You Read It First In Vintage Paparazzi

For Sole: One motorcycle, by Van Johnson. And this is no gag. Doubt if Van will ever go bouncing around on a two-wheeler again—after the near tragedy that befell his pal Keenan Wynn exactly two years after a similar accident almost cost Van his own life! The very day that Wynn figured in his motorcycle-auto smash was the day that Eve Wynn was being brought home from the hospital with the new baby. For three days and nights Van never lef t Keenan’s bedside at the hospital. Connie Moore stayed at Eve’s side, keeping the news of Keenan’s accident from her and doing what she could for Mrs. W. who was very ill for many days. Finally, as both Wynns improved, each was told of the others troubles. And here’s a so-far unprinted twist: Just a few moments before Keenan hopped on his cycle to go home, he had almost talked Connie into riding on the back of it with him. Instead she decided to ride in the car following him with her husband Johnny Maschio and Van Johnson. Just two minutes before all reached the Wynn home the accident occurred.

Thisa and Thata: Sinatra has finally been classified 4F . . . Vic Mature’s Hollywood leave leads everyone to believe he’s the same old Vic. Hasn’t changed a drop. What’s more, rumor has it Dick Quine, also of the Coast Guard and husband of Susan Peters, who is confined to a hospital bed, may be given Vic’s role in the picture “Tars And Spars” . . . When Van Johnson decides to have a date he really does it up brown. A photographer trailed Van and his date, Jacqueline Dalya, from Romanoff’s to Mocambo, on to Ciro’s and the Troc and finally at Dave’s Blue Room gave up and went home exhausted. . . . It’s our opinion, based on observation, that Diana Lynn is the young lady most admired by the men in Hollywood. Lunching at Lucey’s one fine day this week we glimpsed Dorothy Lamour in one booth, Veronica Lake in another and nearby Diana Lynn. Just by casually checking up, Cal discovered nine out of every ten men had their eyes longingly and admiringly fastened on little Miss Lynn. Hmmmm!

 

The Bride and Bonita: After the preview of “Hotel Berlin” Cal found himself beside the effervescent Bonita Granville at Mocambo’s newest and swankiest supper room, the Crillon. Bonita was off to New York next day for six weeks of radio and stage personals and camp tours. At twenty-two she’s kept her heart intact, which is something in this land of young brides.

Bonita, who used to be engaged to Jackie Cooper, told us of her recent San Francisco hospital tour with Danny Kaye. Who should be on the tour but June Horne, Jackie’s bride. Bonita and June became fast friends.

“It was very funny,” Bonita said, “when the boys in the hospitals asked me about Jackie and what happened to our engagement.

“I always said, I’m not sure about that, but I do know about his marriage. And do let me introduce the present Mrs. Cooper. Isn’t she lovely?’ ”

 

Grant Again: Ye Gods! If you don’t think Hollywood is agog over the Cary Grant-Barbara Hutton-Betty Hensel doings then you’ve never heard gab! And, oh yes, Phillip Reed figures in here somewhere too. The moment that the second separation of the Grants was announced, Barbara started seeing a lot of Phil, recently discharged from the Navy and about to resume in pictures. But someone remembered that during their first separation Cary had gotten a lot of consolation and a beautiful eyeful from Betty Hensel, a very rich and terribly attractive society belle from St. Louis. But Cary didn’t have to “meet her in St. Louis”—she was right in Hollywood the second time he and Barbara busted up. But wait! Just about the time that it became known that la Hutton would go to Nevada to get a divorce, Betty up and announced she would marry Army Lieut. William Dodge. Boy—was that a surprise! And Cal hears that Cary was just about going nertz at this point. In fact, so was Betty—with indecision. But the day before her wedding, the nuptials were called off! Had Cary talked her out of it and asked her to wait until he was free? Or had she just decided herself that she was so crazy about Grant that she couldn’t marry another fellow—and would take her chances on what Cary might have to say in the future?

Cal has a hunch that Betty will be marrying Cary when he’s free.

 

Another Voice: We vote Louis Hayward’s the best speaking voice in pictures. It flows like liquid music, soft but completely unaffected with its cultured English accent. On the “Ten Little Indians” set Cal sat with Louis, Roland Young (a scream in old flannel pajamas and raincoat) and June Duprez. We talked of the housing shortage, with Louis trying to buy a house in order to keep his dog with him; of New York plays, with Roland returning to Broadway for a Topper play; and of the heat, with June all done up in black for the scene.

