The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 27

MAGAZINE SECTION. THREE Renee Haal Posed for $10 an Hour WITH Her Clothes Artist John La Gatta Calls Her Filmdom's 'Perfect Curve5 Girl DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER, NOVEMBER 2. 1941 'Perfect Curves Measurements of Renee Haal, RKO's "Perfect Curve" Girl, follow Bust 34 Waist 25 Hip 31 Thigh Calf 12 Ankle RKO's Renee Haal used to pose for artists for $10 an hour but you may look at her photograph (shown at right) without charge or obligation. Dark-haired Renee, who managed somehow to pick up a drawl in her natal city of New York, modeled while she went to school. Her usual pay was $10 a day.

But Artist John La Gatta proclaimed her the "Perfect Curve" Girl and the men with the easels and cameras began paying Renee $10 an HOUR. She posed for Photographers Victor Kepler, John Hutchins and Steichen. It was Steichen who offered her $50 an hour to pose in the nude, but Renee said a bathing suit was as far as she'd go. It's just as well. Perhaps if Renee'd started receiving $50 an hour to pose she wouldn't have been interested in a film career.

She cheerfully gave up her $10-an-hour job to sign with RKO. And you'll see her first in Tay Garnett's "Unexpected Uncle." RENEE HAAL Had to Say NO to $50 An Hour This Means War! From Josef von Sternberg's direction of a kissing scene between Gene Tierney and Victor Mature in "The Shanghai Gesture" came these immortal lines: "Have you ever put cynicism into a kiss, Victor? Ah, I thought so. Well, my boy, what 1 want here is a dash of cynicism plus plenty of wattage. Horsepower! Dynamics! "Blitz! There's my word! Strange that the argot of war should be applied to love. But then, love is war isn't it? And the artful byplay of a man with a maid and vice versa that's the pleasantest battlefield." "I don't know what you mean," said Victor, "but I'm a-rarin' and a-stompin'." With SENATOR REYNOLDS frowning on Hollywood, the film colony is recalling the picture of him kissing JEAN HARLOW on the capi-tol steps some years ago.

There's a rumor that Andy Hardy will get sick in his next picture and Dr. Kildare will be called in. First Warners tested BETTY FIELD for the CASSANDRA role in "Kings Row." Executives looked at the test then put it right into the film. M. Pulham, Esq." gives HEDY LAMARR a chance to sing.

If you haven't h.eard Lanny Ross sing, it isn't Lanny's fault. He's sung 10,400 songs during the last two years. fC Sjt If "By-u, By-o" becomes a candidate to succeed the "'Hut-Sut Song," blame those MERRY MACS again. Those orchids that are deluging Linda Darnell come from Jack Hopkins in New York. Dance Master ARTHUR MURRAY'S been stumped by a sailor's request to learn the hornpipe.

Broadway's whispering of a RUTH ETTING comeback. VICTOR McLAGLEN was so determined to become a movie marine again that he took off 25 iunds. EDWARD ELLIS plans to retire to his desert ranch near Palrn Springs after he completes "Dangerously They Live." Tanned What's happened to all those sweeties from Tahiti? Only eight beauties from the islands could be rounded up for "Son of Fury." Fox had to put body makeup on 92 American girls. "Warners in Stir Again." That's the Hollywood Reporter's headline on the news that the Warner studio will film "My life in Sing Sing." In "Rise and Shine," MILTON BERLE has his first chance to be in a love scene. Says Berle: "I stand next to GEORGE MURPHY as he kisses LINDA DARNELL." DRAKE still has "Hug" but "Kiss" is lost.

They're her white rabbits. i Hollywood's scrambling for ringside seats in the Bob Hope-Red Skel-ton sir-film battle. U. S. Defense bond sales have leaped since MARGIE HART has taken to stripping them off in auctions.

The new Tarzan film has the Ape Man wearing white tie and tails. Men make passes at a girl who wears glasses in "II. M. Pulham Esq." She's Hedy Lamarr. One hundred sixty-five cowhands applied for the job of foreman on ANN SHERIDAN'S new ranch before they discovered the range measured five acres.

jc sjc sjc WALTER PIDGEON keeps trim by skipping solids one day a week. He substitutes fruit and vegetable Juices. 3 3 Craig Stevens is spending his spare time with Mary Brian. And George Montgomery is being consoled by Julie Warren since his split with Ginger Rogers. J.

