Court judge Emmet Wilson has refused to ratify a contract between Selznick International Studios and 13 year old Tommy Kelly until provisions are made to allot 50% of his wages into a trust. A regular savings account proposed by Kelly’s father was not deemed sufficient. His current salary is $150 per week. The new contract would offer him $300 per week, with a bump to $2500 per week towards the end of the seven year contract. Judge Wilson says that he is acting in a similar capacity to 250 other child stars. [Earlier that year, Kelly debuted as an actor (age 12) in the title role of Selznick’s ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.’ He would have a small role in ‘Gone with the Wind’ in 1939].
Tallulah Bankhead and writer Zoe Akins attended the dedication of two redwood trees at the Hollywood Post office. They donated one of the trees, and film exec Maxson F Judell gave the other. [Bankhead had retreated to the stage since 1932 and would not return to film until 1943. She had just completed a run in The Circle by W Somerset Maugham at the Playhouse Theater in NYC. Akins was a prolific writer for stage and screen (and a Pulitzer prize winner). Bankhead had appeared in her 1920 play ‘Footloose.’ Judell had arranged for all the landscaping for the post office, including a mission olive tree from Paramount, and two Italian cypress trees from Mary Pickford. In another comtemporaneous article, Judell was listed as the former aide to Harry M Goetz of New York. In the main Judell was a PR and advertising man, with many connections to the record industry].
RKO was the latest studio to announce their upcoming production schedule. In the next two months (August and September) they had plans to start eleven new films.
Pacific Coast pocket billiard champ Harold Baker goes to work at Universal today to teach Deanna Durbin and Jackie Cooper how to play the game for certain scenes in ‘That Certain Age.’ [Baker was a billiards champ since 1926].
WB goes through a batch of actresses – 14 total, testing for a small pivotal role for ‘The Sisters.’ They settle on Mayo Methot. [The soon to be Mrs Humphrey Bogart. They met when making ‘Marked Woman’ the year before].
In a recent interview, Shirley Temple said that she would like to be a police women when she grows up. A flurry of honorary appointments came in from police officials around the country, including one from the New York detective bureau. Theirs came with a promise of a salary of one dollar per year.
REPORTED ON THIS DATE
Four days of shooting in a movie ‘sandstorm’ has left the ’Suez’ troupe suffering with irritated eyes and throats. Annabella was on doctor’s orders to wear dark glasses and stay out of the sun for two weeks. This has postponed her departure for France. Tyrone Power suffered too, as was noted during his appearance at the ‘Marie Antoinette’ premiere.
WB is shooting two endings for ‘The Sisters’ and will let preview audiences decide who Bette Davis ends up with, either Errol Flynn or Ian Hunter. [Per the book on which it was based, Davis married her boss, who was played in the film by Ian Hunter. The preview audiences preferred her reconciliation with her estranged husband – played by Errol Flynn, and thus that version went out to the theaters].
Preston Foster has invested $7800 in the engines in his yacht. He plans to challenge the record for a trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco. No worries on the cost, his new salary at Universal is double his old one at RKO. [Foster made two pictures for RKO in this year, and was loaned out by them for two films before being picked up by Universal, and he appeared in one film for them, before being loaned out to Twentieth Century Fox].
Per columnist Jimmie Fidler – he was on set at Paramount and observed Claudette Colbert dance a rather energetic can-can. When it ended she was exhausted, and thought she had strained a muscle. After retiring to her dressing room, she sent her maid out to report that it was not a muscle, but her garter that had broken.
