SCREENLAND SECRETS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 107, 16 April 1936, Page 7

SCREENLAND SECRETS

From time to time we have enumerated many of the odd items that film fans have given to their favourite start'. 'Now let's see some of the things that they request from actors. Many of Clark Gable's fans ask him for his, discarded cigarette butts. Fred MacMarray and Robert Montgomery have received numerous requests for their. old . pipes. Gary Cooper's old ties appeal to . the admirers. And several-of'Spencer Tracy's followers have expressed a strange desire for a strand of-hair from his polo pony's tail $ Touching ' scene; Grace Moore .in, the rain and signing the fiutogra.ph books of a group of youngFtert'.' * •! $j ..-■' f- * '■- '" P Isn't,ii interesting to note that war and strife-have been the background of some of the mo3t successful isver to come but of Holly wood? Soma of,the stand-outs have Quiet on the Western Fror.t" "Fa.reT.ell to Arms," "The Big Parade," "Beau Geste."'and ''Hull's Angeh." And yet this suiject is so delicate that most producers now choose to ignore it. Commendable, we'd say.

Most of you probably know that "Warner Olani,, the screen's sinister Oriental and creator of the Charlie Chan roles, is Swedish. But did you know that he is just now making his very first trip to China?

A rather dull janitor nearly dented MGM's treasury for several hundred dollars. One of the major settings in the new Clark Gable-Jeanette MacDonald opus, "San Francisco," represents a magnificent room which has 3UBt been wrecked by an earthquake. This janitor—who probably had the best of intentions—pasr ed by the set, saw the debris and otarted to try to tidy it up! As he was carting away earthquake dust and wreckage which had been painstakingly placed to achieve the correct effect, the director baw him and halted the proceedings With a horrified scream. * & * Producer Sam Goldwyn has advanced

BY JOHN HOLT

a startling theory. He has eliminated all scenes showing ouvninj buildings in his pictures on the that it might make members of the audience uneasy for the safely of their own homes. * * -X It was Ronald Colman's turn to have a narrow escape. Ho was supposed to be missed by a fjirg dagger. The knife was coming, tou close for comfort, and Col man ci>cged. It failed to remain in the wood, and the heavy handle struck hjin I', irofulJy in the chest. Colman insisted on playing the f-cene again immediately. * # # Disappointments Department.: One of Hollywood's many extras wagi dofng some night work on a current picture. On one of these nights his name was called the winner of a brand new automobile in a local theatre . But he couldn't coll?ct it, because he had to be in the audience.