“Three Smart Girls Grow Up”

Northern Advocate, 22 July 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

“Three Smart Girls Grow Up”

Deanna Durbin is perfectly satisfied with her leading men.

The 16-year-old singer, who stars in Universal’s “Three Smart Girls Grow Up,” is diplomatic about it, too.

Tall, dark and handsome Robert Cummings, and tall, blonde and hand-

some William Lundigan are the men in her new picture. Pressed to state whether she had any preference between them, Deanna declared: “They’re both very nice.” And also she refused to commit herself as to whether Cummings and Lundigan are nicer than her former leading men, Ray Milland, Adolphe Menjou, Herbert Marshall and Melvyn Douglas. ■‘Bill and Bob are much younger,” she said, and then added: “They’re better looking, too.” Cummings appears in “Three Smart Girls Grow Up” as the “boy friend” to t Nan Grey, while Lundigan becomes betrothed to Helen Parrish, the third of the Three Smart Girls. Deanna herself hasn’t any sweetheart in the production, unless it is Charles Winninger, who appears as her father.

Cummings, who was born in Joplin, Missouri, has been in pictures for the past three years. He was formerly on the New York stage in Earl Carroll’s Vanities and Ziegfeld's Follies. He played vaudeville with Milton Eerie. He is a star of the airways, teamed with Nan Grey in a Friday evening half-hour programme, “Those We Love.”

Lundigan broke into the movies via radio. He was chief announcer in a Syracuse, N.Y., radio station, when his voice was heard over the air by an executive of Universal studios. Impressed by Lundigan’s manner of speaking, the official ordered a screen test, with the result that Lundigan departed for Hollywood with a film contract safely stowed in his pocket. He has appeared in pictures over the past two years.

Both boys' are in their interesting twenties, both are athletic, and both, as Deanna declares, are good looking. Cummings is one of the best aviators in the movie colony, and holds an instructor’s licence. He is 6ft lin tall, has blue eyes and dark brown hair, and weighs 178 pounds. Lundigan tops Cummings by one inch in height but gives away eight pounds in weight. He has very light brown hair and blue eyes. He is athletic, with tennis, swimming and golf his favourite outdoor recreations. During his employment as chief announcer at the radio station, he wrote many air playlets and still- does them as a hobby.