News Around Hollywood
- A Lew Foster story ‘A Gentleman from Montana’ has been acquired by Columbia as a possible project for Frank Capra. The studio also bought – a biopic about Chopin. So, it will come down to which script is finished first. Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur are possible stars for the Montana picture. [Foster was a writer-director for Hal Roach in the 20s and 30s, and then for Walt Disney on the 50s. Another source claims that Columbia acquired this particular story for Ralph Bellamy, but once Frank Capra became interested, the thought was to set it up as a sequel to ‘Mr Deeds Goes to Town,’ hence the interest in casting Gary Cooper. When Cooper proved unavailable (he was tied up on Goldwyn projects), they arranged to borrow James Stewart from MGM, and the result was ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’ for 1939. The Chopin project was held off until 1944 when Columbia made ‘A Song to Remember’ and released it in 1945].
- Dimitri Tiomkin appeared at the Hollywood Bowl this night. He presented three new compositions. [Tiomkin had a busy year in 1938 – working on ‘Spawn of the North,’ Capra’s ‘You Can’t Take it with You,’ and ‘The Great Waltz,’ for which he adapted the music of Johann Strauss II. 1939 would be a great year too – with ‘Only Angels Have Wings’ and Capra’s ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’].
- RKO closed a deal with Douglas “Wrongway” Corrigan to film his life story. Production will commence once a script is finished. The amount of the deal was not revealed. [The working title was ‘Born to Fly,’ and was released in April 1939 as ‘The Flying Irishman.’ Sources indicate that he was paid in the neighborhood of $100,000].
- Complaints are piling up from the movie stars, regarding the the mobs of people that are showing up in front of their homes. Likening it unto a plague of locusts, the Screen Actors Guild is looking into what can be done to regulate the freelance tour guides that are behind the infestations.
- Randolph Scott has obtained a release from his studio Paramount to freelance a role in 20th Century Fox’s ‘Jesse James.’ [Another source relates that his contract with Paramount was over, and Scott signed up with 20th Century Fox. Besides ‘Jesse James,’ he would do three more for them in 1939 – ‘Sussannah of the Mounties,’ Frontier Marshal,’ and ’20,000 Men a Year,’ with one loan out to Columbia for ‘Coast Guard’].
- Exhibitors, large and small are stalling on buying product for the new season, taking a wait and see attitude. All the distributors are asking for 35% rentals, except for United Artists, which has placed its top terms at 40%.
- MGM has announced a new series to be based on stories by Max Brand. Instead of the western stories for which Brand was known, this series followed the adventures of a young doctor – Dr Kildare – Lew Ayres will assay the starring role. [Felix Schiller Faust was quite a prolific writer. Besides the Max Brand pen name, he wrote under sixteen others].
- Tetsu Komai has been tapped to play a villian in the next Torchy Blane film – ‘Torchy in Chinatown’ at WB. The Japanese actor will play a Chinese.
- MGM Cameraman George Folsey will be taken off of ‘On Vacation from Love,’ and put on the Joan Crawford movie ‘The Shining Hour.’ [Folsey is a long time cinematographer on Crawford films. He was one of her favorites].
- Agent Myron Selznick is at work trying to create another motion picture company for Janet Gaynor, like the one he did for Ernst Lubitsch. [As the Lubitsch deal came to naught, so must have this one for Gaynor. The actress had slipped from favor with audiences, and was disenchanted herself with the business, and wanted to live a normal life. She married costume designer Adrian, and began a family, and turned to other artistic interests].
Reported on This Date
- Joan Bennett has requested permission from the state agricultural department for the right to import fireflies from the east with which to decorate her garden. She wants to relive those precious memories from her childhood. She received a reply from an expert in the Plant Quarantine Bureau that told about attempts in the past to do so, and all had been unsuccessful. Once here, the fireflies failed to light up or flash. Whether that was due to the diet available to them here, or the climate, he did not know. He did tell her to weigh that information, and if she definitely wanted to import some, he would issue her the desired permit.
- Anne Shirley between scenes was reading a love letter from her husband John Payne. This was before playing a love scene with Lee Bowman, the man who had introduced her husband to her. [This would have been the RKO drama ‘A Man to Remember’ the first film directed by Garson Kanin. It was released in Oct 1938].
Outside Hollywood
In Pineville MO, 20th Century Fox has paid $25,000 to turn the town into a frontier village for their epic ‘Jesse James.’ The director Henry King is on the lookout for extras – men with beards and mustaches, and women with proper homespun clothing. This had local businesses stocking up on hair growing remedies. And the woman were pulling out their grannies’ clothing, and were busy airing and repairing them.