The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-02-24
WAR BRINGS A new TYPE
OF WOMAN TO THE SCREEN
ClamOr Goes cmmering Top
By ERSKTNE JOHNSON
NEA Corrsapondent


hollywood. -Rememhe w-a-a-a-y
pack in 1899 when the beautiful la
dies Of the serene were doing moth
ing more energetic than lifting Mar
TIM glasses. They were heorines in
dream worlds, running the gamut
of falseness and folly. They were
cl:thes-horses and social butter
fleis.
In 1889, Greer Carson was play
ing a spoiled beauty opposite Rob-
ert Taylor in bit of nonsense titled
Remember" which she's still try
ing to forget.
RoSalind Russell and Paulette
Goddard were holding open house
every afternoon in a beauty par
lor and trying to stead each others
husbands in 1.-THE Women.
Claudette Colbert was vamping
every male in sight as the French
can-can dancer in "ZaZa" Irene
Dunno was going wild as Theodore.
Katharine Hepburn was chasing
Cary Grant and a leopard in
bringing Up Baby"
FANS APPROVE CHANGE
The list could go on and on, but
these few actresses make good ex-
ampleS because each of them now
is engaged in some highly pur-
poseful or strictly non glamorouS
endavor. The times and the
public are responsible.
Toward the end of the last war,
If you remember, movies dis
solved into shallow, gaudy escap-
is films which were just what
the customer wanted. Producers
and writer's say that today the
public is lot more thoughtful.
Looking ahead soberly to recon-
struction and adjustment of the
world. people are inclined to be
more interested in honest pictures
about personalities who have done
or are accomplishing important
things.
Thus Madame Curie - role
that Greer Carson recently COM
pleted. The actress won't win
any pin-up awards with that one,
but she's getting more fan mail
than most of the oomph queens.
Her current assignment is Mrs.
Parkington," from Louis Brom-
fields lusty story of the empire
builders. In 1t the star plays SUI
sic Parkington from the age of 10
to "a.
SOUGHT VITAL ROLE
Actresses themselves don't like
playing frivolous females in these,
times and that's the main reason
why RoSalind Russell now is i'm
personating Sister Elizabeth Ken |
ny originator of a treatment for
infantile paralysis.
consider Sister Kenny and
Madame Chang Kai Chek the two
greatest women in the world"
Miss Russell says. IT had COM
mitment at RKO and I told Pro-
ducer David Hampstead wanted
the picture to be a film version
Of Sister Kenny's book, And They
Shall Walk They thought I was
crazy, but they bought the story
for me. It gives me the chance to
play someone worthwhile"
Katharine Hepburn is playing
Chinese girl, Jade, in Dragon
Seed" not only because 1t Is a
challenging role, but because she
feels that the part in the Pearl
Buck story of China under the
heel OF the Jap invader is import
ant today.
Claudette Colbert and Paulette
Goddard, two of the most glamor-
Gus gals in Hollywood, deserted milk |
and orchids recently to play blood
Spattered Army nurses on Bataan in |
Paramounts 80 Proudly We Hail."
Now both are shipyard welders.
Miss Colbert, once a model of |
fashion, wear overalls and car
ries a lunch pail in Since You
Went Away" A typical middle
class woman of education and
refinement, whose husband has
gone into the service, she takes
the job as part of her contribution |
to the war effort.
Also, she has consented for the |
first time to portray the mother
OF a grown up daughter, played |
by Jennifer Jones, and another,
almost grown-up daughter, Shirley
Temple.
A few years ago Irene Dunno
was playing zany comedy in THE
Awful Truth" and Theodore Goes
Wild" Other day on the set at
MGM, we saw her as white
haired woman in the closing Sc
quences Of 1.-THE White Cliffs"