Mary Astor In the 30's
8/19/1933 HCN James Francis Crow
(For EY)
Clark Gable's next at MGM will be China Seas, according to reports current in Hollywood today.
Even more interesting than the reported assignment of Gable was the report that Myrna Loy will be his leading lady.
It will be, if the story comes true, Miss Loy's first feature part with the MGM cave man, whose name has been associated on the marquees with such redoubable stars as Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow.
Miss Loy's assignment is doubtless the direct result of a series of excellent performances she has given during the past season--with John Barrymore in Topaze, for example; with Ramon Novarro in The Barbarian, and even more notably with Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery and Alice Brady in When Ladies Meet.
Al Lewin is to be the supervisor on the film, it was reported.
....
That Universal considers Counsellor-at-Law one of its most valuable properties is evidenced by the amount of preparation being put into the production thereof.
With the author, Elmer Rice, conferring with Universal executives, the search is under way for the leading man, John Barrymore, Edmund Lowe and Jacob Ben-Ami, the latter a gifted Jewish actor, have been mentioned as possibilities.
....
The mystery of the lack of the usual star billing for Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in the current picture, The Narrow Corner, drew from Warner Bros.–First National studios today the answer that "It was an oversight and will be corrected."
When first questioned, studio aides professed no knowledge of the exclusion of Doug Jr.'s name from the advertisements and from the list of players and credits. M.C. Levee, agent for the actor, also said he had not been apprized of any deviation from the ordinary procedure.
....
Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom, light heavyweight boxing champ, follows Max Baer and Primo Carner into the movie business.
Rosenbloom, a Jewish lad from Gotham, recent conqueror of Dynamite Jackson and Wesley Ketchell, has been given a role in Kid Gloves, Universal's prize fight yarn, it was learned yesteday.
....
Betty Compson has signed a contract for a New York footlight appearance, the Ruth Dwyer Agency of Beverly Hills announced today. She will appear in the musical revue, Highlights of 1934, which is scheduled to have a road beginning in Harrisburg, Pa., before going onto Broadway.
Miss Compson, appeared here last in the stage production, "Privilege Car."
....
Consider the sad case of Vince Barnett, the professional insulter who has narrowly escaped mayhem for ribbing guests at many banquets and the like.
He will pursue his occupation next in The Prizefighter and the Lady.
Primo Carnera, the man mountain boxer, and Max Baer, the Livermore larruper, have the leading roles in the film!!!
....
Ziegfeld's cutest redhead (her mother told me so) is in town. They call her Little Clara, because she's a ringer for the It Girl. Her name's Iris Adrian, and she lives at 1843 North Cherokee Ave....Hugh Enfield, in Universal's Perils of Pauline, has changed his name to Robert Allen....The Wandering Jew, recently completed Yiddish dialogue film, based on the problems of the German Jewry under Hitler, is ready for showing on Broadway. Jacob Ben-Ami is the star. It was directed by George Roland for the Jewish American Film Art Co....Lucille LaVerne, star of the down south mountain drama, Sun-Up, is rehearsing for the part of an Eskimo in a forthcoming radio picture....Donald Brian has returned to New York to play a leading role in Music In the Air. It's still going strong there.
....
Lullaby Land will be the title of the next Silly Symphony.
It will show baby and his calico dog being rocked to sleep to the tune of Rockabye Baby, and tumbling into Lullaby land when the tree bends–baby is on top of it, you see–"Rockabye Baby, in the tree-tops," you know.
Lullaby Land proves even more magical than Alice's wonderland, and, in the Cave of Forbidden Things, baby has some amazing adventure that aren't terminated until he encounters the sand man, who puts everything to sleep to the tune of the Brahms lullaby.
The Walt Disney creation in Technicolor will be released soon, United Artists reports.
....
Mildred Hollis, discovered on a Hudson River Day Line steamer, gets the first of the featured roles in Charles R. Rogers' production of Eight Girls In a Boat.
Mary Astor In the 30's
ABBREVIATIONS
CE – California Eagle
DN – Daily News (Los Angeles)
EE – Los Angeles Evening Express
EH – Los Angeles Evening Herald
EHE – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD – Film Daily
IDN – Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News
HCN – Hollywood Citizen News
HDC – Hollywood Daily Citizen
LAR – Los Angeles Record
LAPR – Los Angeles Post-Record
LAX – Los Angeles Examiner
MPH – Motion Picture Herald
SFC – San Francisco Chronicle
1/3/1930 (Greeley Daily Tribune) TEN PERSONS KILLED AS TWO CAMERA PLANES COLLIDE IN MID-AIR OVER PACIFIC OCEAN
Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 3—Investigations and a search for bodies began today as a result of a motion picture disaster which took ten lives in a collision of airplanes over the ocean three miles off shore from here late yesterday.
* * *
Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 2—Ten persons, including Kenneth Hawks, director, and Max Gold, assistant director, and former national handball champion, were killed today when their two motion picture camera planes collided head-on in midair and plunged into the ocean.
The cabin ships, heavily laden with cameras and motion picture equipment, in addition to five passengers each, crashed together 3,000 feet altitude, three miles off the coast. They wedged together in a tangled mass, burst into flames, plunged to the surface sinking immediately. Three of the passengers were thrown clear as the interlocked planes struck the water. The other seven were carried beneath the surface.
The dead:
Kenneth Hawks, motion picture director and husband of Mary Astor, film actress.
Max Gold, assistant director and former national hand ball champion.
George Eastman, cameraman.
Conrad Wells, cameraman.
Otto Jordan, assistant cameraman.
Ben Frankel, assistant cameraman.
Hank Johanne, property man.
Tom Harris, property man.
Hallock Rouse, pilot.
Ross Cook, pilot.
All were in the employment of the Fox film corporation and all were residents of Hollywood except Rouse and Cook, who were Clover Field pilots.
Hawks' brother, Howard, whose wife is Athole Shearer, sister of Norma Shearer, screen star, escaped death by a last minute whim which caused him to change his mind about accompanying Kenneth in one of the camera planes which took off from Clover Field to film a parachute jump over the ocean. He had accompanied Kenneth to the field with the intention of boarding the plane.
William Hawks, another brother, recently married Bessie Love, motion picture star.
The two planes and a third, piloted by Col. Roscoe Turner, transcontinental flier, were engaged in filming a sequence in a picture based on the death July 5, 1928, of Capt. Alfred Lowenstein, millionaire Belgium financier, who disappeared from a transport plane over the English Channel and whose body was later found washed ashore.
Turner carried with him in his plane a parachute jumper, who was to leap into the ocean, the camera planes swooping down on either side of him to photograph him as he fell and struck the water. Turner's plane was 500 feet away and below the camera planes when the accident occurred.
TRIEBWASSER POSING FOR JUMP
Jacob Triebwasser, parachute jumper, who had expected to risk his life in a hazardous leap into the sea, had not yet entered the scene when death stepped in as director.
Triebwasser was posing for his jump, waiting for the word from White, who, responsible for the filming of the leap, was watching the camera planes when a thin cry broke thru the roar of the motors: "They're crashing!"
Turner, five hundred feet below the doomed camera planes, wheeled his ship well into the clear before the shrieking, firestreamered wreckage plunged by.
CABINS CRUSH TOGETHER
"I saw the planes," White said, "one of which was settling, come together. Their wing tips touched. Then the wings telescoped and the cabins crushed together. There was an explosive flash, and bodies were hurled out. The flaming ships began to fall like plummets into the sea.
"No one could have lived in those planes before they struck the water. They were enveloped in fire. They fell apart as they struck the surface of the ocean.
