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Show Ii, j Poking at liioLmiooD TjVERY producer of musicals in Hollywood is trying to equal Flo Ziegfeld's record, for no one person ever discovered more beautiful girls than Flo. Flo picked 'em for his Broadway shows, but sooner or later it was usually sooner the studios signed 'em up on contracts and made 'em screen stars. Strangely, too, many of those luscious lus-cious blonde, brunette and titian stunners ended their careers tragically. trag-ically. Seems the candle of life burned too brightly bright-ly for them, as most of the lovely love-ly moths finally burned their wings on the flame of fame. Irene Dunne evaded me ieg- Flo Ziegfeld feld curse" of heartbreak. She's one of the successful suc-cessful girls who started with Flo. This last season she has appeared in a pair of screen hits. Irene will shortly commence a comedy at Columbia Co-lumbia "Over 21," based on Ruth Gordon's stage hit. Irene Dunne, incidentally, is as lucky in private life as she is professionally. pro-fessionally. She married Dr. Francis Fran-cis Griffin in 1927; they have one adopted daughter, Mary Frances, and they're all very happy, thank you. A Hard Worker Paulette Goddard is another who started as a Ziegfeld girl. Paulette was in "Rio Rita." She came here as a blonde showgirl to appear in the line of some of the early Eddie Cantor musical films. Paulette was ambitious still is. She married Charlie Chaplin, appeared as his leading lady in "Modern Times" and "The Great Dictator," and prospered pros-pered even more after she left his board and pictures. Paulette is currently cur-rently under contract to Paramount and is married to Actor Burgess Meredith. . Virginia Bruce still appears In pictures. pic-tures. Virginia is wealthy in her own right, but her life has had many tragic moments. Her marriage mar-riage with John Gilbert ended on 1 the rocks. They had one chilrj. Her happy marriage to Director J. Walter Wal-ter Ruben ended in despair when he died suddenly. They had a child, too. From Tears to Cheers Fannie Brice, currently making one of her rare appearances before the movie cameras in "Ziegfeld Follies," Fol-lies," is a big radio name through her Baby Snooks character. Fannie was never a beauty, but she soared to fame as a comedy star. Although Fannie's career has been perennial, her private life hasn't been all orchids or-chids and ermine. She broke her heart over the man she married, Nicky Arnstein, when he went to jaiL She was once Mrs. Billy Rose, but that didn't work either. Gorgeous Olive Thomas was in several shows for Flo, and later starred in silent pictures for Lewis J. Selznick, David's father. Olive married Jack Pickford, Mary's Ma-ry's kid brother, and died tragically of an overdose of sleeping powders in a Paris hospital. Pretty, dainty Marilyn Miller starred in "Sally" and "Sunny" on the stage before she repeated those successes for the cameras. Marilyn, too, . married Jack Pickford, and the ceremony caused a breach with Flo. The marriage mar-riage didn't last long, ended in divorce. di-vorce. Marilyn was still a star when she died. Never a Dull Moment Ina Claire is best known as a stage star of drawing room comedy, but Ina was a Ziegfeld lass 'way back in "Follies of 1916." Ina's off-stage-and-screen life has been tempestuous, tem-pestuous, and several of her marriages mar-riages have ended in divorces. Now Ina is happily wed to a San Francisco Fran-cisco lawyer. Billie Burke, who was not only Flo's wife but the star of one of his musicals (strangely, a flop) called "Annie Dear," still plays dizzy matrons ma-trons in films, also on the air. Bil-lie's Bil-lie's stage career goes back to Charles Frohman. Lupe Velez, who made so many "Mexican Spitfire" films, was in "Hotcha." The vehement Velez was married to Johnny Weismuller and divorced after a tempestuous period of marital strife. There are dozens and dozens of "Follies" graduates, some whose lives are happy, gay and successful, others whose lives were tied up in eventual disappointment and defeat. It seems sad that so many beautiful beauti-ful girls who had so much of this world's goods ended by really having hav-ing so little happiness, i Ideas Not for Privates You could cast quite a play from the gang who gave Pvt. Robert Por-tcrficld Por-tcrficld a surprise shipping-out party. par-ty. Those who sent him off were the Zachary Scotts, Jack Lees, Gregory Greg-ory Pecks, William Princes, John Ilodiak, Anne Baxter, Marjorie Main, Selena Rojie, James Hilton, Margaret Wycherly, and Mrs. John ("raven. Bob's been planning postwar post-war veteran theater groups all over the country. It seems those ideas , should come from a brass hat. So he's being shipped to Texas. |