Evening Star Newspaper, April 21, 1940, Page 71

Theaters—Radio—Music Stamps [ TEN PAGES. Hollywood Is Left Behind And Certain Business Remains Unfinished There Are Those Chats, for Instance, With Frank Capra and Greer Garson, Which Must Wait Another Visit By Jay Carmody. HOLLYWOOD. One cannot stay in Hollywood forever. That means a great deal of unfinished business, such as the business of seeing Frank Capra. Inability to see Mr. Capra was no one's fault. Warners' Carlisle Jones, the highly efficient writing man whose efficiency we periodically : blast to bits, tried his best. When Mr. Capra was not busy on “The Life of John Doe” which he is making under the auspices of Warner’, we were lost in the concrete fastnesses of another studio. Mr. Jones wore out several telephone lines, ignoring a lot of pressing business the while, but it was to no avail. A couple of times we have been within a few yards of Capra’s office, but it was cluttered up with other people who had to see him. A mutually-expressed desire to get together, therefore, was to no avail. See you next year, maybe, Mr. Capra. Pursuit of Greer Garson An Even Greater Frustration. Unfinished also is the business of talking with Greer Garson, enchant- ing Irish red-head who came into every one’s life as Mrs. Chips. An éven greater frustration, this one, for Miss Garson is easy to see, only impossible to talk to. A matter of costume, a tantalizing matter of costume in “Pride and Prejudice,” which is her third project under her M-G-M con- tract. Next time, perhaps, Miss Garson will be working in a modern dress affair, with no hoop skirts, dozens of petticoats and a miscellany of those almost medieval hair-dos to stand between her and the visiting columnist. In three weeks we have built up a friendly how-are-you acquaintance, taught the Astor bar’s famous three quarters trick to Director Robert Leonard (biggest darn man you ever see) and to most of the huge staff working on the picture. But we have not talked to Miss Garson, save for a few words of mutual admiration for Lin Yutang, the Chinese author, who began HIS talk with Miss Garson the day before with the words: “Now, take your Christian God.” Before we come back, we are going to think up an equally startling opening. Miss Garson, who is definitely on the intellectual side, we are told, likes that sort of thing. All we actually know, however, is that she has a strikingly different face and says “Hello” in a rich contralto voice. Victor Schertzinger Is Another In Hollywood's Elusive Set. Then, there was the matter of seeing Victor Schertzinger at Para- mount. First day in Hollywood, Rufus Blair told us: “Among the directors you should talk to out here is Victor Schert- zinger, the chap who made ‘Road to Singapore’ An all-around man, Schertzinger. Started as a musician, you know. A violin genius in child- hood, an orchestra leader in adolescence, & song writer and a whale of & director today. Knows the business from all angles and can talk about it with intelligence.” That sold us on Mr. Schertzinger as an interview subject, even on a tour that was to include a minimum of interviewing in favor of finding out what went on behind the scenes in Hollywood. We saw him, all right. Three times, we saw him. But always Mr. Schertzinger was wildly en route to some appointment for which he was late. He seemed like a mighty pleasant man, one who would have been profitable to talk to. But We Did Catch a Moment With Newcomer Maureen O’Hara. The notion of seeing Maureen O'Hara, the Mayflower Pictures— Charles Laughton discovery whose name implies her geography, was one on which RKO’s Connie Krebs and Duke Wales had no difficulty selling us. We did see Miss O'Hara, whose lovely Irish face and Isolt-like Irish hair (that was our impression, at any rate) is being Americanized. We found her, somewhat oddly, at a dancing lesson. The oddity arose from the fact of our conviction that Miss O'Hara is a dramatic actress. Well, she was and will be again, but in her next picture she is a dancing girl part of the time. Dancing girls, it seems, must know how to dance, hence Miss O'Hara looking lovely in shorts and a string of perspiration beads around her forehead. Dogs we talked with Miss O'Hara. Hers is an Irish setter, a 4- month-old puppy for which she has great hepes. Cocker spaniels are all right, she thinks, but Irish setters are more all right. We rate them the other way, but not in the presence of Miss O'Hara. We merely want to talk with her, not quarrel, and she gives the impression of being the fiery type who might put up an argument. We are the amiable variety of Irish, farther removed from the ancient mists that cover the place. How that subject ever came up we still don’t know, but the relative abstemiousness of the Irish and Americans popped up next in the con- versation. And popped right down again. It and Miss O'Hara, unfortunately, both became unfinished business when she had to go to luncheon one way, we