Alan Mowbray and Patsy Kelly from ‘Merrily We Live”
NEWS AROUND HOLLYWOOD
Actor Alan Mowbray was sent to Cedars of Lebanon hospital today with a kidney ailment. Mowbray had been at work with Fredric March and Virginia Bruce. He is expected to be there for 48 hours. [Given the two stars listed, Mowbray would have been at work on the Hal Roach production of ‘There Goes My Heart,’ a romantic comedy directed by Norman Z Leonard. Earlier in the year Leonard had Mowbray in harness for his screwball comedy ‘Merrily We Live,’ which I recently viewed and found quite enjoyable].
Republic decided to move cowboy star Robert Livingston up to feature films from the Three Musketeers series. John Wayne has been selected to join Ray Corrigan amd Max Terhune in the series in his stead. First project with the new team is entitled ‘Pals of the Saddle’ which will roll Thursday under the direction of George Sherman.
Rumors are rife that Joseph von Sternberg will direct the next Danielle Darrieux film ‘Rio’ at Universal. [The rumors proved incorrect. Von Sternberg wound up at MGM for some uncredited work on ’The Great Waltz’ and directed ’Sgt Madden’ for them for 1939. Darrieux returned to France after making ‘Rage of Paris’ for Universal, and remained there through the Occupation during the war].
MGM puts ‘Stablemates’ (Wallace Beery & Mickey Rooney) and ‘Listen, Darling’ (Judy Garland, Freddie Bartholomew) into production.
OUTSIDE HOLLYWOOD
Howard Hughes landed in Paris after a record breaking transit of the Atlantic – 16 hours 35 minutes (less than half the time of Lindbergh’s flight), and an average of 218 mph. Bad weather and the need for minor repairs have put off their leaving for Moscow. They had planned a two hour turn around, but decided on waiting a day.
Alfred Hitchcock arrives in New York City from LA, after signing with Selznick. Next he will be taking ship for England on the 13th. He will return to the US sometime in the fall.
ITEMS OF INTEREST
Two MGM studio employees were arrested for fraud and forgery – George Donald Smart, 35, a sound recorder and Layne Britton, 30, Make up artist. Since 1936, Smart had forged Louis B Mayer’s signature to a series of notes on which he raised tens of thousands of dollars. Police allege he could have pyramided them into more than $100,000. He would explain to his marks that we was Mayer’s confidential representative who negotiated special contracts with MGM stars. To cover any inquiries made to Mayer he told them that Mayer would deny all knowledge of it, and explained that the monies raised by the notes were to go as ‘bonuses’ to certain stars who signed special contracts. Smart elucidated that these special contracts were tied to Mayer in that, if he ever resigned from MGM, he wanted to take these actors with him. Smart used Britton in certain situations around the studio to confirm Smart’s schemes – Smart had him thinking that answering the phone as Mayer was a ‘gag’ that the caller was in on.
At Paramount on this date, problems multiplied as a taffy pull was to be set up and filmed for the Bing Crosby picture ‘Paris Honeymoon.’ The gas stove for making the candy was set up on Stage 9. A plumber installed it, only to have to install another when the first failed. A professional taffy maker had been brought in from the outside to cook the ingredients. When a fan was called for to cool the hot mass, the plumber declined as only electricians could do that on set. When they were located and brought a fan in, it would not work as it required alternating current and another had to be found that used direct current. Once they had the taffy ready for pulling they had to wait on the actors from the Guild. (The professional candy maker brought in could not – for he was not a member of the Screen Actors Guild). It was 4pm by the time everything was ready to pull (the actors had not been auditioned yet, and were directed by the Guild not to ‘work’ until they were hired). Meanwhile the director Frank Tuttle had gone off to see to other aspects of the production. He returned and asked to see the taffy pulled – none of the actors could manage to pull the taffy into any other shape. Bottom line – time ran out, and they had to go through it all again the next day.
