davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Graham
Continued From First Page

youngSter, Linda and Tony (Bob)
Hope, Miriam Hopkins year-old
Michael, Ronnie and Sandra
George and Oracle Allen Burns,
the Pat OBrien pair-Mavoureen,
7, and Sean, 4; Cynthia, aged 2, in
the Basil Rathbone family-the
Rathbones also have 22-year-old
Rodion. Wallace Beery is familiar
Brown Derby sight tete-a-tete with
9-year-old Carol Ann. In the Beery
home is also adopted Phyllis Ann,
/ q years old.
John Payne talks of practically
nothing but his Julie Anne, 8
months, who calls Anne Shirley
mama" Joel McCrea divides
his conversation on the set between
wife Francis Dee and sons, Joel, 6,
and David, 4. It's amusing to
hear tough Guy Lloyd Nolan use
baby talk language when the sub
ject is his 6-month-old Melinda.
. Those recent photographs of
the Bing Crosbys with their four
sons would have been considered
detrimental to his career a few
years ago.
Other Hollywood parents include
Andrea Leeds-a son; Walter Bren-
nan-three children; Phil Regan-
| four; the James Ellisons-a son;
Tim Holt-ditto; Ingrid Bergman
| cher Pia LindStrom was carried into
this country India fashion-in a
bag behind mama's back; the Don
Ameches-four sons-Donny, L,onny,
Tommy and Ronny.
The Henry Fondas-three chill
dren; the Robert Montgomerys
have two; William Powell-one; !;
Norma Shearer It two; Spencer
Tracys-three; John Carroll-one
Cecilia Parker "a 5-month-old
daughter; Walter Pidgeon has a
daughter aged 18; Johnny Weiss
muller-a son; the Robert Youngs
have two; Janet Gaynor-Adrian
has daughter; the Doug Fair
banks Daphne is l year old; Mar
| garet SULLIVAN has three; wants six.
Dennis Morgan is the father of two;
Ronald Reagon-Jane Wyman have
2-month-old baby. George Muir
ply, Orson Welles, Mary Martin,
John Wayne and Mary Astor are all
parents. And there are many more
The desire of the Clark Gables
for family of their own is the sole
fact holding up the adoption of
some lucky infant. A few years ago
it would have been considered bad
publicity for Carole and Clark to
be so openly honest about their
longing for child. This is the
better way, don't you think so?
CReleased by the North American
Newspaper Alliance, rne.)
Evening star., 1941-04-20

week, or next month. She tells them
to call back when the child is born.
The movies pay SIS day for the
services of babies less than months
old. That equals the average hos
pital fee.
But not many babies are used in
the movies. Miss Saunders estimates
the yearly average is one week.
She says that If directors can have
their characters, talk about baby
without showing it, or if they can
use a doll, they'll do it every time.
Babies sometimes create more
problems than big stars. They have
to be chauffeured to the studio, a
nurse must be in attendance, the
mother must be present. The baby
can spend but two hours day in
the studio and he can work" only
20 minutes of that time.
If the sequence requires several
shots of the infant, two nearly
identical babies and sometimes three
or four are used. In that way, the
baby scenes usually can be cleared
up in one day.
But mostly they don't use babies" 4"
Miss Saunders said. Dolls are more
durable"
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Broadway's Past Is Recaptured
Billie Burke Sees The Great Zegfed Again and Is Inspired
To Some Remarks About the Master of Musical Shows

any and all ends to get the effects
he wanted"
At the urging of Mrs. Will Rogers,
Miss Burke will shortly start work on
a biography of her late husband. II
want to leave a picture of him as I
knew him, and while the picture Is
still clearly etched in my mind. You
had to know him in private life to
know the real quality Of him; his
love of practical jokes and fancy
dress parties; his real devotion to his
organiza ton and their devotion to
him. Though his name is in the title
of 'Ziegfeld Girl and his spirit is be-
hind its filming, he himself does not
appear in it as character, and to
the younger generation which will
see the picture, he will be just a
name. I'd like TO make him more
than that"
Evening star., 1941-04-20