SAW CRASH FROM SPEED BOAT
L.W. O'Connell, head cameraman for the Fox Film Corporation, for whom the picture was being made, was stationed in a speed boat on the water under the planes, prepared to pick up Triebwasser after his jump.
"It was all over in a minute," he said, "I saw one of the camera planes going toward the other. Their wing tips caught and they swung into a head-on collision. They burst into flames and seemed to hang in mid-air for a moment.
"Then they plunged down, still packed together. They still were burning when they struck."
PICKS UP THREE BODIES
O'Connell sped his boat to the spot, and picked up the bodies of Gold, Wells and Frankel. No water was found in their lungs, indicating they had died in the crash.
Reports from the fleet of searching craft that rapidly gathered, that three other bodies had been picked up, were dissipated when all boats were called in early today. The boatmen's reports were found to have been based only on the finding of the first three bodies. All others went down with the wreckage.
MARY ASTOR PROSTRATED
Mary Astor was prostrated when she finally was told of her husband's death. The tragic news had been withheld from her until every vestige of hope was gone. She is under the care of her physician in her Hollywood home.
....
J.G. Hall, inspector of the aeronautics branch of the department of commerce, started an investigation. He is stationed at Clover Field, the airport from which the planes took off.
BOTH PILOTS EXPERIENCED
C.H. Tanner, president of the Tanner Aircraft corporation, described both pilots as competent men of long experience. The Tanner company had furnished the planes and the pilots for the picture work.
Tanner said the ships were in good condition when they left the field.
"The J-6 type of plane which they were using," he said, "is a fine commercial plane, and unless the ships were subjected to heavy punishment, I cannot imagine them becoming unmanageable or breaking up."
1/3/1930 (Oakland Tribune) MARY ASTOR QUITS STAGE ACT
Los Angeles, Jan. 3—Mary Astor, film and stage star and widow of Kenneth Hawks, director who was killed in yesterday's aerial tragedy, has given up, temporarily, at least, her part as one of the leads in "Among the Married," now playing at the Majestic Theater. Doris Lloyd is substituting for her.
Miss Astor received the news of her husband's death just after the matinee performance. She was resting in her dressing room when Florence Eldridge, leading lady of the company, told her.
"She didn't break down–just cried softly," said Miss Eldridge, describing the scene later. "She stood up bravely. But she felt she couldn't go on with her part that night, and we hurriedly called Miss Lloyd to take her place."
1/6/1930
Hollywood, Cal., Jan. 6.--Hollywood is still in something of a mental ague occasioned by the tragic airplane accident over the Pacific that resulted in the death of director Kenneth Hawks and his nine associated.
Mary Astor, according to a friend of hers, has borne up heroically under the shock. Miss Astor and Mr. Hawks would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary in February. They were among the really happily married couples in the colony.
A pathetic incident forewarning the untimely passing of Mr. Hawks was related to me the evening of the accident. Early last year Miss Astor and a friend of hers visited a fortune teller. Kidding, Mary asked if she would be divorced from her husband within the year. The fortune teller took her seriously:
"You won't be divorced," she said, "but your husband will meet with an accident shortly after the first of the year that will cause his death!"
Mary left the fortune teller in fear and trembling. But, fortunately she forgot the prophecy in the days that followed, Mr. Hawks was killed the second day of the new year.
This department is informed from an authoritative source that Miss Astor has decided to carry on her career. To troupe and in work to find a certain amount of solace for stricken nerves. When she heard the heart-rending tidings of her husband's death she departed from her home in the hills of Hollywood and went to her mother's. She will never return. Her clothes were packed by family and relatives. For the time being she is staying with her mother at a friend's house, removed from phone calls and demonstrations of sympathy.
Kenneth Hawks was among the fine characters in the film colony. He is mourned by sundry friends and acquaintances.
1/6/1930 (Albuquerque Journal) EFFORT TO RAISE MOVIE AIRPLANES BALKED BY STORM
Santa Monica, Cal., Jan. 5—A storm which struck southern California early Sunday balked efforts of searchers to bring to the surface two airplanes which crashed in mid-air over the ocean off Point Vicente Thursday with a loss of ten lives.
Commanders of trawlers which located the planes said they would make no further effort to raise the ships until the storm subsides, probably some time Monday. The trawler, Salt, Saturday dragged one of the planes to within 90 feet of shore. This morning it renewed its attempt to raise the plane, but the rough sea balked it. The plane still was where the Salt had dragged it.
SEND DIVER DOWN
Of the ten who lost their lives in the crash, three bodies have been recovered. Among the missing is the body of Kenneth Hawks, film director and husband of Mary Astor, film actress.
The second plane, located Saturday and raised to within 100 feet of the surface when the line broke, apparently drifted with the current during the night, trawlers reporting Sunday they could not locate it Sunday.
As soon as the second plane is relocated, a diver will visit in search for bodies. Searchers said the possibilities are the currents have moved the bodies into deep water. In such an event it was pointed out, they probably will come to the surface, although some of them may drift far from the original scene of the accident.
1/7/1930 EH Screenographs
by Harrison Carroll
Suffering though she is from the shock of her husband's tragic death, Mary Astor has decided to go through with her promise to make a talkie for Paramount.
She will appear opposite George Bancroft, but will not start work for a week or 10 days. Fortunately, the schedule already had provided for this. Mary being under contract to Edward Everett Horton for the run of "Among the Married." She withdrew from this play, of course, on the night of the fatal accident.
Sorrow came to Mary at a time when good fortune seemed at its height. She was happily wedded. She had made a sensational stage debut in "Among the Married," and she had won her first role in the talkies.
She turns to this now with a heavy heart, but carrying with her the sympathy of the entire film colony, and of the outside world, too.
1/8/1930 EH SCOUTING THE SINEMA
By Dorothy Herzog
Hollywood, Cal., Jan. 6--Hollywood is still in something of a mental ague occasioned by the tragic airplane accident over the Pacific that resulted in the death of director Kenneth Hawks and his nine associates.
Mary Astor, according to a friend of here, as borne up heroically under the shock. Miss Astor and Mr. Hawks would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary in February. They were among the really happily married couples in the colony.
A pathetic incident forewarning the untimely passing of Mr. Hawks was related to me the evening of the accident. Early last year Miss Astor and a friend of hers visited a fortune teller. Kidding, Mary asked if she would be divorced from her husband within the year. The fortune teller took her seriously:
"You won't be divorced," she said, "but your husband will meet with an accident shortly after the first of the year that will cause his death.!"
Mary left the fortune teller in fear and trembling. But, fortunately, she forgot the prophecy in the days that followed. Mr. Hawks was killed the second day of the New Year.
This department is informed from an authoritative source that Miss Astor has decided to carry on her career. To troupe and in work to find a certain amount of solace for stricken nerves. When she heard the heart-rending tidings of her husband's death she departed the home in the hills of Hollywood and went to her mother's. She will never return. Her clothes were packed by family and relatives. For the time being she is staying with her mother at a friend's house, removed from phone calls and demonstrations of sympathy.
Kenneth Hawks was among the fine characters in the film colony. He is mourned by sundry friends and acquaintances.
1/9/1930 (Ogden Standard-Examiner) BLAME PLACED IN FILM CRASH
Los Angeles, Jan. 9—A coroner's jury including three experienced aviators, condemned hazardous flying such as cost the lives of 10 men who were attempting to film a motion picture when their planes collided in mid-air.
