Evening star., 1938-06-24

all of the country None of the fam
lily has seen the modern East, although
Mr.. Temple, born in Pennsylvania,
vaguely remembers it. Mrs. Temple
never has been East of her native
Chicago before. Shirley never even
saw snow until she got into Colorado.
What she thought Of snow, finally
having seen 1t, was one Of the ques-
tions that will remain unanswered
until some time today when she is
less sleepy, less hungry, and has more
time.
Last nights session at the May
flower was intended to be merely a
prelude to something very important,
brief overture to her visit today TO
the White House, the Department of
Justice, other places of interest and
probable further session with the
press.
1t ended with the need for food an5
sleep for a little rosy-cheeked and
quite excited girl who was not too
hungry, tired, or excited to dominate
a roomful of adults. Today, Shirley
is sleeping late, at least so her mother
promises, after which she will learn
what Washington looks like
y
nUT OF Hollywood come many ex-
cerpts of personal history. Most
OF them relate to roads that lead down
or up: few to roads that run along on
the level
That on which Thomas Mitchell
travels is one OF the rarities which
falls in the latter class. Word from
New York and Hollywood has it that
Mr.. Mitchell soon will be in Washing
ton to act in and co-direct scenes,
laid here, which will be found in
The Lady and the Cowboy" Be-
fore he arrives. it might be well to jog
a memory or SO. with reference to Mr..
MITCHELL that is. If any memories
need jogging with reference to Mr..
Mitchell.
Almost 20 years ago. Mr.. Mitchell
(now turned corpulent and with an
imposing heard that makes him look
like character from the pages of
Joseph Conrad) was a regular caller
in Washington. To the National, Polls
or the Belasco, he came as one of the
most talented Of the younger actors.
Never OF the matinee idol type, Mr.
Mitchell was nonetheless q star of
the first water-when the stage still
was putting up fight for that dis
tinction in the entertainment world.
Men whose hair is getting sparse and
women whose children have reached
the problem stage may recall him in
such hits as Not So Long Ago."
XXI" The Wisdom Tooth" Even
younger citizens may remember his
play Little Accident" which MIR.
Mitchell wrote in conjunction with
Floyd Dell, produced in collaboration
with Crosby Gaige. and in which he
played the star role with a lot of
players we don't remember.
X X X
WELL, to skip lot of time history.
or whatever label one prefers, Mr.
Mitchell who belongs in the "sure-I-
remember" class IS not in it at all.
He went to Hollywood about three
years ago, chap with enough in
telligence and wisdom to sign a con-
tract with Columbia identifying him
as actor, script writer, script doctor
or director. Columbia used him as
actor altogether. except for occasional
forays into the realm of dialogue
writing and gag creation. It even
rented him out as actor, once to
Samuel Goldwyn, who cast him as
the doctor in THE Hurricane" Mr..
Mitchell virtually stole the picture
from the hurricane itself, actually
(Which was not surprising) did steal
1t from its stars, Jon Hall and Dor
othy Lamour. So Mr. Goldwyn. a
canny man indeed, hired Mr.. Mitchell
with the statement that he was a
character actor equal in merit to
Charles Laughton.
It would seem, however, that MI.
Mitchell is not going to be merely
an actor with Goldwyn, in spite of
the latter's expression of high re-
spect for his ability to mime.
Let the current picture be fin
ished and Mr.. Mitchell will 20
to work as script writer. He will
move into the writer's building on
the United Artists lot. where, for
getting he is an actor, he will get
busy on script for Zorina, the Rus
sian ballet dancer, who is one of the
really bright talents recently recruited
to pictures.
After that is finished, Mr.. Mitchell
Will return to acting. Afterward, too,
ne will have the satisfaction of hav-
ing proved that not all roads in Hol-
lywood lead down.