concerned for the welfare of the
girls. He would have taken a girl
like Judy Garland and had a play
written around her, Just like he did
with Marilyn Miller and Sally
Marilyn was just a good dancer
when he first met her, but he saw
The starring quality in her. Now
Judy is one of those wonderful COM
binations that comes once in 20
years. I know, because I played her
mother two or three years ago in
Everybody Sing just before she
buddec out. There is no one with
a greater sense of rhythm, no one
more alive.
They'd Have Been His Choices.
Beauty of types has changed
considerably in the past Is years. We
don't know the soubrette now, for
example. Our beauty is more
streamlined-of the Grecian type.
But feel convinced that Mr.. Zieg-
field would have chosen exactly the
same girls as were picked for 'Zieg-
field Girl When see Lana Turner
and Heddy Lamar walking up and
down the typical Ziegfeld stairway,
with that grace of carriage and per-
fecGion of face, of throat, OF shoul-
ders. I think back to Olive Thomas
and Lillian Lorraine, and Dolores,
who carried herself like a queen; to
Justine johnson, with her hawleSs
face and the same breath-taking
quality and translucent skin that
characterizes Hedy Lamar.
"And I have no doubt that from
the 1c front-line showgirls, there
will be at least one star developed.
+ remember when Mr.. Ziegfeld was
asked to officiate as beauty judge
at a certain California rodeo. He
selected. a complete unknown, Sally
Eilers, though there were many
rather celebrated film names pres
ent. Are you sure? Nobody knows
her the other judges pointed out.
I'm sorry, but she is my choice he
answered..
Magic Recaptured.
The topical quality of his acts was
always a fetish with ziegfeld, Miss
Burke recalls. The popularity of the
Gallagher and Shean song she at
tributes to the fact that the innu-
merable verses which followed the
Introductory verse were all based on
topics of the day. And the wisdom
of ziegfeld's stress on this phase of
his shows was further proved by the
popularity of Will Rogers comments
from the stage.
The only thing which can recap
ture for her the magic of an opening
night of the Follies is a premiere of
such a picture as "The Great Zieg-
field" or "ziegfeld Girl" Miss Burke
admits. OF all the Ziegfeld shows,
she believes "Rio Rita" was her ia
vorite. "The music started the ex-
element as soon as you took your
seats. And then the stage was 80
brimful OF color. Flo would 60 TO
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Elephants
Battle in
Thai Film
Photoplay Tells
Story of a War
Long Ago
By GladlOin Hill,
Associated Press stan Writer.

NEW IOIlh.
If you can imagine Marlene Diet-
rich and Clark Gable romancing
in the language of Thai, you'll have.
an idea of what the doughty movie
people of Thailand have Just ac.t
complished. They've made full-'
length feature sound movie tn
English. 10
The picture, The King of the;
White Elephant" now showing on
Broadway, is about war that Siam
fought 400 years ago. II
1t seems that Chakra, the hands
some young ruler of ancient Sian,-
was CALLED upon by his counselors'
to follow custom and take 1885,
wives-one for every day in the
year.
Came Invasion. -
He suggested, instead. that II
would be more constructive If hea
rounded up 365 elephants for ma
tional defense. So they had a big
elephant hunt, and in the course
of it shared a sacred white pachy-J
derm. -
The ruler of an adjacent king
dom demanded the white elephant
for himself and when it was re-
fused, invaded the country. Final.
~ the Siamese rose up and in a.
fierce battle, fought partly by ele--
phant cavalry, drove out the in
| VaderS. IN.
The handsome young king there
upon resumed the romance with
his grand vizier's daughter which
he had interrupted to run the war.-
| and took her as his No. l wife.
She got a monopoly on the job by
persuading him that 1854 elephants
would be much cheaper to support
than 1854 more wives.
It was no easy job digging up
actors who could play all this in
English, avows Prasart Sukhum. ass
sistant director of the picture. Siam
has its native movie companies, but
the actors speak only Siamese, and
they had to go far af1eld for Eng1
lish speakers.
Took Eight Months.
The beautiful dark-eyed 18-year-
old Siamese Greta Garbo who plays
the feminine lead, Pairin Nilsen,
was discovered studying law at
Bangkok Renu Kritayakorn, who
plays the young king, was drafted
from the chief accountants post at
the Bank of Asia in Bangkok, and
his rival ruler was chief accountant
at the National Bank of Thailand.
The picture took more than eight
months to film, against the average
six weeks in Hollywood. They had
to go 400 miles from the capital to
get into the elephant country.
The picture was filmed with
American equipment pretty much
in the American tradition by Suk-
hum. who was graduated from
Phillips Exeter Academy in New
Hampshire in 1927 spent some time
in Hollywood and worked for an
American newsreel firm In the
Orient for several years.
Evening star., 1941-04-20

