Here is a selection of period newspaper articles about Carole Landis
from G. D. Hamann's blog. These and other articles may also be found
in his book, CAROLE LANDIS IN THE THIRTIES AND FORTIES. G. D. Hamann
publishes a number of collections of newspaper articles about movie
stars, including THELMA TODD IN THE THIRTIES, JEAN HARLOW IN THE
THIRTIES, and CAROLE LOMBARD IN THE THIRTIES. - the living Landis fan


Old Movie Section
This blog publishes on a daily basis about 10 percent of one of G.D.
Hamann's more than 170 books on Hollywood's Golden Age 1930-1949. For
list of books please email request to GDHamann@.... (c) G.D.
Hamann, All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Carole Landis In the 30s & 40's
2/27/1934 HCN Elizabeth Yeaman
Dorothy Dell wins a new term contract at Paramount as the result of
the preview of Wharf Angel which is the new title for the picture,
The Man Who Broke His Heart. Her next assignment is the feminine lead
in Little Miss Marker, and after that she will have the lead with
Jack Oakie in The Great Magoo. This newcomer to the screen has never
been given a bit role. She started out as a leading lady and
Paramount intends to keep her there until such time as she justifies
stardom. Dorothy Dell and Frances Drake are the two new actresses at
Paramount who are monopolizing attention right now.
Roscoe Karns is a new addition to the cast of The Great Magoo. He
will have a featured comedy role with Oakie, and it rather looks as
if Paramount is starting now to make a possible comedy team of these
two, since they are scheduled to co-star in an untitled comedy
sometime in April. Others in the cast of The Great Magoo are Arline
Judge, Alison Skipworth, Ben Bernie, Raymond Milland and William
Frawley. The latter two both played in Bolero and give outstanding
performances.
....
Ricardo Cortez, who managed to eke out a honeymoon in piecemeal
manner by dodging various assignments is now back at Warners and
ready to start to work. He was selected today for one of the big
roles in Dark Tower, in which Edward G. Robinson stars. It rather
looks as if this would turn out to be practically an all-star cast,
with Mary Astor and John Eldredge also cast. Dark Tower will be the
first picture Cortez has made since Wonder Bar.
....
Sally Eilers and Jimmy Dunn have made their peace with one another.
Sally walked out of the romantic team when she refused to play in
Jimmy and Sally with Dunn. Claire Trevor took her place in that film
and also made another picture with Dunn. Then Sally was to return to
the team of Dunn and Eilers in the Janet Gaynor-Charles Farrell, The
World Is Ours. But at the last moment Fox executives borrowed Ginger
Rogers from Radio Pictures for the role with Dunn. But Sally and
Jimmy will be together again in Always Himself, a story now being
prepared.
....
Irving Pichel and C. Aubrey Smith are the latest additions to the
cast of Cleopatra, the DeMille extravaganza which soon will go into
production at Paramount. Pichel will have the role of Apollodorus,
and Smith will portray Ahemoearbus. Pity the other members of the
cast who will have to call him by name in the picture! And although
DeMille admits that the correct pronunciation of Cleopatra gives the
first A as broad, he still insists that he thinks the pronunciation
sounds affected and prefers the short A. So there's no telling how it
will be pronounced in the picture. In case you have forgotten, the
cast now boasts the names of Claudette Colbert, Henry Wilcoxon,
Warren William, Ian Keith and Judith Allen.
....
For years John Boles has pleaded with producers to take him out of
stiff shirts and immaculately tailored dress suits in his screen
portrayals. But because Boles is essentially handsome and immaculate
looking, he always has been destined for the best male trappings
available. Now, at long last, he is being permitted to wear
engineer's boots and rough shirts in Free Gold in which he is playing
with Claire Trevor at Fox. Executives viewing rushes on the picture
are now shouting about the new John Boles in this picture. The rough
clothes have given him an easy comedy flair and casual nonchalance
which have been absent from his rather prim work in the past. Clothes
may make the man, but John Boles will testify they should be rough
clothes for him.
....
The Mud Turtle is the title of a new adventure story by Kurt Kempler
which Columbia has bought as a Jack Holt starring vehicle. Holt will
first star in Black Moon.
....
Esther Ralston will have occasion to remember Feb. 26, 1934. On that
day she filed suit for divorce from George Webb and was assigned to a
featured role in Timberline at MGM. Timberline is the latest novel
from the pen of Gene Fowler. It is based on the lives of Tammen and
Bonfils, colorful and ruthless publishers of the Denver Post. Fowler,
before he became famous as a novelist and playwright, worked as a
reporter on the Denver Post so he should know his material for
Timberline.
....
Casting About—Charles Levison replaces George E. Stone in the cast of
20th Century at Columbia. Stone is detained by work at Warners.
Warren Hymer and John L. Kelly are additions to the cast of Little
Miss Marker at Paramount. Ann Ronnel, sister to Sol Rosenblatt, has
been engaged to write the music for Down To their Last Yacht at Radio
Pictures. Sidney Blackmer wins the male lead in the same picture.
Playwright Sheridan Gibney draws the assignment to adapt Anthony
Adverse to the screen for Warners. Elissa Landi persuaded Columbia to
tear up her contract so that she may freelance. Her departure leaves
vacant the feminine lead in The Party's Over. John Cromwell is
scheduled to direct Katharine Hepburn in Tudor Wench, based on the
life of Queen Elizabeth.


