Lana Turner In the 30's & 40's

Elizabeth gets a day off to rest her typing fingers and a lively Jerry Hoffman essay on Alimony fills in. She Who Must Not Be Named is generally sympathetic for the the women's side of the alimony argument -- unless it affects a Beatle! Come to think of it, just why has SWMNBN been asking me if my Last Will and Testament has been brought up to current standards?
gdh

1/28/1934 LAX ALIMONY
By Jerry Hoffman
Alimony figures are shying Hollywood stars from marriage.
“Hmmmm,” quite a few are musing on looking over the requested $7,450 monthly support asked by Fay Webb of Rudy Vallee, “maybe it not only is cheaper to stay married–but even a greater saving to avoid marriage in the first place.”
The $7,450 a month asked by Fay isn’t an unprecedented sum in Hollywood marital history that developed into marital history. That figure, however, has caused a great many of Hollywood’s wealthier available men to dig back into the past and look over the sums which have been and are being paid by various celebrities to former wives.
JUST LIKE THAT
“Alimony,’ defined a vaudeville comedian, “is like buying oats for a dead horse.”
Judging from the amounts received by a great number of ex-Mrs., they are living on more than oats and are far from dead. One of the biggest settlements made in Hollywood history was the $650,000 paid by Charlie Chaplin to Lita Grey. A few hundred thousand more were originally asked. Adrienne Ames, on a more recent occasion, is reported not to have asked, but nevertheless to have received a settlement payment of $20,000, the Ames home, paintings and car.
HOW THEY SETTLE
Katherine Carver asked $600,000 from Adolphe Menjou. She took quite a cut; received $150,000. Lola Lane and Lew Ayres bid each other a farewell, even if not so fond, at a settlement of $35,000. Edna Murphy was content with monthly checks of $1,000 each after she and Mervyn LeRoy decided they couldn’t go on together.
The second highest known “paying off” price at the end of a matrimonial wreck was from Tom Mix to Victoria Mix, without love or kisses. Victoria asked for several million, finally agreed to struggle along on $450,000. Another higher settlement was made in the early days, when Winifred Westover received $100,000 from William S. Hart.
Rumors of a million dollar settlement on Constance Bennett from Phil Plant, her former husband, never were substantiated. It is said that Constance and the young millionaire really parted on very friendly terms and a cost of only $65,000 to Plant instead of the six figures reported.
SIMPLE ARITHMETIC
The early Hollywood marriages which ended suddenly didn’t run into the larger figures. Leatrice Joy was paid only $300 a week after she and John Gilbert separated. Ina Claire, being quite a money maker herself, later split with Jack with nothing to each other. Estelle Taylor received $30,000, a $100,000 home and three cars from Jack Dempsey.
There are quite a number of Hollywood divorces which didn’t require high finance experts. Joan Crawford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. asked nothing of each other. Carole Lombard wanted nothing from William Powell and got it.

Lana Turner In the 30's & 40's

ABBREVIATIONS
DN — Los Angeles Daily News
EH — Los Angeles Evening Herald
EHE — Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD — Film Daily
HCN — Hollywood Citizen News
IDN — Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News
LAR — Los Angeles Record
LAPR — Los Angeles Post-Record
LAX — Los Angeles Examiner
MPH — Motion Picture Herald
SFC — San Francisco Chronicle


