Screenland Plus TV-Land (Nov 1952 - Oct 1953)

reign as King for some time to come. The fact that he has matured greatly as an actor enhances those chances to sustain his popularity in the years ahead. Dana Andrews dropped in to hear Johnnie Ray at the Copacabana and during the course of their conversation it was Dana who told the singer that the funniest thing that had ever happened on a movie set he was working on occurred during the filming of Sam Goldwyn's "Edge Of Doom" three years ago. Twenty-five human derelicts enjoyed an enormous hot meal gratis when the RKO picture was on location in the Los Angeles slums. The catering company hired to supply the actors with man-sized hot lunches had pulled its mobile kitchentruck into a vacant lot and lunch was almost over before it was discovered that many of the derelicts had dined heartily. They had merely joined the »lne in which film extras and bit playn-s dressed as "skid row" dwellers were moving toward the chow wagon. By the time the real actors got to the wagon there was no more food. BRIEFS: Corinne Calvet, never satisfied with what she sees of herself on screen since she's constantly striving for improvement, walked out of a screening of "Thunder In The East" in a Broadway movie house on the verge of tears when she found the audience laughing in the wrong places ... Mary Sinclair, the "Arrowhead" star, detained by traffic congestion due to construction work on Fifth Avenue, breezed into the Stork Club and said, "I'd like New York if they ever get it finished!" Her luncheon companions howled throughout lunch over that one . . . Harvey Lembeck, Joyce Holden, Glen Roberts, Patricia Hardy and Jaclynne Greene, young stars of "Girls In The Night," enjoyed their joint visit to New York so much that they vowed to hold an annual reunion each Valentine's Day at Danny's Hide-a-way . . . The most sensational news scoop of the month in Gotham concerns the hush-hush plans to make a movie in Manhattan of "Man Into Woman," the diary of the Danish painter, Einar Wegener, who after an operation became Lillian Wegener, married and bore children. Published by Popular Library, the book, upon which the movie will be based will cash in on the international publicity received by the George-into-Christine Jorgenson news stories. A flock of visiting society leaders turned out to welcome actress-singer Cons' ance Moore during her brilliant Maisonette engagement at the St. Regis. The Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain and hor husband, the Marquis and Marquessa de Cuevas, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Count Enrico Marone Cinzano, the Baron and Baroness Von HoynigenHuene and Count Lanfranco Rasponi were a few who joined Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer, Walter Pidgeon, Deborah Kerr, Rock Hudson, Piper Laurie, Madeleine Carroll, Eleanor Parker, Robert 74 Bert Friedlob, Melvin Frank, Eleanor Parker at "Above And Beyond," preem. Mitchum, George Raft, Robert Cummings and James Mason in making every night a gala night for the popular singing star . . . Rene Jeanmaire, the "Hans Christian Andersen" ballerina, has been in conference with play producer Shepard Traube almost nightly over his suggestion that she star in the operetta, "The Girl In The Pink Tights," in New York early next year. Before departing for Paris, Jeanmaire indicated she was interested. Upon her return, she was still anxious to hear more about the musical work, to the extent that she had Danny Kaye listen to the show's musical score one night after his Palace Theatre show ... Fred Zinnemann, who directed such young actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Julie Harris and John Ericson in their screen debuts ("The Men," "The Search," "Member Of The Wedding" and "Teresa"), sat unrecognized in the Astor Drug Store as autograph-collectors milled about waiting for a chance to see Joni James, the singer, so that they might get her signature. Zinnemann, who will direct the all-star cast of "From Here To Eternity" ( Sinatra-Lancaster-Clift-Deborah Kerr), smiled as he left the counter and plodded his way through the youngsters who would have swooned had they known who he was . . . Geraldine Brooks and Myron McCormack (he's featured in the long-run Broadway hit, "South Pacific") were an on-again, of -again romance only because of her infrequent trips to New York. But they date steadily now she is in town . . . Jack Dempsey's life story cannot be made into a motion picture because of the expense it would entail. Every major principal involved in his fabulous career would have to be paid terrific sums of money for the right to be depicted in any filmization of the Dempsey career. His appearance in the Bob Hope-Mickey Rooney-Marilyn Maxwell comedy, "Off Limits," brought many a nostalgic tear to the eyes of hardened Broadway characters who witnessed his screen performance at a sneak preview at the Astor Theatre . . . Bette Davis can be credited with helping to influence so many New York women to adopt the Mamie Eisenhower bangs. Everywhere she'd appear after a performance of her musical, "Two's Company," she'd make every woman within sight notice her hairdo. In the Powder Room at Gogi's Larue, she actually cut a fan's hair to affect the same bangs, when the young girl begged her to do so . . . Only thing Miss Davis did that was different was to wear heavy false eyelashes night and day! The daughter of a famous New York theatrical acting family may file a lawsuit on or about October 1st over the similarity of her own life and that of the one portrayed by Lana Turner in "The Bad And The Beautiful" . . . The historic Empire Theatre which is to be torn down late this Summer to make way for a new office building (it is currently housing Shirley Booth in "Time Of The Cuckoo") will be the subject of a semi-documentary film to be made by an independent producer in Gotham using famous actors and actresses in scenes from the stage plays they made famous in the distinguished playhouse . . . Helen Hayes, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, Julie Harris, Katharine Cornell, Ethel Barrymore and Billie Burke are among the many . . . Kurt Kasznar asked the New York office of MGM if they would screen "Lili" for him so that he might see friend Zsa Zsa Gabor's performance in the Leslie Caron starrer. The date was set. Unbeknown to Kasznar, his fellow-Hungarian Zsa Zsa had made a similar request for a special showing the same date of "Sombrero" in which Kasznar appears with Pier Angeli. So what happened! Both Zsa Zsa and Kurt arrived at the MGM projection room in the Loew's State Theatre Building and the movie shown was "I Love Melvin" in which neither of them appear. Lisa Ferraday had Pen & Pencil diners, the male contingent, dropping their steaks for higher stakes — the opportunity of helping her retrieve a few 14 karat gold gadgets which had slipped from her plastic box-like handbag when she got up from her table. Thanking the gentlemen who helped her find her personal effects she started to leave the steak house and as she approached the door, she bumped into an incoming patron and her handbag again flew open, causing a repeat of the earlier incident. Since the man she collided with happened to be Richard M. Nixon, Vice President of the United States, she did all the apologizing . . . Joan and Constance Bennett, who have been touring the nation in separate plays, have confided to Broadway pals that they would welcome the chance to co-star in a new stage play in New York before resuming their film careers in Hollywood. Currently in "I Found April," Connie Bennett almost played the same town, New Haven, Connecticut, the same week her sister Joan was starring in "Bell, Book And Candle." END PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE CUNEO PRESS, INC.