Co-ed," which brings back Ruby
Keeler, and Heaven Can Wait" :"
in the vein of fantasy, with Robert
Montgomery.
In addition to the Powell-Loy
embodiment, M-G-M can offer the
Marx Brothers untitled latest and
the musical, Lady Be Good" in
the laugh field, against such melo-
dramatic offerings as "Dr. Jekyll
and Mr.. Hyde" Oheaviest movie in
town., the new kildare" opus,
and a weepfest known as Blossoms
In the Dust"
An Exception.
The Warmers, though they have
three comedies ready for release,
prove the exception to the current
rule so far as pictures now in work
are concerned. There's nary a
laugh in a carload in such somber
titles as Gentle People" Sergeant
York, +" "Manpower," Underground" "
Bad Man of Missouri" Flight
Patrol" and olive Bomber" But
Warmers top humor writer's have
been ordered to get busy for COM
plete turnabout. .-'-
However, R-K-O, having finished
the Leon Enrol rubber logger,
Hurry. Charlie, Hurry" and THE
Devil and Miss Jones'" side
splitter with Jean Arthur, Robert
Cummings and Charles Coburn, will
soon have Tom, Dick and Harry"
with Ginger Rogers, George Muir
ply, Burgess Meredith and Alan
Marshall; My Life With Caroline -
with Ronald Colman and Anna Lee,
and "The Devil and Daniel Web
ster," which has its moments Of
mirth
Universal boosts the average
again with six laugh-getters as
against four action dramas, the
chortles being anticipated for Hugh
Herbert's Hello, Sucker; Rudy
Vallee's TOO Many Blonds';; Alb
bott and Costello's They're in the
Navy; Tight Shoes" with Binnie
Barnes and Broderick Crawford;
Unfinished Business" with Irene
Dunno, Robert Montgomery and
Preston Foster and Sandy Steps
Out" with baby Sandy.
lEeleased BY the North American News
parer. Alliance, me)
Evening star., 1941-04-20

