STRANGE OCCUPATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 28 March 1936, Page 9

STRANGE OCCUPATION

WORKERS AT HOLLYWOOD MAN PAID FOR HICCUPS All kinds of queer jobs abound in Hollywood, writes Mr Edwin Hay don. in a London journal. One woman. Ruby Rav, is a clever imitator of birds. The cluck of a lien, the scream of a peacock, the call of the East Indian shama bird, are child’s play to Ruby. Her mother was an opera singer, who wanted Ruby to follow in her footsteps. But Ruby preferred whistling' to singing, obtained a teaching certificate for whistling, and then offered her services to the film city. Now she makes between £2O and £3O a week at this peculiar job! Another woman, Sally Cox, who earns nearly as much, can imitate the howling of a baby to the life. When Baby Leroy, or some other screen infant, yells', it's certain to be Sally “doing her stuff” out of range of the cameras. A man famous for his imitations of animals and birds is Count Cutelli, " ho makes most of those particular sounds for the Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoons and Silly Symphonies. As a youngster Cutelli used to amuse himself* by imitating the sounds made by the animals and birds he heard on his father’s estate in Sicily. Then he decided to put his talents tc more serious purpose. Now he receives over £lO an hour for his work at the studios. . ..

Yet another made imitator specialises in drunken hiccups. When called upon recently for a picture, he charged half a crown a hiccup, excluding retakes! Another queer job, with a good deal of danger attached, is that performed by Cherie May, Hollywood’s \ ircmicr stunt woman. Cherie will ride a horse over a cliff, do a 6000 ft delayed parachute drop, shoot a wine glass off a man’s head, hang from a skyscraper or an electric sign hundreds of feet above street level, climb church steeples, and stand on her head on top of a locomotive travelling at 80 miles an hour.

In fact, the only stunts she won’t do are those in which water is involved. You see, Cherie can’t swim, and she’s not keen to learn!

Another strange occupation is followed by George Daly, an Irishman, who does nothing but fire a machine gun. For the past 10 years George has been shooting at the stars, and, what is more, he has never hit one! His job is to pepper the vicinity of his subjects with billets from about '2oft range. The bullets are stopped by a wooden background. In a recent picture he fired no fewer than 16,000 rounds. Daly receives anything from £5 to £2O a day, according to the status of the screen folk he has to miss! And he attributes his remarkable accuracy and nerves of steel to the fact that he sleeps the clock round. Another queer job is held by a Scots girl, Winifred McPliee. She spends her working hours constructing life-size models of famous feminine stars, like Sylvia Sydney, Mae West, Claudette Colbert, and Mary Ellis. By this means the stars’ glamorous creations can be designed and fitted without wasting too much of the stars’ time and energy. There are some curious sides to the work of Roy Kreuger, the well-known Hollywood animal trainer, and Wally Westmore, the famous make-up. man, who hails from Tunbridge Wells. Recently Ivrcuger was called upon to train cats to carry goldfish from one bowl to another without eating them!

Wally, armed with a brush and a certain sticky crimson concoction, is often to be seen busily painting bloodstains that look really life-like. He is also very clever at fashioning cauliflower ears and faking scars and flat noses. Another strange Hollywood job belongs to Horace Whitley. He spends his life making rain; anything from a gentle shower to an Atlantic blizzard. Whenever there is a rain sequence to he “shot” under cover, Horace proceeds to arrange for the “set” to be thoroughly drenched. And he makes big money at the job! Finally, one of the queerest Hollywood jobs is held by Mrs Yearsley. She collects yelps, laughs, groans, growls, and other strange sounds. They are all recorded upon strips of film, and filed for future use in other pic--1 tures. Whenever a special sort of sound is needed for a new film, she digs it out from among her thousands of specimens, and it is grafted on to the sound track where required.

William Powell appears to make a ■ habit of lighting a star. With Luise Rainer in “Escapade,” Powell is, on overseas screens, guiding Rosalind Russell suavely through her initial starring role. “Rendezvous,” which mixes mystery with comedy, brings Rosalind to fame before the termination of her first year in films. Oddly enough, she began her career with a small part in another Powell picture—“ Evelyn Prentice.” I * * * * 1 “The Mark of Zorro,” perhaps the most popular of Douglas Fairbanks’ films, is to reappear as an operetta with Lawrence Tibbett as the star. The rights have been acquired by 20th Century, and the famous silent film | will live again as a talkie musical. Fairbanks is said to have received one f the highest prices ever paid for a story previously filmed. Tibbett, by e way. is to be seen here shortly in Metronolitan.”

¥ * * ¥ William Powell, when he was a very ■small hoy, went to dancing school ancl ike most small boys Hated it. But , /hen he went into the starring role n “Escapade,” he went to dancing school again, and this time he liked it. To the music of a Viennese orchestra lie waltzed gaily with Luise Rainer under the tutelage of Chester Hale, lance director, who was assigned to coach the star in the mysteries of the waltz as danced in the land of Strauss. Powell plays a debonair artist in the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer picture, a gay romance of Vienna. ; * * * * Play Runs Ovet a Year The “last weeks” are now am nounced of Diana Wynyard’s immensely long run with “Sweet Aloes,” says a London paper. It is at least possible that when a play that has run is long as a year signifies its last veeks the booking suddenly takes an ipward turn. At the end of the London run Miss Vynyard is going, with the play, on i short provincial and suburban tour. Russell Chapman, who will tour Hew Zealand with the Williamson dramatic company headed by Elaine Hamill, the former Wanganui girl, is a son of Lorna Forbes, who was for so long with the Allan Wilkie Shake- 1 spearean Company. j