LETTERS THAT TRIP

Evening Star, Issue 23693, 28 September 1940, Page 5

LETTERS THAT TRIP

Don’t spell his first name with an “i ” next time you write Melvyn Douglas. Nor add an “s ” to the name of Warren William. And remember that Orson Welles enjoys fan mail but doesn’t open letters addressed to “ Orsen Welles,” whoever that is. What brought this up was an incident at Columbia studios, when, fan mail was delivered to the ‘ He Stayed For Breakfast ’ set’. Loretta Young and Melvyn Douglas are starred in this comedy, which is being directed by Alexander Hall, and in one scene Douglas takes a pot shot at Eugene Pallette. Glancing at the mail Pallette was banded, Douglas was in a mood to pull the trigger again. And Pallette wasn’t particularly happy either. “ Why do people always stick a ‘ u ’ in my name,” the portly comic grumbled. Possibly because misery loves company, the players thought of friends whose names are badly fan-handled. They drafted a list, which they would appreciate being heeded to make; your favourite star happy. Stars.who don’t like their first names misspelled include Bette Davis, Madeleine Carroll, Lnise Rainer, Fredric March, Lynne Carver, Montagu Love, Ann Shirley, and Douglass Montgomery. Those who find the last half often misspelled include Irene Dunne, James Dunn, Gloria Stuart, aud Janies Stewart, Fay Wray and Martha Raye, Richard Green, and Margaret Sullavan, Some catch 1 it at both ends. Their names are doubly tricky. So Mr and Mrs Film Fan and all the little Fans should watch each half of the cognomens of Laurence Olivier, Gail Sondergaard, Danielle Darrieux, and Wendy Barrie.

When recently playing on the Columbia lot, Miss Barrie said almost half of her mail reads “ Wondie Barry.' The “ macs ” are in a class by themselves. Look at those three names: Fred Mac Murray. Jeanette MacDonald, and Joel M‘Crea. Obviously there is no rule to go by, _ except to look up the spelling when in doubt. The oddest example of all exists in one family. Two brothers part thenname differently, and the first adds an extra capital. If you should write Cecil B. De Mille he sure to put it that way. And if you write his directorwriter brother the spelling “ William deMille ” will eliminate frowns and insure a careful perusal.

For the first time in many, many; pictures Akim Tamiroff, man of a million make-ups, plays a straight role in Paraount’s technicolour epic of the north woods, ‘ Untamed.’ Only in his final scene, when he is frozen to death with a mask of ice on his face does he desert his clean-shaven role.