6/12/1937 EHE Sally Moore
Anne Shirley and John Howard Payne, whose engagement has just been announced, are stealing the spotlight this week in Hollywood's social whirl although Jeannette MacDonald and Gene Raymond, who are to be married this coming Wednesday evening, and Grace Bradley and Bill Boyd, who were married a week ago at Grace's home in Beverly Hills, are having their share of pre-nuptial and post-nuptial fetes as well.
First in a series of parties planned for Anne and her fiancé is the smart cocktail party which Henry Willson is giving tomorrow after from 4:30 to 7 o'clock at the Somerset House, and to which more than 200 of Hollywood's younger set have been invited.
Assisting the host in receiving will be Mrs. William Henry (Grace Durkin) and Mrs. Howard Wilson (Sue Carol), both recent brides, and Paula Stone and Phyllis Fraser.
Among others bidden to the affair are:
MESSRS. AND MESDAMES
Warren Hull, Bing Crosby, Allan Jones, Zeppo Marx, Frank McHugh, Richard Hargreaves, William Row, Pat O'Brien, Joe Nolan, Robert Sisk, Ben Holmes, William Henry, James Ellison, Howard Wilson, Walter Brooks (Jacqueline Wells), Solly Baiano, Mervyn LeRoy, Ray Milland, Harry Brown, Nate Milnor, Edgar Carter, Paul Guilfoyle, Elmer Griffin, George Nicholls, Ken Goldsmith, Abe Simon, Russell Wade, Frank Hoover, Felix Knight, Norbert Brodine.
MISSES
Carol Stone, Patricia Ellis, Helen Mack, Dorothy Peterson, Jeanette MacDonald, Phyllis Fraser, Lana Turner, Eleanor Whitney, Cecelia Parker, Patricia Kendall, Anita Colby, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine, Ginger Rogers, Marjorie Gateson, Anita Louise, Dixie Dunbar, Judy Garland, Nydia Westman, Lucille Ball, Margaret Hogan, Natalie Draper, Jane Hamilton, May Methot, Jean Rogers, Mary Blackford, Dorothy Day, Ena Rogell, Claudia Coleman, Betty Grable.
MESSRS.
Jon Hall, Wayne Morris, Walter Kane, William Orr, Cary Grant, Tom Brown, Richard Cromwell, Donald Friede, Ben Alexander, Phil Huston, Gene Raymond, Alan Curtis, Owen Davis Jr., Jack Dunn, Dick Hogan, Craig Reynolds, Johnny Downs, Alan Miller, Robert Meredith, Frankie Darro, Jack la Rue, Stanley Morner, James Bush.

8/19/1937 EHE Harrison Carroll
Looks as if Warners may be going to take advantage of the publicity linking Wayne Morris with Lana Turner. Anyway, she is going to test there for a picture in which she would play Morris’ wife.
If you can believe the 17-year-old actress, there is no romance between the two, however. She says they were quite serious at first, but broke up a month ago. About the time there was all the talk of Morris rushing Alice Faye.
On the other hand, it was certainly Morris’ card on the huge bouquet of flowers that were delivered to Lana yesterday on the Marco Polo set.

8/21/1937 EHE Harrison Carroll
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
The Samuel Goldwyn picture, Marco Polo, is about an adventurer who lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but, between scenes, all you hear is modern slang and wisecracks.
Director Archie Mayo always kids his actors. In the cast, he calls Binnie Barnes “Binnacle Barnes, the sailor.” The noisiest person on the set, he is always shouting to the others: “Come on, let’s settle down to a bedlam.”
This particular scene is where Alan Hale, the husband of Binnie Barnes, is making up to his wife’s hand-maiden, Lana Turner.
Miss Turner, who is Mervyn LeRoy’s new discovery, is plenty easy to look at in her Oriental kimono, drawn tightly around her.
Last year, she was a Hollywood high school girl, but now behaves on the set like an old hand at the movies.
Mayo, who loves Warner Brothers like loves water, kids her about being a Warner starlet. But, on the side, he tells you she is a nice kid and has a future.
He watches her performance carefully to be sure that she will make a good showing.
In the scene, she is pouring water out of a pitcher into a goblet.
“Hold the pitcher higher, dear,” he says, “or you will look like a soda jerker.”
None of the actors resents Mayo’s kidding because they know he is a fine director and, besides, it keeps the company amused and helps things go smoothly.
Watching Mayo direct Marco Polo, after seeing John Cromwell do the earlier scenes, presents about as great a contrast as you can imagine.
Cromwell also is a good director but he is a quiet man and deadly serious about his picture making. There are very few laughs on Cromwell sets.

