Screenland (May-Oct 1938)

her mind to it. Give her a handful of musicians who know the meaning of the word "swing" and Queen Mary would be lucky to rate a nod. But for all her unadulterated love for swing music and the "yeah, man" mode of life, Martha has a serious side to her which often surprises even me. For example, right at present she is determined to lay aside her role of a completely pixilated songstress and prove to the world at large that she can emote and give off glamor along with the best of them. And the funny part of it is that she is just the girl who can do it, believe it or not. From being as closely and as constantly associated with Martha as I am, I am probably as intimately familiar with her as anyone in the world with the possible exception of her mother. And when I give warning that Martha Raye has made up her mind to devote some of her time in the future to more or less straight dramatic endeavor rather than the usual slightly hectic parts in which she has previously appeared, you can depend upon just that, because the girl can act — the studio knows it, I know it, and after you see her next few pictures you'll know it ! Any good dramatic coach will tell you that it takes real innate dramatic ability to play a comedy role successfully, no matter how hare-brained it may seem. So, if Martha wants to do drama, then you can lay your bottom piaster that the Davises and Crawfords and Loys are about to acquire a bit more competition. Watch and see. Martha owns an automobile. I've told you that before but now we'll elaborate a little. This car is a twelve-cylindered Packard, (no plug intended) and from the chauffeur's seat its length gives you the distinct impression of guiding the Saratoga or Lexington down the thoroughfare. To Martha this is a decided handicap as she would rather drive a car than attend a Coronation every week — the darned thing is just too huge for her to easily navigate. So what does she do? She and her standin, Jeanette Rudy, who also lives with Martha, shopped around and finally hit upon an outstanding vehicle that was built to order for an undersized girl to wheel about. A 1928 convertible coupe. But this magnificent carriage was sadly in need of a paint job, so the two girls bought several quarts of red paint and went to work. All one day and most of the next they labored and "oh'd" and "ah'd" and daubed red paint all over themselves and the surrounding landscape and when they were finished, stepped back and viewed their handiwork with pardonable pride. Rembrandt, after all, was only a sissy. And now, unless there's something special going on, the ancient Chevy holds first place in the Raye affections and the lordly Packard seems doomed to sit most of the time in the Raye garage and sneer disconsolately at the four walls. So, here, then, is the Martha Raye that I, as her secretary and confidante, know. A girl who would much rather sit in a corner with a bunch of killer-diller musicians and give out _ with the swing that she honestly feels in her soul than try to impress the populace with a sense of a falsely felt importance. A girl who would much rather drive a crusades-model jallopy around town than be driven in a limousine that represents a small fortune. A girl who is_ as real and unspoiled, as fresh and as vital as tomorrow's headlines. But it was not until the other night when Martha pointed out an utterly untrue item in a movie gossip column about herself and I saw her chin quiver and her eyes fill that I finally got so doggoned mad that I went into another room and sat down at this typewriter and did my level best to tell about the Martha Raye that I know. London Continued from page 61 So when he isn't on the floor he retires to a private estate fenced off among the trees and flowers and plays around with sanitary rubber "bones" and barks at all the people who crowd outside to watch him. Little Elisabeth Bergner paid her respects to him the other morning and Asta only opened one sleepy eye at her, then rolled himself round and went into dreamland again. The elusive Austrian star of the blonde bob and the haunting brown eyes is playing a double role in a new film called "Stolen Life." She plays twin sisters in love with the same man. He marries the selfish pleasure-seeking one and when she dies in compromising circumstances, the other, gentle sister goes to the husband to keep him happy without telling him of the substitution. That certainly seems something fresh in movie stories ! Edmund Gwenn has a new type of part, too. After his recent illness he went for a Both for her smile and her style, we like Ethel Merman, above. vacation voyage in a freighter and spent six weeks at sea. The day he came hack he