Tyrone Power kept busy the last few months – ‘In Old Chicago’ – ‘Marie Antoinette’ – ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ and then currently filming ’Suez’ on an artificial desert a stone’s throw from the 20th Century Fox studios – (100 yards from Pico Blvd).
The story is now circulating that Isa Miranda’s departure from Paramount’s production of ‘Zaza’ although stated was due to illness, was actually the decision of the studio execs, after seeing the rushes from the first day of shooting. Her accent was too thick. [See June 24]
Reports are in that for the large scale battle scenes on the Paramount lot for ‘If I Were King’ 23 casualties were sustained among the 620 extras. Some were kicked by horses, others received skinned noses when blows to their helmets jammed them onto their faces.
Richard Lane, an RKO contract player, has a part in the Astaire-Rogers film – ‘Carefree.’ He portrays the head waiter at a Country Club, whose set contains much of the action. “I’m in charge of all the food and it’s real, or at least I thought so until a couple of minutes ago. I spotted some fine looking shrimp cocktails, so I sneaked one aside to eat while the property department wasn’t looking. And do you know what it was? That cocktail was made of chunks of stale bread with ketchup smeared over ‘em.”
MGM is also looking for a boy to star alongside Wallace Beery in ’Stablemates.’ If none can be found soon, they will have to wait a little longer for Mickey Rooney to become available. [They ended up waiting for Rooney to be free].
WB has tapped Pat O’Brien to play the part of Wolf Larson in Jack London’s ’Sea Wolf.’ The script writer Norman Reilly Raine has added a female lead to the story, and it is rumored that Bette Davis may be up for the role. [WB did not commit to this film until 1941, and changes abounded – Edward G Robinson took the Wolf Larson part, they went with another screenwriter – instead of Raine, Robert Rossen did the adaptation. They did add a woman to the story – played by Ida Lupino].
Republic rolls the next Gene Autry vehicle ’The Man from Music Mountain.’ [It was ready to release in August].
THE BUSINESS OF THE BIZ
Disney announced that 800 of his employees will share in 20% of the profits of Snow White (calculated against the gross so far to be equal to $800,000). The first three months in the American market pulled in 2.3 million against a total cost of 1.5 million, which included the Technicolor prints. They forcast another 6 million for the upcoming general release.
The current economy kick at the studios calls for a substantial reduction in the amount of dancers needed for musicals. Six hundred registered hoofers are effected by this downturn. Pictures that once used 50-100 dancers are now utilizing only 15. This was the case for WB’s ‘Gold Diggers in Paris.’ Even the Astaire-Rogers project ‘Carefree’ at RKO has been similarly affected. Producers explain that besides the costs involved, they feel that the public is tired of having the plot interrupted by these lavish dance numbers.
RKO put the word out to Central Casting that 20 men and 20 women were needed as dress extras for the new Astaire-Rogers vehicle ‘Carefree.’ Two thousand applied for those forty positions.
Execs from MGM meet with IATSE union reps to address complaints from the union about situations regarding the production of ‘Northwest Passage’ in Idaho. The union charges that not enough techs have been taken on location, and they are further miffed that local college students were hired to fill in for them. To counter this the union is threatening to pull out their men from the film. The studio is considering creating an “office of labor contact” to head off future problems in this line.
Ayn Rand sold her play The Night of January 16th to RKO. [Originally on the stage under the title Woman on Trial, that had as its gimmick – members of the audience were selected to make up the jury that will decide the guilt or innocence of the woman. Paramount ended up with the property on their schedule for 1941].
Budget for ‘Gunga Din’ now at 2 million, and George Stevens is scheduled to wind things up in October.
ON THE MOVE
20th Century Fox resumes production of ‘Five of a Kind’ the Dionne quintuplets pic at the studio today. Herbert Leeds, the director, and his cast have returned from Canada.
Tay Garnett returns from a European vacation with a side trip to the Near East. His agent Nat Deverich at the Myron Selznick agency has some offers for him that may result in him working in sequence at three different studios. And he may get to do a pet project [‘Trade Winds’] in which he could add the footage he took from his yacht on his round the world cruise two years ago.
OUTSIDE HOLLYWOOD
MGM announced that ’The Citadel’ commenced shooting at their Denham studio in England today. Robert Donat, Rosalind Russell, and Ralph Richardson are slated for roles with King Vidor directing. [The second of the MGM’s foreign made pictures. The first had been ‘A Yank at Oxford’].
The Bob Hope – Jackie Coogan act playing this week at Loew’s State Theater in New York, opened on June 23, with a gross almost equal to the total business of the preceeding week. And Hope’s wife Dolores Reade sings a torch song. They share the date with the Paramount film ‘Dr Ryhthm.’ [So, Bing haunts Hope in the wings].
