March 17, 1944
SNAPSHOTS OF HOLLYWOOD COLLECTED AT RANDOM: The Jack Bennys and Danny Kayes were Joe E. Lewis’ best audience at Slapsy Maxie’s. These two top comedians roared at Joe. Gracie Allen and George Burns were equally appreciative. Gail Patrick and Norman Taurog were also at the opening. They are getting to be a steady duet. Humphrey Bogart’s Dane, Jackson, has been honorably discharged from the canine corps. (On the Q.T. — Jackson was taking nips at friends as well as foes!)
March 5, 1914: Spring training!
I jumped back to 1914 to see if I could find out anything about the Police Commissions order against non-Asian women in Oriental cafes. No luck, alas, but I did find a couple of goodies.
In the first, a crowd of witnesses hisses mounted LAPD Officer M.E. Wise, whom they accused of beating former firefighter Jack Ramsey, who was thrown in the alley behind the Phoenix bar, 121 S. Main, after getting into a fight. Members of the crowd said Wise handcuffed Ramsey and put him in the back of a patrol wagon, then hit him in the face. A police official said that Ramsey attacked other prisoners after being put in the patrol wagon and had to be subdued.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Charlie Sebastian says there are usually complains whenever anyone is arrested in that area (and yes, even 100 years ago Main Street was a tough neighborhood).
In Stockton, the mystery of Ester Crotzer’s disappearance comes to a grisly conclusion with the discovery of a body cut into 11 pieces and stuffed into four sacks.
March 17, 1944:
Faces About Town: Capt. Clark Gable and pretty Virginia Grey. Their chums say, “This is it!” … Lovely Ann Mace, Billy Rose’s tallest showgirl. Her groom, Lt. Al Downs of Westchester, has the miseries since she returned to the Horseshoe line … The Three Stooges going through their mainiactivities in Lindy’s… Raymond Massey putting a sassy stew in his place at El Morocco… Joe E. Brown ankling along Park Avenue — wearing the stares with dignity … George Raft, the cinemenace, ringsiding at the Ubangi … Kath Cornell, the star, wearing galoshes when it’s slushy — her shoes in her hands … At the Hurricane: Gertrude Niesen featuring red, white and blue fingernails …
Diana van Dyne is at Milwaukee’s Empress Burlesk!
March 16, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 15 — Charles Boyer was on the 20th Century-Fox lot today, so I knew something was cooking, if you’ll pardon my slang. He was there to talk with Ernst Lubitsch about “The Typhoon,” and because he knows the play he said if he could arrange his commitments at Universal he would do it. All actors like to work with Lubitsch because they can be sure of a good picture. Charles would play a Jap as he did in “Hari-Kiri.”
Ernst is very busy these days, with three pictures in the offing. The first of these, “Czarina,” will get going the last of July with the inimitable Tallulah Bankhead as the star. Yep, Tallulah’s coming back. That means good copy for all the newspaper people and a lot of fun for her friends.
March 16, 1944
It’s Thursday in 1944, and today we have:
— Alan Hale is the guest on “The Abbott and Costello Show.” Courtesy of Otrrlibrary via Archive.org.
— Laird Cregar is the guest with Hans Conried in “Narrative about Clarence” on “Suspense.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
March 16, 1944: “It is impossible to see how there could be a living thing left there.”
March 16, 1944
A newspaperman and radio reporter is as much a part of our political scheme as the statesman, politician and the dime-a-dozen misfits who make the news … As such the reporter should be subjected to just as many brickbats, slanders and innuendos… It is all part of the game, and anybody who can’t take it should not have entered into it in the first place. But by that same American code by which you are obliged to take it, you are also entitled to dish it out … Currently I am being vilified by being called a vilifier … I welcome the attack because it comes from the people I regard as the most contemptible that ever disgraced American citizenship. They believe that their own miserable self-interest is the destiny of this Republic. They think that freedom of speech is the right to lie about the president, that free enterprise means pre-war profits from government money and that the only thing the matter with Hitler is that he doesn’t pay cash … I repeat, I welcome their attacks. They cannot be expected to stick to the rules because they can never afford to stick to the facts.
March 15, 1944
It’s Wednesday in 1944, and today we have:
— Charles Laughton is the guest on “Orson Welles’ Radio Almanac.” More jokes about the income tax. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “The Lone Ranger.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Baritone William Hargrave is the guest on “To Your Good Health,” a musical program from the House of Squibb. Hargrave died at the VA hospital in Los Angeles in 1986. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary via Archive.org.
March 15, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 14 — “The Green Years,” the new Dr. A.J. Cronin novel, has been purchased by M-G-M from the galleys. While George Landy of the Frank Vincent office, who handled the deal, is unwilling to mention price I am told it is an all time record for a novel and that was $200,000 paid. The closest to this was $170,000 paid for “Saratoga Trunk.” The story is not Cronin’s autobiography, as many thought. It is about an Irish boy who goes to live with penurious relatives in Scotland and is in a way another “How Green Was My Valley.”
CHATTER IN HOLLYWOOD: Kay Hurrell, who in the opinion of many people in Hollywood behaved like the gallant lady she is at the time of her divorce proceedings is being forced to return to Hollywood by George Hurrell, local photographer. He has filed bankruptcy proceedings involving her source and so she must return for a session which … breaking for her, since … to put the whole thing … her mind.
March 15, 1944
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt (newspaper row hears) is fed up with the way some syndicate clients chop her column to appease local subscribers … Drew Pearson made the identical squawk. Pearson’s beef was that some editors delete the punchiest stuff … A model who won a film contract lost it because (while woofled) she talked too much at the Mocambo in Hollywood…. Ethel Barrymore and her director, Clifford Odets, have eased the tension and dropped the boxing gloves.
