Fred Astaire In the 30's
8/31/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Maurice Chevalier paid a visit to the Universal lot yesterday. However, a visit to the lot does not necessarily mean the signing of a contract, although I managed to glean that Chevalier paid his visit to discuss the possibility of playing the lead in By Candlelight. This is the picture for which Paul Lukas and Elissa Landi already have been signed, but since there are two big feminine roles and two equally large male roles in the play, there is room for everybody if Chevalier should decide to make this picture. And the signing of Chevalier certainly would be a feather in the cap of Junior Laemmle, as well as one for director William Wyler.
And speaking of Chevalier, a reader of this column who has seen productions of "The Merry Widow" in Vienna, Paris and London, Madrid, Mexico City and Havana, writes in to say that although Chevalier was beloved in Paris, particularly when he appeared with Mistinguette, he looks and sings too much like a boulevardier for the lead in The Merry Widow. This correspondence points out that Chevalier does not pretend to have a fine singing voice, and that Joan Crawford odes not boast much of a voice either. And since Chevalier and Joan both are scheduled for The Merry Widow, he is wondering when MGM will discover that the piece is an operetta and requires singing voices. Then he adds that John Boles and Irene Dunne would be the perfect combination for The Merry Widow since both have fine voices and are popular at the box office.
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William Frawley, the New York stage actor who recently was signed to a Paramount contract, has been given assignments that will keep him busy for weeks to come. At present he is at work on Captain Jericho. His next assignment will be with Cary Grant in Come On, Marines. After that he is scheduled to play with George Raft and Carole Lombard in All Of Me, and when that is complete Frawley steps into the cast of The Search For Beauty. Not man film beginners have assignments piled up like that.
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You may have suspected that the stars rather enjoy attending big premieres of their pictures. The theaters enjoy their presence, too, which should make everyone happy. May Robson left for New York last night to be on hand for the Gotham opening of Lady For a Day, the picture which is said to give her stardom. Critics and preview audience have raved over this film made by Columbia.
Another star will cross an ocean to attend a New York opening. He is Leslie Howard, now in London, who will sail for New York in time for the premiere of Berkeley Square, which is a pretentious picture. Jesse Lasky wins the laurels as producer of this film.
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On the Radio Pictures lot yesterday I stumbled across Douglass Montgomery, who was taking a test for the male lead in Three Came Unarmed. Dorothy Jordan, I hear, previously has been selected for the feminine lead. Which is quite a contrast to Katharine Hepburn, for whom the story originally was bought. Young Montgomery recently completed a role in Little Women at this studio, where his work is favored. And Dorothy Jordan, who is now Mrs. Merian C. Cooper, is slated for three big pictures. The other two are Trigger and Wild Birds.
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Manuel Komroff certainly has won his spurs in writing screen stories of famous sirens. Paramount originally brought him out to write Her Regiment of Lovers for Marlene Dietrich. That story is based on the life of Catherine the Great of Russia. And Komroff was so successful in writing the life of this siren, that now Cecil DeMille has put him to the task of bringing Cleopatra to the screen. Claudette Colbert will be Cleo.
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Production has been slack on the Fox lot, but there will be much activity this week. Four new pictures will start off on Monday, only I'll wager they don't get started until Tuesday since Monday will be Labor Day. The four are As Husbands Go, with Warner Baxter and Helen Vinson; Hoopla with Clara Bow; There's Always Tomorrow, with Will Rogers, and The Mad Game.
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Bill Cagney, who invariably brings the explanation that he is the brother of Jimmy Cagney, also looks enough like his famous brother to be mistaken for him. This is rather annoying to Bill who would like to establish an identity of his own, now that he is launching on a screen career. However, the mistaken identity has brought him one moment that he relished. Bill was visiting Jimmy on the Warner lot, when a stranger approached him and handed him a 10 dollar bill. "That," said the stranger, "is the 10 you gave me in New York about a year ago."
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The cast of Forever Faithful is rapidly being filled at MGM, Richard Dix, as you know, has the lead, with Madge Evans, Stuart Erwin and Una Merkel in other important roles. And this morning Spanky, of Our Gang at Hal Roach, was set for a role, as well as Isabel Jewell and Raymond Hatton. Charles Brabin will direct.
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Casting About—Clarence Geldert has been signed for a nice role in Broken Dreams, which Robert Vignola will direct for Mongram. Geldert is also celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, which is even more notable. Sidney Miller, juvenile actor, has gone to Warners for a part in The Shakedown. He recently finished a part in Rafter Romance at Radio Pictures.
Fred Astaire In the 30'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 — Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles)
LAR — Los Angeles Record
LAPR — Los Angeles Post-Record
LAX — Los Angeles Examiner
MPH — Motion Picture Herald
SFC — San Francisco Chronicle
1/3/1931 EE Two Masterpieces
By Mark Barron
A year which gives to the theater two such extraordinary masterpieces of drama as "Green Pastures" and "Grand Hotel" must be set down as a successful one.
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Musical shows were, for the most part, good, although only "Three's a Crowd" and the "Vanities" could be classed as exceptional.
Ziegfeld's "Smiles," despite the pleasant presence of Adele Astaire, was coldly received.
5/1/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Paramount is to have its Big Broadcast of 1934, introducing radio stars and now Radio Pictures is to have a similar picture centered about Radio City. It is to be called Radio City Revels and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are chalked up for the two leading roles.
2/2/1933 HCN Radio
By Zuma Palmer
In addition to Fred Astaire, guest artists on Rudy Vallee's program at 5 over KFI will be Weber and Fields, William Demarest and Collette, his vaudeville partner; Janet Beecher and Claude Raines. A scene from "Bill of Divorcement" will be enacted by Miss Beecher and Mr. Raines.
4/10/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Plenty of singing and dancing and gay music will enliven Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford, who was a professional dancer and who admits dancing is her favorite indoor sport, will dance to her heart's content in Dancing Lady. There is a rumor that she may have as her partner that internationally known dancer, Fred Astaire. Robert Montgomery is her big moment in Dancing Lady.
Robert Leonard has his hand in musical specials for fair. He has just finished Peg o' My Heart, Marion Davies' picture, in which there is some of the catchiest music of the year. Now he succeeds Clarence Brown, who will be kept busy with Night Flight, as director.