Carole Landis In the 30s & 40's

ABBREVIATIONS

DN – Daily News (Los Angeles)
EHE – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
FD – Film Daily
HCN – Hollywood Citizen News
LAM – Los Angeles Mirror
LAX – Los Angeles Examiner
MPH – Motion Picture Herald
SFC – San Francisco Chronicle

11/1/1937 HCN Ed Sullivan
Carole Landis and Busby Berkeley are running a temperature.

11/15/1937 HCN Ed Sullivan
Carol Landis will become Mrs. Busby Berkeley....She's even changed
from blonde to brunette for him.

11/18/1937 EHE Jimmy Starr
Carole Landis and Busby Berkeley have "That Old Feeling."

12/7/1937 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Busby Berkeley's romance with Carol Landis reported cooling in favor
of Eleanor Bailey.

12/22/1937 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Reine Davies
The Hollywoodites who attended the preview of Warner Brothers'
Hollywood Hotel on Monday night certainly had a grand time for
themselves. Repeatedly they laughed at themselves and with themselves
as the rollicking musical unrolled before them. Truly, it's a picture
that one should see through the eyes of our celebrated villagers.
"Hollywood! Hollywood! All too divinely Hollywood!" opined Hedda
Hopper in high glee. And then reflecting her long and colorful career
in Hollywood, she added: "The Hollywood Hotel never looked like that
when I lived there."
With Louella Parsons and Dr. Harry Martin were Mary Pickford, Sally
Eilers, Harry Joe Brown, Harriet Parsons, Mecca Graham and Eadie-
Adams.
And others enjoying every minute of the hit opus were the three Lane
sisters, Lola, Rosemary and Priscilla, with their engaging mother,
and all handsomely escorted by Priscilla's heart interest, Wayne
Morris; Ann and Jack Warner, Hal Wallis and Louise Fazenda, Glenda
Farrell and Drew Eberson, Perc Westmore and Gloria Dickson, Bus
Berkeley with Carole Landis, the Johnny Davises, Mary and Raymond
Paige, Rose and Hugh Herbert, the Mervyn LeRoys, Juel and Wally
Klein, Hedda Hopper, Anita Louise and Buddy Adler, Mary Maguire,
Jerry Wald and Lead Raye, the S. Charles Einfelds, the Sam Bischoffs,
Mabel Todd, the Ken Nileses and Ronald Reagan.

1/3/1938 HCN Sidney Skolsky Presents
Busby Berkeley and Carol Landis are very romantic, and Miss Landis is
wearing a new ring on her engagement finger.

1/8/1938 EHE Sally Frank Moore
Carole Landis and Mary Maguire hostesses at the benefit luncheon for
Mrs. Ted Healy.

3/8/1938 LAX Behind the Makeup
By Erskine Johnson
Busby Berkeley and girl friend, Carole Landis have kissed and made up
after a quarrel.

3/8/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Carole Anderson and Busby Berkeley patched up their battles and are
again speaking the same language.

