Irene Castle McLaughlin arrived from Chicago today. The former dance partner and wife of Vernon Castle has been hired by RKO for their upcoming production ‘The Castles,’ which will star Astaire and Rogers. She will take on roles as costume designer, techincal advisor, and writer. [RKO paid her $20,000 for the rights to her life story. She collaborated with Oscar Hammerstein II as he worked on the script (others involved were writers Richard Sherman and Dorothy Yost). After Irene’s complaints about departures from the script, and about the costumes and hairstyle choices made by Rogers, they paid her an additional $5000. Rogers preferred to keep her long bob and not go with Castle’s shorter cut].
Samuel Goldwyn has plans for putting together a film centered around the life of a ballerina. George Balanchine, the choreographer who worked on the ‘Goldwyn Follies’ with Zorina, owes him one more film. Which should work out to perfection, as the producer also has under contract the ballerina Vera Zorina. Goldwyn has assigned Richard Connell to write the script. [Zorina was then appearing on the stage in NY in ‘I Married an Angel.’ MGM had acquired the play, beating Goldwyn on the bid for it. Goldwyn then turned around and denied MGM’s request to use Zorina for their production of that property. He had signed her after seeing her in the London production of On Your Toes. Ironically, she would appear in the film of that play in 1939, on loan to WB. The Goldwyn ballet project did not come to pass. She became Mrs Balanchine in December 1938].
Samuel Goldwyn has written the US Naval Department to request the use of the battleship USS Oregon for his production ’The Last Frontier.’ Both the history of the ship and the project touch on the Spanish American War, and especially the Philippine Insurrection.
At RKO Alice White has been added to the cast of ‘Annabel Takes a Tour.’ Filming begins on Monday. [In 1926, Alice started out as script girl/secretary to Josef von Sternberg, and later Charlie Chaplin, before switching to the other side of the camera. As an actress she played flapper golddigger types. Her name was linked romantically to stunt flyer Dick Grace [see June 10] and actors Donald Keith and John Warburton. A scandal erupted with the last named individual and she suffered in the aftermath. Her marriage to screenwriter Sy Bartlett (one of the legs of the scandal triangle) had just ended in February. In her come back attempts going forward, she could only rate roles in the supporting casts].
Twentieth Century Fox won out over MGM for the services of Lionel Atwill. His contract will cover him as an actor, writer, director, and associate producer. No assignments have yet been decided. [First up for Atwill at Fox was ‘The Three Musketeers’ in early October. He would act in four others for them in 1939. They would loan him out to Universal twice, and MGM ditto. These were only acting credits, I could not find any other type of credits for him going forward. In the early 40s his name was linked to some unsavory behavior, and he wound up blacklisted. His career fell apart after that].
Paramount used Lillian Fette, an American Airlines stewardess, as a technical advisor on the film ‘Men with Wings.’ She advised William Wellman on the women’s scenes for the film. A small role for her was slated for ’The Lady and the Cowboy,’ and a screen test was planned at MGM. [Lillian was born in Texas in 1912. In 1938, she was headquartered in Glendale CA, and flew from there to cover the ’The Southern Skysleeper’ route to El Paso TX. On 9/14/1939 she married Thomas S Gallery in Yuma AZ. Gallery was a matinee idol in 1920s films. He starred with Zasu Pitts, and was married to her from 1920 to 1933. At this time he was a sports promoter (mainly boxing and team sports like football)].
Humphrey Bogart divorced his second wife actress Mary Philips. [They married in 1928, having worked together on the New York stage. As Bogart got more parts in Hollywood, Philips preferred to remain in New York. Both would remarry later this month – Bogart to actress Mayo Methot, and Philips to their mutual friend (actor and director) Kenneth MacKenna].