5/1/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Vincent Youmans, whose popular tunes and musical comedy work are known to everyone, is the latest composer to trek back to Hollywood for the new musical cycle that is under way. He arrived in town last night with a contract at Radio Pictures where he will write the music for Flying Down to Rio, a musical air extravaganza which Lou Brock will produce.
5/3/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
The nimble-footed Fred Astaire without Adele, who is now Lady Cavandish, is coming to Hollywood. His agents have been negotiating for quite a spell with certain of our studios, but it's Radio that finally signed him for Flying Down to Rio, a musical comedy.
When I tell you that Vincent Youmans has been engaged to write the score, you will know this is going to be a pretentious musical with all sorts of trimmings. The book is by Anne Caldwell and Lou Brock, who used to content himself with producing snappy shorts. Mr. Brock has been put in charge of the whole show.
5/15/1933 LAX ART OF WEARING CLOTHES
By Louella O. Parsons
Who are the twelve best dressed men in the world? What dozen well-turned-out, well-groomed and correctly dressed men deserve this distinction of being the world's smartest dressers? Adolphe Menjou has his own idea. He says it isn't always the man who is outfitted in fine clothes and expensive linen who can be called well dressed, but it's the man who has the art of "wearing" clothes.
"A man to be classed among the world's best dressers," says Mr. Menjou, "must have a flair for clothes. He must know what tie to wear with a morning suit; he must choose the proper shirt to wear with his evening clothes and he must carry off the whole thing with just the right air.
"A man who is chic," says Mr. Menjou, "can start almost any clothes fad and establish it as a popular mode. Such a man is extremely helpful to the merchants all over the world. Napoleon recognized the value of having his men well dressed. He issued an order that his soldiers must wear better uniforms and immediately there was an increased market for gold braid."
Mr. Menjou, who is recognized as one of the best-dressed men both here and abroad, gives the following men as his selection for the best-dressed men in the world:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Barrymore, William Rhinelander Stewart, Fred Astaire, Mario Carrciollo, the Prince of Wales, Prince George, Clive Brook, Cedric Gibbons, Antonio de Portago, Maharajah of Alwar.
The Prince of Wales has a special flair for clothes and a chic that is an art, according to Mr. Menjou. What about John Barrymore, who has a reputation of not caring a rap about clothes? He has even been accused of being slovenly.
"When John was on stage, years ago," said Mr. Menjou, "there was no one who looked as smart and who wore clothes better. He may not keep his wardrobe up to the minute now, but he has that certain knack of wearing the right things and knowing how to wear them."
William Powell and Richard Barthelmess, according to Mr. Menjou, always look well, but they haven't the same ability to wear clothes. Therefore he cannot classify them in the select list of twelve.
To be "the best-dressed men" you must have that certain flair and chic, and only a few men, according to Adolphe Menjou, possess them. It's an art or a talent, if you please.
6/20/1933 EHE Harrison Carroll
No star with a singing voice is being overlooked in the new craze for musicals. The tune-films now are to get Dolores Del Rio, who will take the feminine lead in RKO's Flying Down to Rio.
This picture, scheduled to follow Dance of Desire which Donald Henderson Clarke is writing for Dolores, also will feature Fred Astaire, one of Broadway's favorite sons.
6/20/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Raul Roulien, the Brazilian star who has been making Spanish and English pictures for Fox, is proving his versatility. At the moment he is doing a Spanish version of Pleasure Cruise, and he has written the Spanish lyrics for the songs. When all this is finished, he will be loaned to Radio Pictures for the lead in Flying Down to Rio, which is the pretentious musical planned by Lou Brock. According to present indications, Dolores Del Rio will be the feminine star of this picture. Fred Astaire, Helen Broderick and Chic Chandler, all of the stage, are also set for featured parts in this film.
7/4/1933 EHE ASTAIRES DANCE INTO ROMANCE
Fred Astaire, who danced to musical comedy fame with his sister, Adele, now follows her in stepping onto society romance amid mansions. The photo in center shows them in stage days as The Dancing Astaires. A year ago, Adele married Lord Cavendish, at left, who took her from the stage to his ancestral estate of Lismore in England. Astaire soon will marry Mrs. Phyllis Potter, New York society beauty at right—who is the niece of Mrs. Henry W. Bull.
PHOTOS
7/13/1933 EHE FRED ASTAIRE WEDS SOCIETY DIVORCEE
New York, AP, 7/13
Assured of the custody of her 4-year-old invalid son, for all but one month in each year, Mrs. Phyllis Livingstone Potter, society divorcee, gave romance its turn by marrying Fred Astaire, musical comedy star and dancer.
The couple were married yesterday evening by Supreme Court Justice Selah B. Strong at his Brooklyn court chambers. The ceremony was brief and witnessed only by a small group of friends. Henry W. Bull, an uncle, attended the bride. They will honeymoon in Hollywood.
The marriage came as a surprise in its suddenness following an agreement out of court giving her custody of her son for 11 months of each year and her first husband, Eliphalet Nott Potter, custody of the boy for the 12th month.
7/14/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
The confusion still exists for choice for a male lead in Joan Crawford's current picture, Dancing Lady. Walter Winchell, I'm told, has been approached to play with Joan. But his ridiculously high salary demand probably will stall the deal. Then there's also talk that Fred Astaire will have a part with Joan. He is coming to Hollywood to be the star of Flying Down to Rio, the big musical picture to be made by Radio Pictures. And MGM at the same time admits that it still may await the return of Clark Gable to fill this vacant male lead in Dancing Lady.
7/15/1933 LAR Fred Astaire on Way to Hollywood
Fred Astaire, Broadway musical comedy star, departs from the Gay White Way today bound for Hollywood to make his screen debut as the stellar figure of Flying Down to Rio, RKO-Radio aerial Brazilian musical.
7/15/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Speaking of young leading men, Dolores Del Rio is to have one, too, although she won't have Joel McCrea this time. Gene Raymond has been signed by Radio Pictures for the lead opposite Miss Del Rio in its elaborate musical film, Flying Down to Rio. Young Raymond has been on the brink of several important assignments since he completed Zoo In Budapest for Jesse Lasky. He was announced for the lead with Anna Sten in Nana and then withdrew from the cast because he declined to darken his very blond hair. Fred Astaire, from the New York stage, will make his screen debut in the comedy lead of Flying Down to Rio, and other important roles will be filled by Chick Chandler and Helen Broderick.
7/29/1933 EHE Strolling...Jimmy Starr
Fred Astaire has been teaching Joan Crawford his famous runaround dance for Dancing Lady.
