Films and the Studios

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 732, 3 August 1929, Page 25

Films and the Studios

,v. S HARTS HETVHN William S. Hart, famous western star, i 3 returning to the screen under the banner of Hal Roach and will begin with an all-talking western picture. Thelma Todd is to be his leading lady. -I hope to make my first talking picture the best X have ever done,” he says. Hart, who has been in retirement for many years, has been urged out of seclusion by the need for picture players with stage experience. He is said to have had lengthy training in legitimate productions. • * « STAR’S BREAKDOWN Due to the recent publicity over her “separation” from James Cru ze, Betty Compson has had a nervous breakdown ,and is confined to a sanatorium in Hollywood. This is unfortunate in view of the fact that Betty is one of the most popular stars. In fact, so great has been the demand for her services that she was fully booked up with contracts until next year. * * * A'/.VG or .IAZY. On an eight-car train, three sleepers, club car, diner, observation car and two baggage ears, Paul Whiteman, conductor, arrived in California to make his first motion picture. Whiteman, who will start work in “The King of Jazz,” Universal sound special, is famous as a conductor of dance music, yet he hits aided materially in elevating jazz to the concert stage. It has been remarked of George Gershwin, composer of the ‘Rhapsody in Blue,” that he made an honest woman of jazz. Hand in hand with Gershwin in that task is Whiteman.