another. ©Oh, well, very few things ever really are finished in Lotusland. Why should we upset a system? Susannah Foster Simply Wanted A Check on Meaning of a Joke. ‘We might have found out something of interest about young Susannah Foster, slim 15-year-old singing star at Paramount had it not been for Susannah’s desire to tell us a joke. The purpose in telling us the joke was to get a judgment on its suitability for the company in which Sus- annah travels. Other adults had been telling her that it contained a hidden meaning which she did not appreciate, that maybe she should just forget the whole thing. Susannah could not see why, so0 we suggested that we would not mind hearing and judging the story. We did. And we judged, just the others, that maybe she should forget it, the theory being that it was one of those two-way affairs that might be taken the other way. That was all right with Susannah on the condition that we tell her a Joke she could substitute in her repertoire. We did. Then, we told her another and another. Eventually, every one had to go and we never did learn anything except that joke, which we shall be glad to tell to any one who remembers to ask us, It was not a very good joke—in the best sense of a good joke, not the worst sense. And now for home! ‘: PART FIVE—AMUSEMENT SECTION ' @ - The Sunday Star WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL 21, '1940. THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY—Herewith, grouped about Miss Lynn Fontanne, are two scenes from Robert E. Sherwood’s new “There Shall Be No Night,” in which she and Alfred Lunt appear at the Nctional Theater for a week starting tomorrow night. Above: Mr. Lunt, as a noted Finnish scientist, bids good-by to their son (Montgomery Clift) as he leaves to join the Finnish 8ki troops, while Miss Lunt looks on. Below: Miss Lunt is seen with Elizabeth Fraser, the son’s flancee, and Maurice Colbourne. Lunts Have No Script Troubles Sherwood’s Play Proved a Magnet In Boston By Harry MacArthur. One day last winter the editors of Theater Arts Monthly looked at their morning papers and discovered there were only 22 legitimate thea- ters open in New York. In contrast was the theater scene in London, where 45 theaters were operating in the midst of blackouts and wartime travail. The editors decided to dis- cover what was wrong with this thing called show business, so wrote to repre; jves ‘'of all the thea- ter cra laywrights, producers, directors, actors, scene designers, labor representatives, etc. The answers contained in the “platform of opinion” in the May issue of the magazine are inter- esting indeed. Co-operation, say most of the replies, is that which is lacking in the theater and that which is most necessary if the thea- ter is again ‘to come to life as it once knew life. A lower price scale for seats, lower production costs and Federal subsidy are among the other suggestions of a cure for the stage’s ills, Most interesting to us this morn- ing, however, are the opinions of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, who come to the National for the week starting tomorrow night in Robert E. Sherwood's new play, “There Shall Be No Night.” Their opinions, though voiced separately in Theater Arts; are really only one opinion. “If a deterioration in the theat.erI exists,” says Miss Fontanne, “I am optimist enough to believe it to be only temporary. I would ascribe it to nothing but the dearth of play- hts.” Good Script Solves It. Mr. Lunt just says it in different words. “There is no economic prob- lem that I know of, by the way,” he is quoted as saying, “that a good script will not solve.” Exigencies of a monthly magazine being what they are, Mr. Lunt must have said that before he went to Boston in “There Shall Be No Night,” but he must be happy now to have his words backed up by facts. | The facts in this case are the box office figures for the Boston tryout of the Sherwood play. Its first week there it grossed $20,000 and the second week topped that to go to $25,000. This, any one in the theater busi- ness will assure you, is not hay, nor even tin. The first week's busi- ness, as a matter of fact, set & new record for tryouts of Playwrights’ Company productions, neither “Abe Lincoln in Illinois,” “Knickerbockér Holiday,” “No Time for Comedy” ! MOMENT ROMANTIQUE—Clark Gable is the lad reading to Joan Crawford.in this scene from “Strange Cargo,” which teams them for the sizth time. It is next on the schedule at Loew’s Paldce. [ A 4 » + nor “Key Largo” prospering so hand- somely in trial runs. Mr. Sherwood’s seems to have been the script to cure any economic problem that might have been worrying the Lunts before they opened in “There Shall Be No Night.” The Lunts, however, prob- ably haven't met any decline in the theater during the past few years, even before they found, and waxed enthusiastic over, the Sherwood play about the Finnish scientist and democracy. The Balcony Scene, at Least. The demands of their film