8/13/1933 LAX Reine Davies
BEVERLY 'DERBY' ATTRACTS STARS
Beverly Hills Brown Derby has been the setting for many gay luncheon parties composed of members of the film colony lately. Among them were noticed Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone, with the Fred Astaires, Glenda Farrell and Robert Riskin, Bruce Cabot, Lola Lane and Lyle Talbot, Helene Costello and Senor del Barrio.
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Fred Astaire, celebrated dancer of Joan Crawford's new picture, and his wife, the former Phyllis Cooper of New York, entertained at dinner in the Colony Club last Tuesday night. Countess Frasso and Jerry Asher were guests.
8/24/1933 FD A Little From Hollywood Lots
By Ralph Wilk
RKO Radio Pictures has completed the cast of principals for Lou Brock's musical extravaganza, Flying Down to Rio. It is scheduled to go before the cameras immediately with Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Fred Astaire, Raul Roulien and Ginger Rogers heading the cast. Thornton Freeland will direct. Brock will supervise and the music, on the torrid, languorous Latin-American order, will be supplied by Vincent Youmans of "Tea For Two" fame.
9/28/1933 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Reine Davies
Celebrating a temporary farewell to Mrs. Fred Astaire, who later will be joined by her husband and young son in New York, Fred Astaire entertained at dinner and, later at the theater last Sunday, the eve of Mrs. Astaire's departure. Among other guests were Ricardo Cortez and Mrs. M. Lee. The Astaire's ultimate destination is London, where Fred will open in his new musical show.
9/28/1933 LAX Close-Ups
By James E. Mitchell
Fred Astaire will be winging it across country tonight on his way to London, where they're simply panting to open "The Gay Divorcee." but can't go on without him.
10/16/1933 LAR Cinematters
By Relman Morin
...Fred Astaire, the dancer, hasn't shaved himself in 15 years. He takes Walter Williams, an expert barber, with him wherever he goes.
11/18/1933 EHE Preview
By Jimmy Starr
Dancing Lady
Rating: Excellent
Produced by MGM. Starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable with Franchot Tone. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. Story by James Warner Bellah. Screen play and dialogue by Allen Riskin and P.J. Wolfson. David O. Selznick, executive producer. John W. Considine Jr., associate producer.
That rare and thrilling combination—Joan and Clark! I'm so daffy about Joan, she could do no wrong upon the screen, and I'm one male who likes Gable because he never seems to be acting. And I think Ted Healy and his Stooges are the funniest things in the films, so you might as well know that I "sorta go for this film in a big way."
Dancing lady is a yarn that has been told many times before, but never with the realism and the humor. Countless backstage stories have been done, but this one digs deeper into the heartaches and the strange twists of fate, the old she-devil who changes so many lives with a mere gesture.
Joan portrays a stage-struck girl who places her career above everything else. Marriage to a Park Avenue socialite means but a last resort—if her dancing days are over. Her patience, her eagerness and her bull-dog temperament to succeed are not unlike Joan's own spirit in her climb to cinema fame. That is why, perhaps, Joan puts so much into the role.
She climbs from burlesque honky tonk, where she did what is known as a "strip-tease" to her name in lights on Broadway, but that is incidental to the real human part of the film. There's Gable as a slightly cold and hard dance director who creates this dancing wonder, only to lose her. There is the sly plotting of the mysterious show-backer (Franchot Tone) to end the girl's career. It's all done so easily, so smoothly and so entertainingly that one is sorry it all must end.
Joan, Clark and Franchot are at their best—and that's saying considerable. Ted Healy proves himself more than a slapstick comic surrounding by stooges. He's a real actor and a mighty good one. May Robson, Grant Mitchell, Maynard Holmes, Sterling Holloway, Winnie Lightner and Robert Benchley all lend excellent support. Fred Astaire executes some nifty dance steps and Nelson Eddy warbles a song splendidly. Moe Howard, Jerry Howard and Larry Fine, the stooges are up to their usual hilarious tricks.
Robert Z. Leonard did a magnificent directorial job, while a handful of praise also goes to Sammy Lee for his startling dance routines and ensembles. They are terribly smart and refreshingly new. Allen Rivkin and P.J. Wolfson contributed much with their scenario and dialogue.
Dancing Lady is cinched to be one of the most popular productions of the year.
12/16/1933 EHE Previews
By Jimmy Starr
Flying Down to Rio
Rating: Splendid
Produced by RKO-Radio Pictures—Starring Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Directed by Thornton Freeland. Association Director George Nichols Jr. Original story by Lou Brock, also associate producer. Play by Anne Caldwell. Screen Play by Cyril Hume, H. W. Hanemann and Erwin Geisler.
Well, here's one that made super-critical and jaded Hollywood sit up, take notice and GASP between laughs! Flying Down to Rio puts a flock of cinemaland's latest musicals right in the amateur class!
There is no use dodging the issue—it is strictly a gay, frolicking, highly-hokumized musical from start to finish! If you are tiring of tunefilms, then don't—at least, not for another hour and a half. You haven't seen anything yet!
The plot? But what is that, when there is so much lovely music to hear, so many exceptional dances to watch and jolly cast of clever performers practically bend over backwards to see that you are thoroughly, good-naturedly and whole-heartedly entertained.
There is one tango, or sort of rhumba, the Carioca, that will have you out of your seat cheering. Dave Gould, the dance director, should start a school for all other dance directors, and specialize in originality lessons. And you've never seen anybody like Fred Astaire for light fantastic stuff.
The story has something to do with a flirting band leader who is constantly losing jobs for his orchestra. Finally, kicked out of one place, they are bound for Rio and the heroine just happens to live there! They must save a hotel from crooks, straighten out a tangled love affair, and so on.
The aerial musical routine, with dozens of airplanes loaded with beauties, is one of the most tantalizing bits to be seen in years. Dolores Del Rio is a lovely heroine, while Gene Raymond is splendid as the romantic band leader. Ginger Rogers takes good care of a hot vocal number and most of the comedy lines, while Fred Astaire is destined to be the latest rave of the movie fans.
Here's to associate producer Lou Brock and director Thornton Freeland, composer Vincent You... [illegible] the entire cast and the technical crew, for one of the most enjoyable films of the year.
12/27/1933 EHE LIFE STORY OF STAR IN LOEW'S BILL
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable Return to LA Screen
By Penelope Roberts
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable return to screen audiences Thursday at Loew's State.
