The Year Was 1938 – August 18

NEWS AROUND HOLLYWOOD

• Anna May Wong has to have her long finger nails cut for her current film ‘The King of Chinatown.’ The director, Kurt Neumann, thought it necessary for the part of a surgeon that she will portray. [Neumann was not the credited director of the Paramount production ‘The King of Chinatown.’ That honor belongs to Nick Grinde. Neumann did work at Paramount also, and would direct Anna May Wong in 1939’s ‘Island of Lost Men.’ I cannot find any indication that he was on the project before Grinde].
• Movie actress Madge Evans has tax problems with the government. The Bureau of Internal Revenue has refused to accept her deduction for a tonsilectomy, seeing it rather as a personal expense. What they have accepted are her deductions for wigs, make-up, and a maid. Still, her total deductions of $11,777 have been whittled down to $1931. [Evans acted in film as a child beginning in 1914. This year 1938, marked her exit from the business, perhaps not due to her tax problems, but more to do with the fact that she married in 1939].
• Twentieth Century Fox has announced that Don Ameche will co-star with Loretta Young in ‘Kentucky.’ The Technicolor production will be directed by David Butler. Butler, a race horse enthousiast and owner will include footage he shot last year at the Kentucky Derby. [Another announcement that was not borne out by events. Richard Greene landed the co-starring role in ‘Kentucky’ in place of Ameche].
• Daily the vision for ‘The Phantom Crown’ at WB is enlarging. It may be the largest production for the Brothers Warner have ever attempted. Besides 30 principal parts that have to be cast, 166 sets will have to be built. It may surpass what went into the production of ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood.’
• Maxie Rosenbloom will give up boxing now that he has signed a seven year contract with WB. [In the fight game since 1923, Maxie began taking small film parts in 1933].
• Even though MGM has completed the cast for ‘The Shining Hour,’ it is rumored that Robert Montgomery may be withdrawn. If that is the case, Robert Young may be his replacement. [Young, an MGM contract player, usually was placed in ‘B’ projects, only when an ‘A’ player refused a role did he land an ‘A’ project. This may have happened in this case, for Young did appear instead of Montgomery].
• Actor Fredric March writes a letter of encouragement to Thomas Mooney, who is serving a life sentence in prison for the 1916 Preparedness Day bombing. March states, “May this be the last annual protest meeting ever to be held on the Mooney case. Surely within the next six months either the Supreme Court, or Govenor Culbert L Olson of California will have granted you a full and complete pardon which has been your unquestionable right for nearly  a quarter of a century.” [In 1939, the socialist agitator Mooney was pardoned by Gov Olson].

PER ED SULLIVAN

• Sullivan writes in his column a recommendation to producer Pandro Berman at RKO. He nominates Norman McLeod as the director for the Vernon and Irene Castle biopic. He bases his suggestion on the fact that McLeod knew Castle and had been his bunkmate in the Royal Flying Corps, and they served together in Texas where they instructed American fliers. When coming in for a landing, Castle was killed in a head on collision with another craft that missed its landing and was climbing out for another go-around. [McLeod worked for Hal Roach, and had just finished ‘There Goes My Heart’ for him in July; and Roach had him tied up with ‘Topper Takes a Trip’ from late August to Oct 1938. (Not that the studio would have listened to the columnist). RKO put H C Potter in the director’s chair instead. Potter had recently finished ‘The Cowboy and the Lady,’ which film he took over from William Wyler who had walked off the project over a dispute with Goldwyn].
• He also reports an oddity – the property department at Warners is collecting tons of dates to be transported out to Indio, CA. They will be hung from trees there for the exterior shots for ‘They Made Me a Criminal.’ The trees this time of year are fruitless.