Films and the Studios

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 762, 7 September 1929, Page 25

Films and the Studios

r -w FILM STAR round —a midget, three feet 11 rnrties tall, and weighing 45 pounds, ■ho has a microphonic voice. The idcet is Harriet Spiker and she was discovered by Paramount casting offi“iais affer three weeks’ search. ' Miss Spiker responded when an ad•ertisement was placed in Los Angeles aoers. She has never before capital0n her stature, but she will ap--2 r as the Lilliputian in the talking production, •‘lllusion ” Despite her size the midget is said , be perfectly formed. She was bom • New York of normal parents, rharies ‘Buddy” Rogers and Nancy Carroll have the leading roles in -Illusion.” , » » AS SINGER i romantic comedy adapted from the French play, "The Battle of the Ladies" will be Ramon Novarro’s first song "talkie” in which he will sing and speak in a 100 per cent, dialogue picture. The play by Scribe and Legouve, the famous dramatists who gave the world "Adrienne Lecouvreur,” is one of the best known stage dramas of the Old World. It will be Novarro’s first picture since his European tour which followed "The Pagan.” Movarro will play the part of a voung romanticist, for whose favour t w-o women become rivals. How they set about to win him furnishes an hillarioua series of comical incidents. The story is laid in France. Sydney Franklin will direct the star for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Franklin is noted for his work in "Beverly „f Graustark” and “Wild Orchids.” Although he sang in ‘‘The Pagan,” Novarro has not yet spoken in a complete talking picture. Several specially composed songs will be sung by him in “The Battle of the Ladies.” AUCKLANDER'S CAREER The fact that Shayle Gardner, the Auckland character actor, walked right into a contract with United Artists exactly a week after his arrival in Hollywood, should not fill the London acting raternity with beautiful ideas of Hollywood as a sort of sinecure for anyone with an Oxford accent, writes an American correspondent. As a matter of fact, several members of the English colony here are

complaining bitterly that their accent puts them at a disadvantage. Shayle Gardner was lucky in making an excellent impression at United Artists studio, where "Three Live Ghosts” was about to be started. With such a good start in Hollywood his fine stage experience ought to put him on the talkie map—in a big way.