Louis’s quietly beautiful voice seemed to dominate every subject.

Incidentally, they told us on the set that even yet tiny shrapnel fragments work their way to the surface of Hayward’s face—the same shrapnel he received at Tarawa.

 

It’s Oscar Time Again: The rib-tickling remarks of Bob Hope, who was master of ceremonies at the annual Academy Awards affair, had the town in stitches. When it came to the set dresser’s award (the small group whose plight precipitated the studio strike) Bob salaamed before the winner and inquired anxiously if the other winners (only one showed up) were outside. “Look,” Bob said, pointing to the winner and his plaque, “he’s already wearing it as a sandwich board,” and the audience, visualizing the picketers, roared.

“Now I know how Dewey felt,” Bob remarked when Bing Crosby won the Oscar for his work in “Going My Way.”

“When a director can take a broken-down crooner like me by the hand and guide him through a picture to this,” Bing said, “anyone has a chance.”

In her tomato red frock and a coronet braid atop her head, Norma Shearer was a vision as she presented the Irving Thalberg Award to Darryl F. Zanuck. And judging by the applause, both Ingrid Bergman and Barry Fitzgerald were equally popular winners. Little Margaret O’Brien, who received a special award for the best all-around child performer, had to be held in Bob’s arms to speak over the mike.

When the photographers asked the two to pose, Bob said—“Stand over I’ here, Marg—you know where to stand,” he interrupted himself. “I’ve seen you work.”

 

Love-ly: Even yet, Bette Davis isn’t telling anybody—studio or friends—just what she did in Georgia for those three months. So whether or not she’s Mrs. Corp. Riley is still anybody’s guess. You can also guess whether it’s love, marriage or just keeping a secret that gives her a new glow. Because Bette has just completed the most starry-eyed set of portrait sittings at the studio gallery that she’s ever made. Positively glamorous . . . Lots of the stars and starlets with sweethearts or husbands overseas get all kinds of souvenirs and sometimes jewels from their adored ones. And then usually dash out to have these trinkets or stones made up into things they can wear. But Marsha Hunt’s husband, Capt. Jerry Hopper, went the rest of the boys one better. He collected some beautiful sea shells and stones in his travels in the Pacific and when he sent them to Marsha they were already made up into costume jewelry. Must have had the natives work on them . . . Maureen O’Hara is an eye-filler in a breath-taking black lace dress in “Spanish Main.” Just about the time she was making scenes in the gown, she got word that her husband Will Price was in the thick of the fighting on Iwo Jima. She almost went to pieces with anguish and worry. Naturally, nobody could tear her away from a radio and its newscasts. This went on for several days. And the next time she donned the dress to play a balcony scene with Paul Henreid—it hung off her in all the wrong places. Maureen had dropped seven pounds! Shortly after this, she got word that Price was safe.

 

Bridal Party: There’s a grown-up prettiness about Joan Leslie that’s startling to a town that has watched this young actress grow from a gangling adolescent into a smart hair-on-top-of-her-head chicness. Yet there’s a natural eagerness about Joan that will forever bar her from the glamour-girl classification, for which Allah be praised.

Cal glimpsed Joan at the cocktail party photographer Paul Hesse gave for the new bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cummings. There she sat in her smart checked frock, with Charles Russell and Jinx Falkenburg, having her picture snapped all over the place. It occurred to us then she was the prettiest gal in the room—except for the bride, the former Mary Elliott, whose radiant happiness shone all about her.

Among the guests greeting Bob and Mary were pretty Joan Caulfield with her beau, Lieut. Bob Davis; Sonny Tufts and his Mrs., Billy Gilbert and his wife Ella and Sonja Henie who was busy denying that she’d ever been out dining with Dick Haymes—says she doesn’t even know him.

 

Double Trouble: There’s a fellow around Hollywood named Dave Willock who has missed film job after film job because he looks so much like Frank Sinatra. It always hurts rather than helps newcomers to look too much like any already established star. But finally Willock got himself a small part in “It’s A Pleasure”—and if you look fast you’ll catch him as the elevator boy in several sequences with Sonja Henie. . . .