So major features current before
the cameras, or just about to roll,
% are laugh pictures. And any time
you get Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Will
liam Powell and Enrol Flynn doing
female impersonations, you're get
ting right back to the type of slap
stick which had 'em rolling in the
aisles before and is guaranteed to
do so again
Ten days ahead of schedule, Mr..
Hope has started his Incompatible
clowning in Nothing But the
Truth" with Paulette' Goddard and
Director Elliott Nugent, the trio re-
sponsible for that other comedy hit,
The Cat an dthe Canary" of two
years ago. Bob gets caught in
feminine togs after Edward Arnold
and a couple of other pranksters
have taken all his clothes and locked
him in houseboat cabin. Hope dis
covers a marabou-trimmed dressing
gown and makes his temporary es-
cape in it, only to get trapped in
a live bait tank.
More Are Scheduled.
Mr.. Benny's escapades in female
garb occur in that other old war
horse, "Charley's Aunt" while Mr..
Powell dons wig and petticoats in
his latest riot with Myrna 10y,
Love Crazy" The Flynn trans
formation will take place in a forth
coming untitled comedy.
Paramount has three other
comedies in production besides
Nothing But the Truth They
are world Premiere" with John
Barrymore as zany film producer;
BUY Me That Town" with Lloyd
Nolan and Albert Decker heading a
collection of comedy thugs, and
"Skylark," with Claudette Colbert,
Brian Aherne and Ray Milland do
ing the skylarking
"Charley's Aunt" is Twentieth
Century -Fox's only outright laugh
capsule, but Miami" Sun VAL
ley" and THE Great American
Broadcast" provide musical comedy
with a sprinkling of gags. CO.
lumbia has five on the starting
line: Blonde in Society," ninth
in that series; "Tillie the Toiler,"
"He's My Uncle" with Fred AS
taire and Rita Hayworth; Betty
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Out West Play Cycle Is in the Forming
Eugene O'Nel Works on His Nine Dramas Engrossed
To the Point of Withholding Other Works

In 1915. while O'Neill was still In
his 20s, the Provincetown theatrical
group-headed by George Cram
Cook, Susan Glaspell and Robert
Edmond Jones-moved TO a tiny
theater in Greenwich Village. Their
first selections for production there
were O'Neill's one e-acters-chosen
for the dual reason that they were
considered excellent and were in
expansive to put on.
Only a little more than a decade
later, his Strange Interlude" be-
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Goldwyn and Walt Disney
Hollywood's Newest Team
Life of Hans Christian Andersen
(And Stories) Is Film Project
Combining Their Talents
By Hubbard Keavy,
rssss sanw
HOLLYWOOD
In this ladeez and Goldwn
mas good friend.
And the opposite Walt Disney Mickey papa
It's friendly staged for profit
shows again that sometimes make spang partners
politics.
They working something
By Hubbard Keavy,

1I4C OL 11GlllD SIl1 lOlLQll [11lNlCA OO1l
the talkative Dane. Disney was try
ing to combine the best of Ander-
sens fairy tales into one whopping
feature. Goldwyn like the story OF
Andersen's life, because it was al
most a fairy tale in itself.
Andersen, says Goldwyn, was a
man who failed at every serious en-
deavor, but who became famous for
the stories with which he amused
his friends-"a great success story. u
Andersen, says Disney, was a
celebrity chaser and show-off who
wanted to be mixed up with artists
like Disney getting mixed up with
StokoWski."
Worked Separately.
Goldwyn turned some fancy writ
ing talent loose on Andersen. Sam
says he didn't know, and none of his
writer's suggested, good, logical
way to work the fairy tales into the
story. A pretty pickle it was, having
a story about fairy tales and no way
to tell them.
GoldWyn and Disney had Deen
working separately on their ideas
for nearly three years. Disney
learned of Goldwyn's interest only
when he sent a title to the Hays Of
flee for priority registering.
And so Sam and Walt got to-
gether, settled the preliminaries and
formed the GoldWyn-Disney Corp,
on a $3.50 basis.
The biggest obstacle, they saw,
was how to bring in the cartoons
without impeding the progress of
the story. If the actors stopped
acting to tell fairy tale. the result
would be jerky and episode.
Hecht Works on Script.
But that problem has been solved
by drawing the cartoons against
a "live background, an innovation
still in the experimental stages.
Generally the background will be
the same as that of the film i'm
mediately preceding the start of
the cartoon. To further weld pho
tograph and cartoon, the voice OF
Andersen will continue through the
cartoon.
Ben Hecht now is doing the fifth
Evening star., 1941-04-20
Keishley Signed

William Keighley. who recently
finished The Bride Came c. o. D."
co-starring James Cagney and Bette
Davis. has had his contract renewed
by Warner Bros.
His next directorial task will be
Iron Cavalry" story of the United
States Army Tank Corps. which will
have an all-star male cast. probably
headed by James Cagney, George
Brent, Ronald Reagan and Alan
Hale
Evening star., 1941-04-20
HOLLYWOOD.
yn, the movie dray-