pro- ducers being rather on the peremp- tory side, Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were unable to include Wash- ington on their route when they ar- ranged their limited tour of “Romeo and Juliet.” But Daniel Frohman, the fellow who is making the ar- rangements for the next annual Actors’ Fund of America Benefit, has just managed something which should be a great help toward pack- ing the National to its rafters the Sunday night of May 5 when the benefit is held. Added to the list of stars to ap- pear, which already includes Monte Woolley, Walter Huston, Gladys Swarthout and Sheila Barrett, among any number of others, are the names of Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. They will fly here from Chicago for the show, con- tributing the balcony scene from “Romeo and Juliet” to that lavish evening of entertainment. y The Scene Brightens., After a pair of arid weeks (the- atrically speaking, we mean, to be sure), the theater scene is brighten- ing considerably. Following the Lunts and “There Shall Be No Night,” as you already know, no doubt, will come ghe new George M. Cohan show, “The Return of the Vagabond,” and after that, the week of May 6, “Louisiana Purchase” moves into the National. Mr. Cohan is expected to arrive in town a day early that he may attend the opening next Sunday night of the repeat performance at Catholic_ University of “Yankee Doodle Boy.” This is, you must recall, the musical biograghy of (See MacARTHUR, Psge F-2.) Delicate Question of Age Touches Some Careers How Long Can Certain of Our Film Actresses Remain Romantic Leads, Is the Query By Sheilah Graham. HOLLYWOOD. A lot of movie actresses may not like what this column discusses It covers the delicate question of our aging leading ladies of the screen, and the follow-up query, “How much longer can they remain | on the juvenile side of the character role fence?” And the significant fact that in several romances of theé screen the woman is older than the man. There’s Madeleine Carroll, who is in her 35th year. But she looked older than that in “My Son, My Son,” or maybe it was the added | poundage that added to her years. I wonder how much longer Made- leine can take over the love interest of a picture—and take us along with it? - This was only achieved in “My Son, My Son” by putting Madeleine between a young man’s love (Louis Hayward) for an older woman, and the love of a middle- aged man (Brian Aherne) for a not- $0-young woman. Miriam Hopkins, who is 37 years old, in my opinion, failed to con- vince as the woman loved by Errol Flynn in “Virginia City.” The love- making in this picture reached a new low in tepidity. It seemed as though Errol and Miriam had to be forced into each other’s arms. I think the time has come for Miriam to migrate to character role terri- tory. I had never thought of Myrna Loy except as a very young woman un- til she appeared in “The Rains Came” with Tyrone Power. Myrna will be 35 this summer. And if she wants to retain her large array of fans, she should choose leading men like Clark Gable, William Powell or Spencer Tracy, all of whom are several years older than Mpyrna. Jean Demands Older Men. Claudette Colbert is another star actress in her 35th year. But she looks much younger on the Today’s Film Schedules BELASCO—“Ecstasy,” when Hady Lamarr was Hedy Keisler and a very young pre-glamour girl: 2, 3:30, 5, 6:40, 8:10 and 9:40 p.m. CAPITOL—“Two Girls on Broadway,” Joan Blondell and Lana Turner name: 3, 5:25, 7:50 and 10:20 pm. Stage shows: 2:05, 4:30, by 6:55 and 9:25 pm. COLUMBIA—“Young Tom Edison,” portrayed by young Mickey Rooney: 32, 3:35, 5:40, 7:40 and 9:45 pm. EARLE—"'Til We Meet Again,” Merle Oberon and an ill-starred romance: 2, 4:35, 7:15 and 9:50 p.m. Stage shows: 3:45, 6:25 and 9 pm. KEITH'S—“It's a Date,” the new Deanna Durbin adventure: “March of Time”. 2, 4:25, 6:45 and 8:10 4:40, 7°05 and 9:30 p.m. pm. 2:20, LITTLE—“It Happened One Night,” return of the Capra prize- winner: 2, 3:50, 5:50, 7:45 and 9:45 pm. METROPOLITAN—“Road to Singapore,” laughs with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope: 2, 3:55, 5:55, 7:50 and 9:50 p.m. PALACE—“Rebecca,” with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine in ‘the leading roles: 3, 4:25, 7:06 and 9:45 p.m. TRANS-LUX—News and shorts; continuous from 3 o'clock. OPEN-AIR—"Only Angels Have Wings,” with Cary Grant and Jean Arthur; 7:35 and 10 pm. screen. Claudette is at her movie best when she is playing sophisti- cated woman-of-the-world movie roles, and if she sticks to this she has at least another three years in which to be the romantic center of | her pictures. Jean Arthur is a mere 32, which is very young in leading lady terms. But I understand she recently did some loud squawking because she was given William Holden as her leading man in “Arizona,” Holden being an infant of 21. Jean feels, rightly, that she looks younger when her movie male is older. She pre- fers men like Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, or