That’s Hollywood For You

I recognize Grace Kelly’s beauty, admire her acting technique, believe she rates an Oscar, yet to be completely honest, I think she lacks a great requisite: warmth! . . . To me Debra Paget is a sweet little girl who shouldn’t try to be a sex bundle . . . Mona Freeman tells me: “A woman is well-dressed if nothing she wears stands out but everything looks nice together.” Mona is so well-dressed . . .

“Gone with the Wind” put Clark Gable back on the popularity polls, and I’m glad . . . They’re now referring to Jimmy Dean as the new Marlon Brando. To me Marlon Brando is still new! . . . I would like to see Barbara Bel Geddes in a movie. She’s been off the screen too long . . . Among the things Mitzi Gaynor brought back from her honeymoon—the title of ideal “Draw Me” girl by Art Instruction students . . .

Mamie Van Doren, always outspoken and frank, admits she is slightly bow-legged, but explains it saying, “I used to play the cello.” . . . Debbie Reynolds admits that until she met him, Eddie Fisher’s name couldn’t be found amongst her huge record collection. Now she’s loaded . . . Doris Day always looks as if she has been freshly scrubbed.

The scene between Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger in the taxi in “On the Waterfront” is the finest single scene in any movie this season . . . Burt Lancaster laughs a lot off the screen but admits that he doesn’t laugh enough on-screen . . . Which reminds me, they don’t make comedies like they used to. Remember those Irene Dunne-Cary Gram, Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn gems? . . . It used to be that every comedian wanted to play Hamlet. Now it seems that every actor wants to be a singer: Jeff Chandler, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas—to name just a few . . . And the singers want to be straight dramatic actors: for instance, Frank Sinatra, Howard Keel . . . They’re becoming extremely courteous at the neighborhood movie theatres. A friend informed me he went to the lobby to buy some popcorn and they stopped the movie until he returned.

The telephone is a great prop in motion pictures. It won an Oscar for Luise Rainer (“The Great Ziegfeld” ) and probably will for Edmond O’Brien (“The Barefoot Contessa”) . . . To me, Susan Hayward usually looks as if she’s about io be angry . . . I believe it was Judy Holliday who said she always has ice cream the same color as her dress, so if she spills any it won’t show . . . Tony Curtis and Virginia Mayo rate my applause, too. Tony won the George Washington Carver Memorial Institute’s annual Award of Merit, which is presented for outstanding contributions to interracial unity. Virginia was awarded a recognition pin from the Daughters of the American Revolution . . .

From the Hollywood Women’s Press Club, Debbie Reynolds and Martin and Lewis picked golden apples for cooperativeness; Doris Day and Edmund Purdom got the sour apple award for the most uncooperative . . . Do you realize that the movie stars employ doubles to do all their dangerous jobs for them except marriage? That’s Hollywood for you.

—BY SIDNEY SKOLSKY

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE MARCH 1955