HOLLYWOOD STARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1939, Page 8

HOLLYWOOD STARS

HOW THEY SPEND SPARE TIME. Gary Cooper seems to have the best solution of all for killing time. He just flops his long frame into the nearest chair, puts his big feet up»on a rest, and sleeps. No matter when you walk on to a Cooper set you’ll find Gary dozing if he is not before the cameras. He made an exception in “The Lady and the Cowboy” because a lot of old cowboy cronies worked as extras in the picture, and he spent a great deal of his idle hours yarning of his days on the cattle ranges and the days when he Struggled for a chance on the screen just as they were. Anita Louise busies herself with needlepoint, and has completed covers for most of her own furniture, and has made a lot for her friends.

Nelson Eddy, when not busy drilling his voice on the scales, whittles little images from wood, and some of his 1 efforts are quite good. Pretty Virginia Bruce is another needleworker, while Jeanette MacDonald knits if she is not playing records on her phonograph. Merle Oberon is a sun-worshipper. Just as soon as she is free for an hour or so she slips outside the sound stage and settles into a chair in the sun.

Basil. Rathbone spends most of his spare time taking miniature movies of his fellow players on the sets, and has an amazing collection of funny and interesting shots. If Franchot Tone and Bob Montgomery happen to be working in a picture together they wile away hours playing backgammon, much to directors’ disgust, because they become so engrossed they never hear their call for rehearsals. If these two are not playing backgammon you can safely wager they are arguing or discussing politics. Both are vitally interested in politics. Myrna Loy loves company, and spends her spare time talking to fellow players or with prop men and electricians. Myrna is popular with all sections on her set because she would just as soon talk with a set carpenter as with her leading man. Clark Gable rehearses most of the time, but is ever ready for a gag or practical joke. He can also take one against himself. Norma Shearer, like Garbo, retires to the seclusion of her dressing-room just like a movie queen.

Luise Rainer and Margaret Sullivan are readers, evidently finding it does not hurt their screen emotions.

Mickey Rooney cannot keep still a moment, and his sets are a bedlam. He is always into some mischief or playing up to some of the girls. Wallace Beery is an incurable “ragchewer,” discussing his pct theories on every subject with anyone who will listen.

Pat O’Brien likes to mingle with the cast and crew and talk about baseball, fights, or football, or politics. Like the good Irishman he is, he dearly loves an argument. But no actor in Hollywood is better loved than genial Pat. The extra would die for him, because he goes out of his way to be nice to them, and never fails to buy cool drinks for them in summer and hot coffee in winter. Every girl is “sweetheart” to Pat and every boy on the set is “pal.” Eleanor Powell is another who is well liked by extras because she will always find time to teach them new dance steps.