The way we were...the first year
April 27--GOOD MORNING: Here's the public's answer to the future of 3-D: Of the hundreds we queried at the Hollywood Paramount, nine out of ten want to see more 3-D's. With glasses raised high, patrons toasted the presentation. Teen-agers want bigger and better gimmicks. Most adults admit "House of Wax" is the first film they've seen in months...
April 29--Frank Sinatra leaves Saturday for London and Ava...Deborah Kerr returns from the Honolulu location of "From Here to Eternity"...Stanley Kramer still insists that the Queeg role in "Caine Mutiny" is wide open, but most actors are resigned to the fact Bogie will re-arrange his schedule to play it...
May 1--The axe fell again at Metro this week. Departments were slashed 30-50 %...
May 4--INSIDE PARAMOUNT: Jimmy Stewart won't draw any salary for "Rear Window" or "Strategic Air Command." It's all deferred...Execs here are wondering why they turned down the "Glenn Miller" story two years ago...
May 15--GOOD MORNING and good health: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis doubled their life insurance on each other. It's now $ l00,000...Glenn Ford, who must be the busiest star in town, is scheduled for "Below the Timberline" at RKO this fall...
May 18--Liz Taylor's furrowing her doctor's eyebrows by reporting to Metro for wardrobe tests on "Rhapsody" today and completing "Elephant Walk" Wednesday...
May 21--All future film deals for Mario Lanza call for him to get 50% of the profits. And Lew Wasserman, who got it for Jimmy Stewart at UI, is asking it for Mario to do Paramount's remake of "Vagabond King"...At the Tuesday preem of "It Came From Outer Space," Barbara Rush and Dick Carlson fly in via helicopter to land on the Pantages roof...
May 27--Wonder if Jack Warner, a staunch Eisenhower supporter during the campaign, put in a pitch for the movie industry during his visit with the President. Our lobby has been too wobbly...
May 28--Yvonne de Carlo had to be decontaminated. Honest! She and her Jaguar had to go through a de-atomizing station in Utah when she drove through the dust of the last blast. Yvonne was petrified...
June 9--Despite some wonderful reviews, Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" will not pay off its investors and star Arthur Kennedy returns to the Coast this month after the closing...
June 11--Marie Wilson is "Sweater Girl of 1953"...
June 16--Writers' agents cry that only 90 scripters are at work when 400 is par...Progress note: Fotogs in front of the Chinese now shoot the tourists with Polaroid cameras...
June 18--Rock Hudson undergoes a thorough appendix checkup to be sure he can do "Son of Cochise" without worry of surgery...
June 19--Liza Minnelli has the chicken pox and has been shipped over to Vince's home so Judy's baby won't catch 'em...
June 22--An Archerd to commentator Chet Huntley for his fearless attack on the book-burning tendencies of some of our wild-eyed legislators. Huntley realizes while we must guard against Commie jabs, we must also beware of Fascistic KO's...Former staunch Democrat Ronnie Reagan is house-guesting at Penn. State College with Dr. Milton Eisenhower...
June 24--Ivan Tors' "Riders to the Stars" has the only woman production manager in town, Bea Lisse...
June 25--What recession? Box office figures are up and retail sales are 10% over last year to date...Latest survey shows 23,583,000 TV sets in the U.S. with 79% of the families in the Mid-Atlantic states owning one; 68% in New England; 63% in the North Central and 57% on the Pacific Coast...
July 14--Honors for the most fan mag covers by Culver City gals were won, in this order, by: Liz Taylor, Janet Leigh, Esther Williams...Sidney Sheldon'll give Metro first gander at his "People Like Us"...If they don't buy it, Kirk Douglas and he will do it as an indie...
July 17--Marlon Brando, who told us he was through with films, returns in the fall...
July 29--Japan opens a TV station Aug. 18 for six-hour daily transmission. A tv set has been placed on a busy street corner for the poor to see the shows...
Aug. 3--Raymond Burr's down from 330 to 200 pounds...
Aug. 20--Get ready for the onslaught of gags about Dr. Kinsey's latest tome. Examples: Gene Barry retitles it, "Bedroom Confidential." And Bogart points out that Kinsey spelled backwards, is "Yesnik"...And we're sure glad the Herald-Express, "which does not believe the Kinsey Report a fair report on womanhood," says it will publish it because "there is no use in pussyfooting a matter to be laid bare before the world, whether it be right or very wrong..."
Aug. 28--Would you believe it, Desilu's film output in the past year has topped the total film feature hours of any major studio!...
