Celebrating a Birthday on This Date
- James Cagney turns 39. [And he would keep on aging for he declined to follow director Curtiz’ instructions on the set of ‘Angels with Dirty Faces.’ Told to stand at a window and trade machine gun fire, it was all too reminiscent of a similar situation back in 1931 when he was making ‘The Public Enemy,’ and nearly got shot. After he walked away, they filmed the scene without him – one of the bullets struck the metal border of the window and deflected onto the wall where he would have been standing].
- Barbara O’Neil turns 28. [A stage actress who made her Hollywood debut in ’Stella Dallas’ 1937 – three films in 1938, including ’ToyWife.’ Busy in 1939 with four films including ‘Tower of London’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’ as Scarlett’s mother. In reality, O’Neil was only three years older than Vivien Leigh].
- John Carroll turns 32. [Around Hollywood since the late 20s. Three films in 1938, only two in 1939 – but one was ‘Only Angels Have Wings’].
News Around Hollywood
Warner Brothers posts a 39 week operating profit of $3,282, 765.
Outside Hollywood
- Darryl F Zanuck flew from Paris to Amsterdam to visit with Don Ameche, who was suffering from a sudden attack of appendicitis.
- Movie scouts on the east coast will have a heavy week ahead with 14 summer stock openings to catch and evaluate. [I was curious as to whether any of the plays mentioned were ever made into a film. I could not find any reference to any of them in any film database. Of the fourteen, I could find reviews for only ten of them, and only one of them made it onto the boards of Broadway (Michael Drops In). It lasted only eight performances. It starred Arlene Francis in both versions, and Dean Jagger in the summer stock version alone].
- James Stewart was vacationing at his home in Indiana, PA.
Reported on This Date
- Selznick has located over 60 survivors of the Titanic disaster to help with the project he has hired Alfred Hitchcock to direct.
- Universal’s plan to economize ran into a problem this week. The studio axed Charlotte Taylor, the assistant who answered the voluminous fan mail for Deanna Durbin (400 letters a day). The switch to short post card replies was not good enough according to her father James Durbin. His protest got Charlotte rehired.
- Whenever Dorothy Lamour traveled long distances, she had to take the train. According to her contract she was forbidden to fly.