After Fred Osbourne, parachute jumper, who was waiting to leap from a third plane, told his story, yesterday, the investigators gave the following verdict:
FLYING TOO CLOSE
"The collision was caused by two airplanes flying continuously in too close formation, one of the planes turning within too short a radius, and the possibility of sun glare.
"We believe such flying is too dangerous; that it in no way encourages commercial aviation, and in too many instances seems unnecessary."
ASHES SCATTERED
While the verdict was being prepared, a lone flier circled over the spot in the Pacific where the wreckage of the planes still lies, and scattered the ashes of Kenneth Hawks, movie director killed in the collision. Captain Roscoe Turner, pilot of the third plane, used that day, was the flier.
From the Palisades along the shore, Mary Astor, film actress and widow of Hawks, watched the ceremony.
1/14/1930 EH Scouting the Sinema
By Dorothy Herzog
Also hear tell that Mary Astor has been signed to play opposite Ronald Colman in Raffles. And that Mary will wear a blonde wig.
1/15/1930 EH Screenographs
By Harrison Carroll
Nothing is definite until Samuel Goldwyn arrives from New York, but this column hears that Francis Dayd, a stage actress, is up for the role of Ronald Colman's leading woman in Raffles.
In the event that her tests do not prove that she is the ideal type, the Goldwyn offices are said to favor Mary Astor for the part.
Frances Dayd came out to the coast with the company of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and was signed to make pictures for Fox. Before she could begin her contract she was involved in an auto accident.
Later, she was up for the part of Valentino's leading woman in the picture that was being considered for him just before his death.
Miss Dayd's tests are awaiting Goldwyn's return. As soon as he looks at them, it will be decided whether she fits the Raffles role. If not, negotiations are expected to begin with Mary Astor.
But even if she doesn't get to play opposite Colman, Miss Dayd draws four weeks' pay from the Goldwyn company. They have her on a month's contract, with an option.
Sam Goldwyn arrived in New York today, I believe. He will leave almost immediately for Hollywood.
4/20/1930 LAX Kenneth R. Porter
"I'm tired of being known as ‘sweet little Mary Astor.' It served its purpose to a good end when I entered pictures, but I don't care to live it the rest of my life."
Rather vague, but with what was forthcoming from Mary Astor herself, it meant something.
It seems Mary wants to "start all over again" in talking pictures. That is, she doesn't want to be known only as a type. It isn't fair to an actress who really wants to progress, according to Mary. It took some time for her to get started in the new medium but now that she has appeared in two talkies things will be different. And with her appearance in Ladies Love Brutes, now playing at United Artists Theater, Mary takes her stand.
"I should have realized I was riding for a fall when I became known by that rather ga-ga title," laughingly remarked Mary. "I was not fully impressed until some months after my contract with Fox had terminated. I rather expected to have calls from other studios, but after eight months of waiting, I became alarmed. I was a bit egotistical. But not for long. I started looking and imagine what happened.
"I had never been on the stage before in my life, but Edward Everett Horton asked me to play a leading role in his play, ‘Among the Married.'
"The day following the opening night I received six offers from film companies. One studio wanted me to quit the play at once and start on a picture, but I could hardly do that for I had no understudy for my part. Five weeks later, though, I accepted and signed a contract with Paramount.
"Believe me, I was anything but that ‘sweet little Mary Astor' of old days. I had been thoroughly drilled in stage technique and fundamentals. I gave my vocal equipment plenty of exercise and discovered I did have a voice, but I didn't think it should be made to fit the sweet-little-innocent-girl roles I used to appear in. I am the mother of a 6-year-old youngster in Ladies Love Brutes, with an air of dignity and sophistication. Don't you think I could play this type more if I tried real hard?" she smilingly concluded.
I think she can, and should, if that what she wants.
5/18/1930 FD Ladies Love Brutes
Paramount Time, 1 hr., 11 mins.
Typical Bancroft vehicle carries strong punch with stirring action and big heart interest. In the money.
This one will please all the Bancroft fans, and should add considerably to his following. Taken from Zoe Akins' story, "Pardon My Glove," it tells a typical Bancroft tale of a rough gent who tries to ape the manners of society but makes a poor job of it. It is a very human and appealing characterization in the star's best manner, and George's voice records fine. As a wealthy skyscraper builder who digs in and works on his own construction jobs, Bancroft meets a society woman and falls hard. There is some clever underworld stuff worked into the plot that develops very tense situations. Mary Astor is charming as the support. The picture has some good directorial touches and is nicely paced and balanced, with a generous sprinkling of laughs. Looks like a popular number.
CAST: George Bancroft, Mary Astor, Fredric March, Margaret Quimby, Stanley Fields, Ben Hendricks Jr., Lawford Davidson, Ferike Boros, David Burand, Freddie B. Frederick, Paul Fix, Claude Allister, Crauford Kent, E.H. Calvert.
Direction, Rowland V. Lee; Author, Zoe Akins; Adaptors, Waldemar Young, Herman J. Mankiewicz; Dialoguer, Not listed; Editor, Not listed; Cameraman, Harry Fischbeck.
Direction, Very Good. Photography, Fine.
5/18/1930 FD The Runaway Bride
RKO Time, 1 hr., 9 mins.
Corking melodrama with plenty of comedy that makes for good entertainment. Principals and supporting cast do fine work.
There is plenty of excitement for Mary Astor in this one and she handles her role in major fashion. While she carries most of the burden, Lloyd Hughes comes in for a good share of the honors. Natalie Moorhead, as a hotel maid and accomplice of the gang who later double crosses them, delivers a good performance. Paul Hurst, in the role of a detective is a sure bet for the characterizations of the George Bancroft type. The butler, Maurice Black and Francis MacDonald also are good in their respective parts. As she is about to run away from her future husband, the heroine unwittingly becomes embroiled in a robbery when a string of pearls are deposited in her bag. She poses as a cook for a bachelor and strange things begin to happen when the thieves aim to retrieve the loot. She is whisked away to a fake hospital by the crooks and is saved by hero with the aid of police.
CAST: Mary Astor, Lloyd Hughes, David Lowell, Maurice Black, Paul Hurst, Esther Morton, Natalie Moorhead, Francis Macdonald, Harry Tenbrook, Phil Brady, Theodore Lorch.
Director, Donald Crisp; Authors, H.H. Van Loan, Lottie Ann Westman; Adaptor, Jane Murfin; Dialoguer, Jane Murfin; Cameraman, Leo Tover; Editor, Archie Marshek; Monitor Man, George Ellis.
Direction, Good. Photography, Good.
6/15/1930 FD Holiday
Pathe 1 hr., 38 mins.
Better type entertainment marked by bright dialogue, fine all-around acting and clever direction.
High class entertainment. Brightness of the dialogue, the usual splendid acting of Ann Harding, fine supporting work by Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Edward Everett Horton and other members of the cast, and intelligent directorial handling by Edward H. Griffith all combine to give it distinction. Theme deals with an idealistic lad (Ames) who wants to enjoy life while he is young. He becomes engaged to the daughter (Mary Astor) of a rich and socially prominent man with purely materialistic ideas. There is another daughter (Ann Harding) who shares a better understanding with the boy, and the three-way conflict ends with these two doing a happy fadeout. As one of the better type pictures of the season, it should be a treat for any house.
CAST: Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames, Hedda Hopper, Monroe Owsley, William Holden, Elizabeth Forrester, Mabel Forrest, Creighton Hale, Hallam Cooley, Mary Elizabeth Forbes.
