Star Dust
★ Farrcll-Gaynor Re-Make
★ Blondell Sisters
★ Hollywood Boomerang?
-Ily Virginia Vnl«*
AT LAST Charles Farrell
-/a has an opportunity to
stage a come-back in Ameri
can movies, one that his ad
mirers of the days when he
was making pictures with
Janet Gaynor have wanted
for him. He will appear in a
re-make of one of the Far
rell-Gaynor hits, “Sunny Side
Up.” Remember it?
It was the picture for which Far
rell and Gaynor had to learn to sing,
to the dismay of practically every
body else on the Fox lot. For they
worked at it endlessly, it seemed to
I-.-’■■■■■ vixWxWxS' ; -i
Janet Gaynor
the others, with a voice cqach, and
the results were distracting, to say
the least. But the result was worth
it.
But this new version of the picture
is going to be something different,
judging by the cast. It will star
Shirley Temple—and will include
Bert Lahr and Bill Robinson.
Every so often come rumors that
Maude Adams will appear on the
screen. Now it’s David Selznick who
is said to have captured her, to play
the dowager in “The Young in
Heart,” with Janet Gaynor, Paulette
Goddard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.,
and Roland Young in the cast. Since
her retirement from the stage in
1918 she has refused to discuss
movie offers, but this time she at
least was willing to talk things over.
Remember that little native lad in
“Elephant Boy”? You'll see him in
“Gungha Din,” with Victor McLag
len, Cary Grant, and Jack Oakie. ;
The fact that he’s to be included
would look as if, when the poem is j
screened, the picture will show the
influence of “Kim,” which has been \
about to be screened for years.
vj
If you want to see a movie star
in the making, go to “Accidents Will
Happen” and see Gloria Blondell,
sister of Joan. She's on her way.
She has been for quite a while, so
far as that’s concerned, but it is
just leading her to the movies, be
cause she didn’t want to cash in
on her sister’s success.
If you encounter a man who’s
tremendously interested in the folk
music of your part of the country
he’ll probably turn out to be one of
the Radio Rubes. Each Friday each
of the three leave New York, going
in different directions, in a search
for old American melodies; they al
ready have a collection of two thou
sand. Recently Harry Duncan de
voted himself to New England,
while that same week Zeb Turney |
flew to the Mid-West and Eddie
Smith went south.
-*
Now that Marlene Dietrich has
signed to make a picture for Twen
tieth Century-Fox,
with Ronald Col
man, and to make
three for Colum
1 bla, you can’t
blame the Para
mount officials
who let her go if
they are doing a
bit of worrying.
For Frank Capra
may direct one of
the Columbia re
leases, and he has
a way of turning
. out smash hits.
And it’s no fun to
lose money on a star, let her go, and
then have her bring gold into the
box office for somebody else!
-*
ODDS AND ENDS—William Jan
ney, whom you've seen as the kid
brother in the “Hopalong Cassidy"
series, has taken to the air, in “Pepper
Young's Family” . . , Joan Crawford,
after twelve years with Metro, has
signed for another five—can do one
stage play a year if she likes . . .
They’re shooting again on “Marie An
toinette” . . . Johnny Weismuller will
play Tarzan again for Metro soon . . .
Seven stand-ins who have been in the
movies for years got their chance when
they were cast as themselves in “Shop
worn Angel” . . . Crane Wilbur, of the
silent films, will play Napoleon for
Warners’ in “The Hundred Days” . . ,
Frances Dee drew a nice assignment
when she was chosen to play opposite
Ronald Colman in “If I Were King.** ■
© Western Newspaper Union.
Ill,
1 goes up
I In 1884 a mysterious fire started in Ohio’s Straits
villc coal mining area. It has burned ever since,
undermining 24 square miles of land, ruining farms
and consuming $500,000,000 worth of coal. In dense
woodland areas (above) it sends constant clouds of
smoke to the sky, eventually moving to new fields.
O Seventy-five-year-old Mrs. Elizabeth Green,
“ rural cottager, is among refugees forced to
leave their farms. Mrs. Green’s home was
sinking and her rooms were filled with poison
ous gas. Her land naturally became valueless
so she now lives in nearby New Straitsville.
O A keen student of the devastating fire has
been New Straitsville’s mayor, Williarn
Johnson, who daily receives crack-brain sug
gestions on how to hottle up the 54-year-old
flame. But only recently has a sound solution
been offered to the mayor, himself a coal miner.
4 Aided by government WPA
funds, Straitsville’s fire is not
being extinguished but is being iso
lated to prevent consumption of
hundreds of millions of tons of coal
in fields stretching south, east and
north. Three barriers are being
built, two of them a mile long, the
other a half-mile. Barriers are built
by means of tunnels. The above
tunnel stretches under Plummer
hill. At this point the fire has al
ready reached the barrier and is
being checked.
C* When tunnels are completed,
fresh dirt is washed down sluice
boxes into the excavated barrier,
making the crevice air tight. When
the tunnels will hold not another
grain of dirt the job will be finished,
providing a solid earthen wall to
stop the half-century-old flame.
The above sluice box above the
Plummer hiii barrier took 30 tons
of dirt every eight hours. There
were seven more holes in that tun
nel. The other two barriers, larger,
will be fed by 50 holes each.
/Z Coal must be removed before the earthen
barrier is filled in, so miners are employed.
Nor is coal all that must be removed. Water
seepage has been a hazard, especially in Shaw
nee tunnel where four square miles of excava
tion is under water, necessitating drainage.
7 As coal and shale are removed from the tunnel,
mine cars haul it to the surface where the coal is
made available without charge to needy residents of
the Straitsville area. When the fire reaches all its
barriers, it may still smoulder hundreds of years
within its confines, undermining still more land.
8 Superintending the huge project is James
It. Cavanaugh, shown here making a peri
odic inspection to check against explosive or
suffocating gases in the tunnels. He carries a
flame which lengthens or goes out when there
is too much gas for safety.
9 The fire cannot be isolated too soon for
Straitsville people who have suffered hard
ships at its expense. The above well, for ex
ample, used to be a seething caldron before
the fire moved elsewhere. Eventually the
stones cracked and it was rebuilt as a cistern.
I Highway travelers in the mine fire area often
* ” see warning signs like this. In many places the
asphalt paving has collapsed after being undermined.
Eventually some highways may be moved to safer
ground if the flames continue to sap their founda
tions. The village of old Straitsville is now abandoned.
A typical victim is David Itush, farmer.
The fire roasted the potatoes in his gar
den, heated the water in his well and made
his chicken coop so hot that hens roosted in the
trees. His entire farm looks like this. All this,
caused by a tiny spark in 1884!