9S 9C The boys who started kidding JUDY CANOVA about her annulment are sorry now. Real tears showed 'em it was no joke. BETTY FIELD'S gonna stay blond a while. Why, Charlie! This may le different from the way you've heard it, but listen to CHARLES BOYER: "Any man who doesn't take a woman into his full confidence is a fool. Women like to be sharers of secrets and they can keep them!" ALEXIS SMITH has one rather monotonous fan club.

Everybody in it is named Smith. tfi ifi ifi Surprised was Hollywood to discover that the Very Rev. Alan Pen-dergast, new rector of the Passionist Fathers monastery in Sierra Mad re, was Don Ameche's brother-in-law. Irving Kaye Davis says you don't have to have a play produced to make it pay. One of his, "Chopin," has earned $8,500 in option money without ever seeing the footlights.

She Slow Strip Gypsy Rose Lee could take lessons from Veronica lake's GRADUAL strip-tease. In "I Wanted Wings," Ronnie wore an ankle-length evening gown. In "Sullivan's Travels" she got down to a bathing suit, but wore a bathrobe over it. But "This Gun for Hire" will show her in tights I GENE TIERNEY was the poor little rich girl when she had to decide between a fur coat and a honeymoon trip with Count OLEG CASSINI. She went for the count.

Legs in Cotton All right, girls, Paulette Goddard has started it. She's wearing cotton stockings What d'ya say, Marlcne? Operators of juke boxes don't want them called that in "Fifty Million Nickels." They insist that the proper term is "music machines" and declare: "Juke boxes, made several hundred years ago by a family of Swiss skilled in an art handed down from generation to generation of Jukes, bore no resemblance to today's music machines. "The instruments required cranking and produced tunes in no way resembling the smooth rhythms of today." sj Quick shave! ORSON WELLES has decided to limit his beard to a mustache. Can't Take a Powder Stirling Hayden says he quit movies "because I couldn't stand having my nose powdered." Two-Timer Double-talking Cliff Xazarro is going to need a double-talking double if his roles don't quit doubling up on him. He's been galloping from one film to another.

Smart ALICE FA YE prepared a nursery with all pillows and blankets blue on one side and pink on the other. "i -I 3 CECIL KELLAWAY, the character actor, has had to apply for American citizenship papers, even though his great-great-grandfather was a soldier in Washington's army. You see Cecil's great-grandfather was sent to England and there Grandpa was born. Gramps became a British citizen. And Cecil was born in South Africa.

Nancy Carroll thinks she'll be a newspajwr woman. MARGIE HART wants to do a play based on Calamity Jane's life so she can soft-pedal her strip-teasing reputation and get a Hollywood contract. 20th Century-Fox plans to star Cieorge Arliss in a British production of "Pied Piper." Jf The manager of the St. George theater on Statcn Island had his tongue in his cluck when his ad invited patrons to dance in the aisles during the short, "Cuban Rhythm." And he almost bit his licker when the guys and gals paired up to swing those hips in rumbas. On Purpose? Salvador Bali's doing a nightmare scene for "Moon Tide." "Sergeant York" has captured almost as many holdovers as there were Germans caught by the real sarge.

Meek Inherited Ground Donald Meek still blushes about the time a kangaroo knocked him out. But don't kid him about it too much with his potent hand-clasp, Donald can make almost any of Hollywood's he-men knuckle-down. But literally! Errol Fly ii and his manager, Myron Selznick, have ph-h-h-tl BOB PRESTON has listed the "most desirable leading ladies." His list: Barbara Stanwyck Loretta Young Mary Martin Martha O'Driseoll Madeleine Carroll Susan llayward Ellen Drew Ii na Turner Paulette Goddard Catherine Craig. (Catherine is Mrs. Preston.) Ni-an, Ni-an, Thr-r-r-ee Marguerite Chapman's a former long-distance telephone operator.

'Member when HARRY LANGDON was a vaudeville hcadliner in an act allod "Johnny's New James Kirkwood, who left Hollywood 10 years ago, is back in a movie with his son, Jim. Mama is Ula Lee. ORSON WELLES, for his Mexican film, has hired XAVIER CUGAT to do the music..