 Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. What is always a source of interest to me is the amount of trouble and effort directors go to in order to photograph a scene that is on the screen often for only a fraction of a minute. Whole crews of artisans will work over a background or some incidental object in the scene so that it may appear lifelike and realistic to the minutest detail. For instance, here are some notes gathered when Douglas Cirque was directing Summer Storm some time ago. Nathan, will you tell about it? Well, there's a lot of artistic camera angles and odd photographic effects in the picture. But none cause director Cirque so much trouble as the shooting past the nose of a horse at George Sanders and Linda Darnell. It's one of those shots that when viewing the completed film, it's just taken for granted. That's alright as long as everything goes smoothly, but just let anything go wrong and watch out. Well, the first time the close-up was made, Cirque didn't like it because the horse's head looked artificial. Then he realized it was because the horse's whiskers were white and wouldn't photograph no matter how he arranged the lights. Finally, in desperation, Cirque called the makeup man and had him put mascara on the horse's whiskers. They photographed perfectly and took the bare artificial effect away from the horse's nose. And Hollywood defied space and time too in making movies. For instance, you see George and Linda walk from the interior of a woodcutter's cabin out into the woods. But it wasn't that easy in the making. The scene was actually shot backwards. On location in lower California, a scene was shot showing the couple leaving a cabin and entering the woods. But because the cabin was real and too small to accommodate a huge camera with crew and the necessary lights, it was three weeks later back on United Artists' sound stages that the start of the scene was filmed showing them leaving the interior of the cabin. It took three weeks and several hundred miles of travel to take the two stars through a simple doorway. One of the reasons moviemaking is so costly. And then there was the time the beautiful corpse was cold in death but the weather on the United Artists' sound stage was hot. Beautiful Linda Donnelly in a silken bed for hours under the hot lights of the summer storm set still is death. After several rehearsals of the scene were made and directed Douglas Cirque was satisfied with the action, he called for the cameras to turn. But they had barely started turning when Cirque yelled cut. Linda, you spoiled that take, said Cirque. But it wasn't your fault. You'd better fix your makeup. There are beads of perspiration on your brow and I've never heard of a corpse suffering from the heat. All this adds up to one thing. One of the things that in my opinion has contributed so much to the fact that American motion pictures surpass the rest of the world. It is that insistence of nearly everyone on the lot to see that each and every detail is carefully considered. Everything from securing authentic scenes of pheasant hunting even if they have to go to Mexico to get them to the proper lighting of a horse's whisker. And now a word from your local announcer. And here now are a few production briefs from behind the scenes in Hollywood. Pretty 19-year-old Gracie Hannaford, daughter of Poodle's Hannaford, the famous circus performer, made her screen debut in Warner Brothers San Antonio, co-starring Earl Flynn and Alexis Smith. A triple talent scoop in connection with the scheduled screen version of the celebrated novel by Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, is announced by Jack L. Warner. This production will star Humphrey Bogart and Barbara Stanwyck and is to be directed by Mervyn Leroy. Current plans call for early shooting because the film must be in the bag before next August when Leroy is committed to direct the robe for Frank Ross. Rusty Ferrell, former powers model and Broadway dancing beauty, has been cast in RKO radios, those endearing young charms. Robert Young and Lorraine Dayer co-starred in the screen adaptation of the Edward Shoderoff play. Although she's too young to read scripts, eight-year-old Margaret O'Brien has appeared many times on national network radio programs. In all instances, she memorizes her lines and cues. Her recitation of Lincoln's Gettysburg address in this manner remains a radio classic. And Ruth Hussie has been borrowed by RKO radio from MGM to co-star with Pat O'Brien in Man Alive. They teamed before and Maureen Raiders. Adolphe Maju has a top role in this comedy, dealing with a man, supposedly dead, who comes to spy on his wife's efforts to commune with the spirits. Shelby Payne, who makes her film debut in This Love of Hours, has joined a growing list of actress writers with a volume of poems to be published soon. Marking the completion of his 40th year in show business, more than 30 of which have