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Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 86, 2 July 1927, Page 23

Mr. Bernard Freeman, the MetroGoldwyn chief, who passed through Auckland by the Aorangi on his return to Sydney after a hurried trip to America, says that his firm is now controlling the famous Empire Theatre in London, for so long the home of musical comedy and vaudeville. * * * Billie Sim, a talented little Aucklander, who is one of the semi-finalists in the “Miss New Zealand 1927“ competition, arrived from Sydney earlier in the week by the Marama. Billie has been in most of the notable Australian film productions. She even went to Noumea, in French New Caledonia, to make one picture. * * * Francis X. Bushman has been signed for the leading role in the William McLeod Raine novel, “The Yukon Trail.” Ernst Laemmle, promoted to the ranks of Universal-Jewel directors, has already spent six months in preparation. The cast also includes June Marlowe and Neil Hamilton. ** • * A daring oriental costume is worn by Billie Dove, °aid to be the screen’s most beautiful woman, in the Univer-sal-Jewel “The Sensation Seekers.” She co-stars with Huntley Gordon. Lois Weber directed with a supporting cast comprising Raymond Bloomer, Peggy Montgomery, Edith Yorke, Phillips Smalley, Nora Cecil and Clarence Thompson. * * ♦ * Bits of life from the underworld are going into celluloid at a half-dozen big Hollywood studios. Metro-Gold-wyn- Mayer has a reformed burglar employed to give technical advice to script writers and to directors who prepare stories about the men who work in the dark. A professional rum runner was employed a week or two ago to assist in the filming of “Twelve Miles Out,” starring Jack Gilbert. He is known at the studio only as “Mr. X.*