GoldWyn revision (Sam always
revises his scripts at least five times
and a number of Disney artists and
story constructors are at work. But
they don't expect to be in produc-
ton before the end of this year.
Theaters will have to build bigger
marques unless Sam and Walt
shorten their working title: "The
Life and Stories of Hans Christian
Andersen"
Taking No Chances.
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz hit it
off well in TOO Many Girls" so
well, they became engaged and now
are married.
R-K-O wants them in another
picture but, movie like, the studio
did not simply assign them to the
new roles.
1t took tests of Mr.. and Mrs P.rnaz
together for Unexpected Uncle
to see if they will look well together
on the screen.
He Liked Them!
Pat OBrien had two good story
ideas for himself. He thought they
were good. One was a story based
on the exciting life of o. Henry.
Nuts" the producer told Pat,
Nobody ever heard of o. Henry"
To another executive, Pat waxed
enthusiastic about playing in a film
based on the life of Floyd Gibbons.
But that was mixed, too, because,
said the producer (whose research
department has been working on it,
there were too many Gibbons rela-
tives to please and because most
of the dramatic high lights in COR
respondent Gibbons life already
have been pirated and used in pic
lures.
Gossip Is Born.
Ruby Keeler tells this one to ex-
plain how professional gossipers
linked her name with that of a
radio store owner she had never
seen:
She and John Lowe, Socialite with
whom she's been keeping company,
were at night club. Nobody knew
him." she said, but did they ask
me who he was? No, they had to
do it the hard way"
Some one peeked inside Loves
car and there on the radio was the
nameplate of the fellow who had
sold it No address, no advertising,
but the name
When the stories appeared, she
and Lowe puzzled for several days
before he happened to glance at
the radio and figured what hap
pened.
No Authority.
Mervyn Leroy was having a time
to get a 4-year-old boy to do a small
scene in Blossoms in the Dust"
The production Office, Simon Le-
gree of the studios, was complain
ing about delays. Leroy summoned
the head of that department, Irving
Asher.
II have told this boy five times
what I want DONE" Leroy COM
planned, land he doesn't get it. No
wonder we have delays"
Don't be so critical" advised
Asher. When I was up at your
house the other night, you told
your 4-year-old son five different
times to 60 to bed and he didn't
even bulge"
Only Two Singers.
Songwriter Jerome Kern says that
for his money (and his songs, too,
perhaps there are only two people
who can SELL song: Bing Crosby
and Ann Sothern.
Kern said this before he heard
Ann sing The Last Time I Saw
Paris" in the film Lady Be Good"
Afterward he amended his state
ment: Put her name first"
Evening star., 1941-04-20
HOLLYWOOD.