And speaking of Frankie-boy, isn’t it swell the way he’s been giving so much time and effort to those talks he’s been making on tolerance? Lots of people talk about doing something to help the boys and girls—but Frankie really did something. He talked to teen-agers in schools and auditoriums in New York and Philadelphia—under the supervision of the Board of Education—and unless a scheduled overseas tour interrupts, he’ll go right on with his campaign to spread the right kind of thinking among those who are only too glad to listen to him.

Here’s wishing him lots of luck—he has plenty of the right things to say!

 

Mad Hats: Went to a cocktail party that would have had the original Mad Hatter jumping with joy. There was Claudette Colbert with what looked just like a large black valentine heart flat on the top of her dome. There was Maria Montez, in a John Fredericks number—made entirely of huge blue silk roses, just set at cock-eyed angles all over her head—invisibly held together with heaven knows what! There was Kay Williams in what looked like a miniature derby perched on top of her blonde curls. There was Greer Garson, in a black cocktail suit, wearing a tiny black chapeau, with an inch-wide brim on which were about eight little golden chess-men!

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Hollywoodiana: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz go right on fighting and making up—their last spat was a humdinger. But they haven’t reached their last—not by a long shot . . . The Alan Ladds and Bill Bendixes, are friends again, we are happy to say . . . Rita Hayworth has her pre-baby figure back as all the La Rue diners could see the night she and Orson Welles dined there. They’d just returned from Mexico—and Orson is getting ready to do the new Claudette Colbert picture—as her leading man . . . Joan Crawford and Phil Terry headed for a long vacation in New York . . . Plenty of ice between Veronica Lake and Sonny Tufts on thp sets these days—but nobody car understand why . . . Some people are beginning to think that Ann Sheridan doesn’t care if she never makes another picture—certainly looks that way. She remained glued to Steve Hannagan’s side for months back east—and nobody would be surprised if she just stayed on there as his Mrs. . . . Faye Emerson swears she won’t be a mama in 1945 -—not that she wouldn’t like to be . . .

Prediction: That Bill Williams, who debuts in “Those Endearing Young Charms” with Bob Young and Laraine Day, will be well on his way to stardom before the year is out.

 

At the Haymes House: Hollywood certainly hopes that the Dick Haymes reconciliation will stick. It wasn’t such a shock to a lot of people who had suspected trouble in that household for some time. And for many reasons. One of the reasons is that Mrs. H. is determined to resume her acting career where she left off when she married the now successful crooner. She’s been taking dramatic lessons—and Dick feels one career in the family is enough.

News of Omr Boys: Billy Halop, ex-“Dead End” kid, in service three years, is now with the Army in France.

Mickey Rooney gives as many as twelve shows a day from the back of a jeep. He was last seen heading for Germany.

Colonel Anatole Litvak is much grayer and more subdued, we may say. Cal found himself at the former director’s table at Mocambo the other night and learned he expects to go right back over the pond again.

Deanna Durbin’s former husband, Navy Lieut. Vaughn Paul, finished work aboard an Essex-class carrier in connection with the first strike on Tokyo and transferred by breeches buoy in rugged weather to a tanker where his good fellowship won him a lot of friends. Vaughn was grateful for the cot set up in the crowded ship’s office, and more grateful for the lift given his crew and their two tons of equipment. Paul is in charge of the “CinCPac Newsreel,” first Navy newsreel unit, and was on Iwo Jima during the siege there.

 

A friend reports the last time he saw Navy Lieut. Henry Fonda he had his arms around the shoulders of fellow officers close-harmonizing over a cold bottle. Hank had come ashore on a Pacific Island as a member of an admiral’s staff after many weeks of duty aboard ship. Hank, we’re told, likes to relax when off duty, but on the job is one of the hardest working, most conscientious men in his organization.

Incidentally, Van Johnson has again been rejected by his draft board, due to that head injury suffered in an accident.

Gene Kelly expects to ship out as soon as his basic training is completed in San Diego, California. Already the town misses Gene’s genial grin and good humor, to say nothing of his grand acting.

 

Hollywood is Talking About: The sudden right-about-face of Mayo Methot, whose obvious heartbreak over her separation from Humphrey Bogart turned to philosophical resignation as she embarked for Las Vegas and a divorce. “I saw Bogie the other night,” Mayo told a friend, “and thought what a nice person he was to know and that was all.”

What Lana Turner will do if Turhan reports to Turkey and the Turkish Army is the question before the house. There are no flirtatious qualities about the blonde beauty, oddly enough. When she loves a man she loves only him.

