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Hollywood Scene Universal Finds a Young Lady To Wear Miss Durbin's Old Stories [[note]] Pa. [[/note]] By HAZLITT PEPYS HOLLYWOOD, May 30-With the realization that Deanna Durbin is growing came the simultaneous discovery by Uni-versal that the studio owned a number of stories that had been purchased for her but which are now unsuitable because of her advanced age. Not only did the yarns represent an investment of a great many thousand dollars, but they were good stories, and the producers were loathe to discard them. As a result of a frantic search to find someone to east in the films-the studio was not naive enough to believe that a successor to Deanna could be found-Gloria Jean was unearthed and she is making her debut in "The Underpup," which at the moment is before the cam-eras with Virginia Weidler, Ann Gillis, Shirley Mills, Nan Grey, Robert Cummings, Beulah Bondi, C. Aubrey Smith and Doris Lloyd. Universal is being as careful not to present eleven-year-old Gloria Jean as a child prodigy as they are not to let the im-pression get abroad that she is Deanna's successor. Unlike most lots, they are avoiding the customary hullabaloo and pre-fer that newspaper correspond-ents ignore the youngsters until the night of the preview. If their hopes are realized they will have an asset worth several million dollars; if not, they will forget Gloria Jean. The picture would prove a test for an ex-perienced performer, for Gloria will appear in a majority of scenes with young Virginia, and during that moppet's short ca-reer on the screen, no one has been able to take a scene away from her yet. An Original Director Gloria was found by Joe Pa-ternak, who produced the first Deanna epic and has handled her career through its amazing course. Richard Wallace is directing, while I. A. R. Wylie wrote the original and Grover Jones the scenario. Wallace is a fiend for moving camera shots, and his demands for "The Underpup" have driven the technicians to distraction. In one scene in following the action of the players, it was necessary for his crew to lay a track for the camera dolly in 10 seconds and without noise while the ponderous device rolled along beside the walking players. On another shot he wanted people to enter a church through two arches while he took the camera from the outside of the building into its interior without a cut in the film. To do this the arches were built in sections and swung on counterweights so that they could be pulled out of sight as soon as the lens approached them. Humility and Hope The campaign of Lloyd C. Douglas to uplift the movie customers is progressing unabated. With "Disputed Passage" near-ing its final days at Paramount, the patrons again will learn that humility and hope remain the greatest of human virtues. In this instance, Dr. Douglas's philosophy of nobility is being expounded by none other than Dorothy Lamour, John Howard and Akim Tamiroff. Those who read the book will recall what it does with the deserving, who think right in medical circles and in China. The unbelievers, of whom Tamiroff is one, are taught to accept the teachings of Confucius, and in the script it is specified that one scene should be photographed so that "the wisdom of old China will shine out of Dorothy's eyes." Although Miss Lamour is a woman of many talents, she has never been called upon to do this before. In addition to the Chinese actors headed by Keye Luke, the picture will feature Lee Ya-ching, the Chinese aviatrix who is touring in her plane. The script provided Miss Lamour be shown landing at an airport in Miss Lee's craft. At first the actress refused to go up with the flyer, but after watching her perform in he air, agreed to the sequence. The publicity department photographed the two together with Miss Lee in a sarong and Miss Lamour in a Chinese costume. Miss Lee was very gracious about the whole affair. Ol' Massa Breen Clarence Muse, the Negro com-poser and singer, hopes to get an authentic picture of plantation life during slave days in Bobby Breen's "Way Down South," which Sol Lesser is producing for RKO. Muse and Langston Hughes wrote the original story and arranged old music and wrote new tunes for ol' massa Breen to sing. Most of action will take place in the slave quarters of the Breen plantation; at least, Muse wrote it that way. He says his father was a slave and he has never heard of any instance in which a plantation owner read prayers to his serfs from the front steps, although they always do it in the movies. The story was written around Negro music, and among the numbers to be sung by the Hall Johnson Choir are "If You Can't Come, Send One Angel Down," "Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray," "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen" and "Peter Go Ring Dem Bells." Ever Resourceful A new film figure and possibly a new star looms in Walter Lantz's Andy Panda. Andy will appear in cartoon form in a number of pictures. His inspiration was the baby giant panda in the Chicago Zoo, the only one in America. When Lantz got the idea for the cartoons he is making for Universal, he tried to get motion pictures of the Chicago animal to guide him in creating the pen and ink figure. The head of the zoo, who is suspicious of all Hollywood people, demanded $5,000 for the panda's appearance. Lantz, ever resourceful when $5,000 is involved, managed to smuggle a 16 mm. camera past the guards and made enough footage to guide his animators. The first of the cartoons will be titled "Life Begins For Andy Panda." It deals with the cub in a jungle who disobeys his father's warning not to venture forth because if he does they will put him in the newsreels. Walt Disney has, of course, a virtual monopoly on the cartoon business because of the superiority of his creations. Of late, commendable progress has been made by the Harmon-Ising unit at Metro, and Latz believes that he will be able to enter the competition with his new character. He will expend in excess of $360,000 for the 18 one reelers Universal will release. Although the old black and white cartoons cost but half of the sum needed for color, Lantz says that the public is not interested in them any more. Stars Blinking Again Although the efforts of Myron Selznick, an actors' agent, to enter production with artists under his management failed before he could get started, the incident has not deterred other managers, and several agent-star units either have been formed or are being contemplated by performers' representatives. In the case of Selznick, the producers were able to place sufficient pressure on him to cause him to abandon his project, but since that time the Government has taken such as uncomfortable interest in Holly-wood's affairs that it is possible that the newest attempts will escape the heckling leveled at Seiznick. Jean Hersholt is about to launch the "Dr. Christian" series under the auspices of his agents. Harry Edington, who has been identified with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fair-banks, Jr., and Irene Dunne, has formed a producing unit at Universal. Charles K. Feldman has announced his intentions of embarking on a similar venture. The new trend has the existing studios worried. If agents are unable to get top money for their performers, they now offer a profit-sharing plan to their players. Faced with an alternative, performers do not have to accept the producers' terms. The old line producers greatest hope lies in the possible discovery by the stars that they are not popular enough to earn $150,000 to $200,000 on a profit sharing basis, Cynics around Hollywood have long believed that the stars would learn this if put to the LUCE'S PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU 157 CHAMBERS STREET, NEW YORK CLIPPING FROM [[stamp]] MAY 20 1939 [[/stamp]] BOSTON TRANSCRIPT
