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Show STilGE ' SCREEN At)IO ny VMUUMA VA1.TC ElcjistM bv WVsWvn Newspaper Union. ''piltt little town of Brnwloy, -1 Calif., woke up one morning morn-ing recently to lind n motorized motor-ized battalion of German troops, armed to the teeth, lining lin-ing the streets. As the Mexican Mexi-can border's only 25 miles nway, the townsfolk were a bit jittery. Then they took another an-other look nt the "invaders" and recognised them as Bvawley high school boys, drafted by Columbia Tictures to represent a unit of the Nait Afrika Korps in the picture "Somewhere in Sahara." Humphrey Eogart's starred in it. Janice Gilbert, who's twenty, has been acting since she was eight, has been on the radio since she was ten. On "The O'Neills" she plays "Janice O'Neill" and also an infant I vAivA c eK I I v 4 x v ' 1 I s $ S JANICE GILBERT and four children. But her most famous juvenile role is "Little Orphan Or-phan Annie" when she tours army camps, entertaining the boys, she gets vociferous requests for a session ses-sion with "Annie." The night Ann Ayars, Metro starlet, star-let, sang for the boys at Fort Mac-Arthur, Mac-Arthur, Calif., she got a rousing reception, but could have dispensed with, part of it. Arriving in a pouring pour-ing rain, she was escorted to the hall by a new recruit who led her smack into a deep puddle at the t stage door. Ann fell in to her hips. She says that most of what the soldiers saw of her was mud! i Any Hollywood personage who dis covers Lupe Velez watching him intently in-tently is likely to be uneasy! experience experi-ence shows that Lupe's just gathering gather-ing material for a devastatingly fun-ay fun-ay impersonation of him. Her imitations imi-tations seldom reach the screen, but In "Redhead from Manhattan" she does several imitations of fellow stars. She plays identical cousins, both of whom are revue stars. Lionel Barrymore was in a dangerous dan-gerous spot a while back, and it wasn't one of those things that are part of a scenario, when the actor knows he'D be rescued. Driving home, he miscalculated the depth of flood water near his ranch, and found himself sitting in his stalled car in water up to his neck. The swift current started moving the car toward deeper water. But neighboring neigh-boring farmers came along with chains and hauled the car back onto the highway. The car was ruined, but the famous Barrymore wasn't damaged. When Robert Ryan joined the army he knew that he'd have a job when he came back; he has a contract con-tract with RKO that assures his return re-turn to the screen at the war's end, at a salary exceeding the one he was getting when he left. His work in "Bombardier" and "The Sky's the Limit" was responsible for the scrapping of the old contract and the writing of the more favorable new one. Bob Hope's set for another of those cross-country tours of army, navy and marine posts and bases, which Is good news for the men who'll benefit; he gives them a swell show. In fact, he probably works harder at entertaining servicemen than at anything else. Jack Miller, orchestra director for Kate Smith and "The Aldrich Family," Fam-ily," can drop off to sleep any time. He dozed off in the studio before a recent "Aldrich Family" broadcast, so the cast slipped out and sent a page in to wake him and explain that the program was over and all , visitors must leave. He spent a frenzied ve minutes before he taught up with the truth. ODDS AND ENDS The voice which Willy Mulier i-ees for "Wilbur" on the Tommy Ripgs broadcasts is going into the movies for the second fine, as the lead in the Metro cartoon, "The Screivy Squirrel" . . After three years preparation, King Vidor is nearly ready to begin production of "America," starring Brian Donlevy . . . Helmut Dantine, the Nazi aviator of "Mrs. Miniver," has a leading role in Warner Bros.' "To the Last Man" starring Errol Flynn . . . New Orleans' famous French market, exactly as it Lias back in the year IHH5, has been erected as a setting for "Saratoga Trunk." |