Director, Edward H. Griffith; Author, Phillip Barry; Adaptor, Horace Jackson; Dialoguer, Phillip Barry; Editor, Dan Mandell; Cameraman, Norbert Brodine; Monitor Men, D.A. Cutler, Harold Stine.
Direction, Excellent. Photography, Fine.
6/19/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Production is at a new high peak in Warner Brothers West Coast studios. Every director under contract is busy on a current picture or preparing to start production within a week or two. Roy Del Ruth, who just completed The Life of the Party, is almost ready to start A Husband's Privilege, a sophisticated comedy of domestic life with James Hall and Kay Strozzi heading the cast. Since finishing Old English, Al Green is beginning work on The Egg Crate Wallop with Grant Withers. Archie Mayo is directing Handful of Clouds, and his next will be Barber John's Boy, from the story by Ben Ames Williams. Michael Curtiz is at work on River's End, and Alan Crosland, who just finished Big Boy with Al Jolson, is slated to start work on The Gay Caballero, a Mexican romance. Ray Enright's next will be Red Hot Sinners, with an all star cast, and William Wellman is completing Maybe It's Love, a college film, before starting on The Steel Highway, a railroad picture with Grant Withers and Mary Astor. Robert Milton, who directed the stage production of Outward Bound, is handling the screen version; Hobart Henley is handling Captain Applejack, with Kay Strozzi, Mary Brian and John Halliday; and Lloyd Bacon, who just completed The Office Wife, will direct Sit Tight, with Winnie Lightner and Joe E. Brown as his next assignment.
6/25/1930 HDC Society in Filmland
By Rachel Rubin
SALLY EILERS WILL BECOME HOOT GIBSON'S BRIDE FRIDAY EVENING
Scarcely has the film colony recovered from the round of festivities which had its climax in the wedding of Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, when another popular pair made know their nuptial plans.
Miss Sally Eilers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Eilers of North Manhattan Place, and Edward B. (Hoot) Gibson, son of Mrs. Wayne Anderson, will plight their troth Friday evening. One hundred guests have been bidden to the ceremony, which is to take place at Mr. Gibson's ranch near Saugus, with Rev. James Hamilton Lash of the Hollywood Congregational Church officiating. The occasion will mark the birthday of Mrs. Eilers, mother of the bride. The bride, who will be given in marriage by her father, will wear a gown of satin ivory trimmed with real lace and headed with pearls. Her veil of lace will be fastened to the cap of lace and pearls, and she will carry orchids and lilies of the valley.
Miss Carmen Pantages has been chosen to serve as maid of honor. The bridesmaids will be Mrs. Reginald Denny, Mrs. Edward Hellman (Marion Nixon), Miss Marie Prevost and Mrs. Mae Sunday. They will wear georgette frocks in pastel shades, with picture hats in harmonizing tones.
William (Buster) Collier Jr., will be the best man and ushers will be Dr. Harry Martin and Messrs. Arthur Rosson, Reginald Denny and Wallace Davis.
After the honeymoon trip to Lake Louise and Banff in the Canadian Rockies, the couple will make their home at Mr. Gibson's ranch.
Those who have been bidden to the wedding include Messrs. and Mesdames Edward Cline, Lonnie Darsay, Alexander Pantages, Ray Schrock, Allan Dwan, Robert Leonard, George Lewis, Al Rogell, B. Reaves Eason, Ben Lyon, Arthur Rosson, Richard Hyland (Adela Rogers St. Johns), Charles Mack, Reginald Denny, Irving Thalberg (Norma Shearer), James E. Granger, Buster Keaton, James Gleason, Monte Blue, Morton Downey, Townsend Netcher, Felix Hughes, Millard Webb, Alfred Martin, Al Christie, Richard Gallagher and Rex Barber, Dr. and Mrs. Harry Martin.
Mesdames Sadye Murray, Phyllis Daniels, the Misses Mary Fleury, Mary Astor, Jeanette Loff, Marie Prevost, Eileen Percy, Carol Lombard, Billie Dove, Dorothy Mackaill, Helen Ferguson, Linda Cronin, Anita Murray, Mary Catherine Reticher, Helen McEvilly, Lila Lee, Almerita Hawpe, Hedda Hopper, Marion Smith, Thelma Todd, Mina Wallis, Ruth Collier, Marion Davies and Beatrice Lillie (Lady Peel).
Messrs. Cliff Edwards, Bud Eilers, Lew Lipton, David Ganzer, Victor Fleming, Harry Cohn, Norman Kerry, Lew Cody, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harvey Priester, Mel Coakley, Walter O'Keefe, James Shields, Roger Davis, Jerry Miley, William K. Howard, Lt. Col. Roscoe Turner, Edward Brandstatter, Richard Hargreaves, Sam Wolf, Hal Howe, Joseph Schenck, Lloyd Pantages, Harlan Fengler, Jack Pickford, Howard Hughes, William Haines, Edward Hatrick, William Randolph Hearst, Hal Rosson, Lt. William Sweeley and Col. Art Goebel.
6/26/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
It certainly looks as if the studios are going in for a run on railroad epics. Radio Pictures started the vogue with their super special, The Record Run. Now Warners are about to start production on The Steel Highway with Grant Withers heading an all-star cast which includes Mary Astor, Regis Toomey, James Cagney, Robert Elliott, Joan Blondell and John Wallace. Maude Fulton wrote the original story and screen adaptation, and William K. Wells contributed the dialogue. William Wellman, a new director on the Warner lot, has been assigned to direct. Almost any day now I expect to receive announcements of railroad pictures to be made at MGM, Universal, Paramount, Pathe and United Artists. Charlie Chaplin could probably make a smashing comedy on this theme, and have plenty of noise for the background to counteract the lack of dialogue.
7/25/1930 LAX The Runaway Bride
By Kenneth R. Porter
A fine example of how not to make an elopement is used as the theme of The Runaway Bride, which opened yesterday at the RKO Theater. There is little new in the melodramatic plot but the picture does offer many entertaining situations. Jane Murfin wrote the adaptation and dialogue from the stage play, "Cooking Her Goose."
There is something in the fact that The Runaway Bride brings together Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes, who may be remembered for their fine teamwork in the silent days. This romantic pair work well in this picture and take advantage of every opportunity to display their histrionic ability. Mary Astor is exceptionally well adapted to the light society butterfly roles such as she portrays in The Runaway Bride.
Lloyd Hughes in the role of a wealthy young broker gives a splendid performance. Talking pictures should offer him greater opportunities, for his voice is clear and of good quality and he certainly has a screen personality. David Newell, an actor of no mean ability as a juvenile heavy, gives one of his best portrayals. He is forceful and leads a degree of enthusiasm to his work.
Natalie Moorhead is well cast in the role of an underworld moll who double-crosses her gang. She is perhaps one of the leading actresses of her type and given the proper direction usually gives fine account of herself. The picture as a whole was capably directed by Donald Crisp but in several sequences the picture has a tendency to drag.
Paul Hurst makes a fine detective. He has a profound liking for a touch of brutal reality in the portrayals and does well throughout the film. Maurice Black, as a gangland leader, gives a good portrayal. Others who appear in the cast are Edgar Norton, Francis McDonald, Phil Brady and Theodore Lorch.
Harry Carroll's Revuette heads a fine vaudeville show which includes Eddie Bruce, Harry Foster Welch, the Kanazawa Boys and Harry Carroll and Maxine Lewis in a rare skit. A newsreel completes the bill.
(For EY)
Clark Gable's next at MGM will be China Seas, according to reports current in Hollywood today.