9/5/1937 LAX Dorothy Manners
WHERE DOES THIS GO?
A newcomer to RKO-Radio, Richard, “Red” Skelton, will make his bow to the picture public in the Arthur Kober hit, Having a Wonderful Time, for which Kober is doing the screen play.
Skelton, a vaudeville and radio entertainer, is described as a comedian who is good-looking enough to be a leading man.
Another addition to the cast of Having a Wonderful Time, which will be directed by Al Santell with Ginger Rogers, is Lana Turner, who won attention in Mervyn LeRoy’s film, They Won’t Forget. And still another addition is Lucille Ball, who gained much favor among studio executives with her work in Stage Door, which, by the way, will be previewed tomorrow night.

9/14/1937 HCN Cinemania
By Edwin Martin
Lana Turner and Lee Bowman at the Knickerbocker.

10/2/1937 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Lana Turner, Hollywood’s youngest vamp, turning her charm on Johnny Downs at Levy’s tavern.

10/9/1937 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Buddy Westmore, Martha Raye’s ex, out night-clubbing with pretty Lana Turner at the Hawaiian Paradise.

10/29/1937 LAX They Won't Forget
A Warner Brothers picture, produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy, screenplay be Robert Rossen and Aben Kandel from a novel by Ward Greene. Presented at Warner Brothers Hollywood and Downtown theaters.
CAST: Claude Rains, Otto Kruger, Gloria Dickson, Allyn Joslyn, Edward Norris, Lana Turner.
By Louella O. Parsons
They Won’t Forget, Mervyn LeRoy’s dramatic bombshell, is a challenge to I Am a Fugitive and Fury for controversial excitement. Not since these two heavy dramas has there been such a stirring indictment against mob frenzy and mass prejudice.
Adapted from Ward Green’s best seller, “Death in the Deep South,” They Won’t Forget is a compelling tragedy of primitive human emotions mirrored with unprecedented courage. I don’t for a moment believe that this sociological drama will hold the same entertainment value as other LeRoy successes, but I do believe that no one who sees it will soon forget it. To Mervyn goes our admiration for not permitting this picture to fall under the usual movie influence.
The essence of They Won’t Forget is the flickering flame of Southern hatred for the North engendered in Civil War days and still smoldering. It flames up when a Northern teacher is accused of murdering a young Southern girl and is given no chance to prove his innocence. In spite of his wife’s earnest efforts and his Northern friends’ intervention, he becomes the victim of a fight between the legal forces of the North and South with his very life as forfeit.
The author never divulges the real murderer other than by subtle suggestion. Neither does he establish the teacher’s complete innocence. The solution of the murder is really left to the public. The motion picture has kept to that pattern with an excellent literal adaptation by Robert Rossen and Aben Kandel.
A group of youthful players personally selected by Mervyn LeRoy makes the cast a memorable one. There is lovely Gloria Dickson of the throaty voice and undeniable talent, who plays the young wife of the victim. Edward Norris is surprisingly good as the unhappy teacher, while Lana Turner, in a few brief scenes as the schoolgirl, and Allyn Joslyn, as the hustling reporter, display capability and show great promise.
Of course the star is played by that able and well-known actor, Claude Rains. As the District Attorney he portrays a fiery, ruthless politician who willingly sacrifices a man’s life to further his own ambition. It is a skillful characterization. Otto Kruger, another veteran favorite, is entirely satisfactory as the defense counsel, although he is overshadowed by Rains’ eloquence. Elisabeth Risdon registers as the condemned man’s mother, and Clinton Rosemond merits real applause for his performance as the terrified porter.
Chief claim of They Won’t Forget to our consideration is its powerful drama and the convincing manner in which it has been brought to the screen. LeRoy’s direction never wavers in its sincerity of purpose and to him also goes credit for a splendid production.
Second feature on the program is Love Is On the Air, a light romance with a background of radio. Ronald Reagan and June Travis have the leads, with Eddie Acuff, Robert Barrat and Ben Welden in support.

