5
WHEN BOB BURNS’ “I'm
From Missouri” went before
cameras recently at Paramount
studios, there sat beside the set
a chunky little man of a serious
mien, with his short legs dang-
ling from the seat of a high
stool, He is Bobby Vernon,
Once the comedy star of olde
time Christie two-reelers, Bob-
by well remembers the time
when Gloria Swanson was his
leading lady, Wallace Beery his
Reavy.
A star in his own right,
Bobby had the succession of
deading ladies that were his
right. One, a golden-haired
youngster with a pert nose and
a figure to conjure with, was
Judith Barrett, making her
debut In pictures opposite the
eomedic Mister Vernon.
Today, justly hailed as “the
Venus from Venus, Texas,”
Judith is playing the romantie
lead in the mew Burns flicker,
sharing top femme billing with
@ladys George. And Bobby
Vernon, who sits beside the set,
and dangles his feet from a
high stool, is the picture’s reg-
ularly assigned eomedy econ-
structionist. That's what Shey
e2ll gag men NOW,
THE FORMATION of Fair-
banks International, new pro-
ducing unit of United Artists,
brings to the fore again Doug-
Jas Fairbanks, Sr., as the head
of the new concern,
Fairbanks will devote him-
self to the production plans of
the new organization, the in-
itial eapital eof which will be
some $2,500,000. Studio facil
ties In Culver City, California,
Penham or Pinewood, England,
or even continental Europe will
be used.
Three produetions are plan-
ned for 1939. The first is “The
Californian,” which will be
filmed in Culver City and for
which Fairbanks wants Raoul
Walsh as director. The second
will be “The Tenth Woman,”
dased on the life of Lord Byron,
to be done in Technicolor. The
third picture will be “The Three
Musketeers,” also to be done in
Technicolor.
THE MATTER of directorial
“touch” has been pretty much
discussed to date. Nowadays,
experts claim they ean pick out
the Capra touch, the Lubitsch
touch, the John Ford touch, or
the touch of almost any top-
flight director of a film. Of
course, if they know in advance
who directed the film, that al-
ways helps. But anyhow, one
never seems to claim to recog-
nize a producer’s touch, al-
though his touch extends to
every phase of a picture.
Probably one of the best
known for his touch is 20th
Century’s Darryl Zanuck. Just
what his touch is can hardly be
explained in mere words, but it
ean be clearly illustrated. His
current “Thanks For Every-
thing’ affords one example. It
exhibits his timeliness.
The script writers had turned
out a story about the career of
Mrs. Average Man, which job
they thought fairly well of.
They were well satisfied with
their efforts — all except the
ending, which they admitted
lacked the element of umph or
wow. All this was some months
ago, as was the conference at
which Mr. Zanuck decided that
the proper way of ending up
with all his major eharacters
in strait-jackets was to have
»
TOWN WEERLY MAGAZINE SECTION
EE 0 EE EE A EE REA ARAL
‘STAR GAZING’
with Urie Megahan
them participate in a hoax war
scare on the radio.
It was some months ago,
shortly before the release of
“Thanks For Everything,” that
Orson Welles and his Merry
Martians precipitated the Great
American Run. This incident
might justly be ascribed to pure
luck, but the Zanuck touch lay
in his recognizing in The Aver-
age Man the potentialities that
Welles brought out so swiftly.
Then, too, remember that
Zanuck’s “Lloyds of London”
was ready for release just at
the time that Lloyds was in the
headlines during the war scare.
Remember that just as “Five of
a Kind” had reached the na-
tion’s screens, the particular
five involved, the Dionne
Quints, were going to have
their tonsils out. Similarly
Congress just got around to
clearing the name of Dr. Mudd
a short time before ‘The Pris-
oner of Shark Island” was re-
leased.
Zanuck, of course, cannot
produce a feature picture in a
week or two in order to rush
some timely topic on the screen.
So his touch seems to lay in his
accuracy in forecasting publie
taste or events. And his pice
tures make money. |
ONCE AGAIN the Marx Brothe
ers are about to lose their dress-
ing room in the M-G-M star
building, due to the protests of
their fellow artists.