Jimmy Stewart. Jimmy is 32. Funny thing about screen act- resses, the older a woman gets, the more men are in love with her—on the screen. Thirty-six-year-old Marlene Dietrich gets six swains in her next picture, “Seven Sinners.” And more-than-40. Mae West con- siders herself ill-treated unless she has several men swooning for her— on the screen. Irene Danne Doesn’t Look it. If Miss West had her way, she would have only very young leading men in her pictures. Fortunately for what is left of Mae’s picture ca- reer, she is usually persuaded to have a middle-aged boy friend to balance the age disparity between herself and the youngest of her screen loves. For example, in “My Little Chickadee” Joseph Calleia was the man who finally won Miss West over the rivalry of Dick Foran, who is about 13 years younger than Mae. I don’t count the courtship of W. C. Fields, which was of a comedy character only. When Jeanette Macdonald, who says she is 33—I would put it nearer 35—is cast with Nelson Eddy, who has ‘touched the 40 mark, I can more or less believe in her roman- tically. But not when she plays opposite some one like Lew Ayres, who is too young-looking to carry her over the love hurdies. A It'’s hard to believe that Irene Dunne will be 36 in July. She does not loock & day over 30 in her pic- tures. Rut how much longer can the ci keep up this deception? When the time comes that the reel Irene looks her real age will she transfer her talents to the charac- ~(Be GRAHAM, Page ¥3) ~ Junior Star—Art—Books Dogs Staying Alive A Fighting Business That's the Message ‘Morning Star’ Gives New York By Ira Wolfert. NEW YORK. Well, here is Becky Felderman, whose husband was quite a fine fel- low, but was dead by 1910 and left her with three daughters and a son to bring up in a tenement house on the lower east side in New York. The girls and boy are the best kind of immigrants, the kind that built up this country, aswarm with push and go, hot for democracy and kindly, decent living. Only one of them confuses that with making money and she comes to a bad end. Becky took in a boarder to help along and he was a fine fellow, too, and wanted to marry her. She liked him all right, but she was all wrapped up in her children and in her late husband’s memory, and she was that funny kind of woman who believes in playing fair with the man she marries. She felt if she mar- ried Aaron Greenspan she would always be cheating on him by stack- ing him up against the late Mr. Felderman. So it was no go between Aaron and Becky, although he al- ways Kkept trying. ‘The family kept Becky active any= way. One of the girls died in the | Animal Stars Are Having Happy Days Dogs and Cats Are Stealing Scenes In Many Films By Harold Heffernan. HOLLYWOOD. Don't be in a hurry to route your precocious pets into Hollywood to fill the void, but actually there's “ definite shortage of good anim: talent noted«in the-scveen colony these spring days. The scarcity is felt keenly now because all major studios appear to be whipping up to a veritable cycle of movies in which dogs, horses, cats and other four-legged scene-stealers contest with human actors for the choicest close-ups. A quick glance over the calendar of current and approaching events is a tip-off. Scarcely a script is going before the cameras today without some species of animal or fowl doing its stuff and collecting a sizable fee for its master. For in- stance: Paramount’s “The Biscuit Eater” ment is subordinated to the antics of a remarkable bird dog and the animal's response to the love and training of a small boy. Winfield Sheehan’s “Florian” fea- tures the producer’s own beautiful white Lippizan horses imported from the Hapsburg stables, its story built entirely around the amazing trick steed named for the film’s title. dette Colbert and Clark Gable in “Boom Town,” now in production, must be checked, or a little canine of doubtful antecedents will deflect attention from the love-making co- stars. A Dozen in One Film. Even the Hardy family series is turning to animal play. In “Andy Hardy Meets a Debutante,” Mickey Rooney and Ann Rutherford, his screen sweetheart, argue over the relative merits of two recently ac- quired dog pets. “Pride and Prejudice,” featuring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, which makes use of a dozen dogs and a litter of small puppies in several sequences, is guaranteed to steal plenty of attention. “North- west Mounted Police,” ‘“Arizona,” “All This and Heaven, Too,” and a dozen other films currently at work are raiding the trained dog kennels of Hollywood to an extent never before approached. Maybe you think the screen’s leading actors and actresses are in- trigued by the idea of sharing scenes with these brilliant 4-footers. Not a bit of it. They regard the easy manner by which a smart canine actor, with a mere turn of his head, can steal an important scene with a good bit of apprehension. After making “Florian,” Robert Young said, “I