1933 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: Design for Living by Noël Coward 1/24 at New York's Ethel Barrymore Theater, with Coward, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, 135 perfs.; Alien Corn by Sidney Howard 2/20 at New York's Belasco Theater, with Katharine Cornell, 98 perfs.; The Enchanted (Intermezzo) by Jean Genet 2/27 at the Comédie des Champs-Elysées, Paris; Forsaking All Others by Edward Roberts and Frank Cavett 3/1 at New York's Times Square Theater, with Alabama-born actress Tallulah Bankhead, 30, Ilka Chase, Cora Witherspoon, 110 perfs.; Both Your Houses by Maxwell Anderson 3/6 at New York's Royale Theater, with Morris Carnovsky, Walter C. Kelly, Mary Philips, Jerome Cowan, Jane Seymour, Shepperd Strudwick in a polemic against political corruption, 120 perfs.; Men in White by New York-born playwright Sidney Kingsley, 27, 9/26 at New York's Broadhurst Theater, with Morris Carnovsky, Luther Adler, Elia Kazan, Sanford Meisner, Clifford Odets, East Cleveland-born actor Alan Baxter, 24, directed by Lee Strasberg, 367 perfs.; Ah, Wilderness by Eugene O'Neill (his only comedy) 10/2 at New York's Guild Theater, with George M. Cohan as Nat Miller, William Post, Jr., Elisha Cook, Jr., Gene Lockhart, Philip Moeller, Ruth Gilbert, 289 perfs.; The Pursuit of Happiness by Alan Child and Isabelle Louden 10/9 at New York's Avon Theater, with Peggy Conklin, Charles Waldron, 252 perfs.; Tovarich by French playwright Jacques Deval (Jacques Boularan), 42, 10/13 at the Théâtre de Paris, 800 perfs.; The Wind and the Rain by New Zealand-born playwright Marten (originally Horace Emerton) Hodge, 29, 10/18 at St. Martin's Theatre, London, with Mackenzie C. Ward, 30, Celia Johnson, 24 (to the Queen's Theatre 2/18/1935), 993 perfs.; Her Master's Voice by Clare Kummer 10/23 at New York's Plymouth Theater, with Laura Hope Crews, Roland Young, 224 perfs.; Mulatto by Langston Hughes 10/24 at New York's Vanderbilt Theater, with Rose McClendon, 270 perfs.; Mary of Scotland by Maxwell Anderson 11/27 at New York's Alvin Theater, with Helen Hayes, Helen Menken, Philip Merivale, George Coulouris, Cecil Holm, 248 perfs.; Tobacco Road by director-writer Jack Kirkland, 31, 12/4 at New York's Masque Theater, with Henry Hull as Jeeter Lester, Ashley Cooper, Indiana-born actor Will Geer, 31, Margaret Wycherly, in an adaptation of last year's Erskine Caldwell novel, 3,182 perfs.; Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur 12/29 at New York's Broadhurst Theater, with Eugenie Leontovich as Lilly Garland, Moffat Johnston as Oscar Jaffe, Clare Woodbury, 152 perfs.

London's Old Vic Theatre engages Tunbridge Wells-born director (William) Tyrone Guthrie, 33. The youngest director in its history, Guthrie will work at the Old Vic off and on into the early 1950s.

Playwright-novelist John Galsworthy dies at London January 31 at age 65; Wilson Mizner of a heart ailment in his apartment at Hollywood's Ambassador Hotel April 3 at age 56 (he turned to writing screenplays 6 years ago with the advent of sound films); playwright Winchell Smith dies of cancer at Farmington, Conn., June 10 at age 61; theater architect and scenic designer Joseph Urban of a heart attack in his suite at New York's St. Regis Hotel July 10 at age 61; playwright-story writer Ring Lardner of a heart ailment in his sleep at his East Hampton, N.Y., home September 25 at age 48; actor Edward H. Sothern at New York October 28 at age 73.

Radio: Jack Armstrong the All-American Boy 7/31 on Chicago's KBBM with St. John Terrell, who is soon replaced by Jim Ameche. Creator of the show is Robert Hardy Andrews, its sponsor is the 9-year-old General Mills "Breakfast of Champions" Wheaties, and the theme song begins, "Wave the flag for Hudson High, boys/ Show them how we stand,/ Ever shall our team be champions,/ Known throughout the land" (to 6/28/1951); The Tom Mix Ralston Straightshooters 9/25 on NBC (cowboy actor Mix has no connection with the children's show except to lend his name)(to 6/23/1950); The Romance of Helen Trent 10/30 on CBS is a soap opera created by Anne Ashenhurst with E. Frank Hummert, whom she has known since 1927 and whom she will marry next year; Ma Perkins 12/4 on NBC is another Ashenhurst-Hummert creation, continuing the soap opera serial genre with daily 15-minute shows sponsored by Procter & Gamble's Oxydol. Actress Virginia Payne, 23, plays the title role that she will continue for 27 years (to 11/25/1960).

Sally Rand attracts thousands to the Chicago World's Fair that opens May 27 to celebrate "A Century of Progress." Originally named Harriet Helen Gould Beck, the 29-year-old Missouri-born fan dancer gets star billing at the "Streets of Paris" concession on the Midway, does a slow dance to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" wearing only her birthday suit but coyly using two pink, seven-foot ostrich plumes to conceal her nudity (she actually wears a body stocking or at least a coat of white theatrical cream). Her act draws the ire of community leaders, who call it "lewd, lascivious, and degrading to public morals," but Superior Judge Joseph B. David rules July 19 that "there is no harm and certainly no injury to public morals when the human body is exposed. Some people would probably want to put pants on a horse . . . Case dismissed for lack of equity." The five-foot-one-inch ecdysiast (measurements: 35-22-35) plays to packed houses, she will invent a bubble dance for next year's fair, using a 60-inch transparent balloon, and will be credited with making the fair a success as jobless Americans flock to Chicago in search of fun (attendance will total 22 million).

