Camera Flashes

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 207, 2 September 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Camera Flashes

"TJVHE theme song of my new movie series," says Maxie Rosenbloom, "is a little number about flowers called 'When Rosenbloom.'" JfRED PERRY says he is finished with all tennis—and films. He will concentrate on golf, aiming for championship honours! + + + + who think that Joe E. Brown is all wa-shed up in the movies may be edified by the fact that Paramount has been paying him 8000 dollars a week for his lead with Martha Raye in "1000 Dollars a Touchdown." ipHE biography cycle goes merrily on and on. The next to be glorified via the movies is John P. Altgeld, the German immigrant who rose to be Governor of Illinois several decades ago. i- "Forgotten Eagle" is the title of the epic, which will feature the notorious Pullman strike in Chicago, whose settlement required military force. Altgeld h was of a humanitarian disposition and ,f pardoned the strikers. Warners' first n choice for Altgeld was Paul Muni, but „ Muni considers the story similar in spirit to "Zola," and will not play the e same type of role twice, if he caii help e it. James Cagnev and Edward G. Robh inson are now reading the script, with s Cagnev as the favoured candidate. It d will be a somewhat different part for r Jimmy, as the role calls for fighting a with words instead of fists. h n ♦ 7

ROSEN"BLOOM achieves 6tar billing with the Warner Brothers' short, "Slapsie Maxie." For a lad of no histrionic training whatsoever, Maxie has done extremely well. * ♦ ♦ + JOAX CRAWFORD wears trunks and a flesh-coloured brassiere for that famous bathing scene in "The Women." The brassiere will be of the thinnest type procurable, and to all intents and purposes non-existent. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ■yiVIEN LEIGH, who thinks Hollywood is the most unnatural place in the world—"'and you can't get any rest here''—lias been suffering from a bad cold, but worked through it. Nothing must stop the progress of '"Gone With the Wind." At the moment, three directors are trying to rush it to completion. What a premiere that one is going to be! ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ MEMBER when Diana Wynyard left the screen for the stage, saying that she did not photograph well enough to be a star? And the world sighed, thinking wistfully of "Cavalcade," "Rasputin," "Men Must Fight," "Reunion in Vienna" and "The Dover Road." Now, after six years, she has decided to make the long-expected come-back, leaving her beloved London theatres long enough to star in a British picture, "The Night of the Fire." She says of it: "My part is the best I have ever had in films." What kind of role is that?

yyHEx Sonja Henie went to Norway the last time, she took her hair dresser rfnd paid all her expenses. Thi* time, she is taking along one of thf skating chorus girls in "Second Fiddle." It happened this way. Sonja was casually talking with the girl—Bellf Richards—and inquired: "What are you doing after this picture?" 'iXothinsr," Belle replied. "Gome with us." Mis? Henie said impulsively. So the girl gete a two months' vacation—all paid for. As a small return for Sonja V generosity, she will teach her to speak English—with the approved American accent!

rpHE Earl of Warwick, alias Michael Brooke, is in England studying conditions in the British film industry, for which he thinks a boom is coming. When he returns to Hollywood, he plant l to interest himself chiefly in the busine?> side of films. He is also arranging for Warwick Castle to be used for evacuated children in case of war, and looking for a suitable country house for Robert Montgomery when he arrives in England to piake "Busman's Honevmoon."

♦ + ♦ ♦ JOEL MeCREA has been signed to a two-year contract as a result of his fine performance in "Union Pacific." The studio will give Joel its prize roles, with the idea of building him into another Gary Cooper. McCrea will make two pictures a year with a salary of approximately 100,000 dollars per picture. His first is the next Cecil B. de Mille production. De Mille, incidentally, once upon a time had Joel under contract for a mere 50 dollars a week—but let him