Actor Lee Tracy and bride Helen Thoms Wyse (married yesterday in Yuma AZ), leave from Hollywood by train tonight for Truckville PA to visit Tracy’s mother. [Tracy rose to notoriety on the basis of his acting ability on the stage (notably The Front Page). But he was more than undisciplined when it came to life out of the limelight. Once a contract star with MGM, his behavior when in Mexico to film ‘Viva Villa’ brought international embarrassment to the studio which then fired him and ended his contract. He free lanced for a while before landing at RKO, shortly before this time. Marriage must have agreed with him, for theirs was a lasting one].
Bette Davis came to the rescue of a black spaniel that was in danger of being hit by traffic in front of the Warner Brothers studio when she was driving up in her limosine. Sensing the dog was lost, she stopped and lured it into her vehicle. She located the canine’s owner, ten year old James McKimm and returned Blackie, which had been missing for four days. In her capacity as president of the Tailwaggers Foundation of America, Davis elicited a promise from James to allow her to take Blackie to the foundation’s dinner dance on August 11 where he will be noted on the register of dogs “restored to owners.”
Again Warner Brothers’ project ‘The Gay Nineties’ surfaces as Pat O’Brien is confirmed for a starring role after his recent performance in ‘Garden of the Moon.’ Also from ‘Garden’ John Payne was tapped to join ‘The Gay Nineties’ cast. [Again the mystery of this project crops up. Perhaps some day I will uncover what happened to it].
20th Century Fox anounced that Tyrone Power will take on the role Monsieur Beaucaire next after Jesse James, which he will begin in August. [Monsieur Beaucaire had a silent version (1924) with Rudolph Valentino in the title role. The project did not materialize for Power, he had four other films for 1939, that followed ‘Jesse James’].
With the completion of ‘Garden of the Moon’ at WB, Isabel Jeans has obtained her release from her WB contract and will switch to free lancing for her career. Next up she has a project at Universal, ‘Youth Takes a Fling.’ [The English actress with two roles with Hitchcock in the past and one future (‘Suspicion’) would continue portraying upper class socialites. Before the First World War she was the wife of Claude Rains, who divorced her for adultery].
The search for an actor to play the lead in ‘Golden Boy’ is coming to an end locally. Next, the hunt will go national if no one can be found locally.
Warner Brothers is angling for the rights to produce a film about the utilities magnate Sam Insull. Claude Rains may take on the role. [This is another idea that did not manifest. The Englishman came to the US in 1881 to work with Thomas Edison. He was instrumental in founding the company that became General Electric. He pioneered the ideas behind electricity grid systems. Interestingly, Orson Welles admits that his ‘Citizen Kane’ was based, in part, on Sam Insull, especially for his interest in opera – building an opera house in Chicago – and his actress wife].
Per Ed Sullivan
The columnist weighs in on the anti-trust law suit from Department of Justice against the film industry. He believes that Cummings is wrong on the characterization of the film companies as monopolies, since they fight one another over everything – story properties, performers, directors, producers etc., etc.
He also relays a funny quote by writer Russell Crouse – “If you steal from one guy .. It’s plagiarism. If you steal from two or more, it’s research.” [Crouse was known for musicals at Paramount in the 1930s, and in partnership with Howard Lindsay, many stage plays (that were made into films) – Life with Father, Arsenic and Old Lace, Call Me Madam, Tall Story, and The Sound of Music. Crouse named his daughter after his partner – actress Lindsay Crouse, who is the former wife of playwright David Mamet].
Outside Hollywood
From his office in New York, Will H Hays, the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America put out a statement today that they welcome the civil suit lodged by the Department of Justice yesterday. He explains that the trade is unique in how their trade practices came about. And that “in this industry the advantages of big business and little business supplement each other through the joint efforts of the great units making and distributing the greater pictures and the smallest theaters exhibiting them in every hamlet in the country.”
Ethel Merman arrived in Grand Central Station on the Twentieth Century Limited. A photographer looking for a PR shot, handed her a lantern and told her to swing it. She obliged and began singing ‘She Started a Heat Wave.’ The engineer on the switching engine waiting for a signal, saw hers and began to pull the train to the yards. A flustered trainman hurriedly flashed his ’stop’ signal to correct the mistake. [Merman may have started with the second verse of the 1933 Irving Berlin song ‘Heat Wave,’ on this occasion].
Stan Laurel, having completed ’Blockheads,’ has left for a short vacation to Sun Valley ID.
