PEEPING AT FILMDOM. NEW ZEALAND ACTRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

PEEPING AT FILMDOM.

NEW ZEALAND ACTRESS.

GUIDE FOR TOURISTS. OBSERVATIONS IN STABXAND.

(By SHEILAH GRAHAM.)

HOLLYWOOD, May 23. You (a tourist) have just arrived in Hollywood. You want to "go places," enjoy yourself and, above all, see the stars. Presuming the weather is fine and you like polo, you can visit the Midwick Country Club, about ten miles from Hollywood. The club has three teams in regular action, in addition to "swank" New York vistors, headed by Jock Whitney. Among the movie folk j'ou will see wielding a hefty mallet are Robert Montgomery, Charlie Fasrell, Darryl Zanuck, Aidan Roark, and fragile Heavier Angel. Admission prices, 50 cents, 75 cents and one dollar 50 cents. Opposition polo is played at the Riviera Country Club, also about ten miles from the centre of town, where the equine antics of Spencer Tracy, Leslie Howard, Walter Wanger, Walt Disney, and Michael Curl iz can be viewed for an admission price of one dollar. Jack Holt is official referee.

If you prefer riding horseback to watching, you can ride with the stars (Sylvia Sidney, Jeanette Mac Donald, Gene Raymond, Merle Oberon) at Dubrock's, just over the liill past the Universal Studios, for (10 rents an hour, or from the Pickwick stables in Griffith Park.

The best spot for tennis star-gazing is the newly-opened West Side Tennis Club. Krrol Flvnn, Lili Damita, Frank Shields, Frederic March, Florence Rice, Cesar Romero and Gloria Stuart plav there nearly every Sunday. Among those on the sidelines usually are Margaret Sullavan, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and lots of others. Mrs. May Bundv, former tennis clrunpion, gives lessons —five dollars per session. Where the 6tars Live.

You will, of course, want to see at least the exteriors of the stars' homes — the inside is impossible, unless you are a personal friend of the lady or gentleman. Luminaries still living in the now unfashionable Hollywood section include Ronald Colrnan, on Mound Street; Bette

Niven, Gloria Swanson, Herbert Mar shall, Gregory Ratoff and Miriam Hop kins.

The Farmers' Market, on Tliif'fl Street at Fairfax, is the best and least known in town, and lists among its most regular customers Fredric March, Norma Shearer and Theda Bara. Farmers pay 1 dollar a day for a booth. Food is cheap and delicious. Favourites finding an everyday market with the filmland folk are chocolate cake and candv. freshly made each day by the farmers' wives.

During your stay in Hollywood you will need, no doubt, a haircut, if a man —or a hair wash and set, if a woman. At Westmore's, on Sunset Boulevard, you may find yourself sitting in the drying-room next to Shirley Temple, Jeanette MaeDonald, Anita Louise, Joan Crawford, Kay Francis, Bette Davis and a dozen others equally famous. Male actors who list Westmore's as the place include Krrol Flvnn, Pat O'Brien and Bruce Cabot.

Should your stay prove so enjoyable that you decide to end your days here, you can "sleep with the stars" —as per the Neon advertisement—in-the Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Miss Elaine Hamill, the talented young New Zealand actress, who will make her first appearance here with the J. C. Williamson, Limited, comedy company to-night in "Fresh Fields," was born at Hamilton, and her father is now proprietor of the "Times" newspaper at Taihape. For a period 6he was a student at St. Cuthbert's College, Auckland, and later she was a pupil at Ngatawa College, Marton. When the earthquake occurred at Hawke's Bay, Miss Hamill was nursing at the Napier Public Hospital, and when the first crash took place she was enjoying a bath. She remembered her mother's warning in case of earthquakes, and flew from the bath to a doorway. She got there just as the bathroom collated. Previous to this happening she had been invited by three other nurses to partake of morning tea with them, hut her intended bath prevented her from accepting this invitation. The nurses who had asked her were, in a room which collapsed. Miss Hamill afterwards worked as a nurse at the Danncvirkc Hospital. Miss Hamill has enjoyed a meteoric rise in her profession, as after seeing her performance with a Repertory Company in Sydney, the directors of J. C. Williamson, Limited, immediately engaged her for the leading role in "The Shining Hour," which proved an outstanding success.