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.
next door. That money doesn't seem to make too much difference to him — only I'm sure it's nice to have.
My editor asked me to get the lowdown on Lloyd for the plain reason that an entirely new generation doesn't know him from Adam. Many of the old generation have also lost track of him, or it has been so long since they have read anything about him that he is only a dim, comic memory of more pleasant pre-war days. In short, this interview was for the purpose of checking up on the old and catching up with the new Lloyd.
Harold straightened me out in a hurry when I said something about his coming out of retirement. And he was equally as ready with an answer when I used the word "comeback."
"You just wait and see," he said, "there will be a lot of talk between now and when 'Diddlebock' is released about my coming out of retirement. There will also be many references to the picture as my 'comeback' film. In both cases the users of these terms will be wrong. I never retired from pictures and I'm not making a comeback. I merely waited seven years for the right script to come along, and I think this one is it."
I though about what the Governor of North Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina — "It's a long time between drinks" — but then these two gents didn't have Harold's bankroll and they weren't in the picture business. That's the advantage Lloyd had over a lot of actors, governors, and everybody else. He
possessed enough do-re-mi to wait until the right opportunity came along.
"The fact is," said Harold, "I'm even doing this role by accident, as right as I think it is for me. When Preston St urges and Howard Hughes formed the California Pictures Corporation, Preston got in touch with me with the idea that I might direct one of the comedy properties the company owned. In our discussions I mentioned that I had been looking for a picture for myself for seven years. Preston outlined an idea he had and the first thing I knew I was out in front of the camera, making 'The Sin of Harold Diddlebock.' instead of back of one directing."
This picture is only Lloyd's sixteenth feature-length film, but he is known throughout the world for his one and two-reel comedies made early in his career. That career was one that took him (Please turn to -page 93)
Harold's corny comedy is evident in scenes (top left and right) from new film. Top center, Iturbi visits set and charms the lion (real) who works with Harold in picture. Above, producer-director Sturges and star Lloyd with new heroine, Frances Ramsden.
Family group: Harold with his wife Mildred, his leading lady in silent days, and daughter Gloria. Right, Harold and Frances Ramsden. present leading lady.