Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 9, Number 45, DeMotte, Jasper County, 28 September 1939 — Star Dust [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Star Dust

★ Making Best of Illness ★ U. S. Speeds Releases 'k Chateau to Orphans

By Virginia Vale

Hollywood does not know yet what the European war is going to do to its major industry. The very profitable foreign market for pictures is out now, of course (it’s said that Metro might have made two million dollars on “Gone With the Wind’’ alone). So the picture-makers are going to economize. Then there are the foreign-born stars to consider. Samuel Goldwyn decided not to go ahead with "Raffles” because David Niven might be called back to England. Victor McLaglen, Ray Milland and George Brent have all become American citizens; McLaglen got his final papers years ago. Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle departed for England, Mr. Wilcox announcing that, because of the war, he would postpone making his proposed picture about Bonnie Prince Charlie. Robert Montgomery had to cancel making plans for working in “Busman’s Holiday” in England and started for home. Maureen O'Sullivan also had to turn right around and start back to America again, instead of making the picture for which she’d gone abroad. If Carole Lombard had to have appendicitis she certainly picked a convenient time for it. Of course, production on “Vigil in the Night” was held up. But it gave Brian Aherne time to marry Joan Fontaine —incidentally, they had one of

Hollywood’s few church weddings —and afforded Miss Lombard an opportunity to study nurses and hospital procedure at first hand. Of course, in “Vigil of the Night” she plays an English nurse, but the experience was a help anyway. The government requested that release dales on two pictures, be advanced. They are “Thunder Afloat,” a tale based on the defense of the American coast against submarines during the last war, with Wallace Beery and Chester Morris, and “Twenty Thousand Men,” an aviation picture full of thrills which it cost a small fortune to stage. Phil Baker had miniature reproductions of his accordion made for the charm bracelets of some of his friends. A manufacturer is responsible for launching on a defenseless public one of the most unattractive dolls that it has ever been our fate to see; it’s a “Baby Snooks” doll, but we’d say that Fannie Brice had material for a libel suit, if it’s supposed to look like her. Benay Venuta, the radio singer, still corresponds with Myrna Loy, though it’s years since they met. At that time they danced side by side in the chorus at Graiiman’s Chinese theater, we're told. Two dramatic serials will take over the Thursday evening hour that has belonged to Rudy Vallee for so long. The first half hour will feature “One Man’s Family,” that ace among radio serials; the second will be taken by “Those We Love.” Madeleine Carroll, who returned recently from Europe, has turned over her 200-year-old chateau near Paris to the Sisters of the Poor, for the shelter of orphans evacuated from the city. Brenda Joyce comes into her own in “The Rains Came.” and is likely to become the movies’ next glamor girl without the usual buildup given by the publicity department. She’s blonde and beautiful, and what’s more, she can act. ODDS A\D E.VDS—News commentatorr, warned to be neutral when they discuss the war, walk a verbal tight rope every time they face the microphone . . . "The Women" promises to be one of the biggest hits of the current movie season . . . And "The Old Void" is another . . . Irene Dunne finally convinced everybody that she wouldn't play the heroine of tht re-made “Front Page” and Jean Arthut steps into the role . . . “Arizona” won’t be made at present despite the large sum spent on preparation . . . Norma Shearer, arriving from Europe, said she thought Charles Boyer had been mobilized; shf slept on an army col, because the boat she returned on was so crowded. (Released by Western Newspaper Union. •

CAROLE LOMBARD