LILLIAN RUSSELL—GLAMOUR GIRL

Evening Star, Issue 23699, 5 October 1940, Page 5

LILLIAN RUSSELL—GLAMOUR GIRL

Lovely Alice Faye portrays tlic first and greatest of America’s glamour girls iu Darryl Zauuck’s production of ‘ Lillian Russell,’ tlie Twentieth CenturyFox film featuring Don Ameehe and

Henry Fonda. The colourful life and loves of the striking American beauty arc revived in ‘ Lillian Russell ’ with the dashing days of America’s most fabulous era as a background. Lillian Russell was famous for her marvellous voice as well as her splendid acting and great beauty, and Alice Faye sings many of the songs she popualriesd; Don Ameche Las the role of Lillian’s com-poser-husband, who struggled to write her greatest stage success. Henry Fonda is cast as Alexander Moore, the newspaperman who fell in love with the gorgeous Lillian when they were both young, but failed to tell her about it. Fresh from his triumph in ‘ The Grapes of Wrath,’ Fonda is said to give another stirring portrayal in a highly dramatic role. The great Lillian Russell numbered among her admirers such famed persons as Diamond Jim Brady (the financier) and Jesse Lewisohu (the copper king), played respectively by Edward Arnold and Warren William.

Joan Blondell spent five years as a featured actress in Australia before attracting any notice on the American •stage or screen. She started her Australian footlights career at 12 years of age, and was featured on Broadway at 19. Miss Blondell is now co-starring with her husband, Dick Powell, in Paramount’s 1 1 Want a Divorce,’ and says the title of their film has absolutely no bearing on their happy home life.