The situation came to a head
when a steam calliope was
parked outside Nelson Eddy’s
and Clark Gable’s windows,
labeled “Harpo Marx.” During
the past few weeks, Harpo has
been practicing on the clarinet,
saxophone and mandolin and
other instruments have been ar-
riving daily for Groucho and
Chico, for the brothers intend
to show more musical versatil-
ity than ever before in their
latest picture, “A Day At the
Circus.”
Gable, Eddy, Spencer Tracy
and Robert Taylor, all figure
they can outvote them and have
the studio provide a rehearsal
hall for them. The former
office-dressing room - rehearsal
hall which they occupied is now
& portrait studio.
TO HER TWO Academy statu-
ettes Luise Rainer will soon be
able to add a third award to
be given her as the most-
traveled actress air passenger
of 1938.
Her latest trip to New York
to rejoin her husband, Clifford
Odets, marked her fortieth
transcontinental trip of the
year. Two years ago, the
champion air traveler was Kay
Francis, and last year the hon-
ors went to Lily Pons.
AT LAST a star who isn’t
bothered by autograph hunters
and who doesn’t mind not be-
ing bothered. Don’t forget that
while it may seem to be an
awful thing for a star to be con-
tinually hounded by these hunt-
ers, they’ll all tell you that it
would be a lot more awful if
they weren’t.
This unusual star is Walter
Brennan, who won the Acad-
emy Award in 1936 for his
work in “Come and Get It.”
Although the amount of his fan
mail would make you think that
he'd be mobbed every time he
stuck his nose outdoors, no one
has ever come up to him for his
autograph.
YOUNG SHAKES HAND WITH HIMSELF
This bit of trick photography was accomplished in Metro’s “Honolulu” to be re-
leased soon.
ORIHAHEEEHA EA
The fact is that no one recog-
nizes Brennan as the smart
young man of forty who walks
briskly, talks clearly and is
clean-shaven. They're all used
to seeing him in the role of
some creaky old gent with a
Civil War background. His
latest role was in “Kentucky,”
in which he played a colonel of
some eighty years. Up to this
time he’s had lots of practice in
being an old man; he started at
the age of seventeen when he
went into vaudeville. Then
came the war and after two
years of service—nine months
of it at the front—Brennan had
really aged to the point where
his teeth were store bought and
his voice roughened as the re-
sult of a gas attack. However,
he never had had aspirations to
be a leading man, fortunately.
He returned to home and his
stage career where he had left
off, and eventually wound up in
Hollywood. This was in 1929
and he’s been there ever since
—playing the moth - eaten,
antique reprobate in any num-
ber of shows. That's why no-
body knows him on the street
after he shaves and sheds some
thirty or forty years.
SOME YEARS AGO a young
man was being considered by
Director Rouben Mamoulian for
a part in a ‘Theater Guild show.
The young man was not found
suitable. He turned to play
writing, and his first play at-
tracted wide attention. He
kept on writing and the most
successful of his plays, “Golden
Boy,” was purchased by Colum-
bia Pictures.
The young man
Odets.
And Rouben Mamoulian will
direct the picturization of his
successful Broadway play.
Recently in New York, Ma-
moulian met Odets, and al-
though he had turned him
down as an actor, invited him
to help search for an actor to
play the title role in the film.
“Don’t be afraid to turn
is Clifford
them down,” Odets advised the
director with a smile.
did me a good turn.”
“You mean,” the director re-
plied, “that perhaps I may get
a few more great playwrights
started.”
“You
PARAMOUNT will shortly re-
lease a short entitled “Unusual
Occupations” which will star
Edgar Bergen with Charlie Mc-
Carthy and Mortimer Snerd.
The film discloses how Bergen
The picture, @ musical dance comedy, stars Robert Young in a dual
role and Eleanor Powell.
[FEE EEA EERE EE REESE EEE SEER EASE EEE EA HR RE EERO
the first drawings made of him,
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and how artists and sculptors |
work from Bergen designs.
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