Screenland (May-Oct 1941)

A few months back Ray would have jumped at any part. But times had changed. He sat with Griffith on the steps of the executive building and gave him an argument which boiled down to a private conviction that the role, as written, didn't suit him. "Rather than take it, I'll take a suspension." Griffith saw his point. "But I'll have to tell the front office, Ray." "That's okay with me." He strode off glumly. The more he pondered it, the more deeply victimized he felt by a suspension that hadn't yet been imposed. Mitch Leisen was sitting on the curb. "What's the matter with you?" Ray glared. "I'm in no mood to chat." "Oh come on, sit down, let me tell you a story I'm going to do. With Joel McCrea. It'll cheer you up." Listening to the story of "Arise, My Love," Ray turned nile-green. At length endurance snapped. "What good's it to me, you yapping your head off about your wonderful picture — ?" He moved on. It was his day for bumping into people. The next was Arthur Hornblow, producer of "Arise, My Love." "Ran your Columbia picture at the house. Good piece of work." "That's fine," said Ray. At some distance he spotted the figure of Zeppo Marx, made for it as a child makes for his mother, and poured out his sorrows. Zeppo looked thoughtful. "Say — I just heard McCrea wants a vacation — " At which point another executive hove into view. Ray flagged him. "If McCrea doesn't want it, why can't I do the Leisen picture — ?" "Oh foof, they wouldn't go for you. Anyway, Claudette probably wouldn't accept you — " So he went home and brooded. Next morning a phone call summoned him to the front office. He describes that session with quiet relish. "They were mad at me before I went in. They said they were thinking of putting me into the picture. They made it clear that if I wasn't terrific, I'd be drawn and quartered. They treated me like a boy they'd picked up on the street to push the baby carriage for fifty cents. And if anything happened to the baby, God help me." He achieved his stature as an actor in that picture. Before it was finished Hornblow signed him for "I Wanted Wings" NEW ARRIVALS and others! Proud Hollywood papa is handsome hero John Hubbard, left, holding his brand-new baby daughter, Lois Maryan, while Mrs. Hubbard looks on. John's latest movie is Columbia's "She Knew All the Answers," with Joan Bennett and Franchot Tone. At right, another new arrival in film-town: Judith Melinda, daughter of the Richard Collinses, whose mother is professionally known as Dorothy Comingore, seen as the "second wife" of Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane." Below, Mickey Rooney arrives in Hawaii on vacation armed with the inevitable glass of the Islands' famous pineapple juice. Bottom of page shows Jean Gabin, noted French actor, arriving in America on a contract to make movies for 20th Century-Fox. Welcome to our shores. and Claudette tapped him as her leading man in "Skylark." The schedule for the first ran so long that the second was postponed two months. Normally another actor would have been substituted, but Miss Colbert refused to consider another actor. People no longer say hello as they pass. They make a wide detour to say it. The change leaves Milland pleased, amused and cynical. He's sufficiently detached from the Hollywood scene to recognize its value, and sufficiently human to enjoy it. Not quite two years ago he started building the house of his dreams in Beverly Hills — a replica, insofar as he could manage it, of the Sussex home he'd bought for his mother. Its chief ornament is Daniel David, turned a year on March 6th. And Mai's chief source of diversion is Ray as a father. "At the hospital he used to run out every few minutes to watch the baby through the nursery window. People would stop to look at him because he's an actor. He'd turn and grin, thinking it was his marvelous baby they were admiring. — He takes a bow on everything the baby does. Danny's skin is dark. I say it's sunbaths. Jack says it's the W elsh in him. I had wonderful names picked out for him like Michael and Anthony. Jack said they sounded like the hero of a bad English novel. 'Daniel David,' he said, 'that's a good strong name. I can see it already on his luggage when he goes to Europe— D. D. Milland.' " Sundays are given over by the senior Milland to photographing the junior. There's a daily ritual too. Ray leaves the house at seven thirty, which is breakfast time for Daniel. Daniel refuses to touch spoon to porridge till his father appears, picks him up, walks him three times round the room, deposits him in his highchair again and waves byby. Daniel waves back, looking, says his father, like a man waving a salami with a bunch of carrots tied on. He then proceeds with his meal, while papa proceeds to the studio. Mai hopes he'll grow up to look like Ray. She thinks it would be silly for a child not to look like a father who looks like Ray. Ray doesn't care what he looks like, content that he is. The boy who was always running away to find some lovely place beyond the hills has found it. Through his wife and son, the escapist has escaped into happiness.. 74