3/12/1938 EHE Cinemaland's Big Stars Don't Make Love "For Keeps"
By The Young-Man-About-Hollywood
Hollywood doesn't often make love "for keeps."
One has little need for Manly P. Hall, the astrologer, or a Venice
fortune teller or a Culver City numerologist to know that not a third
of the current serious romances among the members of the film colony
will never actually jell in some parson's parlor or before a justice
of peace in Yuma.
In the film colony many are called for love, but few are chosen as
wives and husbands.
Kay Francis and Delmar Daves in a case in point. Until Miss Francis
came out with the surprise announcement of her betrothal to Baron
Raven Erik Barnekow, all film commentators expected the Francis-Daves
affair to end in matrimony almost any minute.
Another zero rating can go to those who reported that Tyrone Power
and Janet Gaynor would be married before Easter. Now they have
announced that they will remain "just friends"–the least romantic
status any reporter has ever devised.
Remember when Merle Oberon and David Niven were apparently hot-
footing it to some marriage license bureau? They cooled. When Wayne
Morris announced, more or less publicly, that he didn't want his name
mentioned with any screen lovely other than Eleanor Powell, he meant
it–but that was before Priscilla Lane came into his life. Cupid
wasted an arrow there.
The William Keighley–Beverly Roberts romance looked like a cinch to
end in marriage less than six months ago. Where is it now? How much
more secure is the Clark Gable-Carole Lombard "affair" or the
Humphrey Bogart-Mayo Methot romance or even the now budding Olivia de
Havilland-George Brent mutual interest in each other?
Perhaps the over-abundance of public attention which these love
affairs attract before they are sealed with a wedding ring, is the
reason so few of them ever get as far as the promise to love, honor
and behave.
Loretta Young and Eddie Sutherland have been "talking it over" for
months–or is it years? Who would bet even money that Busy Berkeley
and Carole Landis will eventually marry, or that Alfred Vanderbilt
and Margaret Lindsay or Joseph Schenck and Mary Maguire will ever
say, "I do," before the proper authorities?
There is the Marie Wilson-Nicholas Grinde romance and the Perc
Westmore-Gloria Dickson love match and the Jane Bryan-Phil Kellogg
affair.

3/19/1938 LAX Hollywood Parade
By Reine Davies
Almost anything can happen at a fancy dress party, and if you have a
suppressed desire, there's nothing like taking it to a costume party
and giving it colorful expression. There's Edgar ("Slow Burn")
Kennedy, for instance. Who would have ever suspected him of wanting
to be a heartbreaker?
Well, for the circus party at the Hawaiian Paradise, Edgar selected a
sheik's attire, and instead of "Slow Burn" Kennedy he became "Heart
Burn" Kennedy for a night.
In a circus atmosphere, admirably created by backdrops depicting
carnival life, and with live midgets, giants, bearded ladies and what
not mingling with the throng, a goodly share of the film colony
reveled in unrestrained gaiety.
A floor show of the side-show sort came on to keep the party in
rollicking mood. With characteristic benevolence, Rena Borzage
secured much of the talent from the "Help Thy Neighbor" radio
program. High-spotting the bill, three virtuoso couples went into a
professional rendition of "The Big Apple," which was so inspiring
that presently the number became a potpourri of Big Applers that
included stellar Hollywoodites, professional dancers and other
characters of the Big Top. "Sheik" Kennedy, who selected the tiniest
of the dancers as his partner, gave his all, which proved to be–
before the dance was over–hardly enough.
Shifting from the ridiculous to the sublime, Jeanette MacDonald's
discovery, Bernard Klassen, raised his golden voice with thrilling
effect.
Throughout the large evening other than the fact that Joan Crawford,
beautifully attired in an all-black bareback rider's costume, got a
run in her tights. With a handle-bar mustachio adorning his upper
lip, Franchot Tone was a masterful ring-master. Joan and Franchot
were in Rena (Queen of the Gypsies) and Frank (Animal Trainer)
Borzage's party, which also included Bob Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck,
handsomely garbed as cowboy and cowgirl; Bob (Clown) and Betty
(Gypsy) Young, Johnny (Gaucho) Gates and Joan (Cowgirl) Barclay,
Janet (Mrs. J.L.) Cawthorn, Arthur Darmstater, Margaret Sullavan and
Leland Hayward, George Mason, Mimi and Mike Levee, the Lew Borzages
and Joe Mankiewicz.
Helen Ferguson and Dick Hargreaves' party included Dick (Clown) and
Joby (Cowgirl) Arlen, Gertrude and Jimmy Ellison (Gypsies), Anita
Louise (Bareback rider in pink) with Ringmaster Bob Abbot, the Edgar
Kennedys, Wendie Barrie with Don Terry, Bill and Ella Wickersham,
Bernard Klassen, the Harrison Carrolls and Jewel Smith.
Cliff (circus rube) Steele entertained for Bus Berkeley and Carol
(girl hussar) Landis, Connie (bareback rider) Lupino, the Chester
Chryson, the Gene Austins, Etta Dunn, Neville Fleeson, etc.

3/23/1938 HCN Sidney Skolsky Presents
Watching Them Make Pictures
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Rosalind Russell are getting
ready to appear in a café sequence of a Crowd. But the story on the
set is director Mike Curtiz. Director Curtiz is generally the story
on any set where he is working, regardless of the big name
performers. Director Curtiz could be called the Sam Goldwyn of the
directors, and yet he has an individual style of language.
Director Curtiz gives his instructions before the camera the camera
starts turning, and he shouts to Flynn and the Misses de Havilland
and Russell, who are seated at their night club table. "Make it more
like high society. Look bored."
After this scene is taken, director Curtiz wants another shot from a
different angle. He asks Olivia de Havilland to change her chair, and
Miss de Havilland refuses to sit on the other chair because she
believes there is grease on it. Director Curtiz merely shouts: "If
there's grease on that chair, I'll let you eat it."

