seriously to spend her evenings in the night-spots'. Instead, she remains at home to study her script. . And not only does' she study her Beloved Scatterbrain Continued from page 34 guilty, spoiled the "take." When the scene was finally completed Marie dropped into a chair beside me, saying wistfully, "That was my most important sequence and now, it's all over !" In a serio-comic voice she went on, "I am so excited to be in this picture ! I liked 'Fools for Scandal,' of course — but I had hoped to have some dramatic scenes with Mr. Gravet, who is one of my idols, and with Carole Lombard, another idol. But my part was so small that I had to read the script through twice even to find it! After waiting around two whole days to make my first scene, I was so jittery when they called me that I barged in at the wrong door, and then, couldn't remember one word of my one line of dialogue. Whew, that was an awful day ! When I served the soup, I stuck my thumb down into it, then climaxed the whole thing by spilling water over Carole's beautiful dinner gown. I thought she'd want to kill me, but gee, she was grand. She let out one of her whooping laughs, saying she was going to adopt me for I was just the balmy sister she had been looking for all her life. She insisted we must make another picture together. I hope we do, for that would justify my comedy career." "And today's mishaps ?" I prompted. "I began early," she replied. "Whizzing around a corner of the stage I caught _ my apron on the door and tore a big hole right in the middle and the wardrobe department had to hurry to make a new center before I was called for this scene. At noon, trying to be polite to a girl in the studio cafe, I spilled tea on my dress. But it is black, see? It doesn't show, and that was once when luck was with me. Sometimes it isn't ! Once I innocently walked onto the big courtyard set of The Adventures of Robin Hood' waving cheerily to everbody I knew, when suddenly, Director Michael Curtiz yelled 'Scram!' And I ran, but ran the wrong way, going right across the set and into the cameras. Then, when everybody laughed, Mr. Curtiz said it was a joke, the scene was finished but he wanted to see how fast I could run. I ruined a big scene once, while we were making 'King of Hockey.' I thought they were all through shooting and came aimlessly zigzagging onto the set in my stocking feet, carrying my shoes, and I must have looked dumb ! "You can't guess how troubles pile up. I told a girl she looked like her boy friend's first wife, and now she won't speak to me. I like her, too, and I didn't mean any harm but just forgot the connection and anyway, the wife was pretty so she shouldn't mind so much." Perhaps Marie is allergic to glassware — she's always smashing it. At a swanky cocktail party she was " raving over the exquisite imported glasses and finished her remarks with a little sweeping gesture of her hands, when down tumbled two of the rarest ones. She still can't believe she actually touched them, but there they lay on the floor in a hundred pieces. Once, all dressed up and making her first call on friends in their new honeymoon home, her hand touched the door knob as she rang the bell — it was just a wee, tiny touch, but the knob dropped off and rolled at her feet as the austere English butler opened the door. From his look she's positive he thought she was a "strong girl" let loose from a circus. "There was' the time when I ate up most of the fancy hors d'ocuvres at a grand cocktail party," wailed Marie. "Not that I intended to, not at all, but I don't drink, In the garden of one of Hollywood's most palatial homes you see gathered, above, the Harold Lloyds: the star, his wife (Mildred Davis), and their three children. tracted such favorable notice that Joseph Mankiewitz, the producer suggested that he be tested for the role of Eddie in "Mannequin" which lifted him to a high spot. On November 14, 1937, he was married to Priscilla Lawson, popular young actress also under contract to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio. Marjorie Weaver, the Twentieth Century-Fox white hope, who won a glittering cinematic crown for herself in "Second Honeymoon" and later in "Sally, Irene and Mary," will go perhaps farther than many of the young players in Hollywood today. Marjorie is outstanding in many things. Her loveliness is triumphant, having brought the prize her way for four consecutive semesters at the University of Indiana and also in a nation wide beauty contest conducted hy a motion picture magazine. She is one of the five beauty queens, out of thousands during the last decade, who has won laurels or enduring fame in the movie industry. Most contest winners have tried Hollywood but have fallen by the wayside on the difficult path to fame. Marjorie graduated from the University of Indiana where she attended for three own part, but she makes a point of borrowing scripts of other pictures on the production schedule and takes them home for analysis at her leisure. In this way she feels that she is preparing herself for any part that might be offered her. So the ranks' of our young hopefuls are definitely filled with first class material. There are others at this writing who are perhaps batting with as great a degree of success though space limits our discussion of them at this time. The probability is that most of these young players won't find failure. Right now they're pretty far up the ladder that will lead them to a point where their names will be billed above the title of pictures rather than beneath them. Naturally some have a greater^ scope for acting than others and some will receive breaks where others will not, but right now each is a logical subject for eventual stardom. All are consummate performers and the plums of the studios are being tossed their way. They are all on their race to the peak — which ones are favored to win? And who are the long shots? At the moment it appears to be anybody's race, and your bet is as good as mine. 76