Joan Crawford's own life was the story material used in Dancing Lady, MGM picture.
The picture, to a certain extent, closely follows the star's own experience as a dancing girl up to the time she entered pictures.
The story is that of a dancer, stepping her way to Broadway fame. Robert Z. Leonard directed the adaptation of James Warner Bellah's novel of the same name.
Broadway itself has been drawn on for the supporting cast. Featured are Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Fred Astaire, Robert Benchley, Ted Healy and his amazing Stooges, Nelson Eddy and Art Jarrett.
12/29/1933 HCN Dancing Lady
By James Francis Crow
The screen reunion of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, who did smash box office business at the same house, as I recall, in a film called Possessed, was effected yesterday at Loew's State Theater in a new one called Dancing Lady, product of MGM. With the theme of illegal love long since out of date, Gable and Miss Crawford appear as the exponent of the new cycle, namely that of the backstage musical.
Although neither Gable nor Miss Crawford belongs in the seventh sphere of this particular reviewer's heaven of film favorites, their new vehicle not only has elicited enthusiastic praise from the New York critics, but also has had gratifying success at the ticket windows in the eastern metropolis. Judging from the indications at Loew's yesterday, the film will enjoy the same cordial reception here.
Dancing Lady is notable in the respect that it is said to parallel in some instances the story of Miss Crawford's own rise to fame in the theatrical profession. She appears, as the picture opens, as a strip dancer in a burlesque house. It is here that Franchot Tone, a wealthy playboy, meet her, falls in love with her, and proposes that she allow him to assist her in winning a chance in a Broadway revue.
Eventually she does, happily without any sacrifice of a virtue so inviolable as to be almost incredible in the life of a strip artist.. Good luck for the leading lady is bad luck for the playboy, for Miss Crawford promptly falls in love with Mr. Gable, who appears as the taciturn dance director of the revue. Thereafter the picture follows closely the formula laid down for backstage musicals, with Miss Crawford coming to the rescue at the last moment when Gable's show threatens to flop through the incapacity of the original leading woman.
The musical revue sequences in the film are, as usual, so spectacular as to be entirely unbelievable unless assumed to have been staged in the main auditorium of Madison Square Garden. The highlight is a hit in which Miss Crawford goes sailing round through the ether on a magic carpet in the company of Fred Astaire. Through all of them Miss Crawford's dances, vigorously and ungracefully, but far more capably, at any rate, than do most movie heroines when faced with a similar task. A sharp disappointment in these sequences is the subordination of Fred Astaire, one of America's top-notch dancing men.
Robert Z. Leonard directed the picture, with the dance numbers created by Sammy Lee and Eddie Prinz. Allen Rivkin and P.J. Wolfson wrote the screen play from the original story by James Warner Bellah. In supporting roles are such good players as Ted Healy, Grant Mitchell, May Robson, Gloria Fox and Maynard Holmes.
A Charley Chase comedy, Luncheon at Twelve accompanies the feature at Loew's.
12/29/1933 LAPR DANCE FILM AT LOEW'S FIRST RATE
Joan Crawford Clicks in Picture of Her Life Story
By Jack Pollpexfen
Joan Crawford troupes her way through Dancing Lady, one of the best of Hollywood's musicals, and certainly the best of the star's recent pictures.
Crowds that jammed the sidewalks about Loew's State discovered the film contained a more convincing and human story than has come to be expected in backstage song and dance frolics.
Police sirens shriek as New York's 'finest' protect the public morals with a raid on an east end burlesque house. Joan steps out of the swinging chorus into a night court, and from there to Broadway and stardom.
Crawford looks the dancing girl, and what's more, she handles her feet in a way that looks as if in a pinch she could stop a show.
Bewildering and fantastically beautiful is the result of MGM's use of mirrors to produce the glittering effect revealed in the finale. It fully matches the tops in dazzling eye assault that has characterized the recent epidemic of musicals.
Clark Gable is effective in a part hardly large enough to carry his co-star billing. Fred Astaire's dancing and Ted Healy with his stooges, brought gasps from the audience.
Competently cast are Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner and Maynard Holmes. Robert Leonard Directed. A Charley Chase comedy is also on the bill.
12/29/1933 LAX Dancing Lady
By Louella O. Parsons
Dancing Lady is the picture that Joan Crawford's public has been waiting to see. The hey-hey girl with the smile, and lips that are not over rouged this time, is a mighty welcome holiday number at Loew's State Theater. I don't know whether David O. Selznick, producer of Dancing Lady, selected this musical comedy for MGM, but whoever did deserves credit for giving the world back the delightfully natural Joan Crawford with whom the fans originally fell in love.
There is nothing especially new about the story written by Allen Rivkin and P.J. Woolfson from the book by James Warner Bellah. Backstage atmosphere, a harried producer and a Park Avenue romance have all been used on many occasions for a musical comedy background, but there is something distinctly new the treatment of Dancing Lady. For that, young Mr. Selznick and John Considine Jr. can take a bow.
Few pictures have so pretentious a cast and few are so elaborately costumed and given such beautiful settings for the stage numbers as Dancing Lady. Robert Leonard, who, when all is said and done, always manages to give a certain individuality to his direction, has done well by Miss Crawford both from the standpoint of exploiting her excellent dancing and for keeping the story consistency well-balanced.
Now about this platinum cast which surrounds Lady Joan. There is, first and foremost, Clark Gable, whose characterization as the taciturn, grouchy stage producer rates a big hand. It's a different Clark and an interesting one. Franchot Tone is extremely likeable as the Park Avenue suitor. In fact, you feel sorry when the chorus girl gives him the mitten. Winnie Lightner as the girl friend of the heroine, who started with her in the cheap burlesque house, is amusing. There is not much of Fred Astaire, but his dancing is a noteworthy feature.
Neither Robert Benchley nor his role of busy columnist gets much of a break and May Robson is only in a few scenes. Nelson Eddy's superb voice is heard in one number. Art Jarrett has a bit, as have Grant Mitchell, Maynard Holmes and Sterling Holloway.
There are plenty of good-looking girls in the chorus, just in case the male population craves an eyeful. All in all let me recommend Dancing Lady as worthwhile holiday entertainment.
Supplementing the feature attraction is a Charlie Chase comedy, Luncheon at 12, and the Hearst Metrotone Newsreel.