11/1/1937 HCN Ed Sullivan
Lana Turner has been directed by her studio to derail that Buddy Westmore romance.

11/10/1937 EHE Jimmy Starr
Don Barry’s tossing a swanky soiree for Lady Ann Hunloke this Sunday. Lana Turner and Marsha Hunt will act as hostesses.

11/12/1937 EHE The Great Garrick
A Warner Brothers production. Opened November 11, 1937, at Warners’ Hollywood and Downtown. Directed by James Whale. Screenplay by Ernst Vajda. CAST: Brian Aherne, Edward Everett Horton, Lionel Atwill, Luis Alberni, Marie Wilson, Fritz Leiber, Dorothy Tree, Olivia de Havilland, Melville Cooper, Henry O’Neill, Lana Turner, Etienne Girardot and Craig Reynolds.
Portia On Trial on same bill.
By Harrison Carroll
As a costume picture, The Great Garrick packs a surprise, for it is all comedy—sometimes polite, but just as often verging on the slapstick.
Handsomely produced and ably acted by Brian Aherne, Edward Everett Horton, Olivia de Havilland and others, the film should enjoy no small success at the Warner Brothers Hollywood and Downtown theaters.
The story relates an imaginary episode in the life of David Garrick, the famous English actor—a wild night in a French inn, with members of the Comedie Francaise posing as the staff of the hostelry and trying to scare Garrick out of his wits by a series of faked duels, and various other deeds of violence, including a madman running amok.
VENGEFUL TRICK
It is the Comedie’s way of punishing Garrick, who has been wrongfully quoted as saying that he was going to Paris to teach the French how to act.
Fortunately, Garrick is warned of the plot and takes it all in stride. He slips up, however, when he mistakes a beautiful fellow guest for one of the players in the conspiracy.
Brian Aherne was an excellent choice for the actor hero of the comedy.
He wears the 1750 costumes with assurance and he humorously highlights the vanities of Garrick as well as his graces.
Miss De Havilland’s role is too strictly the ingenue to allow her much opportunity but she lends her beauty and sincerity to what there is.
Horton, as Garrick’s man, Tubby, is better taken care of and, as usual, turns in a splendid comedy performance.
EFFECTIVE FARCE
The farcical turn of events in this Ernst Vajda story are all the more effective against the ancient-day backgrounds of the film. They come with the added flavor of unexpectedness, because costume pictures are usually of a more serious frame of mind.
Director of The Great Garrick was James Whale, who has specialized in war pictures, but who proves himself a capable craftsman in the different field.
This film was supervised by Mervyn LeRoy, one of the most versatile of the producers.
You’ll find The Great Garrick different and amusing.
On the same bill, the two Warner houses also sow a better than ordinary second feature, Portia On Trial.

11/23/1937 EHE Jimmy Starr
Lana Turner and Don Barry divided the first piece of wedding cake at the Jackie Coogan-Betty Grable wedding or doesn’t that signify romance?

2/26/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Lana Turner, once rumored married to Don Barry, La Congaing with Jay Seward.

3/2/1938 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Reine Davies
The new La Conga Café is the location. Edwardo Duranda and the lads of his orchestra are playing a rumba. The floor is crowded with dancers, each with that bored and blase expression that seems to characterize the Cuban dance. Jimmy, of that erratic Ritz fraternity, is dancing with Ruth Hilliard. Suddenly, with a berserk gesture, Jimmy leads the entire throng into a romping Big Apple. Feeling that their exotic rumba music is being desecrated, consternation reigns among the orchestra boys, while Jimmy and Ruth, Natalie and Tom Brown, Don Barry and Katherine (Sugar”) Kane, Dixie Dunbar and Tommy Seward, the Jack Arnolds, Ann Sheridan and Eddie Norris, all carry on in the Big Apple, a la rumba.
The occasion was a rumba cocktail dansant when Don Barry, Katherine Kane and Claude Straud chartered the entire La Conga and bid a party of their friends to gather.
Claude nearly missed his own party, arriving with brother Clarence after their radio broadcast. Others augmenting the merry din were Lee Bowman, Janet and Ed Flynn, Buddy Westmore, Betty Grable and Jackie Coogan, Robert Wilcox, Gloria and Barbara Brewster, Marjorie Weaver and Bill Davis, Anne Shirley and John Howard Payne, Barbara Read and Willard Parker, Marsha Hunt and Jeffrey Lynn, Greg Bautzer and Lana Rurner, Helen Craig and John Beal, Bill and Ella Wickersham, Maurice Murphy, Diana Lewis and Richard Aloyd, Johnny Downs, Frank Melton, Phyllis Fraser and Tommy Wonder.

