NEWS AROUND HOLLYWOOD
- A piece about Marlene Dietrich was published revealing that her career was in distress. Her studio, Paramount had let her go last December. And even paid her a substantial sum NOT to appear in ‘French without Tears.’ Like Hepburn, exhibitors around the country broadcast their opinion that she was box office poison too. Columbia put her under contract with a salary that is half of what she had been making. [‘French without Tears’ was the first successful play by Englishman Terence Rattigan, and was shot at Paramount’s studio in England. It finally saw the light of a projector in 1940, starring Ray Milland and Ellen Drew. As for Dietrich and the Columbia contract, she was to do a film with Capra, but by December 1938 she was on the outs with them. For her, 1939 held the classic western ‘Destry Rides Again’ at Universal].
- Word is circulating that Cary Grant (6 foot 2) is having to wear high heels to appear in scenes with Victor McLaglen (6 foot 4 1/2) in ‘Gunga Din,’ (then shooting up in Lone Pine, CA).
- For Selznick’s ‘The Young in Heart’ art director William Cameron Menzies has created a ballroom with a glass floor. The floor made from white frosted glass was easy to dance upon, but dangerous when walking. To prevent slipping the principals as well as 200 extras wore felt oversoles on their foot wear. [Menzies worked for all three of the major independent producers Sam Goldwyn, Walter Wanger, and David O Selznick. Selznick kept him very busy for 1939 – working on ‘Gone with the Wind,’ for which he won an Honorary Oscar].
- Paramount star Dorothy Lamour has installed redwood walls in her home up in Coldwater Canyon. [According to the LA voter rolls for 1940, this home was at 9131 Callejuela Drive in Beverly Hills].
- Laurence Stallings, a writer teamed up with Leonard Hammond, a newsreel cameraman and came up with the script for ’Too Hot to Handle’ when the two were on the job in Ethiopia, waiting for Italy to invade the country. They drew from their own experiences and from those of other newsreel men. [Stallings, in the Marines during the First World War, was wounded in the leg at Belleau Woods, and later lost it after the war. He worked in New York newspapers and partnered with Maxwell Anderson on the play What Price Glory, and Stallings book based on his experiences later became the basis for The Big Parade. Work followed in Hollywood in the late 20s and early 30s. In the mid 30s he was with Fox Movietone News, out of which came this script. He had some uncredited work in 1939. More film scripts followed, including three films with John Ford].
REPORTED ON THIS DATE
Yesterday, 7/23/1938, five Hollywood stunt women earned $150 a piece for one minute’s work at 20th Century Fox, on the set built to stand in for the Sahara Desert for their film ‘Suez.’ (Mary Wiggins, Aline Goodwin, Mitzi Rush, Audrey Scott, and Corinne McAllister). Twenty four wind machines were used to create the sandstorm. All the women were blown off their feet, thankfully only resulting in bruises and sand burns.
MORE ON THE STUNT WOMEN
- Mary Wiggins (6 stunt credits; 4 as actress) – stunted for Claudette Colbert in ‘It Happened One Night’ 1934; for 1939 she would stunt double for Barbara Stanwyck in ‘Union Pacific.’
- Aline Goodwin (8 stunt credits; 15 as actress) – stunted for Fay Wray on ‘King Kong’; for Claudette Colbert in ‘Under Two Flags’ 1936; in 1939 she would do stunt work for ‘The Wizard of Oz’; and would stunt double for Vivien Leigh on ‘Gone with the Wind.’
- Mitzi Rush (I could only find one prior credit) stunted on ‘Sylvia Scarlett’ 1936.
- Audrey Scott (51 stunt credits – usually as a riding double) and acting credits riding double for Marlene Dietrich on ‘The Scarlet Empress’ 1934; stunt double for Bette Davis on ‘Jezebel’ 1938; for 1939, stunt work in ‘Tail Spin’; riding double for Bette Davis on ‘Dark Victory’; riding double for Norma Shearer on ‘The Women.’
- Corinne McAllister (one stunt credit; 2 for actress) stunted for Dorothy Lamour on ‘Spawn of the North’