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Show Looking at IHOLLYWOOBI A MODEST four room bungalow on a Hollywood side street houses a Hollywood phenomenon an actor who spurns stardom. Living Liv-ing in bachelor untidiness, Barry Fitzgerald at 50 is taking piano les- sons and trying his utmost to duck and j squirm from under the newest Holly- wood ack-ack that has him as its tar- ? get because he all but stole Bing Cros- ' by's newest picture. ' it- "Going My Way?" Barry Hollywood has ''dis- Fitzgerald covered" Fitzgerald and how that tickles this Irishman's Irish-man's sense of irony! "That makes four times I've been discovered," he chortled as we plopped into a bamboo porch chair to try to take the man- apart for the clinic that cannot believe that this fantastic city called Hollywood can produce one so impervious to flattery, flat-tery, so uncaring for the fat financial finan-cial awards stardom spawns, and so utterly, utterly out of step with the rest of the boys and girls who march in the parade of the Rock Candy Mountaineers. Getting to Be a Habit "The first discovery was back in 1915 in Dublin when I sneaked into the extra ranks of the Abbey Players Play-ers and in two weeks won a speaking speak-ing part, to wit, 'This way, sire.' Then London discovered me. New York did likewise in 1931. And now, almost 30 years after the Dublin debut de-but with a spear, I am again discovered. dis-covered. Under the yardstick of values, val-ues, I suppose, none but the Hollywood Holly-wood discovery can be considered official. I'm not excited I'm amused." Fitzgerald is a gnomelike little man with shaggy eyebrows that defy gravity, training, or barber shop cajoleries. ca-joleries. He still has a sufficient growth of blond hair, running wild on the lower 40 and fallow on the crown. He has deep-set quartz blue eyes. He squints at you, but the eyes are lighted with laughter. He loves caps old ones. He fondles fon-dles his motorcycle with loving I hands. He has two suits of clothes and 11 pairs of overalls. He keeps no clippings. He answers no fan mail. And, because he frequents only the unknown byways of the Spanish section of Los Angeles, he is free of autograph hunters. He seldom attends movies and never goes to see those in which he has a part. A Tree and Romance Grow Constance Dowling gets one of those juicy parts in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" which Eli Kazan is directing. direct-ing. Incidentally, their romance is mighty warm. . . . Metro's got- a star in 14-year-old Jane Powell. She cleans up m bong oi the Constance Open Road," which bowling stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. McCar-thy. . . . Marjorie Massow, former cashier at Twentieth Century's commissary, com-missary, plays the lead with Phil Baker in "Take It or Leave It." . . . Irving Cummings has gone overboard on a story Mark Kelly and Mai St. Clair wrote called "Beau McGurk's Girl." It's a natural natur-al for Jean Arthur, i They Even Switch Sex "California," written for Bing Crosby, has been rewritten for Betty Hutton and Katina Paxinou. That should take a bit of doing. It's to be a musical in color showing San Francisco in the gold rush days the old wineries, mission, and the padres with Harry Tugend producing. produc-ing. Sounds as though they were going to make Paxinou a kind of female fe-male sheriff. And an inner voice asks, "Would that be bad?" . . . Metro hopes Jackie Miles, the "Blitz from the Bronx,", will be funny enough to step into Red Skelton's shoes. He'll be in "Anchors Aweigh." David Yields Ingrid Ingrid Bergman is being borrowed from David Selznick, after he said he wouldn't lend her, to star in "Olympic" for Charles Brackctt and William Wilder at Paramount. If anyone can put this picture over, Ingrid In-grid can. The screen version will probably bear no relation to the stage play, which I remember vividly. viv-idly. The late Laura Hope Crews stole all the honors by smoking a big cigar . . . Lee Patrick, a fine actress, plays Greer Garson'g daughter in "Mrs. Parkington." . . . Warners were lucky to sign up Eve Arden for "Cover GirL" Newcomer Doing Well Metro wants Ketti Frlngs' "God's Front Porch" as a starring vehicle for Bob Walker. He'd be great as "Pinky." . . . Attention, Harry Conn: Keep your eye on Marc Piatt, who's dancing opposite Rita Hay-worth Hay-worth and teaching her routines for her next picture. He was a featured fea-tured dancer in "Oklahoma!" He's a comer . . . Carole Landis is being loaned by Twentieth for another picture pic-ture . . . Mary Anderson, so good In "Lifeboat," foes into "Family Album." |