Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

Mr. and Mrs. Pat O'Brien, above, len Flanagan of Boys' Town. The trio are fire since. Suppose the studio kicked him out at the end of two weeks. He roused Chester at five Monday morning and rode down to Standard Oil. Ten guys, all down on their luck, glared at the dude in his English-tailored double-breaster, who marched right past them and into the office. "Look," he told the boss, "my mother just died in Oklahoma. I can't get back for six weeks. Will you hold the job?" It takes a hard heart to pile more woe on a mother's death. "Well — you've been pretty persistent. I'll hold it." He was glad to remember that eventually one of the other down-and-outers got his job. Paramount gave him a second small part. He overcame Mai's misgivings about his return to films by the process of arithmetic. "Look — here's my gas station salary. Look at the years and years it'll take to earn five thousand, let alone save it. — Now look here!" He stuck a check for three thousand under her nose. "That's what I've saved from two pictures." Signed to a contract a few days later, he and Mai went together to take the willow dishes out of storage. For a while all was rosy. Presently, though, the first fine rapture of money in the bank began to wear off, and through its shimmering tatters he perceived that professionally he was fast getting nowhere. Everyone was against him, he concluded, till a couple of things opened his eyes to the possibility that maybe he was against himself — that he didn't know his job, maybe, and was doing little to make its acquaintance. One was a talk with Sir Guy Standing. "What do you do at night ?" asked Sir Guy. "Sit around and read." "Whom do you admire most as an actor?" "Freddie March." "Well, stop reading. Go see pictures. Freddie March's first, then the others. It's fine to be a student, but you'd better study acting first." Following this advice, Milland grew aware of a tension and self-consciousness before the cameras. "I used to_ think all the grips and propmen were watching me, when they didn't give a damn." Mitch Leisen, rehearsing him in "The Big Broadcast of 1937," said: "When you move your arm, move it all the way. Relax." L,en Weissman d an attentive ear to famous Father pictured at the Beverly Hills Derby. That simple instruction helped him to an easier approach, but it bore no fruit. For five months after "The Gilded Lily," he didn't work at all. Then he was asked to help test the girls who were being tried out for "Jungle Princess." Dorothy Lamour once chosen, the director mused, "Now whom can we get for the fellow?" Ray felt he had hit bottom. (He hadn't). Here he'd been testing for two and a half months and emerged as the invisible man. "How about me?" he said weakly. "Oh — you? Well, all right — maybe." The picture was a money-maker, so he went into "Easy Living" with Jean Arthur — one of the first screwball comedies, a superduper production with lavish sets, which also proved a hit. He began to feel quite the actor, and sat back waiting for some more nice parts that didn't come. In desperation he prodded Zeppo Marx, his agent — "a damn fine agent, God bless him, and say so, will you?" — to arrange for a loanout. The best Zeppo could do was a little quickie over at Universal, into which the moguls were dumping everyone on the lot they wanted to get rid of. Ray shared a dressing room with three fellow-members of the cast. They worked on a twenty-one day schedule. The producer was his own prop man, brushed the actors' coats. His name was Joe Pasternak. The picture was "Three Smart Girls." Things picked up a little after that. William Wellman liked him, wanted him for "Men With Wings." "He stinks," said the front office. "He's going into the picture." said Wellman coldly. Word of that got around. People began nodding at Mr. Milland as he passed by. Not for long, however. Only till it became apparent that the picture was a frost. Then they stopped saying hello. Ray had to show his pass to get on the lot. The turn really came with "Irene." He'd been interviewed by Herbert Wilcox once before, in London. He'd cooled his heels for three hours in an anteroom, his vigil shared by a little blonde unknown. Ray got in first. As he came out. the little blonde raised awe-filled eyes at this man who had actually talked to a producer. Nothing had come of that interview. Now Wilcox wanted him for "Irene." "Think I can borrow you?" "They'll probably pay you to take me off their hands," answered Ray with the candor which sets him apart from the bulk of his brethren. Wilcox featured him in the picture. He starred Anna Neagle, the little blonde. Zeppo Marx came tearing out on the set one day with a script. "Read it," he beamed. "Don't say a word. Just read it." It turned out to be "The Doctor Takes a Wife," which turned out to be a laugh-riot. When Columbia released it. Paramount pricked up its ears. Edward Griffith put in a bid for Milland to play a part in "Virginia" — the part eventually played by Stirling Hayden. Len Weissman With the applause still ringing in her ears, Academy Winner Ginger Rogers, above, with escort Johnny Green, smiles shyly as friends offer congratulations. 72