Screenland (Jul–Dec 1946)

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SONG WRITERS ATTENTION The amazing demand for phonograph records, accelerated by more than 300.000 Song-Hit creating Juke-Boxes, warrants your immediate investigation. We are offering song-poem writers the rare opportunity of having qualified composers furnish music for any approved poems received this month on percentage basis. Kecola Kecording Co., Box StS7-S, Hollywood :i8,Cnlif. ANEW FACE -A NEW FUTURE! How Plastic Surgery easily lakes years off the prematurely aged face, quickly reshapes an ugly nose and ■corrects other facial blemishes Is told and Illustrated with 88 before-and-after pictures In fascinating: book, YOUR NEW FACE IS YOUR FORTUNE, written by famous Plastic Surgeon. Yours, post Or paid in plain /hp wrapper — only LOU FRANKLIN HOUSE Publishers 629 Drexel Bldg. Philadelphia, Pa. Dept. 9-H Who Kissed Them First? Continued from page 51 for the real Riverside and the famous Mission Inn, where he got MARRIED! When Joan Leslie was a little girl in vaudeville, she used to see feature pictures between shows. If Gary Cooper, her favorite actor, was in it, she saw a picture three times. Being cast as Gary's mountain sweetheart in "Sergeant York" was a major thrill, but as their love scenes drew near, Joan suffered agonies of shyness. Gary was just plain bashful. The first kiss was to be a long shot. Gary was plowing a field and Joan had to run barefoot across the plowed ground, bawl out Gary for being undemonstrative and end her little speech by throwing her arms about his neck, kissing him rapidly and running away. "No kisses in rehearsal," Gary advised Joan, but Director Howard Hawkes said he couldn't tell how the scene would look unless they did. There they were, so far from the cameras they "felt rea!lv alone. Joai's lips scarcely brushed Gary's. "This is picture!" came the command. They threw themselves into the scene. This time Gary, who is four heads taller than Joan, wouldn't stoop over to her. In order to reach him, she had to dash into the scene and leap up at him, much as a puppy jumps up to catch a ball. The director was delighted, but Joan says it wasn't romantic; she felt just like a leaping tuna! "It sounds like a gag," confided Janis Paige, "but it's the truth. When I lived in Tacoma, Washington, my one relaxation from studying for grand opera was to go to movies. The first time I saw Dane Clark in 'Action in the North Atlantic' I got the most terrible crush on him. I never missed a film if he was in it — some of them I saw three times. When at last I got to Hollywood and was 'discovered' singing at the Hollywood Canteen, I was signed to a contract and was given a part — sneaking of coincidences — in the picture 'Hollywood Canteen,' opposite Dane Clark. I was so excited I could hardly bear it. The first day of shooting was the last scene in the picture; you know Hollywood! I was at the railroad station telling Dane goodbye, he was a soldier going back to camp and I was the studio messenger in pigtails who kissed him goodbye. Funny thing—" she laughed a little — "the director wanted a kiss that sounded well. Every time they'd take it, the engineer would turn on the steam too soon as the train pulled out, and the hissing would drown out the sound of our kiss. The director was screaming and tearing his hair, the assistants were going crazy, but me, I was enjoying every minute. In pictures, and with Dane Clark, I thought, movies are a wonderful business!" When Diana Lynn played with Eddie Bracken in "Miracle of Morgan's Creek," she was the little sister and Eddie was very nice to her. She had also done a kid sister in "The Major and the Minor," and the studio persisted in looking on her as a child. She was nearing seventeen and felt grown-up. "Oh, Eddie, what'll I do?" she besought him. Eddie consoled her, told her better times were coming, and presently wangled her the love interest in "Out of this World." She was very grateful. "He was the man I kissed in the picture," she recalled, "but by that time he had given me so much advice that I looked on him as my big brother, and where's the thrill in kissing your brother?" When Betty Hutton kissed Eddie Bracken in "The Fleet's In," she was a wild creature and he was a poor little flustered sailor. "He acted flustered just as he was supposed to do," commented Betty, "but I always hoped he was really flustered — I thought I was a wow at kissing!" It was dreadfully hot the day Deanna Durbin received her first screen kiss from Robert Stack in "First Love." Bob was in a tuxedo and Deanna in an evening gown, but the crew wore shirtsleeves and fanned themselves. Nervousness made the two youngsters hotter and Director Henry Koster tried to put them at ease by careful rehearsing. The kiss, of course, was left out till "Picture!" was called. Bob suddenly got stage fright and stalled until the frantic Deanna whispered: "Hurry up, kiss me! Kiss me, for goodness sake!" "Hold it!" cried the sound recorder. "I could hear Deanna whisper." Myrna Loy was an old hand at screen roles when she had her first kiss from Warner Baxter in "Renegades." She'd always played vamp roles, where she either pushed the gentlemen to one side or sat and glared at the heroine being kissed, so she was quite nervous as her love scene approached. She thought she wouldn't be believable as a moonlightand-roses girl. The first take she missed Warner's mouth. He laughed and so did everyone on the set, which made Myrna determine to do it right if it killed her. She did it, on the fourth ta'"e. Richard Dix was the man who discovered Jeanette MacDonald when she was singing on the stage. He begged his studio to sign her as his leading lady, but instead she was cast opposite Maurice Chevalier in "Love Parade." Richard was the Glamor Boy of the screen at the time, and Jeanette was disap pointed at not working with him. "I wore something very frilly in mv first love scene," she remembered, "t!r set was decorative, the music lovely; I sang, then Maurice sang, then we kisser! and finally we sang together. I was hew to pictures and so was Maurice. Tlr whole thing became a matter of correc' timing, getting the exact word to eac' gesture, making the kiss come out ri"'1 t and last just long enough for us to strik ■ our notes for our duet. All I could think of later was how different it would have been if I could have played my first love scene with Richard!" The first kiss is quite an item in a young man's life, too. Take Bill Williams. When Bill and Laraine Day rehearsed her kiss in "Those Endearing Young Charms," she just passed his 84 SCREENLAND