Maurice Chevalier paid a visit to the Universal lot yesterday. However, a visit to the lot does not necessarily mean the signing of a contract, although I managed to glean that Chevalier paid his visit to discuss the possibility of playing the lead in By Candlelight. This is the picture for which Paul Lukas and Elissa Landi already have been signed, but since there are two big feminine roles and two equally large male roles in the play, there is room for everybody if Chevalier should decide to make this picture. And the signing of Chevalier certainly would be a feather in the cap of Junior Laemmle, as well as one for director William Wyler.
And speaking of Chevalier, a reader of this column who has seen productions of "The Merry Widow" in Vienna, Paris and London, Madrid, Mexico City and Havana, writes in to say that although Chevalier was beloved in Paris, particularly when he appeared with Mistinguette, he looks and sings too much like a boulevardier for the lead in The Merry Widow. This correspondence points out that Chevalier does not pretend to have a fine singing voice, and that Joan Crawford odes not boast much of a voice either. And since Chevalier and Joan both are scheduled for The Merry Widow, he is wondering when MGM will discover that the piece is an operetta and requires singing voices. Then he adds that John Boles and Irene Dunne would be the perfect combination for The Merry Widow since both have fine voices and are popular at the box office.
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William Frawley, the New York stage actor who recently was signed to a Paramount contract, has been given assignments that will keep him busy for weeks to come. At present he is at work on Captain Jericho. His next assignment will be with Cary Grant in Come On, Marines. After that he is scheduled to play with George Raft and Carole Lombard in All Of Me, and when that is complete Frawley steps into the cast of The Search For Beauty. Not man film beginners have assignments piled up like that.
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You may have suspected that the stars rather enjoy attending big premieres of their pictures. The theaters enjoy their presence, too, which should make everyone happy. May Robson left for New York last night to be on hand for the Gotham opening of Lady For a Day, the picture which is said to give her stardom. Critics and preview audience have raved over this film made by Columbia.
Another star will cross an ocean to attend a New York opening. He is Leslie Howard, now in London, who will sail for New York in time for the premiere of Berkeley Square, which is a pretentious picture. Jesse Lasky wins the laurels as producer of this film.
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On the Radio Pictures lot yesterday I stumbled across Douglass Montgomery, who was taking a test for the male lead in Three Came Unarmed. Dorothy Jordan, I hear, previously has been selected for the feminine lead. Which is quite a contrast to Katharine Hepburn, for whom the story originally was bought. Young Montgomery recently completed a role in Little Women at this studio, where his work is favored. And Dorothy Jordan, who is now Mrs. Merian C. Cooper, is slated for three big pictures. The other two are Trigger and Wild Birds.
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Manuel Komroff certainly has won his spurs in writing screen stories of famous sirens. Paramount originally brought him out to write Her Regiment of Lovers for Marlene Dietrich. That story is based on the life of Catherine the Great of Russia. And Komroff was so successful in writing the life of this siren, that now Cecil DeMille has put him to the task of bringing Cleopatra to the screen. Claudette Colbert will be Cleo.
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Production has been slack on the Fox lot, but there will be much activity this week. Four new pictures will start off on Monday, only I'll wager they don't get started until Tuesday since Monday will be Labor Day. The four are As Husbands Go, with Warner Baxter and Helen Vinson; Hoopla with Clara Bow; There's Always Tomorrow, with Will Rogers, and The Mad Game.
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Bill Cagney, who invariably brings the explanation that he is the brother of Jimmy Cagney, also looks enough like his famous brother to be mistaken for him. This is rather annoying to Bill who would like to establish an identity of his own, now that he is launching on a screen career. However, the mistaken identity has brought him one moment that he relished. Bill was visiting Jimmy on the Warner lot, when a stranger approached him and handed him a 10 dollar bill. "That," said the stranger, "is the 10 you gave me in New York about a year ago."
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The cast of Forever Faithful is rapidly being filled at MGM, Richard Dix, as you know, has the lead, with Madge Evans, Stuart Erwin and Una Merkel in other important roles. And this morning Spanky, of Our Gang at Hal Roach, was set for a role, as well as Isabel Jewell and Raymond Hatton. Charles Brabin will direct.
....
Casting About—Clarence Geldert has been signed for a nice role in Broken Dreams, which Robert Vignola will direct for Mongram. Geldert is also celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary, which is even more notable. Sidney Miller, juvenile actor, has gone to Warners for a part in The Shakedown. He recently finished a part in Rafter Romance at Radio Pictures.
Fred Astaire In the 30'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 — Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles)
LAR — Los Angeles Record
LAPR — Los Angeles Post-Record
LAX — Los Angeles Examiner
MPH — Motion Picture Herald
SFC — San Francisco Chronicle
1/3/1931 EE Two Masterpieces
By Mark Barron
A year which gives to the theater two such extraordinary masterpieces of drama as "Green Pastures" and "Grand Hotel" must be set down as a successful one.
....
Musical shows were, for the most part, good, although only "Three's a Crowd" and the "Vanities" could be classed as exceptional.
Ziegfeld's "Smiles," despite the pleasant presence of Adele Astaire, was coldly received.
5/1/1932 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Paramount is to have its Big Broadcast of 1934, introducing radio stars and now Radio Pictures is to have a similar picture centered about Radio City. It is to be called Radio City Revels and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are chalked up for the two leading roles.
2/2/1933 HCN Radio
By Zuma Palmer
In addition to Fred Astaire, guest artists on Rudy Vallee's program at 5 over KFI will be Weber and Fields, William Demarest and Collette, his vaudeville partner; Janet Beecher and Claude Raines. A scene from "Bill of Divorcement" will be enacted by Miss Beecher and Mr. Raines.
4/10/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Plenty of singing and dancing and gay music will enliven Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford, who was a professional dancer and who admits dancing is her favorite indoor sport, will dance to her heart's content in Dancing Lady. There is a rumor that she may have as her partner that internationally known dancer, Fred Astaire. Robert Montgomery is her big moment in Dancing Lady.
Robert Leonard has his hand in musical specials for fair. He has just finished Peg o' My Heart, Marion Davies' picture, in which there is some of the catchiest music of the year. Now he succeeds Clarence Brown, who will be kept busy with Night Flight, as director.
5/1/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Vincent Youmans, whose popular tunes and musical comedy work are known to everyone, is the latest composer to trek back to Hollywood for the new musical cycle that is under way. He arrived in town last night with a contract at Radio Pictures where he will write the music for Flying Down to Rio, a musical air extravaganza which Lou Brock will produce.