been in motion pictures, Wallace Berry recently signed a new contract with Metro Golden Mayor Studios and began preparation for his next film, Bad Baskham. It's the story of a colorful bandit leader in the 1860s who was reformed through his affection for Little Girl. Raymond Massey, in real life, a veteran of both World War I and II, has worn a uniform in only five of the 152 stage and screen roles in which he has played. Philip Terry gets the romantic lead in George White's scandals of 1945, the musical co-storing Joan Davis and Jack Haley. This will be Terry's third straight appearance in a musical. Music in Manhattan, his first, will be followed by Pan Americana, in which he's one of the principals. Terry will play opposite Martha Holliday in George White's scandals of 1945. Gene Krupa has already been set for a featured part. At least one soldier believes Gary Cooper doesn't know when he's well off being sick. The story goes like this. Cooper and Ingrid Bergman were playing their 18th love scene in Saratoga Trunk when the soldier visited the Warner Brothers set. As do many of the romantic sessions of the Edna Ferber story, the scene began with a battle. Climax of the scene came when the sizzling angry Ingrid softened and was swiftly gathered into the Cooper arms and soundly kissed, only to hear him say, You know something, honey. You make me sick. In the silence immediately after director Sam Woodard ordered cut, the soldier visitor cast but loudly, I'd be glad to be awful sick for that kind of medicine. And who wouldn't? Over at RKO radio, Boris Karloff has been signed to a new contract calling for him to make three pictures within the next two years. He starred in this studio's The Body Snatcher, drama adopted from Robert Louis Stevenson's story of the same name. With Robert Montgomery set to portray the leading role and they were expendable, director John Ford is now making extensive tests of players to complete the cast. Production is scheduled to begin before the end of the month. Floria Hope, young MGM actress, is forsaking a really promising screen career to marry her childhood sweetheart, Captain Jack Lewis of Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. She asked for and received a release from her contract to do it. She has a top role in MGM's forthcoming, twice blessed. And here's a case of really turning tables. Anne Blythe, a young actress who portrays one of Joan Crawford's daughters and Warner Brothers' Mildred Pierce, has turned the tables on autograph collectors who visit the set with a picture of shooting. Whenever Anne spots a particularly ribboned military or naval uniform on the set, she steps up and requests an autograph from the decorated veteran. This program is for your entertainment and we would be very glad to hear from you requesting more of that portion of the program which pleases you most. Just dropping hard to me. But well, McCormick, post office box 2941 Hollywood are to the station over which you are now listening and state whether you wish more facts about motion pictures, Hollywood studios or what the stars are doing and we will try and bring this information to you. And now a word from your local announcer. Because there seems to be so much that should be said about the man chosen for the personality close up in today's issue of behind the scenes in Hollywood, we are breaking our usual practice in presenting the story of only one person, Walt Disney. Okay. Arriving in Hollywood, two decades ago with only $40 in the pockets of his well-worn suit, Walt Disney has mixed equal proportions of persistence, imagination and hard work to parlay a series of animated characters into a corporation that today occupies a $2 million studio. Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago on December 5, 1901. Disney Senior was a contractor and builder in the windy city and later moved to a Missouri farm. Walt picked up the rudiments of his education in a country school. The Disney's soon tired of rural life and Walt completed his grammar school grades in Kansas City. After classes he ran with the track team, his only excursion into athletics. The family moved back to Chicago when young Walt enrolled in McKinley High. Just about this time the ambitious youth began to sketch and became interested in photography. While doing illustrations for the high school paper, he also started experimenting with motion pictures. The two mediums he later was to combine to give the world a new art form. Meanwhile, Disney attended night classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts to improve his sketching technique. The First World War was underway and he tried to enlist in the Army, but was turned down because of his age. Finally, he was successful in signing up as a Red Cross ambulance driver and went to France. Covered from stem to stern with Walt's drawings, the Disney-driven vehicle was probably the most unusual conveyance of its kind along