GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 833, 5 August 1933, Page 24 (Supplement)

GENERAL FILM GOSSIP.

urswMta to coriussfoitdsitts. ** Film Fan.”—Jimmy Durante, Buster Keaton, M.-G.-M. Studios, Culver City, California; Carole Lombard, Columbia Hollywood, California; Mary -Astor, Paramount Studios, Hollywood; Joan Bennett, Fox Studios, Hollywood. The Fairbanks's, senior and junior, are in Europe. „ FAMOUS ANIMAL TRAINER. ! Clyde Beatty*, the famous animal trainer, who will be seen at the Majestic Theatre on Monday in “ The Big Cage," is an American by birth. When he was 15 he ran away from home to * join a circus and became second assist- ? ant to the trainer of Howe's Great Lon- \ don Show. By the time he was 18, Beatty was a featured attraction with | GoUmer Brothers* Circus. Since 1925, when he was 20 years old, he has been the star performer with the Hagenback- : Wallace Shows, being the only man in ? the world able to “ work ** lions and ? tigers together in the same arena. In 1931 Beatty made his debut at Madison Square Garden in New York with the Ringling Brothers—Barnum and Bailey Circus. He repeated the engagement in 1932, when his was the only “ act ” starred with that of the circus in ail its billing. During the regular circus - summer seasons he has been touring with the Hagenback-Wallace Shows and . in winter has appeared in vaudeville, doing his specialty act with lions and tigers. In his work with the beasts, Beatty’s only weapons of defence are a • whip, a pistol loaded with blank cartridges, with which he calls the animals to attention, and a slender wooden chair, which he uses as a guard in training them. He has been wounded twenty-five times during his career, once almost to the point of death, but his nerves are of iron and he does not . know fear. Chaplin’s Next. Paulette Goddard, in whom Charles , Chaplin is reported to be interested, will play opposite the great comedian in his next picture. The picture will be a talkie, but Charlie will hold to his vow never to speak on the screen. He will play the part of a deaf mute.

\inmmmmmmamin m m m m a ® ® mm gs Parisian Actress. Lily Damita, who appears opposite Warren William in “ The Match King,’’ at the Theatre Royal, was bom in Paris. After attending convents in Portugal, Spain and Greece, she began her stage training in a dancing school in Belgium. Lily Damita made her first public appearance at the age of 14 in the ballet of the Opera de Paris. She later toured the Continent singing American jazz songs. At 19, Lily Damita succeeded Mistinguette as star of the Casino de Paris Revue. She played for a time in French and German films, and then went to Hollywood, where she was given the principal feminine lead opposite Ronald Colman in “ The Rescue.’* Former School Teacher.

Thelma Todd, who appears with Laurel and Hardy in “ Fra Diavolo,’* at the Regent Theatre, was a school teacher before she became an actress. She was teaching at a school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, when she was seen by a scout for Jesse Lasky and signed to a film contract. Thelma Todd, incidentally, is the only remaining member of the Paramount acting school still on the screen. Although she is best known as a comedienne—she gained fame in the Zasu Pitts-Todd series of comedies —she is also a capable dramatic actress. Has International Appeal. Mickey Mouse, Walt Disney's little pen-and-ink personality is the only film star in the world, yjrith the exception of Charles Chaplin, who exerts an international appeal. And for much the same reason, for Mickey and Charlie are the only stars in the world who refuse to talk and get away with it. To be sure, Mickey uses his vocal chords in most of his pictures, but seldom does he do more than emit a sound of gladness or sorrow or some other emotion. Seldom does he give vent to words which would have to be translated for consumption in foreign countries. The basic reason for their international appeal, though, is the fact that both Mickey and Charlie rely almost exclusively upon pantomime for their effects, pantomime super-imposed upon music and movement. And the combination renders their efforts just as deliciously appealing to a German, a Scandinavian, or a Fiji Islander.