20th Century Fox picks up the option on Ruth Terry for another year. The studio is happy with her work on ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’ and she was currently toiling on ‘Hold That Co-Ed.’ [Signed by Fox when she was sixteen, she had built a career already as a singer. Fox gave her diction and acting lessons and used her in three films for 1939 before dropping her contract. Howard Hughes took up her option, after which she landed in westerns at Republic].
Claudette Colbert was unable to report for work on ‘Zaza’ at Paramount this morning. She had injured a leg ligament rehearsing the can-can dance. George Cukor shot scenes around her instead.
Universal has laid down the law about clocking in. All the employees on the mechanical payroll need to eat their breakfast and park their cars before punching their time cards. Time out for meals going forward need to be strictly accounted for.
Vincent Price signs a twelve picture deal for the next five years. He will be allowed 6 months per year for stage engagements. [Universal probably signed Price due to his debut role in their film ‘Service De Luxe.’ He only made two films for 1939, one on loan out to WB for ‘The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.’ And the other for them – ‘Tower of London.’ In total he only made 5 movies for Universal. By 1940 he was at 20th Century Fox].
Mrs Carolyn Cagney and her daughter Jeanne have arrived in Hollywood from New York to visit James, and to try to drum up an acting career for Jeanne. [Jeanne wound up at Paramount, her debut feature in 1939, ‘All Women Have Secrets’].
Lupe Velez threatens to divorce from her husband Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan) this week. In their five year marriage there have been many similar rumblings. No comment from Weissmuller.
Upon Shirley Temple’s return from her around America tour in two weeks she may be coming back to two future assignments at 20th Century Fox. First, already annnounced was ‘Suzanna of the Mounties.’ Next may be a project entitled ‘Lady Jane’ based on a novel by Mrs C V Jamison. It is set in the 1890s in New Orleans, but may be modernized for Temple. [Next up for Temple was ‘The Little Princess’ for 1939 release. It began prepping at the studio in August, and began shooting the end of September 1938. The Suzanna title was to follow. The Lady Jane project dropped by the wayside. Reading its synopsis you can see why they thought of it for Temple – “A young girl who is orphaned is forced to live with people who don’t love her, and eventually becomes a street urchin”].
MGM’s production of ‘Too Hot to Handle’ began shooting today using the background shots supplied by their cameramen in Africa. They came direct from the dark continent via airplane.
Warner Brothers has made a deal to borrow David Niven from Samuel Goldwyn for one of the three leads in their remake of ‘The Dawn Patrol,’ the other leads are Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles. [Patric Knowles did not take a part in the film. Basil Rathbone took the other lead role].
John Farrrow has taken over directorial chores from Busby Berkeley on the Kay Francis picture ‘Curtain Call.’ Berkeley had been able to only put in two days on the job.
PER ED SULLIVAN
Clark Gable has been the target of kidding around the studio because the swelling he experienced lately [see July 14] has gone to his ears.
Frank Capra is negotiating another picture deal with Columbia head Harry Cohn.
W C Fields is holding out for a one picture $150,000 deal.
OUTSIDE HOLLYWOOD
A report from New York – Howard Hughes took a bunch of secret devices for testing on his around the world flight. One from the Army Air Corps kept them on an unerring path. Another was a black box from the Fairchild Aviation Corp into which they input celestial sightings and which then output the plane’s exact location. Other items were: a secret super-sensitive altimeter, a breath condenser for drinking water, a wireless transmitter for emergencies with a 3000 mile range, and a radio compass.
Up in Lone Pine CA where the RKO ‘Gunga Din’ company is shooting ‘location’ sequences, the cast and crew were called upon to work as firefighters to beat back a blaze that did considerable damage to the outdoor sets. Despite these physical setbacks, they are still expected to keep to their two month schedule.
