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Show IS!!!!!! STAGEvSCREENiftADIO Released by Western Newspaper Union. By VIRGINIA VALE MERLE OBERON has changed her appearance once in her movie career; when she shot to stardom as Anne Boleyn, with Charles Laughton also making his bow to American movie audiences audi-ences as Henry the VIII, she had an odd, exotic kind of beauty. Ensconced in Hollywood after the British picture had brought her fame, she changed her type, " s x x ; ! r x A x ' U 1 MERLE OBERON became just a very beautiful young woman. But she'd like to change It again, for at least one role; says she wants to be really homely, and play one of those heavy, dramatic roles that would bring her a new kind of fame. Maybe some day she'll get her wish. Meanwhile, her new picture is "Night in Paradise," for Universal, with Turhan Bey. Lucille Ball, who plays a secretary secre-tary in "The Dark Corner," doesn't have to fake the scenes , in which she types. She used to be a stenographer stenog-rapher says she hated it so that she decided on the starvation-to-model route to stage and screen. Bandleader Harry James has turned romantio actor; in 20th Century-Fox's "Do You Love Me?" he vies with Dick Haymes for the favor fa-vor of Maureen. O'Hara. He says his success will be entirely due to the coaching he gets at home from his wife, Betty Grable. Those Goldwyn Girls who are touring the country are realists. Said one, "We're too short for show girls, we're not the cute type." Some of them feel that trying for dramatic roles ls too hard it means working hard with coaches, going to bed early every night, exercising, exer-cising, dieting, struggling. They figure fig-ure being fashion models at $125 a week Is a lot easier and more fun. "The Theater Guild on the Air" is required listening for 200 students at Michigan State college; as a part of their course in radio education, they prepare short, critical reviews of the Sunday night productions, over ABC. Radio programs have given away everything from live goats to small fortunes; now the sponsor of the Woody Herman show on ABC Friday Fri-day nights will give the band to the winner of a contest. On June 21 the band will play in the winner's home, on the front porch or the auditorium of the local high school if you win and want to give the band away you can still keep the thousand dollar additional prize. Two Walt Disney cartoon characters charac-ters are regular members of the "Amos 'n' Andy" program. They are Clarence Nash (Donald Duck) who does the theme whistle that opens and closes the program, and Jim Basquette, who Is "Uncle Remus" in the new Disney scries. All that Whitey Ford asks of a new suit is that It looks old. Recently Re-cently the NBC "Grand Ole Opry's" Duke of Paducah wai lucky enough to get a new "radio suit," his first replacement In 14 years. It's an exact duplicate of his old tight-legged, plnch-backed, boy-window boy-window revealing green one, but Hi-low's Hi-low's a little more leeway for the pounds lie's put on as the years slipped by. John Wayne, co-star of RKO's romantic ro-mantic comedy, "Without Reservations," Reserva-tions," ls a charter member of a yacht club which stipulates that Its members must have no yachts. It's the Emerald Bay Yacht Club, and the activities of Its members are confined solely to writing each other insulting memos and devising imaginary imag-inary minutes of meetings that should have been held but weren't. ODDS AND ENDSOverhi-urd at a Lanny Host bron (least "1 hal'n the hpst looking bunch of profile on the air" meaning Lanny, Evelyn Knight and An nounrer AW.on Case. . . . Alex Scnnrby of "The Highl fo llapinns" has recorded re-corded over 100 udking bonks for the blind, with the approval of the Library of Congress. . . . Charles Irving, "Young Dr. M alone" admits that one of his hobbies is baking cookies, . . . First time in 12 years that Johnny Ifeismul-ler's Ifeismul-ler's had a chance to wear clothes on the screen is in "Swamp Fire" but throughout the first half oj the picture he dons nothing lander than jeuns aw3 an old work shirt. |