GRACE MOORE—HER HOLLYWOOD TIFF AND HER NEW FILM

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 16

GRACE MOORE—HER HOLLYWOOD TIFF AND HER NEW FILM

TWISS GRACE MOORE, the prima -iu ' donna of the screen, is in London. After a 12-country tour, she arrived at the week-end for a flying visit before singing in Paris, holidaying at Cannes and returning to Hollywood to keep an August film engagement. During her 10 days in London, Miss Moore wil give a recital at the Albert Hall, and a charity concert at Grosvenor House later. With her Spanish husband; Valentin Parera, her secretary, Mrs. Askin, a large coffee percolator and a- larger bouquet of carnations, Miss Moore reached London late one Saturday night and gave a hurried 10 p.m. cocktail party at her hotel before going to bed. Everyone wanted to hear about her reported tiff with Hollywood, where it was said she objected to singing while milking a cow. “That’s all over,” she told her inquirers. “Something I said and something they said was exaggerated into something else. The cow was the only one who wasn’t misreported. “I have just made ‘The King Steps Out,’ with Franchot Tone, in which a new recording technique was used. This will be trade-shown shortly. Then I go back to sing in ‘The Nightingale Flies No More.’ ” Miss Moore has been greatly impressed by her reception in the countries she has just visited. Thirty thousand people cheered her in the streets of Stockholm, and everywhere she went she was mobbed. , What amazed her was the love of music she found in every country and the demand for simple tunes. “They even made me sing a negro lullaby I crooned as a baby,” said Miss Moore.

While the guests crowded round the prima donna, one of them discovered Miss Moore’s secretary sitting alone in a corner of the room. Mrs. Askin told him that Miss Moore is busy writing her life story, and did not stop dictating even on the ship from Sweden. This autobiography should be interesting. It will tell of a girl brought up on a farm, wanting to become a missionary in China, whose ambition is fired by hearing Mary Garden. Grace Moore also relates how she ran away from school, sang for her food in a New York cafe, and step by step rose to be a prima donna and finally a world-famous film star. Miss Moore’s latest film for Columbia, “The King Steps Out,” in which she has the support of Franchot Tone, was screened privately in Wellington last week. It is a beautiful picture, and is a romance of the youthful days of the Emperor Franz Josef of Austria. Miss Moore has the role of the tom-boy Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria and Mr. Tone plays the emperor. The (Story tells of the adventures of the princess, who is always known as “Cissy” when she endeavours to help her sister, who is to marry the emperor, but who is in love with another. After many exciting adventures, including some most amusing situations, Cissy marries the emperor herself. The story is excellent, the settings and frocking beautiful, and, above all, there is Miss Moore to sing the enchanting melodies written by none other than Fritz Kreisler. What, more can one ask? The film is rich in comedy and romance, and of the star’s voice there is no need to comment —it is better than ever.