5/3/1933 LAX Louella O. Parsons
The nimble-footed Fred Astaire without Adele, who is now Lady Cavandish, is coming to Hollywood. His agents have been negotiating for quite a spell with certain of our studios, but it's Radio that finally signed him for Flying Down to Rio, a musical comedy.
When I tell you that Vincent Youmans has been engaged to write the score, you will know this is going to be a pretentious musical with all sorts of trimmings. The book is by Anne Caldwell and Lou Brock, who used to content himself with producing snappy shorts. Mr. Brock has been put in charge of the whole show.
5/15/1933 LAX ART OF WEARING CLOTHES
By Louella O. Parsons
Who are the twelve best dressed men in the world? What dozen well-turned-out, well-groomed and correctly dressed men deserve this distinction of being the world's smartest dressers? Adolphe Menjou has his own idea. He says it isn't always the man who is outfitted in fine clothes and expensive linen who can be called well dressed, but it's the man who has the art of "wearing" clothes.
"A man to be classed among the world's best dressers," says Mr. Menjou, "must have a flair for clothes. He must know what tie to wear with a morning suit; he must choose the proper shirt to wear with his evening clothes and he must carry off the whole thing with just the right air.
"A man who is chic," says Mr. Menjou, "can start almost any clothes fad and establish it as a popular mode. Such a man is extremely helpful to the merchants all over the world. Napoleon recognized the value of having his men well dressed. He issued an order that his soldiers must wear better uniforms and immediately there was an increased market for gold braid."
Mr. Menjou, who is recognized as one of the best-dressed men both here and abroad, gives the following men as his selection for the best-dressed men in the world:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Barrymore, William Rhinelander Stewart, Fred Astaire, Mario Carrciollo, the Prince of Wales, Prince George, Clive Brook, Cedric Gibbons, Antonio de Portago, Maharajah of Alwar.
The Prince of Wales has a special flair for clothes and a chic that is an art, according to Mr. Menjou. What about John Barrymore, who has a reputation of not caring a rap about clothes? He has even been accused of being slovenly.
"When John was on stage, years ago," said Mr. Menjou, "there was no one who looked as smart and who wore clothes better. He may not keep his wardrobe up to the minute now, but he has that certain knack of wearing the right things and knowing how to wear them."
William Powell and Richard Barthelmess, according to Mr. Menjou, always look well, but they haven't the same ability to wear clothes. Therefore he cannot classify them in the select list of twelve.
To be "the best-dressed men" you must have that certain flair and chic, and only a few men, according to Adolphe Menjou, possess them. It's an art or a talent, if you please.
6/20/1933 EHE Harrison Carroll
No star with a singing voice is being overlooked in the new craze for musicals. The tune-films now are to get Dolores Del Rio, who will take the feminine lead in RKO's Flying Down to Rio.
This picture, scheduled to follow Dance of Desire which Donald Henderson Clarke is writing for Dolores, also will feature Fred Astaire, one of Broadway's favorite sons.
6/20/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Raul Roulien, the Brazilian star who has been making Spanish and English pictures for Fox, is proving his versatility. At the moment he is doing a Spanish version of Pleasure Cruise, and he has written the Spanish lyrics for the songs. When all this is finished, he will be loaned to Radio Pictures for the lead in Flying Down to Rio, which is the pretentious musical planned by Lou Brock. According to present indications, Dolores Del Rio will be the feminine star of this picture. Fred Astaire, Helen Broderick and Chic Chandler, all of the stage, are also set for featured parts in this film.
7/4/1933 EHE ASTAIRES DANCE INTO ROMANCE
Fred Astaire, who danced to musical comedy fame with his sister, Adele, now follows her in stepping onto society romance amid mansions. The photo in center shows them in stage days as The Dancing Astaires. A year ago, Adele married Lord Cavendish, at left, who took her from the stage to his ancestral estate of Lismore in England. Astaire soon will marry Mrs. Phyllis Potter, New York society beauty at right—who is the niece of Mrs. Henry W. Bull.
PHOTOS
7/13/1933 EHE FRED ASTAIRE WEDS SOCIETY DIVORCEE
New York, AP, 7/13
Assured of the custody of her 4-year-old invalid son, for all but one month in each year, Mrs. Phyllis Livingstone Potter, society divorcee, gave romance its turn by marrying Fred Astaire, musical comedy star and dancer.
The couple were married yesterday evening by Supreme Court Justice Selah B. Strong at his Brooklyn court chambers. The ceremony was brief and witnessed only by a small group of friends. Henry W. Bull, an uncle, attended the bride. They will honeymoon in Hollywood.
The marriage came as a surprise in its suddenness following an agreement out of court giving her custody of her son for 11 months of each year and her first husband, Eliphalet Nott Potter, custody of the boy for the 12th month.
7/14/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
The confusion still exists for choice for a male lead in Joan Crawford's current picture, Dancing Lady. Walter Winchell, I'm told, has been approached to play with Joan. But his ridiculously high salary demand probably will stall the deal. Then there's also talk that Fred Astaire will have a part with Joan. He is coming to Hollywood to be the star of Flying Down to Rio, the big musical picture to be made by Radio Pictures. And MGM at the same time admits that it still may await the return of Clark Gable to fill this vacant male lead in Dancing Lady.
7/15/1933 LAR Fred Astaire on Way to Hollywood
Fred Astaire, Broadway musical comedy star, departs from the Gay White Way today bound for Hollywood to make his screen debut as the stellar figure of Flying Down to Rio, RKO-Radio aerial Brazilian musical.
7/15/1933 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Speaking of young leading men, Dolores Del Rio is to have one, too, although she won't have Joel McCrea this time. Gene Raymond has been signed by Radio Pictures for the lead opposite Miss Del Rio in its elaborate musical film, Flying Down to Rio. Young Raymond has been on the brink of several important assignments since he completed Zoo In Budapest for Jesse Lasky. He was announced for the lead with Anna Sten in Nana and then withdrew from the cast because he declined to darken his very blond hair. Fred Astaire, from the New York stage, will make his screen debut in the comedy lead of Flying Down to Rio, and other important roles will be filled by Chick Chandler and Helen Broderick.
7/29/1933 EHE Strolling...Jimmy Starr
Fred Astaire has been teaching Joan Crawford his famous runaround dance for Dancing Lady.
