Pars About Stars

Chronicle (Levin), 13 March 1948, Page 6

Pars About Stars

One of the most unusual exhibrtor's contracts in the history of the motion -picture business has been signed between ? Arvo _ Himberg, own'er of a theatre chain in Fin land, and Columbia Pictures, callr ing for the exclusive first run rights in that couhtry for the next' 30 years' on all • Rita Hayworth films. Himberg, who is visiting the Unite'd States, said that when he told the presidenl of Columbia Pictures that he wanted a- contract for first run rights for all Rita's pictures for the next 30 years, he was told that by then the star might be playing grandmother roles. "But I insisted she would still be beautiful," said Himberg, "and if she should retire from pictures before then, I want to run 'Gilda' and 'Down to Earth' and her other pictures over and over again." I n tlfr Y * |{ Her First Screen Itiss 1 Peggy Ann Garner recently made screen history — for .Peggy Arin . Garner. She bestowed her "fii^t screen kiss on a man, and she wai very flustered. The momento|us moment for 15-year-old Peggy to|k place when she kissed Alexander Knox diiring a sequence of "Tbe Sign of the Ram." i ; It was supposed to be a ligfit ' idaughterly smack bestowed |rl • Knox's cheek, and Peggy was bo|b •i shy and nervous. When her lips 'touched his cheek, they skiddld and left a broad smudge of lipj stick, which took the makeup map several minutes to repair. "Th^ light, easy kiss is what does |t, kid," teased Knox, . "but that ^is something you'll no doubt learn |ri the next few years." | !