That’s Hollywood For You

Grant is a firm believer in hypnotism, Zen Buddhism and charm . . . Ann Blyth finds it easier to make demands over the phone than in person . . . I’m always surprised when I meet Audrey Hepburn in a delicatessen . . . I’m so tired of flappers, the Charleston, hip flasks and everything about the roaring Twenties. I’m finding it harder to live through the reel Twenties than the real Twenties. Stop already, please! . . . Clark Gable discarded his first name, which is William. Make a movie (“Teacher’s Pet”) with an actor, and you learn plenty about him… As of this writing, I’ll wager that Joanne Woodward wins an Oscar for her “Three Faces Of Eve” performance . . . Julie London, who is offered more work than she can work at, said, “It was not too long ago that I couldn’t buy a job.” … No matter what, Frank Sinatra’s greatest demands are on himself . . . Burt Lancaster, who knows “The Sweet Smell of Success,” will tell you that success is more difficult to cope with than failure . . . Orson Welles discovered that in Hollywood the best time to photograph dusk is at dawn.

Yul Brynner honestly believes he is a shy man . . . The Changing Years: Beverly Bayne, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara and other big stars of the silents used to hide the fact they were married to keep in favor with the fans . . . Our good friend, Mike Curtiz, was trying to describe Elvis Presley: “He’s a handsome fellow, even though he doesn’t look it.”

I believe Dorothy Malone is a girl who’ll never admit the impossible. And she has an Oscar to prove my statement. . . . Don’t talk to John Wayne until he has had a cup of coffee . . . From my knowledge, Joan Crawford is the best knitter among the actresses. About the actors, I wouldn’t be knowing Bob Mitchum wins friends by being very friendly with visitors on a set . . . Kim Novak gets along better with men than with women, as if you didn’t know . . . Tony Perkins dislikes aggressive women and crowds, except if the aggressive women come in crowd form to one of his movies . . . Susan Harrison is a deliberate non-conformist. She hates people who try to force her into a mold. “I would have been burned as a witch in the Middle Ages,” Susan admits proudly . . . I wonder if there would have been a Jayne Mansfield if there never had been a Marilyn Monroe. I wonder if Jayne wonders . . . By the way, Marilyn sleeps with her mouth closed . . . Description of Walt Disney: He’s the guy who built a better mouse than his neighbor.

Fred Astaire doesn’t like to go dancing. To him it’s work and a career . . . To put it mildly, director Roberto Rossellini needs direction . After considering it carefuly, I’ve come to the conclusion that all George M. Cohan and Lon Chaney have in common is Jimmy Cagney . . . Kirk Douglas—no Caspar Milquetoast, he . . . Anna Magnani is the latest who’ll try for a hit record. Magnani plays the piano and guitar well, but according to her own admission: “I sing with everything but my voice.” She might be the female Elvis.

I’m surprised Alfred Hitchcock is a better actor than George Sanders, but that’s how it is on TV . . . Cyd Charisse doesn’t look the same when she acts as when she dances . . . Did you ever notice how people start to look like their dogs? . . . It’s my opinion that in “The Pride and the Passion,” the love story is mainly between the camera and Sophia Loren . . . When they want to age Jeff Chandler, will they take the gray out of his hair and darken it? . . Your buddy and mine. Mike Todd, confided for publication: “My greatest ambition is to be able to afford to live the way I do.” . . . What’s the toughest job in Hollywood? You’ll never guess. It’s that of the switchboard operator at the Goldwyn studios. She has to unscramble the calls that come in for—get ready—William Wyler, Billy Wilder, Bob Wilder and Robert Wyler, all of whom are working there . . . Marlon Brando, with his blond hair, walking around at 20th-Fox almost unrecognized . . . Impossible but true combo: Tony Perkins and Gwen Davis. They were together at a performance of “Around the World in 80 Days.” . . . Did you see those photos of Ernest Borgnine with a beard? He’s a ringer for Ernest Hemingway. But Hemingway isn’t a ringer for Borgnine . . . Jerry Wald had a disreputable-looking tar paper and waste lumber shack built for the Lucas Cross home in “Peyton Place.” It was torn down immediately after the scene to make way for a new oil well. The fragile edifice cost the studio exactly $3.745.52 to construct . Sally Forrest is residing in the former house of Jean Harlow, which is still decorated with likenesses of John Barrymore, Garbo, John Gilbert and a few other former big M-G-M stars . . . Monique Van Vooren insists she wants a simple wedding: “Just me and a groom and money.” . . . Curvy Loretta Thomas has a dual role in “This Day Alone,” but you won’t know it. Her back is featured in a scene of a girl walking out of an office, and her front is featured when she plays a sexy B-girl in a later scene. That’s Hollywood For You.

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 1957