5/12/1938 HCN Reviews of Previews
By James Francis Crow
Gold Diggers In Paris
A Warner Bros. Picture. Directed by Ray Enright. Screenplay by Jerry
Wald, Richard Macauley, and Maurice Leo from an idea by Jerry Horwin
and James Seymour. Photographed by Sol Polito and George Barnes. The
Cast: Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Gloria
Dickson, Melville Cooper, Mabel Todd, Fritz Feld, Ed Brophy, Curt
Bois, Victor Killian, George Renavent, Armand Kaliz, Maurice Cass,
Eddie Anderson, Rosella Towne, Janet Shaw, Carole Landis, Peggy
Moran, Diana Lewis, Lois Lindsay, Poppy Wilde, and the Schnicklefritz
Band.
Gold Diggers in Paris is about standard for the thus far highly
profitable "Gold Digger" musical series from the Warner Bros.
Studios. This one stars Rudy Vallee who delivers his songs with easy-
going showmanship, and who contributes topnotch takeoffs on Maurice
Chevalier and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It is noteworthy for the
Schnicklefritz Band, whose musical insanities scored heavily with
last night's preview patrons. It is noteworthy also for the pretty
girls of the ensemble, and most remarkable of all, perhaps, for the
scrupulous avoidance of anything like originality in the departments
of screenplay and dialogue.
The gold diggers, a troupe of dancing girls from Vallee's night club,
are sent to France to participate in an international dance
competition at the Paris Exposition because the daffy Hugh Herbert
has mistakenly identified them as the American Academy of Ballet.
Rivalry with the real ballet provides part of the complication, and
Vallee's romance with Rosemary Lane and his domestic difficulties
with Gloria Dickson provide most of the rest. Two temperamental
ballet maestros, a talking dog, a gunman who is addicted to
terpsichore, and sundry other comic characters figure in the goings-
on.
Vallee is good and so is Rosemary Lane. The Schnicklefritz boys are
swell, especially, I thought, in the "Mr. Corn" number. Rosemary Lane
scores handily, and Gloria Dickson, who made her movie debut as the
northern wife in They Won't Forget, is excellent as the feminine
heavy. Edward Brophy does the best job of his career as the gunman,
and there are able contributions from Melville Cooper, Fritz Feld,
and Curt Bois. "I Wanna Go Back to Bali" is the best song number,
with the chorines fetchingly clad in sarongs. The finale, done in the
inevitable Busby Berkeley style, is only big.

5/17/1938 FD Gold Diggers In Paris
Warners 97 Minutes
(Hollywood Preview
Vallee scores solidly in pix replete with good comedy and appealing
dance numbers.
In the newest of the Gold Diggers series, Rudy Vallee is given ample
opportunity to demonstrate his ability as an entertainer and delivers
solidly. His impression of Maurice Chevalier is one of the highlights
of the picture. Ray Enright has done an excellent job of directing,
while Sam Bischoff rates credit as associate producer. Busby Berkeley
managed to inject freshness and appeal into the dance numbers. A
small army of comedians, including the Schnickelfritz Band, keep the
proceedings merry. Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Fritz Feld, Curt
Bois, Ed Brophy, Melville Cooper, Mabel Todd handle their comedy
assignments effectively, while Rosemary Lane and Gloria Dickson do
splendid work as the feminine leads. Jerry Horwin and James Seymour
furnished the idea for the picture, which Jerry Walkd, Richard
Macaulay and Maurice Leo elaborated into a story. Earl Baldwin and
Warren Duff wrote the screenplay. Warren and Dubin contributed three
songs, "I Wanna Go Back to Bali," "Latin Quarter," and "A Stranger In
Paree," while Warren and Johnny Mercer provided "Day Dreaming." Leo
F. Forbstein rates many bows and musical director. Hugh Herbert is
dispatched to New York by the Paris Exposition to sign up the
American Ballet. By mistake, he confuses the Academy Ballet with the
Club Bali, operated by Vallee and Jenkins, who are facing bankruptcy.
Vallee and Jenkins convince him they have the ballet dancers he wants
and they sail for Europe with Fritz Feld, a ballet master, his lone
pupil, Rosemary Lane, and the Bali Girls. Another passenger, none too
welcome by Vallee, is his long-divorced wife, Gloria Dickson. Curt
Bois, real head of the American Academy Ballet, and his backer, Ed
Brophy, follow in another boat. Following many complications,
Vallee's dancers are able to appear at the Exposition and win the
international dancing contest, of course, Vallee wins Rosemary.
CAST: Rudy Vallee, Rosemary Lane, Hugh Herbert, Allen Jenkins, Gloria
Dickson, Melville Cooper, Mabel Todd, Fritz Feld, Ed Brophy, Curt
Bois, Victor Kilian, George Renevant, Armand Kaliz, Maurice Cass,
Eddie Anderson, Rosella Towne, Janet Shaw, Carole Landis, Peggy
Moran, Diana Lewis, Lois Lindsay, Poppy Wilde, and the Schnickelfritz
Band.
CREDITS: Executive Producer, Hal B. Wallis; Associate Producer, Sam
Bischoff; Director, Ray Enright; From an idea by Jerry Horwin and
James Seymour; Story by Jerry Wald, Richard Macaulay, Maurice Leo;
Screenplay, Earl Baldwin and Warren Duff; Cameramen, Sol Polito,
George Barnes; Dialogue Director, Gene Lewis; Musical numbers created
and directed by Busby Berkeley; Art Director, Robert Haas; Editor,
George Amy; Musical Director, Leo F. Fobstein; Music and Lyrics,
Harry Warren, Al Dubin and Johnny Mercer; Orchestral Arrangements by
Ray Heindorf; Recording Engineers, C.A. Riggs and David Forrest.
Direction, Excellent. Photography, Fine.