the battlefront. Then came the armistice and an animated slide company needed a cartoonist and Walt landed the job at Kansas City. He rigged up a studio of his own in a garage and in his spare time began experimenting. His first output was a short reel of Kansas City happenings which he sold to the owner of three theaters. They were so popular with audiences that he was commissioned to turn out one such an animated picture every week. From boyhood, Walt Disney loved mice and kept several as pets. One of them used to crawl over his drawing board back in those Kansas City garage days. Walt named the pet Mortimer Mouse, but that sounded too formal and before long the moniker was changed to Mickey. This was the model for the character who subsequently became a screen star. While experimenting in the garage workshop, Walt retained his $35 a week job so he could eat. But nights in his studio, a volunteer staff of cartoonists enthusiastic about the idea worked six months to complete that short subject little red riding hood. Disney liked the finished results so well he quit his job and formed a company to make more of these animated fairy tales. Things began to look rosy when seven were completed and sold to a New York distributor. Then the New York outfit went broke and Disney's enterprise suffered the same fate. So using his old motion picture camera, Walt took photographs of babies around Kansas City selling the prints to adoring parents and getting enough money together to move to Hollywood. He landed in the film capital with a new sweater but a suit that was two years old and only $40 in his pockets. Besides that he had a little film and some drawing material. Walt's brother Roy was already in Hollywood. Roy offered Walt his sympathy in a $250 bank balance. As a result they formed a partnership with an uncle staking the brothers to $500 more. Walt was overjoyed when a print of a fairy tale sent to New York brought an order for a series like this sample. The brothers rented an old real estate office, bought a camera and Walt taught Roy how to use it. They hired two girls to help them. Walt did all the drawing. The quartet then began turning out an Alice series and then Walt fell in love with one of the girls. Lillian Bounds was her name and they were married. They're still married and have two children, one of them adopted. Soon the Alice series had been exploited to its fullest and Disney conceived another character, Oswald the Rabbit. The public took to the new animated star and Disney bubbling with ideas went to New York in an effort to get more money for the film so we could experiment with the technique improvements. The distributors refused and there was a break. The New York outfit keeping Oswald. His high hopes were shattered. Jobless, Walt and Mrs. Disney started back to Hollywood and on the way they discussed their future. In search of a new character he considered several animals without success and then he excitedly exclaimed, a mouse, my Mickey Mouse, why didn't I think of it before? His third Mickey Mouse picture, Steambode Willie was synchronized with sound. Critics, film executives and paying audiences were wildly enthusiastic about the picture. Mickey went on and on until he became a household word. Then came the silly symphonies, plotless artistic creations that were pure fantasy in color. Since 1932 they've won Academy Awards year after year. Restless and never satisfied with his own work, Disney was not content with the turn in fortune that brought him prestige and a great deal of money. He dreamed of a full-length animated feature in color. It was a terrific gamble as no one could foresee public reaction to a feature picture composed entirely of drawings. Dipping into his own financial resources and then borrowing $1,500,000 Walt produced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This Disney gamble is one of Hollywood's favorite success stories. Three months after its release, Snow White had paid back the loan and then went on to become one of the greatest money makers in all screen history. Disney was now firmly established in the feature field. He then produced a number of full-length films appealing to adults and children alike, including Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo. Walt again made screen history by putting Leopold Stokovsky and a symphony orchestra under contract to bring some of the world's greatest music to the screen in Fantasia. Now in the Three Caballeros, Disney scores another technical triumph by emerging animated characters and real-life actors in the same film scenes. And this is the word picture of a young man with an idea, a chap who has endeared little guys like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck to the whole world, who has made lovely legend walk and talk and glorified color on the screen. Listen next week when Biddle McCormick again takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood.