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Show BING'S LOOSE MONKEYS TERRORIZE HOLLYWOOD : "ByTREDERICK CTOTHMAN : HOLLYWOOD, Nov. IS (UP) Bing Crosby'i Simians wandered through Hollywood today, peeping intoone women' windows, wip-ing'food, wip-ing'food, tangling traffic and making monkey business of the moviei. V i v -V; Bing Crosby ... maybe -he can croon his monkeys back in their cages. Estimating that 190 monkeya had escaped from his studio. Crooner Croeby called upon the fire department depart-ment to help catch 'em. The fire department snickered. Crosby phnnert the police department and it sneered "publicity stunt" before it slammed down the hook. Monkeys by llien were scam- perlng throuah Hollywood's palm trees, looking for eoenuta. They -were crawling Into parked automobiles auto-mobiles and tearing up the upholstery. up-holstery. They were raiding restaurant, res-taurant, peering Into bedroom window, frightening pedestriana and ruining telephone service. Crosby offered $1 reward for each monkey caught and no questions asked. He raised the ante to $2 when the monkey aituation threatened threat-ened to reach a ringtailed crisis by interfering with his art. It waa a quiet Sunday morning along Santa Monica boulevard until churchgoers reached the high Walled major studios. . From behind these stucco confines they heard aqueaka an ominoua ripping undertone. A moment later the churchgoers church-goers began to aee thlnge, ts-wit: Monkeya by the dosen and then the score, leaping toward them, akltterlng up the palms, swinging from tree to housetop to tree, apreading fanlike from the atudlo over peaceful Hollywood. Inside the studio, where the churchgoers couldn't see, ail (to put it accurately) was confusion. Even tha phone girl couldn't put through a quick call for help, because be-cause of monkey business on the wire. An assignment director shooed six of them off the line before be-fore she could hear anything but squeaks. By then (and again to say it accurately) ac-curately) pandemonium reigned as it never had reigned before even in Hollywood. All business, except monkey business, ceased, and that'a what worried Crosby, because he had $200,000 of hia own money involved in-volved in the proceedings. He waa making a picture known a couple of werka ago aa "The Badge of Policeman ORoon," last week aa "On the Sentimental Side," today aa "Doctor Rhythm," and tomorrow probably aa "Monkey Business." Upon the atudlo lawn, directly in front of the pink and white bungalow bunga-low of Mae West, the technicians had built a replica of New York's 'Central park zoo, complete with cages of elephanta and tigera, crocodiles croco-diles and cormoranta, mongeese (if that'a the way to spell 'em). (Editor's (Edi-tor's note it Isn't) and. of course, monkeys. The plot called for Crosby and the eminent thespian, Andy Devine. to stagger Into the zoo and open tha doors of all the animal cages. They passed by the lions and the panthers (to Hollywood's everlasting everlast-ing relief) and atopped in front of the monkey cage. They unsnapped the lock. The monkeya did the rest. The technician, who are used to such doings, had covered the j whole so with netting euch aa that which tennla players use. There must have been 10.009 yarda of It, but It wasnt enough to atop the monka. Two dozen of them congregated In one apot and tha netting ripped. They jumped through it. So did all their friends. Director Frank Tut-tle Tut-tle atopped the cameras while bis camermen hunted monkeys. |