Screen Mirror (Jun 1930 - Mar 1931)

but not to Hollywood. On the contrary, East went much further West — to Honolulu. There he joined a stock company and went through a rigorous histrionic apprenticeship. Then East came East — to Hollywood, and looked up his old friend Lew Ayres, with whom he used, to play in an orchestra. Lew took his buddy Arthur to Universal and arranged for a test. The result was a nice long-term contract — so East will stay West. • A SCENE was in rehearsal on Ruth Chatterton’s set in which the star was shooting dice. The story called for her to fail to make her point. “What point shall I say it is?” she asked Director John Cromwell. “What’s a hard one to make?” • “SO I says to him — ‘What's Dietrich got that I aint’.” From the runway far above, came the voice of a “juicer,” an electrician: “They’re all hard, lady.” • ’TIS rumored, according to Weslev Hale, that Warner Brothers are dickering for the services of Leo, the M-G-M lion. Are you roaring? • THEY finally located ‘Skippy’, just where you’d expect to find him. Percy Crosby’s cartoon boy came to life in the cherubic, blue-eyed, yellow-haired, sixyear old person of Jackie Cooper, a member of “Our Gang.” ‘Skippy’ goes to work shortly on the Paramount lot where ‘Tom Sawyer’ recently came to life. He says that he thinks he’ll like it better at Paramount than at Roach’s, where the “Our Gang” comedies are made. You see — Paramount has a soda fountain, and his mother gives him ten cents a day to squander. • OLD HOBNOBBER has never felt called upon to select the ten best pictures of the year or the ten best performances. In fact he very seldom makes predictions of any sort — thereby successfully concealing one of his many shortcomings. But — the other day he was privileged to see a picture called “Body and Soul" over at the Fox Studios — and believe you me he came away singing the praises of a certain Elissa Landi. This gal has got ‘It’ — ‘Them’ — ‘Those’ — and ‘That’. She starts where the majority of screen sweeties leave off. Furthermore, “Body and Soul” is her first picture — yet she displays the camera knowledge of a veteran. Elissa has a very interesting background of English and Continental stage work. She was brought over here to portray the leading feminine role in the stage version of Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms.” “Winnie” Sheehan saw her work and a contract was the result. So keep your eye on Elissa Landi. If the next year doesn’t see her among the topnotchers, old Hobnobber will eat his shirt — and anyone knows that you can’t eat your shirt and have it, too. • STAGE favorites may come and foreign importations may go — but occasionally a local girl gets a break. This time it is pretty little Janet Ford, the erstwhile Mary Blackford. Little Janet — henceforward we shall call her Janet because that is what First National has elected to name her — was just another Beverly Hills school girl when she heard that the Warner Brothers were going to give many hundreds of screen1 tests in an effort to find new talent. So Janet hied herself to the big Burbank-First National studio to see what luck she would have. Once she was there, however, her cute face fell somewhat, for there were hundreds of other girls, all of whom, she thought, were much prettier than she. • “Y’KNOW, Algie, ’ollywood is just o’ bloomin’ freaks!” full Nevertheless, she took a test, and went blissfully on her way, never dreaming that she would hear from it. But — she did. Out of over one thousand people given trials, she and one other girl were the only ones chosen. So now she has a nice contract, though she must continue her studies during school time, and First National executives predict that one day soon we shall all be hearing and seeing a lot of their Janet Ford. • VARIETY tells the one about the actor who had been out of work for over a year when he was finally called by one of the studios. He was given a part, and guess what the role was? Conceive it or not — he was cast as a banker! • NIGHT life in dear ’ole Hollywood is getting bigger and better. The list of orchestras in our fair city looks like the Who’s Who of melodyland. The latest divertissement for those who delight in indulging in the light fantastic is Abe Lyman and his Band at the Roosevelt Hotel. Abe and his popular aggregation have been at the Carthay Circle Theatre for the past two years. They were recently prevailed upon to try a four weeks’ engagement at the hotel, doubling between there and the showhouse.