3/5/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Lana Turner, who joined MGM at the time her boss, Mervyn LeRoy, moved into contention as a top MGM producer, has her first job there. She’ll play a part in Snug Harbor, the next Ray Bolger opus.



3/10/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Lana Turner, once rumored wed to Don Barry, now concentrating on Greg Bautzer, local attorney.

7/19/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Wayne Morris had a lot of explaining to do to Lana Turner, his present girl friend, after the Jim Crofton party, where he never left Renee Torres’ side.

8/11/1938 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
CANINE DEVOTEES TO CONVENE
If today you see Charlie McCarthy in brow-furrowed meditation, he’s probably thinking up caustic remarks to make tonight at the Tailwaggers’ enormous dinner dance at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Charlie will present the prize to the winner of Sonny Chalif’s elaborate cotillion.
Donated by Edgar Bergen, the prize is a pedigreed pooch, monikered after Charlie’s pal and partner in crime, Skinny Dugan. And you may be sure that Charlie will not fumble this ideal opportunity to get a few splintery remarks off his wooden chest.
If President Bette Davis’ brow is troubled today it is because she is wondering what she’ll do with all the Hollywoodites whose reservations have been pouring in. Closing the reservation books, Bette chartered another adjoining wing of the hotel. And, according to late reports, she will entertain a party of 22, topped by the presence of none other than the lionized Howard Hughes, who will have his uncle, Rupert Hughes, seated opposite him.
Anita Louise is also entertaining a party of 22, including Ray and Ada Dodge, Margaret Lindsay, the Harold Andersons, Dixie Dunbar, Robert Herndon, Bob Abbott, Frances Mercer, Lana Turner and Greg Bautzer, Bentley Ryan, Bud Adler and Hymie Cooper.
Constance Collier’s guests are Norma Talmadge and George Jessel, Ouida and Basil Rathbone, the Sonny Chaliffs, Dorothy Fields and Felix Young, the Oscar Hammersteins, George O’Neill and Tim Durant.
Norma Shearer has reservations for eight. Mary Pickford’s party will include Elsie deWolf (Ladddy Mendl). At Gwynne Pickford’s table there’ll be Walter Brooks III and Jacqueline Wells, the Jimmy Ellisons, the Bill Henrys, Mary Eloise McCarty, Ruth Mason, Bill McCready and Don Etlinger. Others will be Alice Brady, the Gary Coopers, the Henry Fondas, Una Merkel and Ronnie Burla, Helen Warren William, Billie Burke, Charlie Butterworth, Marjorie Gateson, the Ian Hunters, the Paul Munis, the Joe E. Browns, Elsie Janis, Barbara Stanwyck and Bob Taylor, Dick Powell and Joan Blondell, George Brent, Olivia de Havilland, Fay Bainter, Joan Bennett and Walter Wanger, Freddie Bartholomew and Aunt Cissy, Hedy Lamarr, Randy Scott, the James Lindsays, Jean Parker and George MacDonald, Mrs. Liz Whitney, Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, the Jimmy Gleasons, June and Stu Erwin and a host of others.