Even more interesting than the reported assignment of Gable was the report that Myrna Loy will be his leading lady.
It will be, if the story comes true, Miss Loy's first feature part with the MGM cave man, whose name has been associated on the marquees with such redoubable stars as Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow.
Miss Loy's assignment is doubtless the direct result of a series of excellent performances she has given during the past season--with John Barrymore in Topaze, for example; with Ramon Novarro in The Barbarian, and even more notably with Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery and Alice Brady in When Ladies Meet.
Al Lewin is to be the supervisor on the film, it was reported.
....
That Universal considers Counsellor-at-Law one of its most valuable properties is evidenced by the amount of preparation being put into the production thereof.
With the author, Elmer Rice, conferring with Universal executives, the search is under way for the leading man, John Barrymore, Edmund Lowe and Jacob Ben-Ami, the latter a gifted Jewish actor, have been mentioned as possibilities.
....
The mystery of the lack of the usual star billing for Douglas Fairbanks Jr., in the current picture, The Narrow Corner, drew from Warner Bros.–First National studios today the answer that "It was an oversight and will be corrected."
When first questioned, studio aides professed no knowledge of the exclusion of Doug Jr.'s name from the advertisements and from the list of players and credits. M.C. Levee, agent for the actor, also said he had not been apprized of any deviation from the ordinary procedure.
....
Slapsy Maxie Rosenbloom, light heavyweight boxing champ, follows Max Baer and Primo Carner into the movie business.
Rosenbloom, a Jewish lad from Gotham, recent conqueror of Dynamite Jackson and Wesley Ketchell, has been given a role in Kid Gloves, Universal's prize fight yarn, it was learned yesteday.
....
Betty Compson has signed a contract for a New York footlight appearance, the Ruth Dwyer Agency of Beverly Hills announced today. She will appear in the musical revue, Highlights of 1934, which is scheduled to have a road beginning in Harrisburg, Pa., before going onto Broadway.
Miss Compson, appeared here last in the stage production, "Privilege Car."
....
Consider the sad case of Vince Barnett, the professional insulter who has narrowly escaped mayhem for ribbing guests at many banquets and the like.
He will pursue his occupation next in The Prizefighter and the Lady.
Primo Carnera, the man mountain boxer, and Max Baer, the Livermore larruper, have the leading roles in the film!!!
....
Ziegfeld's cutest redhead (her mother told me so) is in town. They call her Little Clara, because she's a ringer for the It Girl. Her name's Iris Adrian, and she lives at 1843 North Cherokee Ave....Hugh Enfield, in Universal's Perils of Pauline, has changed his name to Robert Allen....The Wandering Jew, recently completed Yiddish dialogue film, based on the problems of the German Jewry under Hitler, is ready for showing on Broadway. Jacob Ben-Ami is the star. It was directed by George Roland for the Jewish American Film Art Co....Lucille LaVerne, star of the down south mountain drama, Sun-Up, is rehearsing for the part of an Eskimo in a forthcoming radio picture....Donald Brian has returned to New York to play a leading role in Music In the Air. It's still going strong there.
....
Lullaby Land will be the title of the next Silly Symphony.
It will show baby and his calico dog being rocked to sleep to the tune of Rockabye Baby, and tumbling into Lullaby land when the tree bends–baby is on top of it, you see–"Rockabye Baby, in the tree-tops," you know.
Lullaby Land proves even more magical than Alice's wonderland, and, in the Cave of Forbidden Things, baby has some amazing adventure that aren't terminated until he encounters the sand man, who puts everything to sleep to the tune of the Brahms lullaby.
The Walt Disney creation in Technicolor will be released soon, United Artists reports.
....
Mildred Hollis, discovered on a Hudson River Day Line steamer, gets the first of the featured roles in Charles R. Rogers' production of Eight Girls In a Boat.
Mary Astor In the 30's
ABBREVIATIONS
CE – California Eagle
DN – Daily News (Los Angeles)
EE – Los Angeles Evening Express
EH – Los Angeles Evening Herald
EHE – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD – Film Daily
IDN – Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News
HCN – Hollywood Citizen News
HDC – Hollywood Daily Citizen
LAR – Los Angeles Record
LAPR – Los Angeles Post-Record
LAX – Los Angeles Examiner
MPH – Motion Picture Herald
SFC – San Francisco Chronicle
1/3/1930 (Greeley Daily Tribune) TEN PERSONS KILLED AS TWO CAMERA PLANES COLLIDE IN MID-AIR OVER PACIFIC OCEAN
Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 3—Investigations and a search for bodies began today as a result of a motion picture disaster which took ten lives in a collision of airplanes over the ocean three miles off shore from here late yesterday.
* * *
Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 2—Ten persons, including Kenneth Hawks, director, and Max Gold, assistant director, and former national handball champion, were killed today when their two motion picture camera planes collided head-on in midair and plunged into the ocean.
The cabin ships, heavily laden with cameras and motion picture equipment, in addition to five passengers each, crashed together 3,000 feet altitude, three miles off the coast. They wedged together in a tangled mass, burst into flames, plunged to the surface sinking immediately. Three of the passengers were thrown clear as the interlocked planes struck the water. The other seven were carried beneath the surface.
The dead:
Kenneth Hawks, motion picture director and husband of Mary Astor, film actress.
Max Gold, assistant director and former national hand ball champion.
George Eastman, cameraman.
Conrad Wells, cameraman.
Otto Jordan, assistant cameraman.
Ben Frankel, assistant cameraman.
Hank Johanne, property man.
Tom Harris, property man.
Hallock Rouse, pilot.
Ross Cook, pilot.
All were in the employment of the Fox film corporation and all were residents of Hollywood except Rouse and Cook, who were Clover Field pilots.
Hawks' brother, Howard, whose wife is Athole Shearer, sister of Norma Shearer, screen star, escaped death by a last minute whim which caused him to change his mind about accompanying Kenneth in one of the camera planes which took off from Clover Field to film a parachute jump over the ocean. He had accompanied Kenneth to the field with the intention of boarding the plane.
William Hawks, another brother, recently married Bessie Love, motion picture star.
The two planes and a third, piloted by Col. Roscoe Turner, transcontinental flier, were engaged in filming a sequence in a picture based on the death July 5, 1928, of Capt. Alfred Lowenstein, millionaire Belgium financier, who disappeared from a transport plane over the English Channel and whose body was later found washed ashore.
Turner carried with him in his plane a parachute jumper, who was to leap into the ocean, the camera planes swooping down on either side of him to photograph him as he fell and struck the water. Turner's plane was 500 feet away and below the camera planes when the accident occurred.
TRIEBWASSER POSING FOR JUMP
Jacob Triebwasser, parachute jumper, who had expected to risk his life in a hazardous leap into the sea, had not yet entered the scene when death stepped in as director.
Triebwasser was posing for his jump, waiting for the word from White, who, responsible for the filming of the leap, was watching the camera planes when a thin cry broke thru the roar of the motors: "They're crashing!"
Turner, five hundred feet below the doomed camera planes, wheeled his ship well into the clear before the shrieking, firestreamered wreckage plunged by.
CABINS CRUSH TOGETHER
"I saw the planes," White said, "one of which was settling, come together. Their wing tips touched. Then the wings telescoped and the cabins crushed together. There was an explosive flash, and bodies were hurled out. The flaming ships began to fall like plummets into the sea.
"No one could have lived in those planes before they struck the water. They were enveloped in fire. They fell apart as they struck the surface of the ocean.
