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Show ! STAR ! DUST I ' Movie Radio J By VIRGINIA VALE NOWADAYS there is one sure way for an executive of a motion picture company to find 'out whether his company com-pany considers him really important im-portant or not. "If he's a big shot, he's not allowed to fly. That's a hardship when a man's commuting from Hollywood to New York and back again, of course but hardship or not, they take trains. Only last week three of Metro's big men wanted to get from New York to Hollywood in a hurry, and planned to fly; they had done it so often that it meant no more to them than walking down the street; they knew all too well that flying was no more dangerous than any other means of transportation. But at the last mirrute somebody got wind of their plans. The resulting argument was hot and heavy but in the end they went by train. One of them didn't really object,-however. object,-however. He was Howard Dietz, chief of publicity and advertising, and well known as a writer of successful suc-cessful musical shows. "That's all right with me," he remarked. re-marked. "I'll win a thousand dollars at bridge on the way out." There's just no stopping them I mean these girls who are as determined deter-mined now not to be blonde as they once were to be as blonde as possible. Jean Harlow started it, of course, by turning turn-ing "brunette," and now we have Carole Lombard, Alice Faye and Joan Bennett following her example. exam-ple. They seem to feel that it will holn Joan Bennett them to get more serious roles quite forgetting that Anne Harding, who is naturally so blonde, has been doing do-ing pretty well with serious roles for a long, long time. On the other hand, Marion Talley (ex opera star and farmer, now working hard in pictures) has turned blonde for her first screen appearance. appear-ance. If you have seen her, or seen photographs of her in the old days, you're going to be surprised at her appearance; she has lost a lot of weight, and it is a big improvement. And how that girl can sing! Those Major Bowes amateur stage units have been so successful that Bob ("Believe It Or Not") Ripley is going to have some of his own ; the first, will begin its tour somewhere in New England the last of April. It will probably include these acts : Little Lit-tle Jeanie, a thirty-pound midget; Grace Murphy's quintuplets, five ballet bal-let dancers averaging three hundred pounds each ; a concert pianist who plays and well with his elbows; John Tio and his talking bird ; and a man who makes music with leaves. Bob himself, encountered at a party after the opening of Ring-ling's Ring-ling's circus, was trying to curb a strong desire to go out with them himself. Frank Parker, who bobs up on so many radio programs, is going to make another picture; his first, you'll recall, was "Sweet Surrender." He's been on the stage, so he's prepared for a movie career. Speaking of his stage career, the other day Fifl D'Orsay came to a rehearsal re-hearsal of her radio show with a picture of the cast of "Greenwich Village Follies of 1925." Willie Howard How-ard glanced at it, then at Parker, and said, "Frank, there's a fellow in this picture who looks exactly like you." "Looks like me?" retorted Frank. "It is me. I was a chorus boy." At last Marlene Dietrich has come out of her trance and given the kind of performance that put her at the top back in her early days in this country. In "Desire" she doesn't stand around and pose; she really acts. Gary Cooper proves once more that he Is an accomplished comedian. It's a picture that Paramount can be proud of. ODDS ASD EiSDS . . . John Boles doesn't want to be tied down to one company any longer; he's going to jree lance . . . Fredric March felt the same way; thought he was making too many costume pictures ... So the first one he signed up for as a free lance was "Mary of Scotland" with Katherine Hepburn . . . Paramount is going to give us "Beau Geste" acain, in color this time, with Gary Cooper in the leading lead-ing role . . ."A Message to Garcia" is a fine picture . . . Jane W ithers does fine work in "Gentle Julia" . . . Shirley Temple got another raise the other day . . . Practically all the movie com panics are trying to sign up Charles Coyer, who's already under contract . . . You'll see him before Inne in "The Gard'n of Allah" . . . And in coltir . . . Wiircarcl Sullavan's broken arm is hnldins up two pictures . . . Mrrna Lay will be teamed uith Warner H:trr in "To Mary, With litre": remember thrm in "Uroarlix-av n.'.r? lVcF'... :n Ni-w: apor Union. |