8/13/1933 LAX Reine Davies
BEVERLY 'DERBY' ATTRACTS STARS
Beverly Hills Brown Derby has been the setting for many gay luncheon parties composed of members of the film colony lately. Among them were noticed Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone, with the Fred Astaires, Glenda Farrell and Robert Riskin, Bruce Cabot, Lola Lane and Lyle Talbot, Helene Costello and Senor del Barrio.
***
Fred Astaire, celebrated dancer of Joan Crawford's new picture, and his wife, the former Phyllis Cooper of New York, entertained at dinner in the Colony Club last Tuesday night. Countess Frasso and Jerry Asher were guests.
8/24/1933 FD A Little From Hollywood Lots
By Ralph Wilk
RKO Radio Pictures has completed the cast of principals for Lou Brock's musical extravaganza, Flying Down to Rio. It is scheduled to go before the cameras immediately with Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Fred Astaire, Raul Roulien and Ginger Rogers heading the cast. Thornton Freeland will direct. Brock will supervise and the music, on the torrid, languorous Latin-American order, will be supplied by Vincent Youmans of "Tea For Two" fame.
9/28/1933 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Reine Davies
Celebrating a temporary farewell to Mrs. Fred Astaire, who later will be joined by her husband and young son in New York, Fred Astaire entertained at dinner and, later at the theater last Sunday, the eve of Mrs. Astaire's departure. Among other guests were Ricardo Cortez and Mrs. M. Lee. The Astaire's ultimate destination is London, where Fred will open in his new musical show.
9/28/1933 LAX Close-Ups
By James E. Mitchell
Fred Astaire will be winging it across country tonight on his way to London, where they're simply panting to open "The Gay Divorcee." but can't go on without him.
10/16/1933 LAR Cinematters
By Relman Morin
...Fred Astaire, the dancer, hasn't shaved himself in 15 years. He takes Walter Williams, an expert barber, with him wherever he goes.
11/18/1933 EHE Preview
By Jimmy Starr
Dancing Lady
Rating: Excellent
Produced by MGM. Starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable with Franchot Tone. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard. Story by James Warner Bellah. Screen play and dialogue by Allen Riskin and P.J. Wolfson. David O. Selznick, executive producer. John W. Considine Jr., associate producer.
That rare and thrilling combination—Joan and Clark! I'm so daffy about Joan, she could do no wrong upon the screen, and I'm one male who likes Gable because he never seems to be acting. And I think Ted Healy and his Stooges are the funniest things in the films, so you might as well know that I "sorta go for this film in a big way."
Dancing lady is a yarn that has been told many times before, but never with the realism and the humor. Countless backstage stories have been done, but this one digs deeper into the heartaches and the strange twists of fate, the old she-devil who changes so many lives with a mere gesture.
Joan portrays a stage-struck girl who places her career above everything else. Marriage to a Park Avenue socialite means but a last resort—if her dancing days are over. Her patience, her eagerness and her bull-dog temperament to succeed are not unlike Joan's own spirit in her climb to cinema fame. That is why, perhaps, Joan puts so much into the role.
She climbs from burlesque honky tonk, where she did what is known as a "strip-tease" to her name in lights on Broadway, but that is incidental to the real human part of the film. There's Gable as a slightly cold and hard dance director who creates this dancing wonder, only to lose her. There is the sly plotting of the mysterious show-backer (Franchot Tone) to end the girl's career. It's all done so easily, so smoothly and so entertainingly that one is sorry it all must end.
Joan, Clark and Franchot are at their best—and that's saying considerable. Ted Healy proves himself more than a slapstick comic surrounding by stooges. He's a real actor and a mighty good one. May Robson, Grant Mitchell, Maynard Holmes, Sterling Holloway, Winnie Lightner and Robert Benchley all lend excellent support. Fred Astaire executes some nifty dance steps and Nelson Eddy warbles a song splendidly. Moe Howard, Jerry Howard and Larry Fine, the stooges are up to their usual hilarious tricks.
Robert Z. Leonard did a magnificent directorial job, while a handful of praise also goes to Sammy Lee for his startling dance routines and ensembles. They are terribly smart and refreshingly new. Allen Rivkin and P.J. Wolfson contributed much with their scenario and dialogue.
Dancing Lady is cinched to be one of the most popular productions of the year.
12/16/1933 EHE Previews
By Jimmy Starr
Flying Down to Rio
Rating: Splendid
Produced by RKO-Radio Pictures—Starring Dolores Del Rio, Gene Raymond, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Directed by Thornton Freeland. Association Director George Nichols Jr. Original story by Lou Brock, also associate producer. Play by Anne Caldwell. Screen Play by Cyril Hume, H. W. Hanemann and Erwin Geisler.
Well, here's one that made super-critical and jaded Hollywood sit up, take notice and GASP between laughs! Flying Down to Rio puts a flock of cinemaland's latest musicals right in the amateur class!
There is no use dodging the issue—it is strictly a gay, frolicking, highly-hokumized musical from start to finish! If you are tiring of tunefilms, then don't—at least, not for another hour and a half. You haven't seen anything yet!
The plot? But what is that, when there is so much lovely music to hear, so many exceptional dances to watch and jolly cast of clever performers practically bend over backwards to see that you are thoroughly, good-naturedly and whole-heartedly entertained.
There is one tango, or sort of rhumba, the Carioca, that will have you out of your seat cheering. Dave Gould, the dance director, should start a school for all other dance directors, and specialize in originality lessons. And you've never seen anybody like Fred Astaire for light fantastic stuff.
The story has something to do with a flirting band leader who is constantly losing jobs for his orchestra. Finally, kicked out of one place, they are bound for Rio and the heroine just happens to live there! They must save a hotel from crooks, straighten out a tangled love affair, and so on.
The aerial musical routine, with dozens of airplanes loaded with beauties, is one of the most tantalizing bits to be seen in years. Dolores Del Rio is a lovely heroine, while Gene Raymond is splendid as the romantic band leader. Ginger Rogers takes good care of a hot vocal number and most of the comedy lines, while Fred Astaire is destined to be the latest rave of the movie fans.
Here's to associate producer Lou Brock and director Thornton Freeland, composer Vincent You... [illegible] the entire cast and the technical crew, for one of the most enjoyable films of the year.
12/27/1933 EHE LIFE STORY OF STAR IN LOEW'S BILL
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable Return to LA Screen
By Penelope Roberts
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable return to screen audiences Thursday at Loew's State.
Joan Crawford's own life was the story material used in Dancing Lady, MGM picture.