8/20/1938 SFC Hedda Hopper
Lana Turner disclosed a figure worthy of a bathing suit ad in the Judge Hardy pictures. Came into her own in Rich Man, Poor Girl. Should ride to glory in Northwest Passage.

9/8/1938 DN Three Loves Has Nancy
By Harry Mines
Three Loves Has Nancy is the one about the little country girl who came to the big city and found romance. Although the story may be tried, true and obvious, still it has been developed with freshness and amiability. Dialog is brisk, characters pleasantly surface in the writing and situations well arranged. And there you have the picture which arrived yesterday at Loew’s State and Grauman’s Chinese theaters.
Janet Gaynor, baby voiced and appealing, does a thorough job of naive Nancy from Birch Falls who can’t understand why the folks in New York aren’t more “neighborly.”
Nancy, it seems, sets foot in Manhattan in search of the man who had jilted her on their wedding day. She meets Robert Montgomery and Franchot Tone. They manage to keep her well occupied and themselves as well. Nancy goes to work as a cook for Montgomery. Next door neighbor Tone finds many reasons to wend his way into the kitchen of his good friend.
It’s lighthearted comedy, simple and easy to take, with the Messrs. Montgomery and Tone at their best. You’ll enjoy the way they jostle each other as each seeks the society of Nancy.
In the supporting cast are Claire Dodd, Reginald Owen, Cora Witherspoon, Emma Dunn, Charley Grapewin, Lester Matthews and Grady Sutton.
Richard Thorpe directed from a script prepared by Bella and Sam Spewack from an original by Lee Loeb and Mort Braus.
As the second feature on the program, Edith Ellis’ hit play of some seasons ago, “White Collars,” comes to light under the title of Rich Girl, Poor Girl, and manages to be exhilarating fare, thanks to the zestful efforts of Robert Young, Lew Ayres, Ruth Hussey, Lana Turner, Rita Johnson, Don Castle, Sara Padden, Guy Kibbee, Gordon Jones, Virginia Grey and Marie Blake.

10/19/1938 DN Raves and Raps
By Harry Mines
On the day censors were reported pouncing upon certain story incidents in Zaza as being too torrid, Idiot’s Delight went before the cameras. Now, the Robert Sherwood melodrama, which Lunt and Fontanne played with such brilliant success in the theater, had its difficulties with the gentlemen who hand out the “do’s” and “don’ts” to the film industry.
But the yammering against Idiot’s Delight was occasioned by the fact that the straight spoken script aimed well timed, definite slaps against certain European powers. It was declared that unless changes were made, lines toned down and the locale made a mythical country, the picture couldn’t continue. So for some weeks MGM executives, author Sherwood and principal players Norma Shearer and Clark Gable were stymied. They couldn’t go to work until something was done about the situation.
On the studio backlot yesterday, Gable made his first scenes in the role of hoofer Harry Van. In the translation to the cinema, Sherwood has depicted earlier incidents in the lives of his two principal characters that he only spoke about in the show.
Gable was returning from war with the rest of the soldiers while the civilian populace of the city cheered a welcome. In this portion, Sherwood begins the antiwar propaganda which is skillfully interwoven throughout the later reels when Van, the mysterious Russian woman, the communist, the munitions official, the young newlyweds and the philosophic doctor are cooped up in a mountain resort hotel in “a mythical country” on the eve of a new world conflagration.
The picture will show Van and Irene’s first meeting when they are playing a third-rate vaudeville circuit, he a mindreader’s assistant, she a chorus girl.
Years later, of course, they come face to face in the lobby of the European inn. He now is a song and dance man, leading an entourage of blond chorines on a series of bookings. She has armed herself with a phoney accent, long golden bob, and an air of mystery. But Harry Van knows there to be something familiar about this glamorous person and challenges her.
When the enemy is conducing a horrifying air raid and the end of the world has seemingly arrived, the two strangers in love are to be found at the piano singing “Onward Christian Soldier.” They are alone in the hostelry. All others have fled. As a bomb hits its mark, the building, in which Harry and Irene are standing definitely by the piano, shouting at the top of their lungs, blows up. There’s a silence for a moment. And as the film comes to a conclusion, the words of “Onward Christian Soldier” continues to ring out from somewhere in the ruins.
Gable has been practicing tap dancing, is selfconscious about it because of the ribbing he has taken, but determined to do a good job of the dance sequences. Van, happy go lucky, shrewd, kind and considerate, is less than adequate as a stepper. So Gable will have to be good to be bad. Like Alfred was in the play.
Several years ago when he was in New York, Gable left his hotel on the way to the Shubert Theater where the Lunts were presenting “Idiot’s Delight.” When frantic ladies, anxious to see their hero, tipped over the taxicab in which he was riding, gable, in escaping from the crowds, missed the first act. Informed of this, the Lunts invited Gable to a private performance of the portion he had missed.
Miss Shearer and Gable are the only cast members so far set. Players are still being tested for the other roles. Lana Turner, Virginia Grey and Dixie Dunbar are pretty certain to be a trio of chorus girls.

