SUPERSTITIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 January 1939, Page 8

SUPERSTITIONS

OF HOLLYWOOD STARS. Judy Garland won’t sing with an orchestra in which there is a yellow cornet. This dates back to an old stage tradition she learned during her earliest childhood when she travelled with her parents in a vaudeville troupe. Una Merkel insists upon wearing an old pair of shoes at least once during every picture. She considers this particular pair of shoes good luck for her, as she was wearing them when she was first noticed and given a role in “Coquette,” which later led /her to screen fame. Una says the only time her rather dilapidated shoes were in style for her film role was for the dowdy charatcer she played in “Riffraff.”

Rosalind Russell insists upon wearing an old dressing gown during the first week of a picture. This is the robe she wore in the theatre. She refuses to throw it away, despite the fact that she possesses others much finer. Robert Taylor's pet superstition concerns placing a hat «on a bed. For a scene in “Three Comrades” the script called for him to enter the bedroom where Margaret Sullivan was ill in bed', throw his hat on the bed and rush to her side. After a short talk with Director Frank Borzage, the scene was “shot,” but Bob placed his hat on a nearby chair.

Norma Shearer insists upon keeping the same make-up table she used when she first starred in pictures. Fanny Brice still clings to the old stage tradition that “whistling in the dressing room” is bad luck. Fernand Gravet, now making “The .Great Waltz,” will never begin a picture on Friday the thirteenth. Joan Crawford is superstitious about the portable dressing room that she uses at the studio. This was given to her when she first became a star. J though it is much smaller than the ones used by other stars, she refuses to part witn it. Instead, she merely has it repainted and redecorated.