STARS AND SUPERSTITION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1939, Page 4

STARS AND SUPERSTITION

OMENS RULE AT HOLLYWOOD. > Luck has played such an important i part in the. careers of stars, directors, . and producers in. Hollywood that it is ' only natural these people should allow a great deal of superstition to rule their daily lives. Spencer Tracy carries a St. ’Theresa medallion on his key ring. He has had that little medal ever since he played on the stage in “Baby Cyclone.” his first success. It is worn thin now, but it is his most cherished possession. George Arliss wears a little gold pig on a heavy watch-chain, but sentiment as well as superstition causes him to love that little gold pig. He bought in at Charing Cross station the day he was. married. Edward G. Robinson has a silver dollar that was given him for good luck by Tito Schipa, famous tenor. Screen badman Eddie wouldn’t go anywhere without it. The night his baby was born Robinson discovered while pacing the hospital floor that he didn’t have the dollar - with him. He sent a special messenger racing back to his house to get it. There is more than a large dash of superstition as well as sentiment behind the directors like Cecil B. De Mille, who use the same group of extras in every picture. These extras appeared in successful pictures, and the directors are afraid their luck will change if they replace the extra — which is good for the extras. John Barrymore has one stick of black make-up in his kit. and has had it for so many years that it he has to hold it together with adhesive tape. But he wouldn't part with it or replace it for gold. It’s his good-luck charm. Joan Blondell always uses a cheap 10-cent basket for her make-up box. She bought it when she first came to Hollywood to appear in “Sinner's Holiday” with Jimmy Cagney, and has used it ever since. Sonja Henie is a very practical business woman, but even she has one superstition. She won’t wear a new pair of shoelaces in her skating shoes at the beginning of a picture. On the first day of every new picture -Fred Astaire has his dresser lay

out an old plaid dressing gown that he bought many years ago when playing in vaudeville. The matinee show was an extra success the first day he wore the now-faded old gown, so Fred got the idea it brought him good luck. Director William Dieterle will not start a picture until he has consulted an astrologer. Then he won’t start until the stars are favourable to him. He was once warned by an astrologer not to drive a car, so he took a taxi, and when the taxi crashed into another Dieterle needed no further proof that the stars didn’t lie. Even if he can only shoot inserts of hands for a new picture he will start that picture oh the day the stars are riding right for him. He also will never direct a picture unless he is wearing white gloves, but he refuses to tell the reason for this. Claude Rains has an intaglio ring which he has worn for years. He lost it for two years when on the stage, and every play he was in flopped. Z. maid found the ring in a drawer, and ever since he has been successful. In one sequence of every picture Kay Francis wears a pair of cheap imitation pearl earrings. They were given her for good luck by a friend when she first started her screen career. Olivia de Havillahd won't remove her shoes while she is at her dressing table.