Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING JUNE 7 1938 2 'can give you a stupid-bab- y stare as blank as a fog bank on the screen but in her private life she’s one of filmdom’s smartest And Grace Bradley (upper left) who can act like a candidate for the psychopathic ward is a serious student of such erudite folk as Freud Pavlov Lucille Ball and Stekel um re jlyTARY BOLAND that peifect 1 By Jeannette Meehan vV: y v ID© CDHI HOLLYWOOD mad! THEY’RE gee but they’re dumb! Speaking naturally of Hollywood g — the empty blonds the relief" “comedy brunets — redheads the all the boy and girl who give loud voire to inane trivialities and whose faces aie about as expressive as the white of an egg (uncooked) Say what's it all about anyway? Well it’s certainly true that Hollywood i full of dopes (Now don’t aigue ) Thcy'ie impoitant ingredient in the Hollywood recipe When tiie diamatic element of the super production threatens to become too senous producers send out an S S (or a Una Merkel or There has to be a laugh tor a Guy Kibbee e film or the theater pphol of every tery becomes much the worse for wear So a number of film folk whose talents are peculiar to such needs are kept busy imitating asylum inmates hey HAV1 to be dumb They HAVE to ait a little "teched in the haid" That’s the way the fans waul them Supposing Lauiel and Hardy went intdli gently berseik on vou1 baby-talkin- rattle-braine- d The crazier they are on the screen the more sensible they seem to be in real life — and their pay checks are proof that it is very Roscoe Karns plays dumb loafers on the screen but if you think he really is dumb reflect on the fact that he hasn’t been without a job in 25 years of acting profitable indeed to know how to act stupid 0 half-mil- 1 hi l Suppose Hugh Meihut Suppose Gracie Aihn found Heavens! A national calamity! In-- A RLINE JUDGE fan lisp out a gross mis But just lit and you love it statement your girl friend try it Giaue Allen can mi represent the facts and you want to roll in tin aisle But if your wife bowed a sign nl anv such nonsense you’d rewire a padded cell You laugh at Herbert Mundin on the scrren but if you had an Unde Herbert who acted like that you’d throttle him-- the Big Silly! So that’s the way it l with all of Hollv So the comedy utiles keep get Wood’ clowns ting goofier the laughs get louder but what of -- the poor comedians? example of in real life an inmationly stupidity with a sense of — telligent creative personality She’ a iculptress of no mean ability humor Roscoe Karns can emulate the dumb loafer on the screen but actually he has never been without a job in the 25 years he has been acting Hilariously insane on the screen Allen Jenkins is a noted authority on marine equipment In hi spare time he builds sailing boats Not models but the real McCoy Harold Lloyd one of the outstanding comic of all time is a distinguished painter and a learned student of bacteriology as well And don’t forget that Charles Chaplin is generally considered the industry's genius It ha been said of Mr Chaplin by those who should know that he can converse with any person in the woild on any subject All this is a little reminiscent of that saying that “it takes a sober person to play a drunk" is Well they play these half-ma- d parts so often that quite reasonably they begin to feel a little mad themselves And just as reasonably the fans who see them emulating the nitwit so often begin to suspect that their convincing portrayals are possible by virtue of actual heritage rather than by acquired talent People acquire habit very easily— worse luck! — and stars aie not immune to that veiy human characteristic Imagine the consternation then after a very hysterical (funny) scene when the comedienne finds that some nonsensical little gesture peculiar to her role seems to have No wonder everybody gets stuck with her funny ideas about comedy star Let’s take a non professional glance at Una Meikel bile’s the expo She has oftei m nt of the vacant girl friend convulsed us with that vague dawning that she But Una herself is a can bring into her eyes far cry from the g nitwit blond she so often plays on the screen She doesn’t smoke She doesn’t drink An! von don’t have to take soundings to find wlial’s between bei ear a little of the pic lute Una can be found in the leal Lna She makes the same amusing observation screen’s-outstandin- g ''0 g gold-diggin- — has the same disarming delivery There’ no one in Hollywood who can make you laugh as hard at a joke without a point She pooh- Una say: “Be grateful" poohs the old line about "the smile that hides the broken heart" She doesn’t mind being cinematically insane at all And listen mister don’t get into an arguunles ment with her about politic you’re what’ mighty sure just going on Also if you want to find out a little about what she has behind the eyebrows just start a discussion ol modern literature OERHAPS no one on the screen can reg- istcr a complete mental vacuum as well as aSu Pitts Yet in spite of the fact that she ues her hands off the screen in exactly the same bulteifiy manner she docs on the screen she knows personally every inch of the red tape connected with income tax and can intricate investments with the keenest busiBesides that she’s the mother ol ness mi n thice fully mannered children Victor McEaghn is famous for his of the big blustenng idiot— yet lie has never lost a court suit yet and believe me he’ fConvrlirht in bv EvervWeek Marazlne) dis-tu- 's had plenty of them in the last few year Grace Bradley who never muffs a line that make her appear a moron on the icreen is a seriout student of psychology You should hear her discus the teachings of Freud Pavlov Steckel and Dimnet Thu interviewer went out to her home to get a line on it all but when she launched forth on "The Golden Saying of Epictetus " we put away the pencil and went home feeling ike a country bumpkin "These serious subjects” Miss Bradley had said "act as a counterbalance for the insane atmosphere a comedienne must create before the camera" Gracie Allen may think doughnuts aie spoiled because they have holes but by no means can that be taken as an accurate com-- ’ She’ a profimentary on her mental plane cient secretary a musician of considerable It ability and a masterful business woman was through her able negotiating that the team of Burns and Allen obtained their unique contract with RKO theaters for six years of con- tinuous performances When asked how she kept up that silly I guess chatter Gracie said t "Oh I dunno I just throw out the clutch in my mind" Then there was the question of how two comics like herself and Mr Burns managed to “Ob that’s easy” an May happily married swered Gracie "He pick out his suits” pahs out my songs — I & fc Now we come around to two new faces which have appeared in the Hollywood picturs — two new girls who have gained enviable places in the "beautiful but dumb" clast-- — Marie Wilson and Lucille Ball TISS BALL tall willowy and Off the screen the has “it’’ and one of the most beautiful figures in town but in front of the camera sheiwears an expression as blank as a fog bank Perhaps you remember her as the taxi dancer in “Follow the Fleet" — the one who dressed up the little music teacher Lucille (naturally blond was born in Butt? Mont She Aug 6 1911 was educated in Jamestown N Y and at the She studied Chautauqua Musical Institute dramatic at the John Murray Anderson School She has been a Ziegfeld show girl model for Hattie Carnegie and has posed for cigaret ads On the screen she's a problem for the psychopathic ward but behind the camera ths She’s a brilstory takes a far different turn jl is (5-6j- g blue-eye- liant dancer an excellent musician an accomplished artist and she knows many things lot of people don’t about the history of the stage Have you ever As for Marie Wilson seen a nightmare walking? Well that’s Marie Dumb? Yes but my goodon the screen ness wav she annoys everybody and makes a thorough gels in everybody's nuisamc ol hers elf One look al her pay and audiences eat it up check and oh to be stupid like that! o |