1/7/1939 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Lana Turner out of the hospital and school, too, with her old flame, Greg Bautzer, at the Cocoanut Grove.

4/12/1939 HCN
Lana Turner will have a headline role in These Glamour Girls, which will have its principal locale at Princeton.

4/18/1939 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Ella Wickersham
Ouida (Mrs. Basil) Rathbone gave her all, and it was plenty. In fact, Ouida’s ingenious and artistic all precipitated the most scintillating party in Hollywood’s brilliant history, and left the coffers of Ann Lehr’s Hollywood Guild tinkling to the tune of a small fortune.
Never, during all the years that we have viewed the Hollywood scene in the rosy glow of its social life, has there been a party that so exquisitely merged high reveling with royal elegance, magnitude with intimate camaraderie and sheer beauty with a circus tent setup.
With a cocktail oasis and many carnival concessions at each end of the huge tent, two acres of breath-taking gardens stretched out between. Ringside tables flanked two large dance floors and to the music of Phil Ohman’s orchestra 800 of the film colony’s creme de la creme dined, danced and made merry until 5 o’clock in the morning.
In the fact that Hollywood is the world’s recruiter of feminine beauty, it is safe to say that never has there been such an assemblage of pulchritudinous femmes. Interesting it was to note that despite the constant invasion of new glamour girls, our own Mary Pickford, Dolores Del Rio and Loretta Young not only held their own, but actually stole the picture.
With Dick was Virginia Grey, a gal who has all of La Dietrich’s blonde beauty, plus vibrant youth and refreshing artlessness.
Giving vent to a long repressed desire, Eddie G. Robinson led the orchestra during much of the evening. Young Doug Fairbanks proudly cavaliered his bride-to-be, Mrs. Mary Lee Epling Hartford, who, by the way, looks much like his stepmother, Sylvia Fairbanks. In the little matter of having a good time, Errol Flynn hit a new high.
Dolores Del Rio stole the fashion spot in a white mousseline de sole gown with a billowy skirt, all aswirl with tricolored taffetta ruffles of hyacinth blue, dusky rose and peach, ending in a huge bow in back. In direct contrast the Glamorous Hedy Lamarr wore a simple peasant frock, featuring a wine colored skirt, a white nainsook blouse and a black velvet corselet.
At 5 in the morning, about 50 revelers still carried on, first, with indications and, finally, an impromptu show. Ray Bolger went into his dance. Rosalind Russell sang to Fred MacMurray’s clarinet accompaniment. With Hubby Leslie Fenton at the piano, Ann Dvorak warbled a tune or two. And then, in turn, Ina Claire and Rex Evans came on in dance routines.
The William Goetz party included Tyrone Power and Annabella, Claudette Colbert and Dr. Joel Pressman. In Dolores Del Rio and Cedric Gibbons’ party were Marlene Dietrich and Erich (“All Quiet”) Remarque, Lili Damita and Errol Flynn and the Gary Coopers.
Another party included Glenda Farrell and Toni Lewis, Sue and Otto Kruger, Irene Hervey and Allan Jones, Virginia Field, Dick Hargreaves and Helen Ferguson, Bill Wickersham, Dick Arlen and Virginia Grey, Anita Louise and Buddy Adler, Jewell Smith and Howard Sharp.
With Mary Pickford were Verna and Sonny Chalif, Frances Marion, Barbara Bond, Ina Claire and William Wallace. Gwynne Pickford, Jacqueline Wells Brooks and Constance Collier.
The guests of Hal and Margaret Roach and the Jules Steins were George Burns and Gracie Allen, Edgar Bergen, Walter Karri Davies, Louella O. Parsons, Jean and Charlie Feldman and the Leigh Battsons. With Kay Francis and Baron Barnekow were the George Murphys, Cesar Romero and Ann Sheridan and the Lewis Milestones.
Others were Basil Rathbone and the Rodion Rathbones, Loretta Young and Jimmy Stewart, Joan Bennett and Walter Wanger, Sonja Henie and Vic Orsatti, Rudy Vallee with Mary Healy, Walter Brooks III, Eloise and Pat O’Brien and the Jimmy Cagneys, Hedy Lamarr and Gene Markey, Sally Eilers and Harry Joe Brown, Brian Aherne, his parents and Eddie G. Robinson, Hope and Lewis Lighton, Mary Livingstone and Jack Benny, Carmen and John Considine, “Jefty” O’Connor, Harry Crocker, Mrs. Gladys Peabody, Ivan Lebedeff and Mrs. Aileen Florey, Miriam Hopkins and Anatole Litvak, the Mervyn LeRoys, Eddie Sutherland and Edwina Mandell with Myrna Loy, Marina de Schubert, the Frank Lloyds, Eddie Everett Horton, Irene Rich, Mrs. Spencer Tracy, the Tom Menefees, Janet Gaynor and Adrian, Arline Pringle, Lloyd Pantages, Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, Cary Grant and Phyllis Brooks, Nedda Harrigan and Walter Connolly, Joe Schenck, the Bill Moorings, Add Randall, Lana Turner and Greg Bautzer, Myra Kingsley and, well, the remaining contents of Hollywood’s Blue Book.

