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Show Star H&iist "k Drama for Carole k Sings Your Choice k Tivo Blind Pianists I By Virginia Vale WITH practically everybody every-body liking "The Wizard of Oz" very much indeed (and those who didn't like it getting almost violent on the subject, saying that it couldn't even be compared with "Snow White"), the picture pic-ture got off to a flying start. Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, who play the leading roles, made personal appearances appear-ances with it when it opened in New York. They arrived at the theater at 8:45 in the morning, morn-ing, and remained there until almost al-most midnight. Meanwhile young people of the same ages as the stars lined up outside the theater, waiting to get in and because of the enthusiasm enthu-siasm of these young fans, Judy and Mickey had a body guard when they did get out for a breath of fresh air and a look at the city. They gave five shows daily except on Saturdays and Sundays, when ex- A s i l ' : MICKEY ROONEY tra performances were scheduled. She sang, he did imitations, and the fans cheered till the rafters rang. In "In Name Only" Carole Lombard Lom-bard shows that she could give Bette Davis some rather stern competition competi-tion as a dramatic actress if she put her mind on it. The girl who has been playing ga-ga comedy roles with such zest ever since the public acclaimed her as a comedienne in "My Man Godfrey" has turned in a bit of acting that makes her a promising prom-ising candidate for one of those Academy statuettes, next time they're awarded. Now that Nelson Eddy is back on that coffee program on Sunday evenings eve-nings his program-makers are busy once again. He selects his songs chiefly by the number of requests from listeners. His secretary tabulates tabu-lates the requests every two weeks and delivers the final count to him. If possible, he sings the songs for which there are the greatest number of requests. The only difficulty is that people keep requesting the same old favorites over and over. Although she is still on vacation, Kate Smith is preparing to return to the air in her role of commentator; commenta-tor; she is so popular in that role that she's added it to her duties as singing mistress of ceremonies on the "Kate Smith hour." So she'll begin commenting on October Oc-tober 9 from 12 to 12:15 Eastern standard time, over the Columbia Broadcasting system, while her regular reg-ular hour brings her back to the microphones three days earlier. She'U discuss the news of the day and also her own personal experiences. expe-riences. Alec Templeton, the blind pianist whose Tuesday night program is so popular, is not the only blind pianist on the air. Virg Bingham, of Kansas Kan-sas City's station WHB, is equally popular with those who have heard him. His interest lies chiefly in developing de-veloping radio trios; the new one is composed of two girls and Bingham himself, and is the eleventh radio trio that he has developed. "Susan and God," the play in which Gertrude Lawrence appeared so successfully on the stage, will probably require a good deal of rewriting re-writing before it's fit to be screened. For "Susan and God" poked fun at the Oxford movement, without actually saying so, and you can't poke fun at any religious movement on the screen without bringing in a swarm of protests. Greer Garson, the English girl who made such a hit in "Good-by, Mr. Chips," will have the Lawrence role. ODDS AD EDSTex Ritter, the cowboy star, was injured the other day when he had a bad jail jrom his mount not a horse, but an automobile . . . iorma Shearer will do another costume picture, "Pride and Prejudice." Preju-dice." and uiU make it in England . . . Fred Astaire, l.leanor Powell and Eddie Cantor uill co-star in 'Girl Crazy" . . . Edward Arnold made his first plane trip r-ecently, from coast to coast, and plans to lake planes instead of trains jrom now on. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) I |