March 14, 1944
It’s Tuesday night in 1944, which means we have “Duffy’s Tavern” and “Fibber McGee and Molly.”
— Gertrude Lawrence is this week’s guest on “Duffy’s Tavern.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— Fibber McGee and Molly hire Beulah. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org.
March 14, 1944
The First Nights: Of which the week had none. The current season is one of the wackiest on record, crazier than some of the shows, but not much. There are 30 attractions on the Stem. At least 25 of them are getting handsome moola and 18 rate as smasheroos … When the season started it was impossible for a show to go hungry. Plays that would have expired with a showing got runs. The drain on pocket money caught up with them, however, and now the turkeys are shot down just like in peacetime.
March 14, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 13 — While Jennifer Jones rests at Palm Springs with her two sons (I almost said “rests on her honors” after winning 1943’s best actress Oscar), David Selznick is readying her next picture. It’s to be Robert Nathan’s “Portrait of Jenny,” a fantasy which the author terms “an experiment in time.” It might also be added, in less high falutin’ language that “Jenny” is a charming story and although it will need rewriting it should be good for the Jones girl.
I still say Jennifer needs extra special care in her story selections. Even if the industry did vote her the best actress of 1943, her histrionic range has yet to be tested. “Bernadette” was a natural for her. Meanwhile, there’s a chance she may do a picture for Twentieth Century-Fox before starting the “Portrait of Jenny” for David.
March 14, 1944
As you may have noticed, Walter Winchell has been taking frequent blasts at Congress. Now the legislators have fired back.
In an AP story from Washington, Republican Rep. Clare Hoffman of Michigan charges that union leaders, Communists working in the government, the New Deal and radio commentators have engaged in a “smear campaign” to “smirch Congress and unseat some members.”
Their campaign, Hoffman said, was to “override our form of government and convince our people that Franklin D. Roosevelt is the indispensible man.”
Hoffman singled out Winchell, Drew Pearson, the Chicago Sun, a newspaper called PM ,,, and way down in the story is a reference to an attack by Republican Rep. Fred Busbey of Illinois on our old friend Louis Adamic, who you may recall was writing about Los Angeles in the 1920s, especially Aimee Semple McPherson’s disappearance.
Also by Louis Adamic
Aimee Semple McPherson’s Fight With Satan
March 13, 1944: Ted Barnes and Grace Lee Butler are featured in the cover story on “Junior Dance.” The featured photographer is Philippe Halsman, who has a photo essay on musicians. This week’s movie is “The Purple Heart.” Courtesy of Google.
Gracie Allen has tips on being a good wife!
March 13, 1944
It’s Monday in 1944 and today we have:
— “In Old Oklahoma” with Martha Scott, Albert Dekker and Roy Rogers! on “Lux Radio Theatre.” Courtesy of Archive.org.
— “The Tuttles of Tahiti” with Charles Laughton, John Hall, Charles Bickford and Florence Bates on Screen Guild Theater. Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org.
March 13, 1944
HOLLYWOOD, March 12 — One of the most startling books on the war is “A Bell for Adano,” John Hersey’s bestselling novel. Darryl F. Zanuck read it and bought it before it had reached its present tide of popularity. The hero is an Italian American and between you and me Spencer Tracy is yearning for a crack at it, and maybe you don’t think he is the one Darryl wants.
Spence made “Stanley and Livingstone” for Zanuck and liked his assignment fine. So, I reckon a little borrowing will go on, and in return for Spence Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will get one of 20th’s best bets.
CHATTER IN HOLLYWOOD: Good news to Betty Grable’s friends and admirers that she is coming along nicely and will be able to go home Thursday. The baby is a beauty. She looks like like Betty — same big blue eyes and blond hair and if ever there was a proud mother it is the pinup girl who, like all proud mothers, thinks her child the most beautiful. The baby is thriving and has been all right from the beginning, despite rumors she was sick. Betty feels she wants to rest until November, but I have an idea summer will see her back at the studio.
March 13, 1944
One of the strange quirks about the acting profession is that anecdotes about stars are remembered long after their most thrilling performances are forgotten … Theatrical historians have devoted more space to Mrs. Patrick Campbell’s wit than to her make-believing talents. She had a tongue that was sharp enough to clip barbed wire … Frixample: During a rehearsal of a G.B. Shaw opus, his caustic cracks irritated Mrs. Campbell. She held her temper at leash as long as possible .. Finally she pointed at the famed chaste vegetarian and cried: “Someday you’ll eat a pork chop, Georgie, and then God help all women!”
Paul Robeson deserves all the posies tossed at him for his top-notch make-believing in “Othello” … But some critics who lauded Robeson seemed surprised that his acting ability was as good as his voice — there can be no greater praise … They apparently forget that Robeson has had a distinguished acting career. More than a decade ago he was London’s most popular star. The show that earned him plaudits in Britain was — you’ve guessed it — “Othello.”
March 10, 1914:
Here’s another item I found at the city archives. Non-Asian women working at “Oriental cafes” except entertainers “does not comport with public welfare and morals.”
March 12, 1944
It’s Sunday in 1944 and today we have:
— “The Jack Benny Program” makes a live appearance at the LIvermore Naval Air Station. Courtesy of Archive.org.
— And here’s Benny’s radio rival, Fred Allen, on the Texaco Star Theater, with George Raft. Note: Just because your car has 30,000 or 40,000 miles, there’s still lots of life in it. It will last out the war. Really! Courtesy of Otrrlibrary.org via Archive.org.
ladailymirror.com 