WITH THE MOVIE STARS.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17384, 21 April 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

WITH THE MOVIE STARS.

Valontlno Estate Shrinks. Bills ranging from £32,000 for ill acres of land to £l6 for bow ties were revealed as the. reasons for the shrinkage of the estate of the late Rudolph Valentino from £135,511 to £57.402. S. George Ullman, executor, filed the first accounting of the estate of the one-time film idol in Superior Court. Mr Ullman himself advanced one o( the largest claims against, the estate in asking for £0703. said Io be due for cash advancer! t.o Valentino by his former manager to aid in producing the film "What Price Beauty." Included in other bills were those of London merchants for clothing, one of these alone amounling to £5412. More Movie Divorces. Helene Costello, movie actress and dauphter of Maurice Costello, has sued for divorce after four months' married lifp. Mabel Normand, screen comedienne of a former day, is suing Lew Cody (well-known screen villain; for divorce. She says sh p has "put up with everything as long as she can." They were married in September, 192 K.

Loltio Pickford, sister of Mary Pickford, obtained a divorce in Paris frnrn Allan Forrest Fisher, known on the screen as Allan Forrest (says a. Los Angeles message . Miss Pickford married Forrest in Hollywood on January s. 1922, Iwo after she had divorced Albert George Hupp, a New York broker. Lottie Pickford worked occasionally in her sister's productions; Forrest makes frequenl screen appearances.

llecinald Denny, screen sfar. who was recently divorced from his wife, has announced thai he will marry Isobe) Stiffles, actress, when his decree is made absolute in November.

From Wealth to Poverty. Charles Ray, once the idol of millions of movie fans, was found not far from Broadway to-day, out of a job, down and out, and broke (say? a New York message dated February 26). Hope is all that remains in the heart of the famous player of juvenile roles who made a million dollars in the flickers and lost all of it.

Hay and his wife are living quietly in a very modest two-room apartment in the East 50's, both fighting hard to win their way back to the wealth and popularity which they once shared. Their present abode is in strong contrast io the 2r>n,ooo dollar show place they owned in Hollywood, and where the- gave parties noted far and wide for lavishness.

Mrs Ray was renowned for her high taste in gowns designed exclusively for her. She never wore one a second time. Fickle Fortune look all that away from them in 1926, when Charles Ray went bankrupt for nearly a million dollars. His wife is playing with a stork company under the name of Clara Grant Ray.

Drops Claim Against Mother.

Mary .Miles Minter's suit asking her mother. Mrs Charlotte Shelby, to account for approximately £200,000 of her earnings was dismissed on Miss Minter's request by Superior Judge Harry R. Archbald, at Los Angeles, thereby effecting a legal reconciliation between mother and daughter.

Theatro Takes £1,100,000 in Year. On Saturday, March 10, the Roxy Theatre, Mew York, celebrated its first anniversary. Titla Ruffo, leading baritone of (he Metropolitan Opera, was engaged as the soloist for the. anniversary concert by the Roxy Symphony Orchestra.

The Roxy Theatre represents probably the greatest single enterprise in the history of the. amusement world. The year's statistics disclose facts and figures which create a new era in motion picture, annals. The approximate attendance for the year, according lo the management, is about 6,500,000.

The receipts for the year are approximately £1,100,000. During the year a world record for weekly receipts was created. That was during the first week at popular prices of the William Fox production, "What Price Glory." The receipt then were £28,853. The attendant that week was 110.22^. On Washington's Birthday last a new daily record was created. The receipts on that day for the picture "A Girl in Every Port" was £5893.

Have Film Girls Wicked Power? German Parliamentarians believe American films are exercising too great an influence on the character of German 'productions. The American girl is being copied, to the detriment of educational movies in the Peich. This charge was brought up in the Reichstag Budget Committee, ami Deputies were asked to concentrate their thoughts on what, to do. Herr von Keudell, Minister of Ihe interior, believed recent regulations restricting ihe import of foreign films would effect the desired end, but there was evident disappointment thai German stars are still trying to copy Hollywood.

•lust what evil influence American film and screen favourites are working on the German public was not defined by the committee, which, however, was unanimous that, th" girls wielded a mystic and wicked power.

Picture Paragraphs. Harold Lloyd shot, 500.000 feet of film on "Speedy." It has been "cut" to 8000 feet. According to recent statistics, no less than £9.000,000 is invested in picture theatres in Australia. •lames Hall will be see n in "Hold Everything," Bebe Daniels' next for Paramount.

Net earnings of £624,111 are shown for Fox Film Corporation and subsidiaries for the fiscal year of 1926.

Bags of peanuts were given away to patrons of "The Circus" at, a picture theatre in America, thus furnishing, it' was said, an appropriate accompaniment to Charlie Chaplin's film!

A salary of £IOOO per week, plus travelling expenses and living expenses of herself, her mother, and a maid, was paid Dorothy Gish for her film engagement, in England. These movie players have gone into vaudeville: Eugene O'Brien, S'azimovi, Viola Dana, Ben Turpin, George Sidney, Lois Wilson, Mrs Reginald Denny. Irene Rich. Aileen Pringle,. Lya De Putti, Theda Bara, Ora Carew, Conway Tearle, Sally O'Neil, and Claire Windsor.

George. Duryea, who was so well liked as Abie in "Abie's Irish Rose" in New Zealand, is in "The. Godless Girl," recently released in America. The picture is said to be an expose of the reformatory system, and in one scene George and the leading lady Lina Basquette are seen with smoking fingers glued to a "charged'' fence.