Screenland (Nov 1939–Apr 1940)

Now Marlene (Legs) Dietrich has a rival— and at her old studio, too! She s Muriel (Legs) Angelus, Paramount's new pet from England and the Broadway stage. As Maisie in Kipling's "The Light That Failed," she just can't fail to make a hit. i pi in g i said, "I can't hold out any longer. I signed the contract this afternoon. Honestly, I did." "Bill, quit your kidding," his mother said. "We know how badly you feel about this." "But I'm not kidding," he insisted. "Then I had the hardest time getting " them to believe me," he chuckled. "I was like the boy who cried 'Wolf too often." But being signed to a contract didn't necessarily mean being given a chance to act, he discovered. He underwent the experience to which so many young contract players are subjected. For two months he sat around and waited, fearful "that his option would expire before he was given a bit in a picture. Players whom he met on the lot said gloomily, "We hope you get a break, but very few of us ever do." Finally he was told that he'd been awarded a bit in "Million Dollar Legs." He was to say two words, "Thank you." When he heard this, he was more discouraged than ever. Certainly with only two words to say, he couldn't make any kind of a showing. But he never did say those two words, for a few days later his break really came. For months Columbia had been searching for an actor to portray "Golden Boy," but without success. Then Harry Cohn, the Columbia executive, happened to see his screen test for Paramount, and impressed by it, he sent for Bill. The very next day Bill Holden was tested, and the day after his test, he was signed, Columbia buying half his contract from Paramount. For thirteen weeks, Bill worked on the picture. "Barbara Stanwyck and Adolphe Menjou were grand to me. Miss Stanwyck helped me out with my lines and with my expressions, and Mr. Menjou showed me camera angles. I had no idea whether I was good or bad. All Rouben Mamoulian told me was, 'Don't worry.' For five weeks after the picture was finished, I heard nothing more about it. I was under a terrific strain. I didn't feel as if my work in the picture was really finished. It was just like taking an exam, and wondering how you've made out on it. You're under a strain until the exam notices are posted on the bulletin board. You keep on wondering, 'Did I pass?' I didn't have a good night's sleep until the picture was previewed at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. The next morning, I saw the press notices, and they were good. So I climbed into bed and went to sleep." Incidentally, when William Holden went 98 to the preview of "Golden Boy," he was so completely unknown not a soul recognized him. But as he walked out of the theatre, crowds began to surround him, to pull at his clothes, and thrust autograph books at him. One old woman said in a shrieky voice, "Did you get a big thrill out of kissing Barbara Stanwyck?" That first taste of fame's heady splendors frightened him. He was amazed to have people asking him to sign autographs, as though his autograph could possibly be of any value. He's very simple, very natural and very honest. There isn't any One Girl in his life. "I've never had much time for girls. I've been too busy," he says. "About once in. six months I've taken a girl sailing or to a show or something like that." Asked if(he'd ever been in love, he said, abashed, "No, not really love. I've had what you might call adolescent attractions." His favorite book is Lin Yutang's ' Importance of Living." "I often pick up the book, read excerpts from it, and laugh my head off," he said. "It's the philosophy of a suppressed race. Not having much of this world's goods, the Chinese have learned to love simple things and to get their pleasure out of those things that are free to all — the earth and the sun and the sky." His favorite actors are Spencer Tracy and Paul Muni. Although press agents hail him as a future Clark Gable, he himself hasn't the slightest desire to become a matinee idol. . . He was glad that his role in Invisible Stripes," for which Warners' have borrowed him, was not too big. "I don t feel that I'm big enough to carry any picture, he told me. "From now on, I hope to be cast in small supporting roles. Look at John Garfield. After appearing in Four Daughters,' 'They Made Me a Criminal, and 'Blackwell's Island,' he played a supporting role in 'Daughters Courageous. It wasn't a big part— it was only his fine acting that made it stand out. If a part like that is the right kind of role to build up John Garfield, then certainly I can hope for nothing better than a chance to be featured in a similar role. I didn't become a star overnight, and I don't want to become a star until I've learned how to act." It looks as if he will be given every chance to learn. Bill Holden is now playing in, a comedy,. -"At. -Good Old Siwash," ' for Paramount. In it he'll have an opportunity to express the comic urge that seems to run in his family. Jeanette, the Impatient Photographer Continued from page 61 ten minutes, mildly inquired whether I wanted her with or without eyelashes that evening. And I wonder if my own clickclick-click wouldn't have been just as good?" . "Let me offer these candid pictures of _ the Hargreaves and Irene Dunne," said Gene, extending some prints. "Irene likes your pictures of her, too. The others are examples of really candid art." "I have a romantic soul," smiled Jeanette. "I love to catch my married friends in a cute set-up like that. Those were made at our latest Sunday breakfast. We have friends in for waffles every so often, and I make the waffles on three irons. Talk about heckling ! No matter how quickly I do it, they all complain. After breakfast we usually play our cartoon game, where you choose sides and each side draws whatever word is given them on slips of paper, the other side guessing what has been drawn. You've probably played it. I think I got some good informals last time." "The rule of this house," observed Gene, ruffling through the prints, "is that no one who tells a story shall be permitted to get to the point. It's an ordeal to attempt it, because everyone heckles the story teller and few, if any, finish." Jeanette caught the candid camera hobby from her husband, who has had it since he was a little boy. "Partly it was because Gene's albums are such a joy to us as a record of all our good times together," she told me, "and partly, I think, because we love doing the same things. I doubt if I will ever be as good at it as Gene is, but good or not, it's fun. Gene has a home movie outfit too, you know. I remember when we were on our honeymoon I thought I'd like to see what I could do with that outfit. "We were on a boat, and I had Gene running up and down hatchways, coming in and out of doors, and so on. But I didn't stand there and grind the little jigger as any amateur might do. I thought I'd get something different — -(like you up on the arbor) — something after the manner of our ace camera artists. I held the camera way up or down and always at an angle. When we. showed the film on the screen, believe it or not, Gene was coming in upside down, walking on his head or sort of disappearing into the heavens. "I can walk upstairs on my hands. I should have tried it then and saved the picture," put in Gene. "Oh, the scenery, too ! You should have seen that!" laughed Jeanette. "I had a gorgeous view from my hotel window. I wanted to immortalize it, so I picked up the camera, started grinding and moved from one side to the other, so as to take in the entire view. When it came on the screen, it simply whooshed right by like a comet ! "So now I leave the movie outfit to Gene," finished my hostess. "Speaking of albums — were we? — Gene and I had such fun doing his song for my album of concert numbers. Did you know he played my accompaniment for that record? It's the song he wrote for me, Let Me Always Sing. . ■ " ■ " , "Since Gene began devoting most of his time to 'composing music, he has been very happy. And since I began snapping pictures, I've been a happier person, too. We both found ourselves through our hobbies." PRINTED IN U. S.A. BY CUNEO PRESS, INC.