Show J I i II HOLLYWOOD I Stars Adopt Fo Names Foney ey tt t T F For 01 M Movies OVles 4 I By PAUL HARRISON HOLLYWOOD A A cryptic memorandum mem mem- has been distributed throughout the Warner Broth Brothers Hereafter organization It says Frank Prince Prince- will be known as Fred Lawrence and not as Robert Wells Just another instance of name changing by studio executives In Inthis Inthis Inthis this case it was a are rc PrInce to Wells to Lawrence Lawrence- and for reasons not very well veIl de de- de- de fined Many actors and actresses are arc given ven new names so 50 they wont won't be confused with other already established players Thus on account of oC GenevIeve Tobin Ann Tobin became be- be carne came Lindy Perry And Kay Hughes became Carol Hughes because the name nama Kay is associated with Fran Fran- cis Looking over the Hollywood constellation it seems that very few stars retain the thc names under Which they started In life Yet few of tho the changes chang s have been made legal egal and checks and contracts arc are still signed with original origin l family names which would mean mean nothing to tho the nations nation's screen fans How They Do It Tho The family name of the thc Barry- Barry mores inores is Blythe George Arliss is realy G George orge Augustus Arliss An An- drews W. W C C. C Fields is Claude Claud William Vil Wil liam Ham Dukenfield Its It's interesting to know how some soma of tho the new n names mes were selected Ginger Rogers was Virginia Catherine Catherine Catherine Cath Cath- erine was about the best she do at pronouncing her own name when she was a achild achild achild child so Ginger became her nick nick- name Rogers is the name of her mothers mother's second husband Dorothy Gatley always had bad been named Ann and acting gave her a chance to adopt it For Fora a alast last Jast name she borrowed that of the president then in office office Harding John Beal is really Alexander Bliedung A A fellow named Beat Beal eal was his his' best friend so he borrowed that handle at the beginning of ot his stage career I Christened by Fans I Lucille Le Lc S Sueur eur Cassin dropped I tho the Cassin when she danced on onS S Broadway But in Hollywood it was decided that she needed an entirely entirely en en- new name A contest was staged and thousands of fans helped In identifying her as Joan Crawford Jean Harlow Harow was Christened Harlean Harlean Har- Har lean jean Carpentier Harlean was derIved derived derived de de- de- de rived from her mothers mother's name Jean Harlow So the actress borrowed the whole thing May ray Robson owes her name to a printers printer's error She was born May ray Robison but the Iwas 1 was was dropped In Inthe Inthe Inthe the cast list for her first stage play She protested but the manager convinced convinced con con- vinced her that Robson was shorter less Jess common and therefore better f for r show business Back to Original Robert Cummings changed his name flame to Blade Conway but a numerologist nu nu- told him it was a serious error for foredooming dooming him to failure Illness accident divorce and all manner of unpleasant things So he changed back t to Robert Cum Cum- Laura Gainer took her grandmothers grandmother's grandmothers grandmother's grandmothers grandmother's grand grand- mothers mother's first name Janet and switched the last one to Gaynor Nick Kick Foran became Dick Foran be because because because be- be cause the studio considered Nick NickA ft A bit too Grecian for a a. red-headed red cowboy hero Lincoln Perry a struggling young negro actor in vaudeville bet on horse when he Jie was desperately in need of money When th the nag won I tho the actor adopted It iU name Stepin name Stepin Joan Blondell thought rightly enough that her first name Rosebud Rosebud Rose Rose- bud sounded too incredibly theatrical theat neal For the same reason Lysle Hollywood became becam Lyle Talbot |