CINEMALAND PRANKS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20541, 16 February 1935, Page 24 (Supplement)

CINEMALAND PRANKS.

Hollywood’s Queer Birthday Parties. No group of people in the world are more birthday-conscious than Hollywood film stars. Their birthday celebrations vary from the sublime to the ridiculous. Clark Gable, for example, forgot his birthday one year. Not so, however, Helen Hayes, Victor Fleming, the director, and the cast of “ The White Sister.” On one pretext and another they kept Gable on the set the whole afternoon, telling him they were going to film a scene of him in an aeroplane wreck. At six, the make-up man came and smeared him from head to (foot with grease. When Gable w T as thoroughly ruffled and looked as if he had gone through a saw-mill a. “ flat ” was pulled aside and a huge birthday cake stood revealed, also a tray full of presents. There was, for example, an elaborate camera which fell to pieces the minute Gable touched it, a rubber gun, the barrel of which stretched and bent (in memory of Gable’s favourite hobby), and many others. Charles Butterworth had a birthday. Cast and friends didn’t celebrate on the set, but calmly filed into his home that night, bringing all their own decorations and food. One cf the photographs they hung on the wall was a picture of Butterworth signed “To my wife, you luckv person.” Greta Garbo participated actively in a birthday “ gag ” pulled on an assistant director, Red Golden, on the set of her recent picture. Herbert Marshall, the leading man, called Golden to the centre of' the set and made an elaborate speech applauding the young man, before presenting him with a beautifully wrapped package. Beneath layers of tissue paper were carrots, onions, turnips, etc. But at the bottom the real heart of the company was disclosed in a nicely inscribed cigarette case. . W. S. Van Dyke, an incorrigible practical joker, himself, knows that he has to expect “ some ” birthday, and to like it too! During the filming of a

recent picture he bit into a cake carefully filled with soap. During the filming of “ Manhattan Melodrama ” a curtain was pulled aside disclosing a glorious cake. But when Van Dyke sat down to cut it the chair broke and the knife fell to pieces in his hands. Last autumn May Robson celebrated her fiftieth year in theatricals. Sets were pushed aside and tables placed for several hundred guests. May wept plenty of wet,-salty tears when she was given a leather book containing signatures and good wishes of hundreds of great stage, screen and other celebrities. Delicious cakes and ice-cream served at the end of a day’s w’ork are quite the thing for birthdays in the studios. Flow’ers, too, are in order. “ Life of Cecil Rhodes.” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are to produce “ The Life of Cecil Rhodes,” with Charles Laughton in the leading role. “No More Ladies.” M.-G.-M. will star Joan Crawford, who appears in “ Forsaking All Others,” in “No More Ladies.” “ The Cardboard Lover.” Maurice Chevalier’s next starring picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will be “ The Cardboard Lover.” This is the comedy by Jacques Deval in which Jeanne Eagels and Leslie Howard appeared on Broadway several seasons ago. On Third Expedition. Frank Buck, maker of “ Wild Cargo ” and “ Bring ’Em Back Alive," has sailed from New York, on the first lap of his third motion picture expedition, which will take him into * the jungles of India and Malaya. His new film will be based on his latest book, “ Fang and Claw,” and is sponsored by the Van Beuren Corporation, for RKO-Radio release. “ Dandy Dick.” In the comedy “ Dandy Dick,” Will Hay (of* “Those Were the Days!” fame) plays the role of a village vicar who sets out to raise funds for his church steeple which sadly needs reconstructing. The famous schoolmaster of the music hall is also starred in B.T.P.’s “ Radio Parade of 1935,” portion of which is in colour.