“HOLLYWOOD-LUMME!”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20762, 24 June 1937, Page 7

“HOLLYWOOD-LUMME!”

GRACIE FIELDS BEWILDERED “Hollywood's got me bewildered right enough. It’s a real place for a holiday, but—lumme! how anyone can work here beats me!” I asked Gracie Fields hoy/ she likes her film work here, and this was what she said, writes the Hollywood correspondent of the "Daily Mail.” But she didn’t leave it at that. This is the “low-down” on the Film City as Gracie sees it: “After being in British films so long and hearing about Hollywood life from all sorts of film people, I’d built in my mind’s eye a picture of one straight street —you know what I mean, straight to look at—in which you couldn’t help bumping into the great big film stars —I mean big names, you know. “Well, I haven’t bumped into one. Hollywood’s so awfully big it seems impossible to leave it behind. You can travel at 70 for what seems hours and still not escape. “From my hotel window I see miles and miles of pretty white homes with roofs in all colours of the rainbowall sizes and styles. Looks inviting to the visitor.

“But for me it's no place to live. I must live with ghosts, and Hollywood looks as though it’s only Just arrived and nothing ever died here. “People swarm like bees and are as busy. You can’t tell a famous £lOOO---week film expert from golf caddie —except on the links, where caddies carry clubs.

“Men dress easy. Women doll up wonderful fine. Children are fearless, self-confident, healthy-looking. “The climate—seasidy. I want to go gadding all the time. Good old London fog may make you cough, but it also makes you appreciate a warm studio and arc lamps, so I’m sure I’d work better in London. . . Gracie paused for a moment, rather wistful. Then she went on: “The food here amuses me. I went into a famous film cafe in Hollywood Boulevard and ordered fruit salad. They brought me enough for a horse. When you order apple pie they bring you enough for a good size Wigan family on washing day. “Hollywood is competitive all right. It isn’t going to be easily beaten as the world’s foremost film factory. “But Hollywood dentists are nice. G’n, laugh—but I mean it. I’m having expert dental treatment here to change the position of some of my teeth—and what that dentist can do is marvellous. It cost me £lOOO, but it’s worth it.

“I haven't been partying very much, but those I’ve been to are like London parties—except that they invite you to tea and give you cocktails instead. Somebody told me I ought to be thankful, because Hollywood people can't make a good cup o’ tea anyway. I’ve found that’s true.

“The radio is bright. I’ve been invited to broadcast, and I’ve turned down big offers because I’m so scared. I can’t make up my mind how, when, and where to make my first ’attack’ on the great American public.

“If I go on the radio I lose the advantage of doing my usual comedy stuff to put over my songs. If I wait until my film is completed the big splurge of public attention aroused by my visit here may be forgotten. “In Hollywood everything moves quickly. People forget quickly. Their enthusiasm is always bubbling, always changing.

“I visited Palm Springs. It beggars description. It's like a fairy place which has just grown out of sand. That’s where Hollywood scores —it has every kind of holiday resort within easy motoring reach. “But gimmee another evening at Venice. It’s five miles away. It's just like Blackpool.

“I went there the other night and got downright homesick. I felt as if I was at Blackpool and nobody knew me. I had a real do. “But I missed all those friendly pats on the back and ‘Good old Gracie' the Blackpool crowd always gives me. “Lummee, I think that sums it up.”