On Patricia Zeigfeld Stephenson's
last birthday, her mother, Billie
Burke. asked her how she would like
to spend the evening. Patricia re-
uuested a special showing of The
Great Ziegfeld," so the musical
which had won the Academy Award
for the 1886 season was screened
at the home of friends and Florenz
Ziegfeld, jr.'r widow and daughter re-
lived the days when their Berkeley
Crest home was the meeting place
for the creative artists OF the theater
and the excitement of first nights
seemed constantly in the air.
1T get restless these days" con-
fessed Miss Burke, now a resident
on a quiet Brentwood side street
conveniently close to studio work
when I think back to the Sundays
when a new stage production was
taking form and the orchestra came
out to the house to play the entire
score for us-it was thrilling beyond
words. Until Patricia's birthday
hadn't seen The Great ziegfeld'
for nearly four years. 1t stood up
wonderfully well. It recaprured the
Broadway days. I hope 'Ziegfeld
Girl can match it, for taste and
beauty and melody"
Family disappointed in the. script
of THE Great Ziegfeld,' Miss Burke
admits that Producer Hunt Strom-
berg reproduced the spirit of the
Ziegfeld shows much more authenti-
cally than she could have hoped.
She was on the set the opening day
of "ziegfeld Girl" production to wish
Director Robert 2. Leonard and his
principals luck and offer her collec-
ton of Ziegfeld home movies and
stills from his Follies for research
use.
There Was Magic.
There is ample reason for the
Ziegfeld name still having a magic
quality in Hollywood, Miss Burke
declares, though he died IN 1882
without ever having had real op-
portunity to use his talents for the
screen. Producers were, afraid of
his reputation for prodigal spending.
But there was magic in the man."
insists the widow. TT was said of
him that he was like ether, and he
had a quality of sudden materializa-
ton in unexpected places, that
seemed almost supernatural. He
came of fine people, of a musical
family, his father having estab-
lished the musical college in Chi
cago, and he himself was responsible
for so much of the melody in his
shows. I remember Irving Berlin
was completely out of ideas, protest.
ing that he didn't have a tune in
his head, when Flo said to him:
oh write anything. Write some
thing about a girl being like pretty
tune And so "A Pretty Girl Is Like
a Melody was born.
Flo had taste. He was earnest,
sincere, and there was nothing
shoddy about him. He was truly
Evening star., 1941-04-20
B, the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO.
In a rambling white house 25
miles from the sea he loves so well,
Eugene O'Neill is busily working
again on his cycle of nine plays.
So engroSsed in this task is the
brooding ONeill that newly COM
pleted play Of his has been with
held from production for well over
year because the famed Pulitzer
Prize playwright refuses now to al
low any of his new dramas to be
staged unless he is present at re-
hearsals.
Since he moved to California
three years ago, ONeill has fin
ished two plays, The Iceman
Cometh" and Long Days Journey
Into Night" But their production,
unless he changes his present plans,
must wait until he is finished with
his cycle of nine.
The idea for THE Iceman
Cometh" came when he was in the
middle of the cycle, so he quit on
that project and did a fast - for
O'NeilHjob on finishing the single
play.
1t is known that when he started
to write the cycle O'Neill had in
mind an American setting with the
plot telling the story OF several gen.
erations of an American family.
ONeill, so he has said, has al
ways done his best work while liv-
ing quietly, apart from other liter
ary figures and the distractions OF
the city.
Miles From Traffic.
The present ONeill home, which
he and his wife planned in 1887
when they moved from the home
they had at Sea Island Beach, Ga,
is of modest size although 1t suits
the playwright's needs.
1t is on 100-acre farm which
rolls across a high ridge and is two
miles from any highway where there
is thick traffic. Fences surround
the house and the only entrance
is by a private road-measures he
has found necessary to privacy.
O'Neill gets up am. and Is
working at 7. Mrs. O'Neill is the
only one who is allowed to disturb
him in his study and sometimes he
gets so engrossed in his writing
that he won't answer when she
knocks at the door. SO she peces
I'D and down the hall outside for a
few minutes and then knocks again.
He writes steadily until 2 pm,
when he turns his copy over to a
stenographer to be typed. He writes
in tiny but graceful script so that
stenographers have little trouble in
reading his words.
He Writes With Effort.
He first outlines a play and then
rewrites the outline several times
before taking that as his framework
and starting the actual scenes and
dialogue.
Like Ernest Hemingway, who said
that he once spent 10 full days per-
fecting a paragraph OF ITO words IN
his For Whom the Bells Toll"
ONeill writes only with great effort
and his words do not come easily 10
him.
ONeill drifted into writing for the
theater not only because his father,
James ONeill, was a famous actor,
but also because in his days at sea
and wandering around the water
fronts of the world he was a de-
voted reader of Jack London, Kip
ling and Joseph Conrad.
ONeill has always mad a deep,
mystic affection for the, ocean.
When he finally ended his wander
ings, he settled down in a beach
house at Provincetown, Mass, on
the tip of Cape Cod, and it was IN
the famous Provincetown playhouse
that some of his first efforts were
played.