5/20/1938 LAX BUSBY BERKELEY ACCUSED OF LOVE THEFT
Busby Berkeley, noted director of screen dancing beauties, found
himself facing another $250,000 suit yesterday.
This time he is charged with pilfering the affections of Carole
Landis, one of his erstwhile Terpsichorean charges, who has just
deserted the screen for a stage career.
The other time he was sued for $250,000 by relatives of three persons
killed in a traffic crash involving him.
SUIT SETTLED
He was tried on murder charges three times in connection with the
case, which was finally dismissed. The damage suit was settled for
$95,000.
Yesterday's action was taken by Irving Wheeler, known as Jack Roberts
in studio casting offices, through his attorney, Alexander L. Oster.
Miss Landis made light of the suit last night, saying:
"I didn't think anyone knew I'd ever been married. Mr. Berkeley and I
are good friends but we certainly aren't in love. I thought Irving
had forgotten our marriage, too.
WED WHEN 15
She explained she had married Wheeler in 1934, when he was 18 and she
was 15. This marriage was annulled several months later, to be
followed by another ceremony in August of that year. Then she
continued:
"We lived together for three weeks and then had an argument. I've
only seen him once since then, and that was when he told me he wanted
a divorce. I can't see how he figures anyone stole me from him."

5/28/1938 LAX Louella O. Parsons
Chatter In Hollywood: Carole Landis, whose husband, Irving Wheeler,
is suing Busby Berkeley for alienation of affections, has told
friends that if and when the case comes to court she will testify for
the dance director. Miss Landis, who was a Berkeley chorine, married
Wheeler when she was 15 and she says that for three years she has
tried to locate her husband without success. The first she heard of
him was when he cropped up with the lawsuit. She and Buz haven't been
seeing each other for weeks, so the willing gesture on her part is
not caused by any romantic feeling, but simply because she thinks it
is the right thing to do.

5/20/1938 EHE Busby Berkeley Is Balm Suit Target
Busby Berkeley, film dance director, today was the defendant in a
suit for $250,000 which charged he stole the affections of Carole
Landis, known as a "Cinderella Girl," from her former husband, Irving
Wheeler.
Wheeler complained that Berkeley won Miss Landis, who was one of his
chorus girls by a campaign of "persuasion and enticement."
Miss Landis expressed surprise when she heard of the suit.
"I didn't think anyone knew I ever had been married," she said. "Mr.
Berkeley and I were certainly good friends, but we certainly aren't
in love. I thought Irving had forgotten our marriage, too."
She said she and Wheeler were married in 1934, when she was only 15
years of age and he was 18. This marriage was annulled several months
later. They were married in another ceremony in August of that year,
but separated after three weeks, she said.

5/21/1938 LAX Won't Pay Penny In Love Theft of Carole Landis
They were just a couple of kids newly married.
She was 15, he 19. And together they came to Los Angeles from San
Bernadino to set up housekeeping. This was in 1934.
After four years, she suddenly emerged as Hollywood "glamour girl"
with a new name, Carole Landis.
And the boy she had married twice–the first marriage annulled–found
he had lost is wife, who had turned film dancer.
This was the reason for his $250,000 alienation of affections suit
against Busby Berkeley, noted dance director explained yesterday.
"I was the last one to find it out. Some friends told me my wife was
going a lot of places with Berkeley and I noticed that their names
were linked together frequently then," Wheeler said.
His wife met Berkeley a year ago, said Wheeler, who is known as Jack
Roberts to studio casting directors.
Two months ago, they had an argument over the dance maestro which
resulted in a separation–and eventually the suit.
Miss Landis last night indignantly denied her husband's story of
their marriage.
"It's not that way at all," she said. "We separated three weeks after
the second wedding and I've only seen him once since then. I"ve been
living with my mother all this time–and I can prove it."
The dancer said her "romance" with Berkeley is over.
"That was washed up a month ago," she declared.

