SCREEN GOSSIP

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 20 (Supplement)

SCREEN GOSSIP

Slim Summerville once worked in a coffin factory.

Despite reports to the contrary, it Is believed that Greta Garbo will continue on the screen in America for at least another two years.

Gary Cooper’s only extravagance is a collection of rifles. The Paramount star recently purchased from a London firm. His collection now numbers 32.

Jack Hoit is lonely, more so than he will admit He is seen around the studios very often these days. He misses his son Tim, who has just returned to Culver Military Academy after the holidays.

Myrna Loy has abandoned plans to build her own home in Beverly Hills. Instead, she proposes to spend all her holidays for the next three years in travelling. ■

The next Grace Moore productions has been tentatively entitled “On Wings of Song” and incorporates “La BohenV” “La Tosca” and “Rigoletto.” To meet the demand for opera in English the operatic numbers will be recorded in both English and Italian.

Edmund Lowe is limping about Hollywood owing to the fact that he dropped a shoe on his foot. It should be explained that the shoe was a 30-pound leaden diving shoe. It happened on the set of “Best Man Wins,” in which Lowe costarred with Jack Holt in a picture concerning two sea-divers.

“Nymph Errant,” a successful rnovel and stage-play by James Laver, is intended by Fox as a vehicle for Alice Faye and Jack Haley/

Honours continue to heap themselves upon Will Rogers. Fbllowing his recent designation by tha motion picture exhibitors of America as the leading box office draw, he has been named by the Los Angeles Realty Board as the most useful citizen of the community. With the honours went a handsome watch.

Charles Hofers, alias “Buddy” before he grew up, is now in England making “Dance Band” for B.IP.

The latest story from Hollywood is that Ricardo Cortez got half of his screen name from a cigar band. Jesse Lasky made arrangements with Cortez, whose real name is Jack Franzky, to appear in pictures; and during the discussions as to what his screen name should be, one of the men removed the band from his cigar, and idly studied it. It was an El Cortez. That settled it. The actor became Ricardo Cortez. * # * ♦

Beautiful Jane Baxter, just back from her Hollywood trip, has started work in “Drake of England.”

Mae West, Carl Brisson and George Raft enjoyed themselves coaching Al Mann, the studio's entry into the Pacific Coast amateur boxing tournament. Both Raft and Brisson boxed against Mann, and gave him soifie points. George Raft has always been able to fight well, and Carl Brisson was once middleweight champion of Europe. # * * *

Among the most significant items in the week’s bulletins is the announcement that Mickey Mouse has crashed the Encyclopaedia Britannica. The editors _of that voluminous publication, according to United Artists, intend to present the history and mechanics of the animated cartoon in their next edition. #** * ■

Not many people know that until recently Jan Kiepura has been saving all the money he has earned to build an hotel near Cracow, in his native Poland. It has cost him £lOO,OOO. Medical baths of all kinds are its speciality, and it is now making the film star hotelier lots of money. ' # # * *

Here are ten of the best pictures .of 1934, as selected by the leading critics of America: “Barrette of Wimpole Street,” “House of Rothschild,” ‘lt Happened One Night,” “One Night of Love, “Little Women,” “The Thin Man, Viva' Villa,” “Dinner at Eight,” “Count of Monte Cristo,” and “Berkeley Square.

Joseph M. Schenck, president of 20th Century Pictures, believes the Legion of Decency has done good work for the future interests of the industry. I nave no criticism to offer,” he says. Rather do I offer my thanks. There are subjects in life that cannot be treated in a Pollyanna way; but so long as they are treated with sincerity, understanding, and artistic beauty, they will not be banned from the screen. w ? rth^ e pictures, on the whole, will be benefited.”