The Year Was 1938 – May 28th

The Pogany portrait of Constance Bennett at the center of the lawsuit

• In court, portrait artist William Pogany gives his side about his work on the portrait of actress Constance Bennett. The jurors compared the image to the real thing as the testimony was given. Bennett made her view clear when she proclaimed that the portrait made her look like “a droopy sack of cement with a rope tied around it.” (See May 26^th).
• Jack Oakie gives an interview from his dressing room at RKO where he is preparing for work on his new film – ‘The Affairs of Annabel.’ He details his recent weight loss – in six weeks he has “lost 40 pounds, two chins, a bay window, and a desire for all potables stronger than skimmed milk.” [Oakie appeared in four films for 1938, but none in 1939. Since he was working with Chaplin for his role in the Great Dictator that released in 1940, he may have been tied up on that project, being at the beck and call of the perfectionist movie legend].
• Art Beery Sr, a  man with the job of stand-in for the actor Herbert Marshall, takes on the job of harbor master at Santa Monica, and leaves his old position to his son Art jr who gladly takes over the stand-in position. [Beery jr may have started with Marshall’s next film ‘Zaza’ at Paramount with Claudette Colbert].
• Today’s date marks the birthday of stage and movie actress Minna Gombell. She turns 46, and started soon in the production of ‘Meet the Missus,’ with Laurel and Hardy, playing the wife of Ollie. [‘Meet the Missus’ was released by MGM as ‘Blockheads.’ The veteran stage actress, Gombell, was in 4 films for 1938, and just three for 1939, including ’The Hunchback of Notre Dame”].
• Also it was actor Richard Lane’s 39^th birthday who was hard at work at RKO on the Astaire-Rogers vehicle – Carefree. [Lane would be at 20^th Century for the rest of 1938 (for ‘Mr Doodle Kicks Off’ and ‘Charlie Chan in Honolulu’) and for the beginning of 1939 in ‘Mr Moto in Danger Island,’ before changing over to Paramount for the DeMille film ‘Union Pacific’].

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The Year Was 1938 – May 24th

Alice Faye with Buster Keaton in 20th Century Fox’s Hollywood Cavalcade from 1939.

• Buster Keaton was brought in to work with Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice on their MGM film ‘Fast Company.’ He instructs them “how to take painless comedy falls.” [The silent comedian was an expert. Though I would be concerned because he once broke his neck on a stunt in one of his films and did not know it until years later].
• French actors (like Danielle Darrieux and Annabella) are demanding dialog coaches on their films so that their accents won’t make them unintelligible to US audiences.  Charles Boyer has done so.
• Midgets in Hollywood have formed their own guild the Tiny Town club. [Just in time for The Wizard of Oz].
• More than 5000 extras were employed at Paramount last week due to a heavy run of mob scenes. ‘If I Were King’ led the list with 1600.
• Fanny Brice takes the top comedienne spot in the upcoming film from MGM, ‘Honolulu.’ Eleanor Powell and Allan Jones are the stars. [The film was released in 1939, but without Fanny Brice or Allan Jones aboard. I believe the columnist (or whomever they were talking with at the studio) confused this production with ‘Everybody Sing’ since “Funny Girl” Brice and Jones starred in this film with Judy Garland, released in 1938].
• Rumors are circulating that Walt Disney is looking for a new mouse house [er, studio] for his cartoon characters. Studio officials state that the idea is too nebulous to even be considered as a plan.
• Mark Sandrich ends a 9 year director hitch at RKO in August, currently directing his 6^th Astaire-Rogers musical. He intends to freelance next. [The film is ‘Carefree,’ see next item].
• Franklin Pangborn was signed today by RKO for a role in the currently shooting Astaire-Rogers film. [The fussy Pangborn had a total of thirteen films for 1938, but only two for 1939. Perhaps there was little call for Maitre’Ds and put-upon hotel managers that year].
• Bob Burns, film and radio comic salary increases. In 1934 $1500; in 1935 $9000; in 1936 $100,000; in 1937 $400,000. [And he had invented his own musical instrument that he used in his vaudeville act and on the radio – he called it the Bazooka. The anti-tank weapon in World War Two was named after it, due to their resemblance. He had three film credits in 1938; followed by two in 1939].
• An assistant director at Selznick-International Eric Stacey solves a problem of what to do with an old car – (a British model) – rent it to a film studio – he got more in rental for it last week than he paid for it 10 years ago. [Stacey was busy in 1939, filling in as assistant director on ‘Made for Each Other’ and ‘Gone with the Wind’].

ON THE MOVE

• Left LA for NY – Billy Halop, Larry Fine, Moe Howard, Curley Howard, Dashiell Hammett, Al Jolson, Pat O’Brien, Joe Louis.
• Left NY for LA – Roy Disney, Leland Hayward, Henry Travers.