Aug. 31--GOOD MORNING and goodbye: When David Shine, Senator McCarthy's beagle, winged home to N.Y., it was Eleanor Parker who drove him to the airport and waved so long...As many as seven Tanner busses daily travel around UI in the heavy tourist traffic and the studio nets 50 cents a head on each busload...After the sneak of "A Name for Herself," Jack Lemmon was moved up to co-star billing...
Sept. 30--After hot and heavy east-west confab, Columbia's changed the title of the Marlon Brando starrer from "The Wild One" to "Hot Blood" and a hot campaign is being mapped...
Oct. 1--Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis posed for eight loveydovey fan mag covers. Sure, they'll stay married...
Oct. 2--The '54 Cadillac will have exaggerated fins...
Oct 12--Judging by box office returns Biblical pictures are the answer to theater owners' prayers...
Oct. 14--Eight acres of 20th's back lot have been cleared for oil operations. Equipment is moving in and drilling commences in four weeks...
Oct. 16--Eddie Cantor wasn't kidding about his smog campaign. If conditions don't improve, Cantor tells us he'll use his TV show to "warn people away from L.A."...
Oct. 19--Up to yesterday, Frank and Ava hadn't spoken and when asked about her arrival in Las Vegas, Frank replied: "I'd really like to know"...The 5,000 Negroes in Las Vegas will soon have their own hotel, casino and a 100-home tract...
Oct. 23--Wonder why filter ciggie sponsors are increasing their sales pitches? The Cancer Society reports there were 8,800 lung cancer fatalities in ' 42 and 20,000 in '52!...Roman Catholic Bishop J.C. Cody of Ontario, Canada, suggested parents secure locks for their TV sets to protect their children from "ribald" programs coming from the United States...
Oct. 27--Bob Hope heads to Palm Springs to rest up before leaving Nov. 11 for N.Y. and his first color TV show.
Oct. 30--Marilyn Monroe returned to Hollywood yesterday and Joe DiMaggio heads to N.Y. today. MM has asked 20th to give her the word on the starting date for "Pink Tights" and a decision one way or t'other if she can go to Korea...Bob Wagner's fan mail at 20th now second only to MM...
Nov. 6--It was no GOOD MORNING for Marilyn Monroe who is bedded with a fever after the excitement of the "How to Marry A Millionaire" premiere...Two points were proven at the premiere: Marilyn is a great, big star, and CinemaScope is all that it is cracked up to be...Dan Taradash, who scripted "Eternity," figure to make at least $ 200,000 for his 2 1/2%...
Nov. 16--WORTH QUOTING: Dick Powell: "RKO's contract list is down to three actors and 127 attorneys"...
Nov. 18--The Breen Office found too much of Gina Lollobrigida's figure in "Beat the Devil."There'll be some snipping made. Bogie's retort: "This girl can't help it--she's just built too well"...
Nov. 20--38 of 40 stills of Eva Gabor for "Captain Kid" and the Slave Girl" were nixed by Breen Office...
Nov. 25--Marilyn Novak, Columbia's answer to Marilyn Monroe, will get a name change...
Dec. 3--It's a GOOD MORNING in Hollywood for Mara Lane, Howard Hughes' answer to Marilyn Monroe, who just arrived from England and will be given extensive tests at RKO...
Dec. 9--Included in the time capsule to be buried at the Sands next Wednesday is an important piece of evidence from our times--one of Marie Wilson's sweaters...Hollywood Women's Press Club nominees for least cooperative actor: Frank Sinatra, Dale Robertson; least cooperative actress--Doris Day, Esther Williams; most cooperative actress--Virginia Mayo, Dale Evans; most cooperative actor--Roy Rogers, Martin & Lewis, Jeff Chandler...Among the lyrics brought up to date for the 1954 version of "Student Prince.""Hey boys, let's all be gay boys" is now, "Hey boys, let's have a beer, boys"...
Dec. 14--Think the talent search is over? In '53 Paramount's talent dept. covered 522 performances and signed--two players!..
Dec. 31--In CBS's West Coast listener poll for Man of the Year, Adlai Stevenson and Sen. Joe McCarthy are running neck and neck...Editor and Publisher reports 19% more homes will have tv sets in '54 and video will expand at the expense of mags and radio with no detriment to newspapers--how about pix?...An over-dressed gal, waiting for a table at a Las Vegas super-supper club: "Isn't this disgusting, isn't this awful--waiting." A soft voice behind her: "I don't mind--I can remember waiting in line for bread." Happy New Year!
