Silver Screen (May-Oct 1934)

Jackie Cooper and Cora Sue Collins, in quaint old-fashioned costumes, are with Wallace Beery and Lionel Barrymore in "Treasure Island." Beery [Continued f Man's Castle," but you don't see them very often indulging in Hollywood night life. An evening of dancing at the Cocoanut Grove or the Beverly Wilshire occasionally, and a few parties given by their friends and bosses, and that's about all the social life they go in for. They go to previews a lot and both are very interested in each other's screen careers. Sister Sally Blane. who greatly resembles Loretta, is with Peter Arno, the artist whose "Whoops Sisters" are internationally famous. Peter is a hot-headed lad, and always breaking into headlines by chasing Vanderbilts around Reno with toy pistols or punching the scions of Old Philadelphia Families in the schnozzle in Hollywood night clubs. But Sally must have a very quieting effect on Peter, for even the Wanamakers and Rockefellers escape without a scratch on the nights he's out with her. Polly Ann Young (there's still another Young sister at home, who goes swimming with Jackie Cooper in the daytime but spends very boring evenings with history books) is with Billy^Bakewell— and there is a romance which they say is quite hot. Bob Armstrong invited Billy and Lew Ayres and several of the boys up to his new ranch for a stag Sunday of tennis and barbecue, but poor lovetorn Billy was so busy calling Polly Ann up every fifteen minutes (just to see if she still loved him) that he couldn't keep his mind on the game and lost every set. Polly Ann and Billy don't go in much for night clubbing, but have most of their fun making-up as important movie stars and taking moving pictures of each other doing "big scenes." Here come Mary Brian and Dick Powell, and I wish to goodness something would come of that romance as I think they are both swell people. Every place I've been lately— Sunday down at Norman Foster's beach house at Malibu, Monday at Joan Blondell's and George Barnes' for dinner, Tuesday at the Brown Derby, Wednesday with Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster and the Barnes shooting ducks and riding on merry-go-rounds at Venice amusement park, Thursday at the preview of "Private Scandal," Mary's latest picture, Friday at the fights with the Stu Erwins— just every place I go there's Mary and Dick. Not that I'm complaining. I like it. I just wish they'd merge. Un-huh— I thought so. Jack Oakie is going to barge right into that twosome. Jack and Mary used to keep pretty steady 60 row, page 29] company before Peggy Joyce hit town and Jack went in for orchids and stiff shirts. There's a table of the younger generation taking their art and themselves quite seriously. But aren't they cute? That William Janney and Jacqueline Wells, a Wampas baby star, make an awfully handsome couple, and although William has the reputation of being rather fickle it does look as if he were going to concentrate on pretty little . Jacqueline. William and Jean Muir went out the other night, but she sort of went high-brow on him, so that romance curdled before it was even whipped up. With William and Jacqueline are Tom Brown and Anita Louise and Pat Ellis and Howard Wilson. The Tom Brown and Anita Louise romance has been going on for over a year now, but almost came to an abrupt ending last month when Tom was working on the Paramount lot and fell into the clutches of Ida Lupino. Things looked pretty bad for a while there, but love was triumphant again and Ida returned to her college boys and Tom made peace with Anita Louise. I'm getting bored now (and so are you no doubt) so away-we-go to the Colony Club, which is a hang-over from those late lamented prohibition days (a man still peers at you through a grille) and one of the most popular night clubs in Hollywood. Janet Gay nor lives next door to the Colony Club, and so many people drove into her front yard and rang her doorbell thinking they were at the Colony that finally Janet had to build a big white gate that gets itself closed at sunset. By the way, Janet— since her separation from Lydell Peck— lives in the same house that Kay Francis and Kenneth MacKenna honeymooned in in those dear dead days before they discovered they were incompatible. But despite the convenience of Janet to the Colony Club she rarely goes there, as dancing at the Cocoanut Grove with Gene Raymond is more in her line. Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone are another couple who prefer the Cocoanut Grove for their "night out." Yes, this is the Colony all right for there's Mae Clarke and Sidney Blackmer over in the corner. This is evidently one of the evenings they're speaking. And there's Adolphe Menjou and Veree Teasdale— about the hottest romance in Hollywood despite the fact that neither is an ingenue at this love business. Adolphe is simply going mad trying to watch the building of his new house and watching Veree work in "Du Barry." My spies report that Adolphe and Veree have just come from the preview of Adolphe's latest picture and that the two of them sat there holding hands and billing and cooing. Well, there's nothing I can do about it. By the way, Kathryn Carver Menjou, Adolphe's ex, is now going places with George Brent, Ruth Chatterton's ex, and Ruth is going places with Ralph Forbes, Ruth Chatterton's ex ex— Oh, migosh, this can't go on forever. There's Virginia Bruce with Paul Warburg, the wealthy New Yorker. Since her separation from John Gilbert, Virginia looking more beautiful than ever before, has been one of the gayest girls in town, with any number of escorts. Last night she was dining at the Russian Eagle with Edward Everett Horton. And there's Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Farrow, which is another one of those romances which has been going on for a long time. Maureen is planning to go to Ireland soon to visit her parents and bring her little sister back to Hollywood with her— and some folks say that she and Johnny will get married and go to Cork together, and some folks say that Johnny and Maureen will just be casual acquaintances when she gets back. I'm sure I wouldn't know. And there's fresh, pretty little Mary Carlisle at a table with Edgar Allan Woolf. And George Raft with Virginia Pine— they say that's a sizzling romance, too. What ho— here comes Lyle Talbot with blonde Alice Faye who used to be Rudy Vallee's girl. I guess Lyle knows more phone numbers than any lad in Hollywood for he keeps trotting out something new every few nights. Since January, Lyle has gone with the Countess di Frasso, Wynne Gibson, Gail Patrick, Pat Ellis, Alice Faye, Ida Lupino, Jean Muir, the Albertina Rasch girls and the Bus Berkeley ensembles. The night's on the wane and my eyes are already at half mast, so we'll just skip the Clover Club (so I can't take it) and drive on out to Culver City to the Cotton Club where Duke Ellington and his colored orchestra usher in the cold grey dawn with such red hot rhythm that you have to go jump in the Pacific to cool off. But on the way out we'll drop in at the HangOver on Sunset and get a hamburger and coffee. The Hang-Over happens to be the one place in town Margaret Sullavan goes to regularly and I suppose it's because a lot of the Wrong People pop in and out. Yes, there she is with Roger Pryor— but it isn't a romance, just an old friendship. Come, come, I can't keep awake much longer. Look at those old stay-up-lates having a perfectly grand time at the Cotton Club. There's Carole Lombard with Russ Colombo and a party of friends, and Carole has everyone bending double. But hardly have they straightened themselves out after one of her stories than Madeleine Fields, her secretary-companion, crashes through with another and everybody goes double again. Carole and Russ have been hitting it off pretty steadily ever since Russ settled down in Hollywood. Two other delightful never-go-to-beds are Lee Tracy and Isabel Jewell, and you can usually count on finding them where life is at its merriest. And there's Lew Ayres and Ginger Rogers making a night of it. And Madge Evans and Tom Gallery. Oh, I guess love is paramount in Hollywood all right. And some good weddings ought to come out of this. Hide-ho— maybe I'll get a free trip to Yuma. One more night cap— and you and I are off to bed— our respective beds. Silver Screen