HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD IN PERSON

GOSSIP OF THE STUDIOS. (By MOLLIE MEKRICK.) HOLLYWOOD (Cal.), Aug. 10. Hollywood is making its first gesture towards coaxing the children of the land back to the movie theatres. Three pictures for children are being planned on one studio's schedule for the coming year. "Huckleberry Finn/' "Tom Sawyer" and a talkie version of the cartoon "Skippy" will be the village's contribution to children's entertainment. Small folks do not care for talking pictures as they are now made, village producers have discovered. They do not like sex stories now that they have become conversational. And so many pictures have been limited to drawingroom or stage proportions that the sense of motion and adventure has been lost.

The men who plan this move are building for the future. They do not expect to lose money on these pictures. Neither do they expect them to be boxoffice at first. What they do hope for is to get children back into the theatre. The plays will be done with the same sense of fitness that is given to plays for grown-ups. Producers wisely realise that while, these stories are primarily intended for children they wil ultimately capture the old group as well. It is six years since a play for children in this sense was filmed. "Peter Pan," which gave Betty Bronson her fame, and which launched a fat-faced little girl into the cinema—Mary Brian —was the last thing of its kind to be done until the present campaign for young interest was started. The outstanding success of "The Virginian" and of "In Old Arizona" is largely due to the fact that parents who saw these plays realised that here was an excellent opportunity to give young folk a perfect afternoon. So the junior members of the household, were brought to see pictures with good solid action and lots of outdoor scenes. If producers are building for the future audiences in this way, the day may well come when father and mother will call little junior in and ask him if he knows of a good picture play they can go and see. And junior, highly specialised as he may become with the entertainment world catering to him thusly, may pick and choose, eluding certain forms of entertainment as being too strong for his parents' nerves. Who knows 1

Scarlet lace has become a vogue for evening wear in more formal gatherings of local beauties. This is invariably a costume which includes a coat of the same colour and slippers to match. A long lariat of gardenias extending from shoulder, to hip is worn with this brilliant ensemble. Soma tweaty of these costumes contributed quite a Mephistophelian effect to the Uurgeet and most distinguished gathering the village- has recently seen.

Douglas Fairbanks hastened back to Piekfair to celebrate the anniversary of his marriage to Mary Pickford. Fairbanks left the chief at Seligman, Arizona, and chartered a special 'plane to get him back' to Movieland. He left a studio running at high gear on a Mary Pickford picture. He returns to 'find

the picture in chaos and a few on the lot aware of what will really .be done with it in the linal analysis. Fairbanks' departure for the golf tournaments of England was precipitous. It came upon the h-eels of his decision to abandon the stories on which he had been working. His return is as sudden as hie departure. Wo are a fast-moving colony. Everything that transcontinental telephones, radio, air travel, and other modern methods can contribute are employed by the Hollywoodites to cheat time. Lawrence Tibbett believes the technique of Warner Baxter to be among the best efforts the screen has to give. According to the Metropolitan opera star, Baxter's timing and rhythm, his voice work and gestures, are the finest he has yet found in talkies. Baxter is a man of remarkable charm. His easy, gracious presence, and excellent conversational endowment make him a favourite with niazagine writers and all interviewers. He has pulchritude a plenty and a fine straightforward manliness which attracts members of his own sex. One of the most interesting things about this business is getting the opinions of the famous—one about the other. Ensenada. hae become the Mecca for week-enders in the gelatine group. This little Mexican village, rose-hung, and possessed of.but one main street and a population of some 500 souls, became a seething mass of humanity during the recent holidays. Some 20 yachts of size and beauty comparable to those seen at Cannes in the season swung in the peacock blue waters off the Mexican coast. The gracious swing of tho coastline at Ensenada Harbour is one of the most startling bits of Western beauty that can be seen. The Barrymore yacht, Richard Barthelmees' boat, Mack Sennett's lean, ■white pleasure craft, all swting at their moorings, while the shores-were lined with swarthy-skinned, straight-haired Ensenadans, watching in round-eyed wonderment. But their round-eyed wonderment ends right there. They knew enough

They are en route to Hollywood now. Meanwhile there is scarcely a day that this comedienne is not called upon for a character-comedy role ia one of the outstanding films of the moment. She invariably finds her way .into Ernst Lubltsch's pictures. This director understands the value of Zasu Pitts. Talk las added to her quality. She has the limp tone which provokes' gentle chuckles from the audience regardless or what the lines may be.

Hollywood.is full of actressee who can make the public laugh if they have a good funny line handed to them. But the Pitts makes them laugh without a witty speech. And "thai is priceless ill a day when all of our jokes have been worn threadbare by repetition.

• Reginald Denny, that handsome British lad who once thrilled the fans of silent pictures, is steadily mounting the ladder with the talkie craze. He threatens to steal the place which Conrad Nagel has held these many years now. Denny,has the advantage in that he is not only a very good actor with clear, iine enunciation, but lie can sing splendidly. Cecil de Mille chose him' for the leading man opposite Kay Johnson , in "Madame Satan." And now he gets the leading role in the Grace Moore picture, "Jeannie Lind." For a time Denny produced hie own pictures. This may be a satisfying proceeding in one way, but the independently made picture comes ujj against difficulties in distribution.

Noah Beery has weird ways of luring guests to his Paradise Trout Club. One of them is just to ask the chape nonchalantly. Later on the lads find they are paying guests.

Two publicity staff members from a local studio were thus invited. They rode, and swam, and fished at the jovial suggestion of their host, who spent the entire day with them. At the conclusion of their jaunt and just as they were putting the nice silvery trout into the rumble of the car, Noah provided them with a little bill for seventy-five dollars.

They paid cheerfully. Then, on the homeward journey they took counsel with each other about such tactics. It seems they had taken eome very fine shots of the club. Their camera skill was unquestioned. They had the films enlarged and brought them in to Noah Beery.

"These are the handsomest pictures of Paradise I've yet seen," said Beery, admiringly squinting at the lovely prospectives. "Like to have some ?" sweetly

inquired the two. "Sure—say boys, that's nice of you; I'd like about a dozen of these to frame and put around. It would stimulate business." He gofc the dozen. And a neat little bill of seventyfive dollars with them. Proving your game is never eo clever that the other f ellcnv can't play it.

"All Quiet," as the Remarque classic has come to be familiarly termed by that Hollywood which loves to shorten things and which adores the palliness (cq) of nicknames, is going t ■ be made in a German version.

None of the boys who played in it speak German. *At least none of the principals; certainly not Lew Ayres nor young Bakewell. But they are memorising their lines parrot-fashion. Young Russell Gleason did very well with languages at college so will probably have the best luck of -the group. The picture still remains the big contribution of the season in Hollywood village.