6/14/1939 HCN Maisie
By C.C.
Maisie is a saucy blonde. She's weak on grammar but strong on getting her man, and definitely on the up and up. She's the gal who gave the new headline attraction at Grauman's Chinese and Loew's State theaters its title.
For screen program purposes Maisie is teamed with Dr. Kildare in more of his adventures before the cameras. And as a team Maisie and Calling Dr. Kildare make up a corking bill, just right for Summer consumption.
In Maisie, Ann Sothern caps what is known as a comeback—something that any veteran will tell you is hard, and well-nigh impossible, to do in the acting business. Miss Sothern had a movie heyday several years ago. Then nothing much was heard about her until she scored a hit in the second lead a few months ago in a picture called Trade Winds. With her bang-up performance as Maisie, she is right back on top.
The story of Maisie isn't very important, and although it concerns itself with an unfaithful wife, a suicide and a murder trial, it is still on the comedy side. Maisie is an ex-honkytonk girl who lands in a Wyoming cowtown and sets her cap for a ranch manager.
Robert Young is the rancher. Women are poison to him, and especially Maisie, until he finds out that she's on the level. The owner of the ranch (Ian Hunter) is deeply in love with his wife (Ruth Hussey) whom he can trust about as far as he can throw the Empire State Building. The husband's eventual suicide looks like murder to the police, with Maisie's boy friend as the culprit. Maisie's timely arrival at the trial and a letter written before his death by the husband save her fiancé's neck.
Calling Dr. Kildare features Lew Ayres as the young doctor and Lionel Barrymore as a veteran It is the second in Metro's Kildare pictures, and stamps the series as an eminently successful one. Laraine Day, Lana Turner and Nat Pendleton are among those in the cast.