GRACIE FIELDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1940, Page 9

GRACIE FIELDS

RECORDS AT WEDDING. When Gracie Fields left for Italy, France and home, her decision was to make no films in Hollywood unless it whs found absolutely impossible for her to work in England. As the only press man present at her wedding to Monty Banks —although there as a friend and not as a snooper- —I must reveal that the greatest item on the entertainment programme, given in her modest Beverley Hills apartment, was a selection of records made by Gracie while singing to the troops, says a writer in a Hollywood magazzine. She had refused to sing her war songs in Hollywood. "But you can listen to these records,” she told the famous stars who were her wedding guests, “and then you’ll hear the boys join in the choruses.” Douglas Fairbanks Junr., begged Gracie to give him one of the records "just for a wedding present.” Now he will only allow it to be played with special non-scratch needles which cost "half-a-quid" apiece. Simple, practical touches often show the best side of Hollywood’s humanity. The Motion Picture Relief Fund, for instance, benefits by £150,000 through the Sunday radio programmes staged since late in 1938; the British stars have done a good deal of that, too.