Turhan certainly discovered how much he missed and loved Lana while she was on her recent eastern tour. His constant telephone calls left no doubt of this in Lana’s mind. Cal firmly believes that if Lana were free she would marry Turhan before he leaves. We know first-hand the actor has been in constant touch with the Turkish consul in Los Angeles, and is one foreigner who remains loyal to his Turkish friends in the city. Turhan told us he was an officer in the Turkish Army prior to leaving Europe and even wore a fez with his colorful uniform. No w there’s a romantic figure for you!

 

Callers: Cal answered the doorbell to discover Bill Eythe on the threshold.

“I just heard you live around the corner from my studio and thought I’d dash over while I’m waiting for my check,” he said.

We were glad to see Bill. His dark eyes have a glad-to-be-alive twinkle and the incongruity of his high professional status that contrasts so oddly with his shyness (a trait he tries desperately to hide) gives him a rather appealing boyishness.

He’d just been recalled from the East to test for “Dragonwyck,” but he was more excited over discovering Elyse Cox at the Pittsburgh Playhouse than anything else that happened on his brief trip. Bill said they had gone to Carnegie Tech Dramatic School together and had fought through every course. And suddenly here she was, a brilliant actress, now being tested by Twentieth at Bill’s request.

Bill telephoned his mother from New York that he’d been recalled by the studio for the test.

“Listen, Bill,” she said, “you don’t have to work in Hollywood. I’ve saved every cent of the money you’ve sent us and you take it, get a good substantial job in Kaufman’s Department Store in Pittsburgh and settle down.”

Our old friend Sydney Greenstreet absolutely filled the doorway. “Come on, you,” he said, “we’re going over to Phyllis Thaxter’s for dinner.”

He is abrupt to those he likes and horribly polite to those he dislikes.

 

As usual Phyllis was all atwitter over not being quite ready, having just come in from tennis. And, of course, there were the wedding pictures to be gone over again and the latest news from her bridegroom, Capt. James Aubrey, to be discussed. Her husband’s being in service brought Phyllis closer to Ginger Rogers than anyone has come in a long time. On the set of “Weekend At The Waldorf” they greeted each other daily with: “Any letters today?”

The following evening we were all set for a quiet time at home when—yep, the doorbell again.

Charlie Russell, the boy “with the hands” in “The Purple Heart” and more recently in “Captain Eddie,” stood and looked at us without a word.

“You—no—you did! You got the role,” we shouted at him.

“I came over directly from the studio,” he said, wiping away greasepaint as he sat down.

We could only rejoice with Charlie whom Hollywood regards as one of the finest young actors in the business.

“They told me today when the test was only half completed,” he said. “Only you know what this waiting has meant to me, so only you can know how I feel now.” So watch for Charlie in the leading role in “The Embezzler” with Jimmy Dunn and Sheila Ryan, and you’ll understand why all Hollywood has been pulling for him.

Cal Gets Around!: We sat at our favorite comer table in Twentieth Century-Fox’s dining room (where the food is terrific and the studio hospitality the best in Hollywood) with Mary Anderson and Richard Crane.

Mary is an intense young lady who never quite got the break she deserved after her swell stage performance in “Guest In The House.” She got all absorbed relating to the young flying officer with us her idea of how a magnet should be placed on gun sights in our bombers. And she stated her case well against his more practical arguments.

And then in the midst of all their technical discussion she turned wistfully and said, “I want to be a ‘feathery’ girl in movies.”

“What in heaven’s name is a ‘feathery’ girl?” we demanded.

“The kind of girl Dick here would fail in love with on the screen,” she added.

Young Crane blinked at her.

“Well?” we demanded. “Would you, or did you, rather? Is your bride Kay Morley ‘feathery’?”

“No,” he asserted. “She’s wonderful.” And then everybody screamed. . . .

That night at Mocambo, with friends from New York, who should we see walk in with producer Mark Hellinger but Humphrey Bogart and Lauren (Baby) Bacall. The photographers swarmed as one in their direction.

“Don’t snap me, boys,” Bogie shouted. ‘I’m too hot right now. Lay off!”

“What does he mean he’s ‘too hot’?” asked one of our visiting friends.

We explained, or tried to, that Bogie meant that his love affair was too much in the public eye right now.

“Well, didn’t he give out interviews that would put it there?” the New Yorker asked.

We allowed as how that made little difference.

“Well,” they all agreed, “movie stars are beyond us.”

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE JUNE 1945