Stewart Cashes In On Confusion

What is 1941 Film Fun's view of Jimmie Stewart: "Bewilderment that pays dividens on a solid contract basis".

No Kidding!

Girl to Watch: Joan Leslie

Girl To Watch: Joan Leslie, now appearing in High Sierra, with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino.

High Sierra will be on TCM September 11, 2010 at 10 pm est and October 16, 2010 at 12 pm est.

Vivien Leigh is Gone With The Wind to England

One never knows what Movietown will do to a girl - Lady Hamilton becomes That Hamilton Woman. And as far as the star of the picture, Vivien Leigh, is concerned in Hollywood, she has gone with the wind, and returned to her native England for war work.

That Hamilton Woman will be on TCM September 21, 2010 at 9:45 pm est in conjunction with Vivien Leigh as Star of the Month.

Virginia Weidler - Award Winner

Virginia Weidler was given the annual Parents' Magazine Award as the outstanding juvenile star of 1940 for her work in Young Tom Edison (above with Mickey Rooney),

All this and Heaven Too,

and The Philadelphia Story (with Katherine Hepburn). Mickey Rooney, 1939 winner, presented the award to Virginia on the MGM set where he was making Andy Hardy's Private Secretary.

I love Virginia Weidler! I think she was a fabulous, overlooked child star. She and Norma Shearer's scenes in The Women are so touching and as a child from a divorced home, she totally acted the part. Virginia was born March 21, 1926 in Los Angeles. She appeared in more than 40 films, but her most well known ones were with MGM who signed her in 1938. Virginia retired at the tender age of 17 and would refuse to be interviewed the rest of her life. She married Lionel Krissel on March 27, 1947 and had two sons, Gary and Ronnie. Virginia Weidler died July 1, 1968 from a heart condition at the age of 42. Her ashes are scattered at sea.

The Man Who Lost Himself: Charles Ray

In the cast of Universal's The Man Who Lost Himself is Charles Ray, silent-day star, who lost his bankroll producing an old New England picture in young Hollywood.

Charles Ray (March 15, 1891 - November 23, 1942) was a well loved silent film star, known mostly for his rolls as the country bumpkin. Charles started out in films in 1911, and eventually had 168 films under his belt. His breakthrough roll was in 1915's The Coward. Typecast in basically the same roll, Charles rebelled and was then after thought of as "difficult to work with". Since no one would finance him in rolls he wanted to play, he spent all of his money on the grand failure, 1923's The Courtship of Myles Standish. Broke and with no prospects, Thomas Ince, his mentor, put him in films just so he could earn some dough. When Ince died in 1924, Charles Ray was on Poverty Row and basically played extras for the rest of his life. Ray died in 1943 of an infection caused by an impacted tooth at the age of 52.

Bette Davis' Pointed Guesture

Pointed Gesture: Bette Davis pushes Jimmy Cagney into a cactus patch in The Bride Came C.O.D.

Tough Assignment: One Foot in Heaven

Tough Assignment: It's comparatively easy to find locations for highways that lead down in Movietown, but the Warner Brothers aerial location scout had a heck of a time finding a mile-high cloud band for the forthcoming production, One Foot in Heaven.

One Foot in Heaven, released in 1941, stars Fredric March, Martha Scott, Gene Lockhart, Beulah Bondi, and Laura Hope Crews. It follows the struggles to be relevant in the 20th century of Minister William Spence (played by Fredric March) and his wife Hope Morris Spence (played by Martha Scott). Set in 1917, it sounds like a sweet picture. Anyone wanting to check it out, it is playing October 12th at 1am est on Turner Classic Movies.

Who Knew a Cornflower Could Cause So Much Trouble?

The lowly cornflower, known to many who still have old fashioned gardens as bachelor buttons, caused more commotion than a mouse in a herd of elephants recently on the set of Miss Wheelwright Discovers America (Million Dollar Baby - 1941). In fact they suspended production, and as far as the director was concerned for good reason. He had lived in Naziland during the days when a cornflower in the lapels of German citizens symbolized that the wearers had made their contributions to the Nazi party.

Although the script called for them, the director halted work until it was changed, and the posies removed from the lapels of Ronald Reagan and Jeffrey Lynn, two 100% Americans. Whether the boys will wear sunflowers in the scene, or be undecorated when the picture is released, remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain, they will be free from any shadow of suspicion insofar as Nazi symbols are concerned. Which is mighty important right now.

Are the Stooges Brothers?

Ain't It The Truth - Or Is It?


All three of the Three Stooges are brothers

Maybe I Should Be a Film Extra?

So you'd like to be a movie extra? Well, the average amount per extra in 1941 was:

A. $1,000 a year

B. $316 a year

C. Peanuts

D. $510 a year