signed to star in a film called "Penny Paradise" and found he had to go right back afloat because he plays' the captain of a Liverpool tug-boat bringing the great Atlantic liners into dock. Talking about liners, I hear that the Queen Mary's pink gymnasium was shaken from end to end when young Tommy Bupp rehearsed his broncho-busting yells coming over. Tommy certainly shook me when I went to watch him working with British comedian Will Hay in "Hey, Hey, U. S. A." Something with a tousled head and a freckled face grabbed me and burst out "Say, I'm Tommy and I'm fourteen years old and I been in seventy-five films, thirtyfive with screen credits and I started in 'Our Gang' and I been with W. C. Fields in 'It's a Gift' and why are your automobiles so crazy and my folks just bought a new ranch in the San Fernando Valley it's north of Hollywood and I'm raising horses there and — " And then Edgar .Kennedy took pity on me and called Tommy back to the set, and when I'd been revived with a cup of tea I elicited how Tommy is making screen his tory by being the first American boy actor to be brought over for an English film. He's the tough son of a Chicago gangster millionaire, played by the inimitable Edgar, and Will Hay is the English tutor engaged to teach him etiquette and such. Will's favorite screen lady is Ruth Chatterton, and after we'd been discussing her it was startling to go back to town and learn she had just arrived in England herself. She's visiting all the stage plays in London, frequently squired by Noel Coward who is among her greatest friends, until Paramount have her new dramatic film all ready to take the floor. They are now finishing "This Man is News," set in a newspaper office, with Valerie Hobson and Barry K. Barnes as rival reporters. Do you remember a wisecrack about polo in Alexander Korda's army life color film "The Drum," when a character said the game was "an Indian invention, an English amusement, and an American profession" ? Well, that bit of dialogue has been sticking in the Korda memory so persistently he has now bought a scenario called "Calcutta Cup" which is all about polo in the three countries as named. Sabu, the little Indian boy, will act in it so Korda has refused to loan him out to R.K.O. in Hollywood until winter. (They really wanted him for "Gunga Din" as a beginning). Korda's great whitestone studios house another unconventional film at the moment, a story of life in a girls' reformatory called "Prison without Bars." It has no recognized stars but just a lot of clever young character actresses, several of them frankly ugly and others acting cripples and criminals. There is no glamor, no dresses beyond the drab uniforms, and no love-interest or even man-interest except as an incidental reference. Korda is producing it under conditions of secrecy and avers it will startle the world with its new technique and impressionistic photography. It looks as though Sonja Henie may have a competitor in Hollywood this fall, for Britain's loveliest skating champion, Marie Belita, is going to California to skate for the films. Marie is fifteen, her real name being Mary Turner, exquisitely slim and dainty with sparkling black eyes, and has been gliding over theJce since she was three years old. She's a singer and ballet-dancer, too, and proud owner of one of the largest stamp collections in Britain at her London home. Producer Herbert Wilcox has changed his mind about allowing his golden-haired Anna Neagle to co-star with Leslie Howard in the film about the life of Admiral Lord Nelson. Now Leslie will star by himself when the production takes the floor and be supported by Diana Wynyard making a come-back to the screen as the beautiful Lady Hamilton with whom the famous sailor had such a passionate and tragic love affair. You won't recognize the girl you knew in "Cavalcade" and those other Hollywood films of a few years ago. Diana has changed her personality completely during the interim she has spent acting on the European stage. Now she seems taller and more stately, her figure plumper and her hair a darker brown, dressed in a Garbolike bob but curled back off her forehead in front, She is still unmarried, living quietly with her parents at their country house near London, spending her leisure riding and gardening and practicing music. So now Anna Neagle's next appearance will be in a picture based on the life of Marie Lloyd, the comedienne of fifty years ago who was then London's "Queen of the Halls" — vaudeville top-liner to you. She was a vivacious high-spirited lady singing songs considered rather naughty in those days, so that portraying her will be a tremendous change for Anna after her two successive films as Queen Victoria. 81