The picture, to a certain extent, closely follows the star's own experience as a dancing girl up to the time she entered pictures.
The story is that of a dancer, stepping her way to Broadway fame. Robert Z. Leonard directed the adaptation of James Warner Bellah's novel of the same name.
Broadway itself has been drawn on for the supporting cast. Featured are Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner, Fred Astaire, Robert Benchley, Ted Healy and his amazing Stooges, Nelson Eddy and Art Jarrett.
12/29/1933 HCN Dancing Lady
By James Francis Crow
The screen reunion of Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, who did smash box office business at the same house, as I recall, in a film called Possessed, was effected yesterday at Loew's State Theater in a new one called Dancing Lady, product of MGM. With the theme of illegal love long since out of date, Gable and Miss Crawford appear as the exponent of the new cycle, namely that of the backstage musical.
Although neither Gable nor Miss Crawford belongs in the seventh sphere of this particular reviewer's heaven of film favorites, their new vehicle not only has elicited enthusiastic praise from the New York critics, but also has had gratifying success at the ticket windows in the eastern metropolis. Judging from the indications at Loew's yesterday, the film will enjoy the same cordial reception here.
Dancing Lady is notable in the respect that it is said to parallel in some instances the story of Miss Crawford's own rise to fame in the theatrical profession. She appears, as the picture opens, as a strip dancer in a burlesque house. It is here that Franchot Tone, a wealthy playboy, meet her, falls in love with her, and proposes that she allow him to assist her in winning a chance in a Broadway revue.
Eventually she does, happily without any sacrifice of a virtue so inviolable as to be almost incredible in the life of a strip artist.. Good luck for the leading lady is bad luck for the playboy, for Miss Crawford promptly falls in love with Mr. Gable, who appears as the taciturn dance director of the revue. Thereafter the picture follows closely the formula laid down for backstage musicals, with Miss Crawford coming to the rescue at the last moment when Gable's show threatens to flop through the incapacity of the original leading woman.
The musical revue sequences in the film are, as usual, so spectacular as to be entirely unbelievable unless assumed to have been staged in the main auditorium of Madison Square Garden. The highlight is a hit in which Miss Crawford goes sailing round through the ether on a magic carpet in the company of Fred Astaire. Through all of them Miss Crawford's dances, vigorously and ungracefully, but far more capably, at any rate, than do most movie heroines when faced with a similar task. A sharp disappointment in these sequences is the subordination of Fred Astaire, one of America's top-notch dancing men.
Robert Z. Leonard directed the picture, with the dance numbers created by Sammy Lee and Eddie Prinz. Allen Rivkin and P.J. Wolfson wrote the screen play from the original story by James Warner Bellah. In supporting roles are such good players as Ted Healy, Grant Mitchell, May Robson, Gloria Fox and Maynard Holmes.
A Charley Chase comedy, Luncheon at Twelve accompanies the feature at Loew's.
12/29/1933 LAPR DANCE FILM AT LOEW'S FIRST RATE
Joan Crawford Clicks in Picture of Her Life Story
By Jack Pollpexfen
Joan Crawford troupes her way through Dancing Lady, one of the best of Hollywood's musicals, and certainly the best of the star's recent pictures.
Crowds that jammed the sidewalks about Loew's State discovered the film contained a more convincing and human story than has come to be expected in backstage song and dance frolics.
Police sirens shriek as New York's 'finest' protect the public morals with a raid on an east end burlesque house. Joan steps out of the swinging chorus into a night court, and from there to Broadway and stardom.
Crawford looks the dancing girl, and what's more, she handles her feet in a way that looks as if in a pinch she could stop a show.
Bewildering and fantastically beautiful is the result of MGM's use of mirrors to produce the glittering effect revealed in the finale. It fully matches the tops in dazzling eye assault that has characterized the recent epidemic of musicals.
Clark Gable is effective in a part hardly large enough to carry his co-star billing. Fred Astaire's dancing and Ted Healy with his stooges, brought gasps from the audience.
Competently cast are Franchot Tone, May Robson, Winnie Lightner and Maynard Holmes. Robert Leonard Directed. A Charley Chase comedy is also on the bill.
12/29/1933 LAX Dancing Lady
By Louella O. Parsons
Dancing Lady is the picture that Joan Crawford's public has been waiting to see. The hey-hey girl with the smile, and lips that are not over rouged this time, is a mighty welcome holiday number at Loew's State Theater. I don't know whether David O. Selznick, producer of Dancing Lady, selected this musical comedy for MGM, but whoever did deserves credit for giving the world back the delightfully natural Joan Crawford with whom the fans originally fell in love.
There is nothing especially new about the story written by Allen Rivkin and P.J. Woolfson from the book by James Warner Bellah. Backstage atmosphere, a harried producer and a Park Avenue romance have all been used on many occasions for a musical comedy background, but there is something distinctly new the treatment of Dancing Lady. For that, young Mr. Selznick and John Considine Jr. can take a bow.
Few pictures have so pretentious a cast and few are so elaborately costumed and given such beautiful settings for the stage numbers as Dancing Lady. Robert Leonard, who, when all is said and done, always manages to give a certain individuality to his direction, has done well by Miss Crawford both from the standpoint of exploiting her excellent dancing and for keeping the story consistency well-balanced.
Now about this platinum cast which surrounds Lady Joan. There is, first and foremost, Clark Gable, whose characterization as the taciturn, grouchy stage producer rates a big hand. It's a different Clark and an interesting one. Franchot Tone is extremely likeable as the Park Avenue suitor. In fact, you feel sorry when the chorus girl gives him the mitten. Winnie Lightner as the girl friend of the heroine, who started with her in the cheap burlesque house, is amusing. There is not much of Fred Astaire, but his dancing is a noteworthy feature.
Neither Robert Benchley nor his role of busy columnist gets much of a break and May Robson is only in a few scenes. Nelson Eddy's superb voice is heard in one number. Art Jarrett has a bit, as have Grant Mitchell, Maynard Holmes and Sterling Holloway.
There are plenty of good-looking girls in the chorus, just in case the male population craves an eyeful. All in all let me recommend Dancing Lady as worthwhile holiday entertainment.
Supplementing the feature attraction is a Charlie Chase comedy, Luncheon at 12, and the Hearst Metrotone Newsreel.
Labels: Fred Astaire, Irene Dunne, Marlene Dietrich, Maurice Chevalier
posted by GDH at 10:44 AM
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