6/21/1938 EHE Jimmy Starr
Vic Orsatti and Carole Landis seen around together.

7/13/1938 LAX Four's a Crowd
An enterprising young press agent out to bag the personal relations
account of a multi-millionaire gets himself made the managing editor
of a newspaper and ordered to make his client the most hated man in
America. But he succeeds so well he gets fired from his newspaper job
and then has to set out to put a halo around his patron's head.
This involved comedy situation is the plot of Four's a Crowd,
starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell and
Patrick Knowles.
It's a fast-moving comedy, in fact, moving so fast in spots that it
was sometimes difficult for last night's preview audience at Warner
Brothers to keep abreast of who was double-crossing whom.
In spite of the mixed-up plot there are laughs galore in the film.
On the heels of the romantic, swashbuckling Robin Hood, Errol Flynn
returns to a modern story in this with all the charm that always
marks his screen portrayals.
Flynn has a corking comedy scene, when he talks with his two girl
friends at the same time over the telephone, that brought applause
from the audience.
Olivia de Havilland and Rosalind Russell are the two girls who
alternate their affections between Flynn and Patrick Knowles. Olivia
is beautiful as always as the heiress who is bored, and Rosalind
Russell brings her crisp comedy to the role of the reporter, who is
out to expose the young press agent, even though she loves him.
The players, including the four principal and Walter Connolly and
Hugh Herbert, all give excellent performances, and it is not their
fault that the plot frequently becomes difficult to follow.
Another word of praise must go to associate producer David Lewis, who
has given the picture a lavish background.
Four's a Crowd was directed with a fine flair for comedy by Michael
Curtiz, from a story by Wallace Sullivan. The screen play is by Casey
Robinson and Sid Herzig. Hal Wallis is the executive producer.

7/17/1938 LAX Inside Story: Four's A Crowd
By Erskine Johnson
Errol Flynn bites dog.
Olivia de Havilland socks man.
Both happen in Four's a Crowd, new movie of the week, and this is the
story behind the story.
Hollywood chuckled constantly during production of the picture at
director Michael Curtiz, ex-Hungarian weight lifter who now wrestles
with the English language.
When Curtiz wanted to tell Rosalind Russell that her accent was a
little too British, he said:
"You speak too much with afternoon tea accent."
Explaining a bit of action to Flynn, he said:
"He love her. She love him. The father comes in the door and smells a
fish."
And when he wanted Miss Russell and Miss de Havilland to be a little
more alluring, Curtiz said:
"Sit a little more feminine."
Sidney Sheffield, who was Errol Flynn's valet, quit his job during
the picture to become a movie actor. His first job as an actor was in
this picture. He played the role of Flynn's valet.
In a scene in which Flynn is chased by ten Great Dane dogs across a
lawn, the dogs actually weren't chasing Flynn. Raw hamburgers were
held by studio workers beyond camera range and the dogs ran to the
moat.
While awaiting other scenes in the pictures, the dogs ate 180 pounds
of raw hamburger and other canine delicacies each day.
Miss de Havilland socked her first man in the picture and, as a gag,
James Cagney was called to the set to act as her technical adviser.
Knowles was the victim of her right to the jaw.
Hollywood discovered during the picture that Flynn can't take his tea
straight. At tea time on the set, he fixed it up with orange blossom
honey and cream.
While acting in a picture, Miss Russell wrote a book, "And So I Came
to Hollywood," and collaborated on a play, "We Must be Ladies," with
Nedda Harrigan.

7/30/1938 LAX Behind the Makeup
By Erskine Johnson
Carole Landis, whose husband sued Busby Berkeley for alienation of
affections, is now going places with Alexander D'Arcy.

8/24/1938 HCN Masquerade Due in Laurel Canyon
Friends will gather Sunday to celebrate the eighteenth birthday
anniversary of Miss Doris Boyle, daughter of Mrs. M.E. Boyle of
Boston. The affair will be and end-of-summer masquerade ball given by
the Marquis de Laurintson in the garden of Sunnyridge, his hilltop
home in Laurel Canyon.
A floor covering the tennis court will provide for dancing there.
Swimming in the pool and a midnight buffet supper will add to the
festivities.
Among those invited are Adrienne and Stephen Ames, Mr. And Mrs. Basil
Rathbone, Miss Constance Collier, Miss Melody Hauser, Miss Helen
Ferguson, Mr. And Mrs. Tom Brown, Wayne Morris, Dr. and Mrs. H.W.
Prescott of Toledo, Martin Kenncory, Miss Ann Sheridan and Eddie
Norris, Miss Carol Landis, Mr. And Mrs. Paul Kelley and Eugene
Champlain.