SAW CRASH FROM SPEED BOAT
L.W. O'Connell, head cameraman for the Fox Film Corporation, for whom the picture was being made, was stationed in a speed boat on the water under the planes, prepared to pick up Triebwasser after his jump.
"It was all over in a minute," he said, "I saw one of the camera planes going toward the other. Their wing tips caught and they swung into a head-on collision. They burst into flames and seemed to hang in mid-air for a moment.
"Then they plunged down, still packed together. They still were burning when they struck."
PICKS UP THREE BODIES
O'Connell sped his boat to the spot, and picked up the bodies of Gold, Wells and Frankel. No water was found in their lungs, indicating they had died in the crash.
Reports from the fleet of searching craft that rapidly gathered, that three other bodies had been picked up, were dissipated when all boats were called in early today. The boatmen's reports were found to have been based only on the finding of the first three bodies. All others went down with the wreckage.
MARY ASTOR PROSTRATED
Mary Astor was prostrated when she finally was told of her husband's death. The tragic news had been withheld from her until every vestige of hope was gone. She is under the care of her physician in her Hollywood home.
....
J.G. Hall, inspector of the aeronautics branch of the department of commerce, started an investigation. He is stationed at Clover Field, the airport from which the planes took off.
BOTH PILOTS EXPERIENCED
C.H. Tanner, president of the Tanner Aircraft corporation, described both pilots as competent men of long experience. The Tanner company had furnished the planes and the pilots for the picture work.
Tanner said the ships were in good condition when they left the field.
"The J-6 type of plane which they were using," he said, "is a fine commercial plane, and unless the ships were subjected to heavy punishment, I cannot imagine them becoming unmanageable or breaking up."
1/3/1930 (Oakland Tribune) MARY ASTOR QUITS STAGE ACT
Los Angeles, Jan. 3—Mary Astor, film and stage star and widow of Kenneth Hawks, director who was killed in yesterday's aerial tragedy, has given up, temporarily, at least, her part as one of the leads in "Among the Married," now playing at the Majestic Theater. Doris Lloyd is substituting for her.
Miss Astor received the news of her husband's death just after the matinee performance. She was resting in her dressing room when Florence Eldridge, leading lady of the company, told her.
"She didn't break down–just cried softly," said Miss Eldridge, describing the scene later. "She stood up bravely. But she felt she couldn't go on with her part that night, and we hurriedly called Miss Lloyd to take her place."
1/6/1930
Hollywood, Cal., Jan. 6.--Hollywood is still in something of a mental ague occasioned by the tragic airplane accident over the Pacific that resulted in the death of director Kenneth Hawks and his nine associated.
Mary Astor, according to a friend of hers, has borne up heroically under the shock. Miss Astor and Mr. Hawks would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary in February. They were among the really happily married couples in the colony.
A pathetic incident forewarning the untimely passing of Mr. Hawks was related to me the evening of the accident. Early last year Miss Astor and a friend of hers visited a fortune teller. Kidding, Mary asked if she would be divorced from her husband within the year. The fortune teller took her seriously:
"You won't be divorced," she said, "but your husband will meet with an accident shortly after the first of the year that will cause his death!"
Mary left the fortune teller in fear and trembling. But, fortunately she forgot the prophecy in the days that followed, Mr. Hawks was killed the second day of the new year.
This department is informed from an authoritative source that Miss Astor has decided to carry on her career. To troupe and in work to find a certain amount of solace for stricken nerves. When she heard the heart-rending tidings of her husband's death she departed from her home in the hills of Hollywood and went to her mother's. She will never return. Her clothes were packed by family and relatives. For the time being she is staying with her mother at a friend's house, removed from phone calls and demonstrations of sympathy.
Kenneth Hawks was among the fine characters in the film colony. He is mourned by sundry friends and acquaintances.
1/6/1930 (Albuquerque Journal) EFFORT TO RAISE MOVIE AIRPLANES BALKED BY STORM
Santa Monica, Cal., Jan. 5—A storm which struck southern California early Sunday balked efforts of searchers to bring to the surface two airplanes which crashed in mid-air over the ocean off Point Vicente Thursday with a loss of ten lives.
Commanders of trawlers which located the planes said they would make no further effort to raise the ships until the storm subsides, probably some time Monday. The trawler, Salt, Saturday dragged one of the planes to within 90 feet of shore. This morning it renewed its attempt to raise the plane, but the rough sea balked it. The plane still was where the Salt had dragged it.
SEND DIVER DOWN
Of the ten who lost their lives in the crash, three bodies have been recovered. Among the missing is the body of Kenneth Hawks, film director and husband of Mary Astor, film actress.
The second plane, located Saturday and raised to within 100 feet of the surface when the line broke, apparently drifted with the current during the night, trawlers reporting Sunday they could not locate it Sunday.
As soon as the second plane is relocated, a diver will visit in search for bodies. Searchers said the possibilities are the currents have moved the bodies into deep water. In such an event it was pointed out, they probably will come to the surface, although some of them may drift far from the original scene of the accident.
1/7/1930 EH Screenographs
by Harrison Carroll
Suffering though she is from the shock of her husband's tragic death, Mary Astor has decided to go through with her promise to make a talkie for Paramount.
She will appear opposite George Bancroft, but will not start work for a week or 10 days. Fortunately, the schedule already had provided for this. Mary being under contract to Edward Everett Horton for the run of "Among the Married." She withdrew from this play, of course, on the night of the fatal accident.
Sorrow came to Mary at a time when good fortune seemed at its height. She was happily wedded. She had made a sensational stage debut in "Among the Married," and she had won her first role in the talkies.
She turns to this now with a heavy heart, but carrying with her the sympathy of the entire film colony, and of the outside world, too.
1/8/1930 EH SCOUTING THE SINEMA
By Dorothy Herzog
Hollywood, Cal., Jan. 6--Hollywood is still in something of a mental ague occasioned by the tragic airplane accident over the Pacific that resulted in the death of director Kenneth Hawks and his nine associates.
Mary Astor, according to a friend of here, as borne up heroically under the shock. Miss Astor and Mr. Hawks would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary in February. They were among the really happily married couples in the colony.
A pathetic incident forewarning the untimely passing of Mr. Hawks was related to me the evening of the accident. Early last year Miss Astor and a friend of hers visited a fortune teller. Kidding, Mary asked if she would be divorced from her husband within the year. The fortune teller took her seriously:
"You won't be divorced," she said, "but your husband will meet with an accident shortly after the first of the year that will cause his death.!"
Mary left the fortune teller in fear and trembling. But, fortunately, she forgot the prophecy in the days that followed. Mr. Hawks was killed the second day of the New Year.
This department is informed from an authoritative source that Miss Astor has decided to carry on her career. To troupe and in work to find a certain amount of solace for stricken nerves. When she heard the heart-rending tidings of her husband's death she departed the home in the hills of Hollywood and went to her mother's. She will never return. Her clothes were packed by family and relatives. For the time being she is staying with her mother at a friend's house, removed from phone calls and demonstrations of sympathy.
Kenneth Hawks was among the fine characters in the film colony. He is mourned by sundry friends and acquaintances.
1/9/1930 (Ogden Standard-Examiner) BLAME PLACED IN FILM CRASH
Los Angeles, Jan. 9—A coroner's jury including three experienced aviators, condemned hazardous flying such as cost the lives of 10 men who were attempting to film a motion picture when their planes collided in mid-air.
After Fred Osbourne, parachute jumper, who was waiting to leap from a third plane, told his story, yesterday, the investigators gave the following verdict:
FLYING TOO CLOSE
"The collision was caused by two airplanes flying continuously in too close formation, one of the planes turning within too short a radius, and the possibility of sun glare.
