HOLLYWOOD NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOLLYWOOD NOTES.

GOSSIP OF THE STUDIOS.

(By MOLLIE MERRICK.)

HOLLYWOOD (Calif.), Dec. 19.

The balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet" will have to take second place in Hollywood annals with the balcony scene from "Viva Villa." In this latter version of balcony theatricals, Lee Tracy, popular and smiling rogue _of several movie engagements, bowed himself out of M.-G.-M.'s employ and also out of the hearts of the fun-loving and somewhat theatrical people of Mexico City, it would seem.

If there is any "Viva" left in M.-G.-M. when the smoke has all blown away, it will be surprising. Director Howard Hawks, drooping on the vine from the excitement, responsibility and strain of the last few days, arrived back in Hollywood last night. He promptly asked to be retired from the picture. His wish was granted, and his place will be taken by Jack Conway. , Louis B. Meyer retired Lee Tracy from pictures, eo far as M.-G.-M. is concerned, and sent the officials of the Mexican Government a formal apology that, in point of elaborate wording, rococo sentiments and clever indirect reminders of how much money the corporation had brought into Mexico, deserves to go down with other famous diplomatic historical documents. Now, on a Hollywood lot, the picture —or what's left of it—will go on, with Mona Maris replaced by Dorothy Burgess and Roscoe Karns taking the place of the naughty Lee Tracy. According to the prevalent report, Lee Tracy heard the sound _of music and roller-skated out on to his balcony to see a parade of Mexican cadets. He was in the "altogether," according to the Mexican complaint, with a blanket he had grabbed about him slipping to the floor. The nudity of the actor was amusing to the crowd at first, but when

it was accompanied by insulting gestures a revulsion of feeling was felt. Some printed reports say a gentleman with hie 14-year-old daughter swore out a complaint for the arrest of Tracy, and some say a gentleman who was with his wife swore out another. Tracy insists he was in the trousers of a "very old pair of pyjamas"—they must have been antiques when he appeared to be in the "altogether" to several hundred persons. It seems a shame that this merry rogue can't behave himself. He has been in wrong witli other Hollywood executives for looking on the wine when it bubbled and completely forgetting that the cameras were turning. How this dismissal from M.-G.-M., where he was fast approaching star material, will affect his future in films is hard to say. He has brightened many a film, even though he has" helped put some grey hairs in the directors' heads.

Josef von Sternberg wouldn't allow Marlene Dietrich to wear those fine long red fingernails she loves, because, he pointed out, Catharine the Great not only didn't have 'em, but chewed hers off to the quick any time one of the boys made her nervous or one of the girls got in her way.