May Beatty Has Part in “Mamba”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 852, 21 December 1929, Page 32

May Beatty Has Part in “Mamba”

NEWS FROM HOLLYWOOD

BUNNY LAURI ALSO IN TALKIE

THE SUN’S Sydney Correspondent

SYDNEY, December 11 Miss May Beatty, the well-known New Zealand comedienne, who left for Hollywood a few months ago to enter the talkies, has been given the part of the German baroness in the talkie film “Mamba,” which Tiffany-Stahl is now making.

Bunny, her daughter, has been selected for the past of “Bambina,” a musical comedy talkie now In rehearsal for the Figeroa Playhouse, In Hollywood. The producer is Mr. Edward Royce, one of the best known London producers, whose son, Teddy Royce, was in Australia a few months ago. May Beatty, strangely enough, was in several of Mr. Royce’s London productions a few years ago. NEW TITLE MOOTED

Claude Fleming, one of the bestknown personalities in musical comedy

in Australia and New Zealand a few years ago, is the assistant director of “Mamba.” The action of this picture Is supposed to take place in German East Africa. It Is just possible, writes Miss Bunny Laurl,

who acts these

days as her mother’s secretary, that

its title may be changed to “Desire.” Bunny was delighted to think that she was fortunate in securing a role before her mother. Competition, of course, is extremely keen in Hollywood.

Chatting of her new surroundings, Bunny writes: —“Last night I went over to the Par.he studios to fetch a friend of mine. X was allowed out on the set for two hours. They were shooting one of the courtroom scenes of “Officer O’Brien.” The stars are William Boyd. Dorothy Sebastian, and Russell Gleason. I liked them all awfully. Russell Gleason is the son of the famous star, James Gleason, the man who wrote “Is Zat So?” Mr. Boyde talked to me for ages. I was so thrilled. He has just been divorced from Elinor Faire. Curiously enough, he appeared in ‘The Volga Boatmen,’ one of the last pictures we saw in Sydney before leaving for America.” INTERESTING PEOPLE “We have been meeting many extremely interesting people. Mother has been playing bridge with the Talmadges quite a lot. Tonight she is playing with William Haines and his wife. Betty Blythe lives in the next house to ours in the Normandy Village. Her husband is Paul Scarden, an Australian, and a writer. He was with the J.C.W. firm for years. “I spend most of my week-end with Bob North and his wife and little girl. Bob is one of the big directors at First National. He is going to let me see Billie Dove doing her next picture. One night recently we w.ent down to ‘The Brown Derby’ to eat. It is the meeting place of all the stars. It is made in the shape of a huge brown derby hat. It is awfully cute. All the lampshades are little brown hats. “Everyone calls it ‘The Derby,’ and they think it strange when we call it ‘darby.’ ”