9/2/1938 EHE Four's A Crowd, a Warner Bros picture, opened Sept 1,
1938, at Warners' Downtown and Hollywood theaters. Directed by
Michael Curtiz. Screen play by Casey Robinson and Sig Herzig. Story
by Wallace Sullivan. Photographed by Ernie Haller, ASC. CAST--Errol
Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Walter
Connolly, Hugh Herbert, Melville Cooper, Franklin Pangborn, Herman
Bing and Carole Landis.
Bulldog Drummond in Africa also on bill.
By W.E. Oliver
In his latest effort from Warner Brothers' lot, Errol Flynn changes
from the russet and green of Robin Hood to the smart duds of a New
York super white-collar worker who separates the rich from their
money to turn it over to the needy.
In this picture, Four's A Crowd, the dashing Irishman lays a public
relations counsel who wangles large sums for charity from predatory
millionaires on the excuse of white-washing their mulcting of public
under the pious robes of philanthropy.
The Robin Hood echo is strengthened by the presence of the Maid
Marian, Olivia de Havilland, in the cast as the daughter of Walter
Connolly, who plays a self-glorifying reprobate with a private
passion for toy trains.
SHE PRINTS EVERYTHING
The romantic theme is stressed more by including in the cast Rosalind
Russell, playing a reporter who loves the publicist but complicates
his benign plans by hewing to the creed of printing everything that's
news.
Patric Knowles, playing the publisher of the newspaper the reporter
works on and in which the go-getting publicity an uses in his
campaign for direct taxation of financial surpluses, rounds out the
quartet implicit in the title of this amusing if not heavyweight film
production.
Besides swift-changing complications growing out of hero Flynn's
plots, the action is made merrily turbulent by a romantic mixup
between Flynn, Knowles and the Misses De Havilland and Russell.
FLYNN WELL CAST
You'll let yourself in for an agreeable stretch of bright fun if you
visit Warners' Hollywood or Downtown, where the film is showing. The
style varies between smart whimsy and out-and-out slapstick, the pace
never lags and outside of an unnecessary obscuration of the main
motivation in the plot Four's A Crowd stands staunchly up with many a
current picture on view.
Errol Flynn is admirably cast in his role; acquits himself with
debonair grace. Miss De Havilland had a harder task as the gilded
cutie who can't make up her own mind about whom to marry. Miss
Russell is also a little obliquely cast as the go-getting news
sleuth, although she, too, is very likeable. Patric Knowles is not
helped too well in his characterization as the conceited playboy
newspaper magnate, although he does competently.
Walter Connolly well performs one of his usual all-of-a-piece
characters as the toy-train millionaire.
One of the more whimsical bits is Flynn biting the tail of one of the
mastiffs the millionaire shoos on him at regular moments during the
story.
Downright melodrama is provided on the bill by Bulldog Drummond in
Africa, and there is a clever Schlessinger color animate which
imaginatively burlesques W.C. Fields and the voice of Charlie
McCarthy.

9/2/1938 HCN Four's a Crowd
By James Francis Crow
The cycle of screwball comedy is successfully continued in Four's a
Crowd, the new film exhibit at the Warner Bros. Hollywood and
Downtown theaters. Enacted with an abundance of high spirits,
directed with slapdash nonchalance, light-hearted and light-headed in
general appeal, it sums up as extraordinarily effective diversion.
From the reviewer's standpoint, the picture is perhaps most
remarkable for the performances of the four principals, Errol Flynn,
Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, and Patric Knowles. All four
are good, but the portrayals tendered by the latter two, and more
particularly that of Knowles, practically place them in the category
of discoveries.
Flynn is a high-flying public relations counselor who specializes in
exploiting the philanthropies of millionaires to help them win
forgiveness for their sins. When Walter Connolly resists his sales
appeal, Flynn sets out to make him the most hated man in the world,
an enterprise complicated by the infatuation the press agent
engenders in the heart of Connolly's daughter, as played by Miss de
Havilland. Knowles is a harassed newspaper publisher, and Miss
Russell a girl reporter. They all wind up in a double wedding scene
which provides a rather lame ending to the picture, in spite of the
expert drolleries of Hugh Herbert as the justice of the peace who
performs the ceremony.
The acting is broad and vigorous. Miss Russell, engagingly breezy, is
at her best in the early portions. Knowles does so well in his
portrayal of comedic anguish at the villainies perpetrated upon him
by Flynn that the picture almost surely will mark a turning point in
his career at the Warner Bros. studios. Melville Cooper and Franklin
Pangborn are good in minor roles. Much of the best of the comedy
revolves about millionaire Connolly's miniature railroad hobby.
Michael Curtiz directed it. Casey Robinson and Sig Herzig did the
screen play from a story by Wallace Sullivan.
The companion feature at the two Warner houses is Bulldog Drummond in
Africa, a Class B Scotland Yard thriller which has John Howard and
Heather Angel in the principal roles, and which ends satisfactorily
when J. Carrol Naish, the villain, is eaten by a lion.