"We believe such flying is too dangerous; that it in no way encourages commercial aviation, and in too many instances seems unnecessary."
ASHES SCATTERED
While the verdict was being prepared, a lone flier circled over the spot in the Pacific where the wreckage of the planes still lies, and scattered the ashes of Kenneth Hawks, movie director killed in the collision. Captain Roscoe Turner, pilot of the third plane, used that day, was the flier.
From the Palisades along the shore, Mary Astor, film actress and widow of Hawks, watched the ceremony.
1/14/1930 EH Scouting the Sinema
By Dorothy Herzog
Also hear tell that Mary Astor has been signed to play opposite Ronald Colman in Raffles. And that Mary will wear a blonde wig.
1/15/1930 EH Screenographs
By Harrison Carroll
Nothing is definite until Samuel Goldwyn arrives from New York, but this column hears that Francis Dayd, a stage actress, is up for the role of Ronald Colman's leading woman in Raffles.
In the event that her tests do not prove that she is the ideal type, the Goldwyn offices are said to favor Mary Astor for the part.
Frances Dayd came out to the coast with the company of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and was signed to make pictures for Fox. Before she could begin her contract she was involved in an auto accident.
Later, she was up for the part of Valentino's leading woman in the picture that was being considered for him just before his death.
Miss Dayd's tests are awaiting Goldwyn's return. As soon as he looks at them, it will be decided whether she fits the Raffles role. If not, negotiations are expected to begin with Mary Astor.
But even if she doesn't get to play opposite Colman, Miss Dayd draws four weeks' pay from the Goldwyn company. They have her on a month's contract, with an option.
Sam Goldwyn arrived in New York today, I believe. He will leave almost immediately for Hollywood.
4/20/1930 LAX Kenneth R. Porter
"I'm tired of being known as ‘sweet little Mary Astor.' It served its purpose to a good end when I entered pictures, but I don't care to live it the rest of my life."
Rather vague, but with what was forthcoming from Mary Astor herself, it meant something.
It seems Mary wants to "start all over again" in talking pictures. That is, she doesn't want to be known only as a type. It isn't fair to an actress who really wants to progress, according to Mary. It took some time for her to get started in the new medium but now that she has appeared in two talkies things will be different. And with her appearance in Ladies Love Brutes, now playing at United Artists Theater, Mary takes her stand.
"I should have realized I was riding for a fall when I became known by that rather ga-ga title," laughingly remarked Mary. "I was not fully impressed until some months after my contract with Fox had terminated. I rather expected to have calls from other studios, but after eight months of waiting, I became alarmed. I was a bit egotistical. But not for long. I started looking and imagine what happened.
"I had never been on the stage before in my life, but Edward Everett Horton asked me to play a leading role in his play, ‘Among the Married.'
"The day following the opening night I received six offers from film companies. One studio wanted me to quit the play at once and start on a picture, but I could hardly do that for I had no understudy for my part. Five weeks later, though, I accepted and signed a contract with Paramount.
"Believe me, I was anything but that ‘sweet little Mary Astor' of old days. I had been thoroughly drilled in stage technique and fundamentals. I gave my vocal equipment plenty of exercise and discovered I did have a voice, but I didn't think it should be made to fit the sweet-little-innocent-girl roles I used to appear in. I am the mother of a 6-year-old youngster in Ladies Love Brutes, with an air of dignity and sophistication. Don't you think I could play this type more if I tried real hard?" she smilingly concluded.
I think she can, and should, if that what she wants.
5/18/1930 FD Ladies Love Brutes
Paramount Time, 1 hr., 11 mins.
Typical Bancroft vehicle carries strong punch with stirring action and big heart interest. In the money.
This one will please all the Bancroft fans, and should add considerably to his following. Taken from Zoe Akins' story, "Pardon My Glove," it tells a typical Bancroft tale of a rough gent who tries to ape the manners of society but makes a poor job of it. It is a very human and appealing characterization in the star's best manner, and George's voice records fine. As a wealthy skyscraper builder who digs in and works on his own construction jobs, Bancroft meets a society woman and falls hard. There is some clever underworld stuff worked into the plot that develops very tense situations. Mary Astor is charming as the support. The picture has some good directorial touches and is nicely paced and balanced, with a generous sprinkling of laughs. Looks like a popular number.
CAST: George Bancroft, Mary Astor, Fredric March, Margaret Quimby, Stanley Fields, Ben Hendricks Jr., Lawford Davidson, Ferike Boros, David Burand, Freddie B. Frederick, Paul Fix, Claude Allister, Crauford Kent, E.H. Calvert.
Direction, Rowland V. Lee; Author, Zoe Akins; Adaptors, Waldemar Young, Herman J. Mankiewicz; Dialoguer, Not listed; Editor, Not listed; Cameraman, Harry Fischbeck.
Direction, Very Good. Photography, Fine.
5/18/1930 FD The Runaway Bride
RKO Time, 1 hr., 9 mins.
Corking melodrama with plenty of comedy that makes for good entertainment. Principals and supporting cast do fine work.
There is plenty of excitement for Mary Astor in this one and she handles her role in major fashion. While she carries most of the burden, Lloyd Hughes comes in for a good share of the honors. Natalie Moorhead, as a hotel maid and accomplice of the gang who later double crosses them, delivers a good performance. Paul Hurst, in the role of a detective is a sure bet for the characterizations of the George Bancroft type. The butler, Maurice Black and Francis MacDonald also are good in their respective parts. As she is about to run away from her future husband, the heroine unwittingly becomes embroiled in a robbery when a string of pearls are deposited in her bag. She poses as a cook for a bachelor and strange things begin to happen when the thieves aim to retrieve the loot. She is whisked away to a fake hospital by the crooks and is saved by hero with the aid of police.
CAST: Mary Astor, Lloyd Hughes, David Lowell, Maurice Black, Paul Hurst, Esther Morton, Natalie Moorhead, Francis Macdonald, Harry Tenbrook, Phil Brady, Theodore Lorch.
Director, Donald Crisp; Authors, H.H. Van Loan, Lottie Ann Westman; Adaptor, Jane Murfin; Dialoguer, Jane Murfin; Cameraman, Leo Tover; Editor, Archie Marshek; Monitor Man, George Ellis.
Direction, Good. Photography, Good.
6/15/1930 FD Holiday
Pathe 1 hr., 38 mins.
Better type entertainment marked by bright dialogue, fine all-around acting and clever direction.
High class entertainment. Brightness of the dialogue, the usual splendid acting of Ann Harding, fine supporting work by Mary Astor, Robert Ames, Edward Everett Horton and other members of the cast, and intelligent directorial handling by Edward H. Griffith all combine to give it distinction. Theme deals with an idealistic lad (Ames) who wants to enjoy life while he is young. He becomes engaged to the daughter (Mary Astor) of a rich and socially prominent man with purely materialistic ideas. There is another daughter (Ann Harding) who shares a better understanding with the boy, and the three-way conflict ends with these two doing a happy fadeout. As one of the better type pictures of the season, it should be a treat for any house.
CAST: Ann Harding, Mary Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames, Hedda Hopper, Monroe Owsley, William Holden, Elizabeth Forrester, Mabel Forrest, Creighton Hale, Hallam Cooley, Mary Elizabeth Forbes.
Director, Edward H. Griffith; Author, Phillip Barry; Adaptor, Horace Jackson; Dialoguer, Phillip Barry; Editor, Dan Mandell; Cameraman, Norbert Brodine; Monitor Men, D.A. Cutler, Harold Stine.
