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Show ! STAR i ! DUST I Movie Radio By VIRGINIA VALE EACH year the Paramount company can be counted on to present a thrilling panorama pan-orama of American history in the making, and this year they offer "Wells Fargo," which in many ways tops all previous efforts, even last year's "Plainsman," for sheer excitement. The adventure, heroism and romance ro-mance of developing coast to coast transportation na the breathless sweep of fiction, doubly stirring because we know It Is based on fact Joel McCrae and Frances Dee are the principals ln the Interwoven romance, and Bob Burns steps out of character to play a stalwart ot the early West Bet- Joel McCrae ter end the children early to see this one; they will want to stay all day. And they'll learn a lot of American history in a painless and entertaining entertain-ing fashion. Greta Garbo stole quietly away from Hollywood without even saying say-ing good-by to her closest friends and sailed away to Sweden to stay Indefinitely. Her contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer calls for only on-ly one more picture, and it is likely that she will make that one ln England. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer want Truman Tru-man Bradley, narrator on the CBS Sunday Evening hour from Chicago Chi-cago to go into motion pictures, but Mr. Bradley is reluctant to take a chance so they have arranged what Is probably the most comprehensive series of tests ever given a performer. per-former. For one whole month Bradley Brad-ley will make daily film tests in New York, flying back to Chicago weekly for his Sunday evening stint, A new combination of talent is putting put-ting over the "On Broadway" program pro-gram heard over NBC. Don Johnson, John-son, known to radio listeners as the comic Professor Figgsbottle, is writing writ-ing the program and the leading player is Alice Frost of the "Big Sister" cast. Fredric March and his wife, Florence Eldridge, are running into so much excitement on their stage tour, they are half tempted to write a scenario around their adventures. Recently, the company became frantic fran-tic when one of the leading actors became ill Just before a performance. perform-ance. That persuasive Freddie March, who really should have been a salesman, talked Kay Johnson the film player into tackling the role after a brief rehearsal. Miss Johnson John-son was traveling with the company com-pany to be near her husband, John Cromwell, who directed the play as a sort of vacation from directing spectacular pictures like "The Prisoner Pris-oner of Zenda." Anyone in Hollywood will tell you that a motion-picture star is lucky if he can hold on to his popularity for F "" - five years. ,One of , the lucky exceptions I ' is Richard Dix who k has just signed one p of the biggest con- fiv I tracts of his life, aft- th - er fifteen years of ' jr : uninterrupted popu- - i larity. R. K O. plan 4 , to make a big West- . em spectacle, some- Li J-JJ thing on the order of "Cimarron," his Klcllarl Due biggest success. Like Jack Holt, another veteran, he gets better with age. Ethel Merman could have signed a motion-picture contract any time during the past four years, but the popular blues singer preferred to make just one picture every year or so and then rush off to New York and forget about it. In "Happy Landing" however, she is so well photographed and her voice so beautifully beau-tifully recorded that she has succumbed suc-cumbed to Twentieth Century-Fox blandishments and will make pictures pic-tures regularly for them from now on. Ethel, whose perfect phrasing has made her many a composer's favorite singer, thus adds one more chapter to an inspiring career. She was a stenographer, and a speedy one, who used to get occasional engagements en-gagements to sing at parties. Taking a chance, she went into a small night club at very low salary and within a few weeks had a contract to make Warner shorts. ODDS A!D EXDSSonja Hcnie has organized an ice carnival company that will UniT several cities while she wails jor the scenario of her next pic-lure pic-lure to be written . . . Jessica Drug-onetle Drug-onetle is being tempted by motion pic-lure pic-lure offers again . . . Nobody can read Fred Allen's scripts but the comic him-selj. him-selj. His writing is microscopic . . Maureen O'Sullivan hurried back from England to play with Norma Shearer in "Marie Antoinette." t) Western iNt.vper Union. |