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Show stagescreenMbio By INEZ GERHARD WHEN JOHN DEREK first came to work at Columbia for "Knock on Any Door," in which he ihot to stardom, he said "I never knew a temperamental player to get anywhere. You don't have to worry about my getting that way." Perhaps the reason is that he was born in Hollywood, and that both his parents are actors. In New York to help publicize his new pic-ture, pic-ture, the sensational "All the King's Men," Derek wanted to see the city, but got very little opportunity. Columbia press agents booked him so solidly for photo layouts and Interviews, as well as for appearances appear-ances on the radio, thai he never really had any time for sightseeing. sightsee-ing. Donald Woods, popular leading man, joins Bing Crosby and a star-laden star-laden cast in "Mr. Music"; it's his first Paramount picture since he made "A Son Comes Home" with Mary Boland 12 years ago. In recent re-cent years Woods has been concentrating concen-trating on radio is currently being heard as wealthy "Richard Rhine-lander" Rhine-lander" on "My Friend Irma." He plays another rich young man in "'Mr. Music." Use of a helicopter as a traveling amera crane proved to be so effective ef-fective for chase scenes in "They Live By Night" that RKO is now using one regularly as camera carrying car-rying equipment. In this case the -plane also had its value as an aid -to drama; it hovered over the players, play-ers, to create the feeling of a relentless re-lentless fate pursuing them and worked fine. Jane Greer will break away from dramatic and romantic roles In "The Richest Girl in Jail," an original comedy which has been bought for her ; by RKO. As a very rich girl who lands in a small-town jail she will be a comedienne. Joseph Julian, who plays the detective, de-tective, "Sam Cook." on CBS's "Mystery Theatre," literally talks -with his hands. By working his clasped hands, compressing air between be-tween them, he makes word-like sounds you should hear his "Mary Had a Little Lamb"! Billie Burke's only stipulation when she went to Columbia to appear in "And Baby Makes Three" was that there would be no barber chair in her dressing room. Last time she was on the lot she dressed in the studio barber shop. She maintains that they shot her through the picture pic-ture and got her off the lot fast because of the line of disappointed, disap-pointed, bearded men who were turned away! A piece of parchment, apparently apparent-ly very old, and containing a message mes-sage from Napoleon, is an important impor-tant prop in "The Inspector General." Gen-eral." The prop man aged it by applying glycerine and rubbing it -with dirt; an expert forged Napoleon's Napo-leon's signature. Half of Hollywood spends a lot of time at Palm Springs, the fashionable fashion-able desert resort. So Vincent Sherman, Sher-man, the director, took Joan Crawford, Craw-ford, David Brian, Steve Cochran and the rest of the cast of "The "Victim" there for a week's shooting. shoot-ing. In the picture it will be called "Desert Springs." Local people, used to having stars under foot, were quite uninterested. Red Skelton Is really superstitious super-stitious about the things he thinks bring him good or bad luck. If one of his pictures has a highly successful preview, the CBS comic will wear the suit he wore to the showing until it's nearly threadbare. The ladies of a church in Amaril-lo, Amaril-lo, Texas, have purchased from the hotel the dishes used by Robert Preston, star of "The Sundowners," while on location there. They will tie auctioned at a church benefit as "Robert Preston's dishes." Marlon Brando spent his first three weeks after reporting in Hollywood for "The Men" at Birmingham Bir-mingham Veterans Hospital, living with the paraplegics to get background back-ground for his role as a paralzyed veteran. He planned to live with an aunt in Eagle Rock afterward, not knowing it's too far from Hollywood. Holly-wood. Stanley Kramer Productions had a problem finding him an apartment. ODDS AND ENDS . . . While Milton Berle was punching Ransom Sherman in the jaw for "Always Leave Them Laughing." his daughter daugh-ter Vickie was taking a swimming lesson from Sherman's daughter Ann, in Sherman's pool . . . Jim and Michael Frasco, aged 6 and 8, nephews of Spike Jones, have featured fea-tured roles in Hal Wallis' "September" "Septem-ber" . . . June Haver thinks she's fated to be colorful; "The Daughter Daugh-ter of Rosie O'Grady" is her 11th consecutive picture In Technicolor. |