Direction, Excellent. Photography, Fine.
6/19/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
Production is at a new high peak in Warner Brothers West Coast studios. Every director under contract is busy on a current picture or preparing to start production within a week or two. Roy Del Ruth, who just completed The Life of the Party, is almost ready to start A Husband's Privilege, a sophisticated comedy of domestic life with James Hall and Kay Strozzi heading the cast. Since finishing Old English, Al Green is beginning work on The Egg Crate Wallop with Grant Withers. Archie Mayo is directing Handful of Clouds, and his next will be Barber John's Boy, from the story by Ben Ames Williams. Michael Curtiz is at work on River's End, and Alan Crosland, who just finished Big Boy with Al Jolson, is slated to start work on The Gay Caballero, a Mexican romance. Ray Enright's next will be Red Hot Sinners, with an all star cast, and William Wellman is completing Maybe It's Love, a college film, before starting on The Steel Highway, a railroad picture with Grant Withers and Mary Astor. Robert Milton, who directed the stage production of Outward Bound, is handling the screen version; Hobart Henley is handling Captain Applejack, with Kay Strozzi, Mary Brian and John Halliday; and Lloyd Bacon, who just completed The Office Wife, will direct Sit Tight, with Winnie Lightner and Joe E. Brown as his next assignment.
6/25/1930 HDC Society in Filmland
By Rachel Rubin
SALLY EILERS WILL BECOME HOOT GIBSON'S BRIDE FRIDAY EVENING
Scarcely has the film colony recovered from the round of festivities which had its climax in the wedding of Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, when another popular pair made know their nuptial plans.
Miss Sally Eilers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H.P. Eilers of North Manhattan Place, and Edward B. (Hoot) Gibson, son of Mrs. Wayne Anderson, will plight their troth Friday evening. One hundred guests have been bidden to the ceremony, which is to take place at Mr. Gibson's ranch near Saugus, with Rev. James Hamilton Lash of the Hollywood Congregational Church officiating. The occasion will mark the birthday of Mrs. Eilers, mother of the bride. The bride, who will be given in marriage by her father, will wear a gown of satin ivory trimmed with real lace and headed with pearls. Her veil of lace will be fastened to the cap of lace and pearls, and she will carry orchids and lilies of the valley.
Miss Carmen Pantages has been chosen to serve as maid of honor. The bridesmaids will be Mrs. Reginald Denny, Mrs. Edward Hellman (Marion Nixon), Miss Marie Prevost and Mrs. Mae Sunday. They will wear georgette frocks in pastel shades, with picture hats in harmonizing tones.
William (Buster) Collier Jr., will be the best man and ushers will be Dr. Harry Martin and Messrs. Arthur Rosson, Reginald Denny and Wallace Davis.
After the honeymoon trip to Lake Louise and Banff in the Canadian Rockies, the couple will make their home at Mr. Gibson's ranch.
Those who have been bidden to the wedding include Messrs. and Mesdames Edward Cline, Lonnie Darsay, Alexander Pantages, Ray Schrock, Allan Dwan, Robert Leonard, George Lewis, Al Rogell, B. Reaves Eason, Ben Lyon, Arthur Rosson, Richard Hyland (Adela Rogers St. Johns), Charles Mack, Reginald Denny, Irving Thalberg (Norma Shearer), James E. Granger, Buster Keaton, James Gleason, Monte Blue, Morton Downey, Townsend Netcher, Felix Hughes, Millard Webb, Alfred Martin, Al Christie, Richard Gallagher and Rex Barber, Dr. and Mrs. Harry Martin.
Mesdames Sadye Murray, Phyllis Daniels, the Misses Mary Fleury, Mary Astor, Jeanette Loff, Marie Prevost, Eileen Percy, Carol Lombard, Billie Dove, Dorothy Mackaill, Helen Ferguson, Linda Cronin, Anita Murray, Mary Catherine Reticher, Helen McEvilly, Lila Lee, Almerita Hawpe, Hedda Hopper, Marion Smith, Thelma Todd, Mina Wallis, Ruth Collier, Marion Davies and Beatrice Lillie (Lady Peel).
Messrs. Cliff Edwards, Bud Eilers, Lew Lipton, David Ganzer, Victor Fleming, Harry Cohn, Norman Kerry, Lew Cody, Roscoe Arbuckle, Harvey Priester, Mel Coakley, Walter O'Keefe, James Shields, Roger Davis, Jerry Miley, William K. Howard, Lt. Col. Roscoe Turner, Edward Brandstatter, Richard Hargreaves, Sam Wolf, Hal Howe, Joseph Schenck, Lloyd Pantages, Harlan Fengler, Jack Pickford, Howard Hughes, William Haines, Edward Hatrick, William Randolph Hearst, Hal Rosson, Lt. William Sweeley and Col. Art Goebel.
6/26/1930 HDC Elizabeth Yeaman
It certainly looks as if the studios are going in for a run on railroad epics. Radio Pictures started the vogue with their super special, The Record Run. Now Warners are about to start production on The Steel Highway with Grant Withers heading an all-star cast which includes Mary Astor, Regis Toomey, James Cagney, Robert Elliott, Joan Blondell and John Wallace. Maude Fulton wrote the original story and screen adaptation, and William K. Wells contributed the dialogue. William Wellman, a new director on the Warner lot, has been assigned to direct. Almost any day now I expect to receive announcements of railroad pictures to be made at MGM, Universal, Paramount, Pathe and United Artists. Charlie Chaplin could probably make a smashing comedy on this theme, and have plenty of noise for the background to counteract the lack of dialogue.
7/25/1930 LAX The Runaway Bride
By Kenneth R. Porter
A fine example of how not to make an elopement is used as the theme of The Runaway Bride, which opened yesterday at the RKO Theater. There is little new in the melodramatic plot but the picture does offer many entertaining situations. Jane Murfin wrote the adaptation and dialogue from the stage play, "Cooking Her Goose."
There is something in the fact that The Runaway Bride brings together Mary Astor and Lloyd Hughes, who may be remembered for their fine teamwork in the silent days. This romantic pair work well in this picture and take advantage of every opportunity to display their histrionic ability. Mary Astor is exceptionally well adapted to the light society butterfly roles such as she portrays in The Runaway Bride.
Lloyd Hughes in the role of a wealthy young broker gives a splendid performance. Talking pictures should offer him greater opportunities, for his voice is clear and of good quality and he certainly has a screen personality. David Newell, an actor of no mean ability as a juvenile heavy, gives one of his best portrayals. He is forceful and leads a degree of enthusiasm to his work.
Natalie Moorhead is well cast in the role of an underworld moll who double-crosses her gang. She is perhaps one of the leading actresses of her type and given the proper direction usually gives fine account of herself. The picture as a whole was capably directed by Donald Crisp but in several sequences the picture has a tendency to drag.
Paul Hurst makes a fine detective. He has a profound liking for a touch of brutal reality in the portrayals and does well throughout the film. Maurice Black, as a gangland leader, gives a good portrayal. Others who appear in the cast are Edgar Norton, Francis McDonald, Phil Brady and Theodore Lorch.
Harry Carroll's Revuette heads a fine vaudeville show which includes Eddie Bruce, Harry Foster Welch, the Kanazawa Boys and Harry Carroll and Maxine Lewis in a rare skit. A newsreel completes the bill.
Labels: Betty Compson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Mary Astor, Walt Disney
posted by GDH at 9:07 AM
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