News Around Hollywood
- The Ritz theater holds the press premiere for ‘The Terror of Tiny Town.’ A full length musical comedy with an all-midget cast. 38 midget players will be on hand to greet the patrons. The principals Billy Curtis, Yvonne Moray, and Little Billy arrive in a miniature stage coach drawn by six Shetland ponies. [Curtis played the hero sheriff, Little Billy Rhodes the villain and Moray the heroine. All three of the principals had roles as Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz for 1939. At basis, an exploitation film. Astonishing politically incorrect, “a time capsule of a different era in Hollywood’s history.” And as it turned out, handily earned back its production cost of $100,000].
- Actress Whitney Bourne (24) was in an auto accident this morning on her way to work at RKO. She hit a slick spot on the road where a cleaner truck was spraying off the road and sidewalk. She lost control of the car and struck telephone and light poles at Sunset and N Alta Vista Blvds. Her only injury was a cut lip. She left and caught a taxi so as not to be late to work. She arrived at her appointed time on the set of ‘The Mad Miss Manton,’ with Stanwyck and Fonda.
- Actress Inez Courtney was injured while working at 20th Century Fox today, when she sat down between scenes. There was a crochet needle on the chair that she chose to sit down in. She had to undergo an operation at the studio hospital to remove the hooked piece of metal. [She performed in only one Fox film in this time period – ‘Five of a Kind,’ set around the Dionne Quintets. Most of her films that year were for RKO, so she may have been out on loan].
- Joseph Valentine, a Universal cinematographer, has come up with an invention that allows a camera to take pictures in 3D. He mounts a fragile prism of glass between the lens and the aperture, made from two pieces of glass fitted together at a 45 degree angle. At a price of only $200 per installation, he anticipates that it will come into common use in the industry. [Valentine would have just finished ‘Rage of Paris’ (with Danielle Darrieux) and was then in the midst of work on ‘That Certain Age,’ (with Deanna Durbin). He worked on two more Durbin films for 1939. I found no signs of his discovery gaining any traction].
- French director Julien Duvivier was then at work on ‘The Great Waltz’ at MGM. His plans were to return to his native country at month’s end for the rest of the summer before returning to Hollywood in the fall. [Duvivier also did some uncredited directorial work on ‘Marie Antoinette.’ He also directed and wrote ‘Pepe Le Moko’ the 1937 film that ‘Algiers’ was a remake of. Duvivier did not make it back to the US for film work until 1941].
- A music composition marathon was undertaken by Frank Churchill and Paul Webster – 25 tunes and lyrics over three days for a secret project (most likely at Disney). Churchill went up to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend to work on the score for Disney’s next feature Bambi.’ [Churchill was with Disney since 1930 – and was responsible for ‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’ and did the scoring honors on ‘Snow White.’ Webster was a prolific lyricist, and began his career in that vein in 1931, by 1935 he was at 20th Century Fox working on songs for Shirley Temple].
- James Cagney went back to work at WB on ‘Angels with Dirty Faces.’ He’d been sidelined for a couple of days after a rough and tumble wrestling match with one of his costars – Crime School kids, who are now under orders for no more rough stuff.
- Columnist Sidney Skolsky reports that the script for ‘Gone with the Wind’ weighs in at 240 pages, nearly double the number of pages of normal ones (125 to 150 pages). [Nowadays 120 pages is the desired length; 90 pages for comedies].
Outside Hollywood
New York City fetes Howard Hughes and his crew with a perfect storm of a ticker tape parade, the likes of which has not been seen in a decade. “The shy, modest, young millionaire” gave a printed statement to the press extolling American engineers and American workmen responsible for the plane they flew.