BEHIND THE SCENCES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 October 1933, Page 8 (Supplement)

BEHIND THE SCENCES

POPE’S NIECE AS AN ACTRESS. VITAMINS IN FILMS.

A niece of the Pope, Mlle Sandra Ravel, is appearing as an actress in a new Italian screen play.

Lilian Gish may make a come-back to screen work under the direction of Merian C. Cooper.

# * # * Janet Gaynor is reported from Hollywood to be engaged to Winfield Sheehan, the Fox producer of “Cavalcade.”

A screen history of the American stage will be produced by M.-G.-M. under the title of “Cavalcade of the Theatre.”

One of Ronald Colman’s silent successes, “The Dark Angel,” will be refilmed as a talkie by Samuel Goldwyn.

Eileen Robey, daughter of the one and only George, is a clever artist. She recently exhibited a portrait of her mother at the Royal Academy.

Mary Pickford has inherited a fortune of £228,800 from her mother, the late Mrs. Charlotte Smith, who was professionally known as Charlotte Pickford.

A screen life of Cecil Rhodes, entitled “The Man Who Was Africa,” is announced by Denison Clift, the American director-novelist. It is proposed to produce the exterior in South Africa.

Yvonne Printemps, formerly Mme. Sacha Guitry, will play lead in the London presentation of Noel Coward’s “Conversation Piece,” to be produced by C. B. Cochran.

C. B. Cochran plans to produce an American screen version of .“Nymph Errant,” the sprightly novel by James Laver, which he will present shortly in dramatic form on the London stage.

A clause in Bette Davis’ three-year contract has caused much comment in Hollywood. By this clause Bette undertakes not to sue her husband for divorce or legal separataion during the terms of the contract.

Constance Bennett and her husband, the Marquis de la Falaise de la Coudraye, are forming a motion-picture producing company called Bennett Productions. The first film will be made in the East Indies.

Joan Crawford acquires her sun tan by rubbing herself with equal parts of olive oil and vinegar, then lying in the sun for two hours. Some of the film stars acquire tan with the use of vinegar alone.

Clara Mayr, the Mary Magdelene of the last performance of the Passion Play at Oberammergau, and daughter of Guido Mayr, who is famous as Judas, is to marry Dr. Anton Lang, jun., son of the man who has played the Christos for two or three decades.

Wanda Hawley, the former star of silent films, has been divorced from her husband, Jay Stuart Wilkinson, whom she married in 1925. Miss Hawley was previously married to Burton Hawley, from whom she was divorced in 1921.

“The Dancing Lady” recently went into production, .with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in leading roles. Frank Morgan and Grant Mitchell have also been assigned featured parts in this picture. i

Mary Pickford, the world’s sweetheart, following her estrangement with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks, has returned to the screen in a talking picture, “Secrets,” now being shown in New Zealand. Leslie Howard is the leading man.

# # Ann Dvorak, who recently spent some months in Europe as an “exile” after her quarrel with Warners, has signed a new five yeans’ contract with that studio, and will shortly reappear on the screen. Meanwhile, Leslie Fenton, Ann’s husband, is playing for M-G-M.

Gwen McCormack, daughter of John McCormack, the famous tenor, is tot be married in London shortly to Mr. Edward Pyke. The ceremony will take place in Westminster Cathedral, the famous tenor will come from America for the occasion, and will probably sing during the service.

A mixed blessing awaits the Blue Riband winner on the Turf, says Tom Walls, who owns April the Fifth, and plays as Sir Hector Benbow in “Thark.” “It’s just as much a curse as a blessing being a Derby l winner, and if I gave even small sums in response to all the begging letters I have received I would not only be penniless but £150,000 in debt!” And so to evade these anglers, he went fishing himself, to the tiny village of Selsey, accompanied by his chauffeur and valet.

An autograph hunter, who stole a picture of Katharine Hepburn from her dressing-room one day—silver frame and all—and then returned it through the mail, accompanied by a. note asking for her autograph, got what he wanted. Unfortunately, when she sent him the very photo he had stolen, she wrote across the comer, “Stolen from Katharine Hepburn”!

A British production, based on the life of Nell Gwynn, is in preparation at Elstree. Anna Neagle, who appeared in the screen version of Noel Coward’s “Bitter Sweet,” will have the title role. Herbert Wilcox, who directed the silent film of “Nell Gwynn,” in which Dorothy Gish appeared about eight years ago, has received the directorial assignment for the new version.

E. A. Dupont, the noted German director who filmed the aever-to-be-forgotten “Variety” and many other Continental and American screen successes, is under a new long-term contract to Hollywood. The director’s first assignment is “The Invisible Man,” adapted from the weird H. G. Wells story, by R. C. Sheriff, and starring the celebrated Boris Karloff, who will be remembered for his fine acting In “The Mummy.”

A 15-year-old pianist, Patricia Benkman, who is still in the high-school stage, made her first important public engagement recently in San Francisco as soloist with the Chamber Symphony Orchestra of that city, Gaston Usigli conducting. Schumann Heink considers Patricia a marvel; the great singer has given every encouragement to the young girl in her ambitions. Patricia is the daughter of a prominent flautist, Herbert Benkman, and is studying under Lev Shorr.

William Beaudine recently celebrated 24 years in the motion picture business by signing a contract with Paramount to direct B. P. Schulberg’s “On Probation.” Beaudine’s first job when he left school early in 1909 was as third assistant property man at eight dollars per week at the Biograph Studios in New York. The late Robert Harron, one of the greatest of the early screen idols, was second assistant, and D. W. Griffith was director. Beaudine recently completed “The Crime of the Century” for Paramount, which was one of the most successful mystery films of the year, accordins to tha aziiusi.