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Show STAGECREENADSO (Released by Western Newspaper Union. I By VIRGINIA VALE PARAMOUNT'S "Wake Island" Is-land" ran into unexpected trouble the other day. Some 150 Filipinos, engaged to portray por-tray invading Nipponese troops, were to charge a machine ma-chine gun nest manned by Robert Preston and William Bendix. "Half of you fall dead," they were told. When the smoke cleared all 150 were stretched corpse-like on the ground. The scene was, shot again, after the same instructions were given. Same result. They'd play Japanese soldiers sol-diers only if they could play dead ones, so Director John Farrow had to give in. Kate Smith recently signed a contract con-tract to make a series of shorts for Columbia under the collective title ti-tle of "America Sings With Kate l -mg KATE SMITH Smith" for one dollar as total compensation. com-pensation. All profits over that sum go to the USO. Five years ago Tim Whelan, oi RKO Radio, saw a Spanish picture in Seville, and began looking for a dark-eyed young actress who appeared ap-peared in it. He finally found her; she's Mapy Cortes, of Puerto Rico, and will appear in an important role in his new musical. Marguerite Chapman was a member mem-ber of the Navy Blues Sextette before be-fore Columbia upped her into the big time last January. Now another member of it, Lorraine Gettman, steps out. Re - christened Leslie Brooks, she's been given a long-term long-term contract by the company, as the result of her outstanding work in a supporting role in "Talk of the Town," co-starring Jean Arthur, Cary Grant and Ronald Colman. The route that led Jack Trent into the movies is a curious one. Formerly For-merly a Montana schoolteacher, he became Shirley Temple's bodyguard, body-guard, and wound up as an actor; you'll see him in "Silver Queen," the 1870 drama starring Priscilla Lane and George Brent. No one has viewed C, B. De-Mille's De-Mille's "Reap the Wild Wind" with more interest than did Rear Admiral Ad-miral William D. Leahy, U. S. ambassador am-bassador to France. The Technicolor Techni-color sea saga, starring Ray Mil-land, Mil-land, John Wayne and Paulette God-dard, God-dard, deals with America's fight to wipe out a nest of pirate wreckers in the Florida keys years ago. Leahy Lea-hy wrote DeMille that he "got the last of those wreckers" back in the year 1905. Ransom Sherman finally has discovered dis-covered the haunt where Dix Davis, 13-year-old who plays "Stanley," the bellhop, spends the half hour before broadcast time. It's the Shirley Temple studio, across the hall he just stands there and worships from afar. m Ann Miller's been saying that she was 18 ever since she was 12. Tall for her age, she did it then to keep the prize two weeks' work as a stage attraction at the Orpheum theater.- At 14 she danced and fibbed her way into a night club engagement in San Francisco. That year RKO signed her up, then Columbia Co-lumbia borrowed her; at 16, and still saying she was 18 she landed on Broadway. RKO again, Columbia Colum-bia again then Paramount, for "True to the Army." On April 12 of this year she celebrated her 19th birthday, on the "Priorities of 1942" set. Now that the "Are You a Missing Heir" radio program has restored its millionth dollar to rightful legatees, lega-tees, you'd think the program exec-utives exec-utives would sit back and relax, but there are still 77 million unclaimed un-claimed dollars buried in probate court records as a goal for the program pro-gram to shoot at. ODDS AND ENDS The goofy sound-man who used to heckle Jack Benny on the Sunday night broadcasts has joined the army air corps . . . Ed Murrow and William L. Shirer, news commentators, first met at a Paris cafe . . . Now that Ronald Colman has finished fin-ished "The Talk of the Town" he can shave, for the first time in months . Rosalind Russell's been signed to makt "Stand By to Die" for RKO a story of a woman flier working for the government gov-ernment in Japanese-held islands of the Pacific . . . Madeleine Carroll reserved 14 front row seats for her army and navy boy escorts at her latest broadcast |