9/28/1938 HCN Hospital Gadgets Make Studio Party Gay
Appointments at a party which Monogram studios gave for its technical
advisor, Dr. Edward Lamont Sugar, on his recent birthday anniversary
transformed Stage Two into the semblance of a hospital ward. Guests
were required to eat their refreshments from hospital trays, and to
wear nurses' uniforms. White clad "internes" took their temperatures
with huge thermometers in the midst of the repast.
Invited to the novel party were: Erik Rhodes, Maria Lang, Milton
Berle, Clarence Muse, Carole Landis, Tony Romano, Maurice Kosloff,
Harvey Stephens, Art Meyers, Mona Gray, Glenda Farrell, Sylvia
Breamer, Muriel Evans, Lee Amber, Mabel Todd, George E. Stone,
Kathleen McCormack, Bernice King, Ann Taylor, Ralph Bellamy, Lionel
Stander and Harry Lash.

9/30/1938 EHE Harrison Carroll
Alexander D'Arcy dining Carol Landis at the Café Lamaze. She's just
back from New York.

10/12/1938 LAX Behind the Makeup
By Erskine Johnson
Carole Landis and Alexander D'Arcy at the Hula Hut.

11/3/1938 HCN Ed Sullivan
Susan Hayward is no longer employed gainfully at Warners'....Bette
Davis is still employed there....That is discrimination of the
rankest sort, as all that Miss Davis does is act....Miss Hayward is
the red-headed eyeful you saw last Christmas in all of the
papers....A Santa Claus was filling her stocking and she was peeking
at him over the transom....This sounds like a terrific acrobatic
feat, but it so happened that her stocking was hanging on a Warner
fireplace....You saw her again in your local paper on New Year's
Eve....Miss Hayward, lithe and willowy, was pictured leaping at you
through a 1938 calendar....On Easter, you saw her again in the roto
sections, holding a cluster of lilies....No national holiday happened
without the active connivance of Susan Hayward....She was more
symbolic of Washington's birthday than George Washington, and when
she was photographed chopping down a cheery tree, she gave it depth
and warmth and sex appeal....I don't remember that she ever gave a
bad performance in the rotogravure section of the country.
Susan is only one of the unsung heroines of the industry....Why rave
about Luise Rainer's performance in Good Earth....Why not rave about
the performance Carole Landis gave in that publicity still....She was
demonstrating an evening dress, and I'll never forget the thrilling
impact of the caption: "The apron-string dinner dress, worn by Carole
Landis. This is the butterfly of the apron family. It's apron is of
sibilant fuchsia moire, set on a wide waistband and underneath,
whimsically, a sheath of black crepe"....

3/7/1939 LAX Asks Divorce, Mate Valued Carole Landis' Love at $250,000
After their marriage broke up, he valued her affections at
$250,000....
But during their 25 days of wedded life he told her she was "no
good," according to Carole Landis, blonde screen actress and dancer.
So yesterday she filed suit for divorce from Irving Wheeler, writer.
Suing under her real name of Frances Ridste Wheeler, through
attorneys Gregson Bautzer and G. Bentley Ryan, the actress charged
mental cruelty.
Following collapse of their marriage, the husband sued Busby
Berkeley, film dance director and producer, for $250,000 damages on
the ground he pilfered the wife's affections.
The action, however, was thrown out of court on a demurrer by
Superior Judge Robert W. Kenny last August 16. At the time, it was
reported the husband received a small settlement from Berkeley.
Miss Landis, one of Berkeley's terpsichorean protegees, insisted she
and the director were "just friends and not in love."
The Wheelers were married on August 25, 1934, and parted the
following September 19, the wife stated.
Labels: Carole Landis, Dorothy Dell, Elissa Landi, John Boles

posted by GDH at 8:43 AM 0 comments
About Me
Name: GDH
G.D. Hamann has published more than 170 books on movies and movie
actors and actresses from the 1930's and 1940's. For a full list of
G.D. Hamann's books, e-mail him at GDHamann@...







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