Films: Frank Lloyd's Cavalcade with Diana Wynyard (Dorothy Cox), 27, Clive Brook, Ursula Jeans; William Wyler's Counsellor-at-Law with John Barrymore, Bebe Daniels (Mrs. Ben Lyon); George Cukor's Dinner at Eight with Marie Dressler, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, screenplay by Frances Marion; Leo McCarey's Duck Soup with the Marx Brothers; Frank Capra's Lady for a Day with May Robson (as "Apple Annie"), Warren William, Guy Kibbee in a plot based on a Damon Runyon story; George Cukor's Little Women with Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, Butte, Mont.-born actress Jean Parker (originally Luise-Stephanie Zelinska), 21, Paul Lukas; Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII with English actor Charles Laughton, 34; René Clair's Quatorze Juillet (July Fourteenth) with Annabella; Rouben Mamoulian's Queen Christina with Greta Garbo, John Gilbert in a largely fictional version of the life of the 17th-century Swedish queen; Lowell Sherman's She Done Him Wrong with Mae West, now 41, as Diamond Lil ("Come up'n see me sometime"), Cincinnati-born actress Louise Beavers, 25, as her sassy maid Pearl, Cary Grant; Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct (Zero de conduit) with Jean Daste, Robert le Flon. Also: Victor Fleming's Bombshell with Jean Harlow, Milwaukee-born actor William Joseph "Pat" O'Brien, 34, Frank Morgan, Louise Beavers; Marcel Pagnol's César with Raimu, Pierre Fresnay; Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living with Gary Cooper, Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins; Stuart Walker's The Eagle and the Hawk with Fredric March, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, Indiana-born actress Carole Lombard (originally Jane Alice Peters), 24; Gustav Machaty's Ecstasy with Viennese-born beauty Hedy (originally Hedwig Eva Maria) Kiesler (later Hedy Lamarr), 19, who creates a sensation with closeups of her face expressing erotic passion plus long shots that show her swimming in the nude and running naked through the woods; Wesley Ruggles's I'm No Angel with Mae West, Cary Grant; A. Edward Sutherland's International House with W. C. Fields, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Stuart Erwin, George Burns, Gracie Allen; Michael Curtiz's The Kennel Murder Case with William Powell, Quincy, Ill.-born actress Mary Astor (originally Lucile Vascincellos Langhanke), 33; Frank Borzage's Man's Castle with Spencer Tracy, Salt Lake City-born actress Loretta (originally Gretchen) Young, 20; Robert Z. Leonard's Peg o' My Heart with Marion Davies, screenplay by Frances Marion; W. S. Van Dyke's Penthouse with Columbus, Ohio-born actor Warner Baxter, 44, Helena, Mont.-born actress Myrna Loy (originally Myrna Adele Williams), 28; William A. Seiter's Sons of the Desert with Laurel and Hardy; King Vidor's The Stranger's Return with Lionel Barrymore, Miriam Hopkins, Franchot Tone; John Cromwell's Sweepings with Lionel Barrymore, William Gargan; Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse with Rudolf Klein-Rogge; Francis Martin's Tillie and Gus with W. C. Fields, Alison Skipworth, Baby LeRoy.

Twentieth Century Pictures is organized by Hollywood film producers who include Darryl Zanuck of Warner Brothers (see Twentieth Century Fox, 1935).

London-born journalist Sheila Graham (née Lily Shiel), 25, comes to New York and begins the syndicated gossip column "Hollywood Today" that will eventually appear in 180 newspapers, rivaling Louella Parsons (see 1925) and Hedda Hopper (see 1936). Married at age 17 to John Graham Gilliam, a man of 42 who encouraged her to perform in musical comedies, she debuted in the 1927 revue One Damned Thing after Another and has lately been writing theater articles for London periodicals (see Nonfiction, 1958).

Motion picture pioneer Lewis J. Selznick dies of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home January 25 at age 62; Fatty Arbuckle of a heart attack at New York's Park Central Hotel June 29 at age 46 (three juries acquitted him of any wrongdoing in connection with the 1921 San Francisco scandal but bad publicity ended his career); Renée Adoree dies of tuberculosis at her Tujunga, Calif., home October 5 at age 35, having made 45 films between 1918 and 1930.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is founded in September at a private men's club (The Masquers) in Los Angeles with a board of directors that includes James Gleason, Lucille Gleason, Ralph Morgan, and Alan Mowbray. The Guild's goal is to negotiate fair wages and working conditions for all performers, "from the highest-salaried star to the struggling extra." Actors' Equity tried to organize Hollywood performers in 1929 but had no success; Lew Ayres will join SAG in November of next year, the new group will gain American Federation of Labor (AFL) recognition in 1935, but the studios will not accept SAG's jurisdiction until 1937 and meanwhile will use detectives to sniff out members, who risk suspension.

The Screen Writers' Guild is organized at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel by Frances Marion and others to represent writers whose salaries have been cut by New York studio owners from $50 per week to $25. M-G-M pays Marion $3,000 per week, she and others set up headquarters at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Cherokee to begin a process of seeking protection for all writers under the new U.S. Labor Codes. But collective bargaining with the producers will not begin until 1939, the first Guild contract will not be signed until 1942, and in 1954 the Guild will become part of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).