didn’t have a chance. That wonderful horse was with me (See REFFERNAN, Page F-2.) Be Seated.” ‘penat colony, he being one of the escape artists. CAPITOL—"Johnny Apollo,” story the wrong side of the tracks her family’s reputation, will second week. opens Wednesday, May 1. is a story in which the human ele- | Romantic scenes between Clau- | Triangle sweatshop fire—the fire which killed 145 girls, whose tragic end strangled sweatshops in New York and resulted in the formation of the Garment Workers’ Union— and the boy was killed in France in 1918. Another daughter married a song writer with a taste for other women and had her troubles, which she kept bringing back to mama. The third daughter. the money= lover, turned cruel in her chase for the dollar and got dollars and noth= ing else, so where was she when the depression came and the dollars went away? All This Is “Morning Star.” That's what Sylvia Regan's play, “Morning Star,” is about. We take up with the family in 1910 in the middle of all their troubles and leave them in 1931 in the middle of all their new troubles and the only impression that emerges from the steady array of incident is that staying alive is a fighting business and involves crying and laughing and renewal. A lot of people derive less of an impression from 70 years of life. The whole thing is written on the level of “Abie’s Irish Rose.” It is warm and elemental stuff, with | characters seen as we, presuming | we.are not artists, see the people around us. The comedy depends | almost entirely ot reminiscence. The audience is expected to laugh at seeing actors do the little homely things it itself does when no one is looking. I don’t know why authors expect us to laugh at that kind of stuff, but they do, and the funny thing is we do, too. We laugh, | too. | The acting is something else again. | Molly Picon, a darling of Yiddish vaudeville and musical comedy, makes her debut in a straight part on the English stage in the role of Becky and discloses that she is an extraordinary artist. Joseph Buloff, another of the Yiddish players, does Aaron Greenspan and these two | demonstrate what those of us who travel to the East Side now and then have known all along—that the modern Jewish actors are among the really great actors of the Amer- |ican theater. They use their faces and their bodies in a manner that | makes the uptown theater look ane- mic. When my heart needs break- ing or I want to be thrown laugh- ing into the aisle, then let Molly Picon and Joseph Buloff do it. Written With Fists. The first commercial use of the living newspaper technique devel- oped by the W. P. A.’s late Federal theater project is a violent, extraor- dinarily powerful and dramatic as- sault on the controlling members of the American Medical Association. “Medicine Show” is what it is called, and Oscar Saul and H. R. Hays have written -it with their fists. | The living newspaper technique | was designed for the presentation on a stage of information and a point of view. The major statistic in “Medicine | Show” is that every year 250,000 | people die needlessly of sickness in the United States. The play starts at 9 o'clock with an actor coming to | the front of the stage and telling the audience that between now and 11 o'clock 59 people who need not die at all will die for reasons which can be avoided. From then on the play details & major paradox: The fact that thou- sands of people are dying for lack of medical care and the thousands of doctors are starving for lack of patients. The play is no fun at all. It is handled with earnest excitement and it aims to teach and arouse rather than entertain. What it aims at, it hits right square in the heart. (Released by the North American Newspaper Alliance, Inc.) Coming Attractions EARLE—"“The Doctor Takes a Wife,” comedy romance involving an author who believes in being Public Spinster No. 1, and a doctor who dislikes career women, opens Friday. The girl is Loretta ‘Young, the boy who meets her is Ray Milland. The stage show will be the second annual edition of Harry Anger’s “Gentlemen, PALACE—“Strange Cargo,” which has Clark Gable and Joan Craw- ford involved in the escape of nine men and a woman from a the escapees and she being a cab- aret entertainer, will follow “Rebecca.’ ’ Peter Lorre is another of of a college lad who tumns to crime when his father is sent to prison and his friends desert him, ar- rives Friday. Tyrone Power is the lad, Edward Arnold his father, and Dorothy Lamour is about for romance. Ed Sullivan’s “Star- dust Revue” will be the stage show. KEITH'S—"Primrose Path,” in which Ginger Rogers is the lass from who must battle environment and follow “It's a Date,” now in its METROPOLITAN—“Too Many Husbands,” combining the comedy talents'of Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, moves here Priday for a second week downtown. \ BELASCO—"Lights Out in Europe,” documentary report on some of the ways of mankind today, with commentary by James Hilton,