CINEMA NEWS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 230, 9 July 1943, Page 6

CINEMA NEWS

(By “Spotiigfot”)

PERSONALITY BRIEFS.

Bob Hope, whose real name is Lester, started out to be a. prizefighter but didn’t stay at it very long. He doesn’t like sailing ships because, as he says, his early career made him allergic to canvas. He next tried dancing and was quite a hit at that, touring the vaudeville circuits with a partner. Cnee, when his partner was sick, hi' went on with his act alone and just told jokes. He laid ’em in tho aisles and thus started a career that has made him one of t'he top comics of film .and radio. Born in Kent, England, ho came to America with his family as a child, first living in Cleveland/ Ohio. His latest picture, the hilarious Paramount fun film, “My Favourite Blonde” with Madeline Carroll as co-star, opens Saturday, Juty 24 at the St. Janies Theatre. The teaming of Boh and Madeleine is a direct result of Hope’s oft-spoken admiration for Miss Carroll, heard by millions of listeners to the Hope radio programme. Paramount decided to cash-in, and, when tho proper script came along, put them together for the first time. Among the Hope screen hits are such fun classics as “Caught in the Draft,” “Nothing But the Truth” and “Road to Zanzibar.” Madeleine Carroll used to be a high school teacher in England, but you’d never know it to look at her. Known as the screen’s most beautiful blonde, the co-star with Bob Hope of the hilarious Paramount comedy, “My Favourite Blonde,” opening Saturday, July 24, at the St. James Theatre, still retains some of tho habits of her school marm days. She loves to talk and her Hollywood home is the gathering place for the intelligentsia of the film colony. Another deeply ingrained characteristic of teachers clings to the gorgeous Madeleine. She travels at every opportunity and, before universal war crashed over the world, see managed to visit every continent except Australia. Her film travels have been almost as extensive as evidenced bf such titles as “Honeymoon in Bali,” “One Night in Lisbon,” “Safari” and “Bahama Passage.” In her current excursion into hilarity, “My Favorite Blonde,” Miss Carroll does some more travelling. As a British agent she teams with Bob Hope to lead a gang of Nazi spies on a wild and men y chase all the way from New York to Los Angeles. And in this picture she travels faster and lias more than in anv three of the others put together.

HOLLYWOOD SMALL TALK.

Walter Pidgeon didn’t receive an Academy Award; but his fans tried to make np for it. They sent him a gdded cage, containing two snow-white pigeons to the set of M-G-M’s “Madame Currie.” A note read: “Dear "Walter, you’re still our favourite Pidgeon. It was signed: “Pidgeon Fanciers.” Since she and [Desi-Arnaz haye lived on. their Ckatsworth farm, Lucille Ball has canned 75 jars of fresh vegetables. For storage space, she’s converted one of her movable wardrobe closets into a “cooler” and had it placed in, their garage. „ Diana Lewis and William Powell are number one tennis enthusiasts of Palm Springs these days. The couple have been living in their five-room desert bungalow for the past several months. They wrote to their friends: “When we get back to town would appreciate your referring to us as tho road company team of Helen Walls and Bill Tllden. Red Skelton has originated an idea for army camp entertainment. . 16 comedian is compiling a book of jokes, gag-voutin.es, skits, and black-outs which is planned to make any rookie an accomplished “M.C.” The volume is titled “You Can Dood It. Judy Garland just received woul from a fan in England that the stocking shortage is no longer a problem there, A run in a stocking is now chic. It is mended with gay-coloum thread, and women wearing hose uith the greatest number of mended inns in brilliant shades are leading t fashion parade. • The local A.W.V.S. Day Nursery ■ » richer by an entire carload of toys de livered personally by the State Chairman, Joan A ft^ finishing vrotk on her new “Above Suspicion, Miss Jspent the greater part of-a neehat H nursery, getting a jamtei -th »U et in to” low. every child has found Ins pet. plaything among the supply o available toys.

PRODUCTION BRIEFS

Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridon and Humphrey Bogart will take the leading roles in Warners’ recently purchased Jolm Collier fantasy, “The 'Devil, George and Rosy.” Robert Buckner will aroduce. Following “Jitterbugs, ’ 20th-Fox will star Laurel and Hardy in B> Jupiter,” ft film version of the faree recently playing legit on Broadway. Plnv itself is an adaptation irom a play by Julian Thompson. _ titled “Warrior’s Husband.” concerning women amazons of ancient Greece. Tn 1933 Jesse Lasky produced a film version for Fox, with Elissa Landi and Ernes* Trues starred. L. anti H. will complete Metro’s “Air Raid Wardens” before commencing “By Jupiter,” in which they will bo supported by Martha Raye. “Animal Kingdom,” script of which Warners have secured .on a star-story deal, is to he a 4-star production. Principal roles will go to Ann Sheridan, Olivia Do Havilland, Dennis Morgan and Jack Carson, with Vincent Sherman directing.

Next for Rosalind Russell at Columbia is a sophisticated comedy about a high-powered woman agent, titled “Ton Per Cent. "Woman.”