 Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. They tell me there was no backlighting Evelyn Keyes during the filming of her new motion picture for Columbia a thousand and one nights. That was decreed by cameraman Ray Renahan because of the filming garments Evelyn wore as a genie of the lamp in the Technicolor extravaganza of old Baghdad. When the wispy chiffon garments which Jean Louis designed for the actress were first tested Renahan decreed that they could be used only if extreme care were taken not to place lights behind Evelyn Otherwise, he said the eye or the sensors would be aroused. So by ruling out all backlighting that might too sharply accent Evelyn Keyes' shapely charms, cameraman Renahan saved the day. Yes, the harem trousers, the breast plates, and the gauze skirts were factual oriental rainment and could not be changed for the film without the atmosphere losing authenticity. Charles D. Brown, a heretofore unsung character actor of lengthy duration, is now flirting with fickle fame because Howard Hawks, the noted director, has spoken as follows. Of all the butlering celebrities in Hollywood, Brown strikes me as being the one with the impeccable demeanor, the inscrutable look, the impersonal mannerisms of the perfect screen butler. In fact, he is like the one the late John Barrymore demanded when he made the man from Blakely's. Mr. Barrymore insisted upon having an actor who could not only act like a butler, but one who looks as though he had descended from a long line of butlers. Leonhard Muti, Mary Gordon, Barbara Woodell, and Clarence Muse have been added to the cast of Divorce, Kay Francis' first starring vehicle for monogram with William Knight directing. Ms. Francis co-produces with Jeffrey Burners as well as playing the star role with Bruce Cabot opposite. Irene Dunn is a comedian of rarability, but the world never really found it out until showboat when the quietly dignified star broke into a shuffle along in blackface song that had the audience in stitches. The studios immediately went into a furor looking for suitable comedy vehicles to give Irene. She is five feet five inches tall, weighs 115 pounds. She's distinguished looking and her warm gray eyes belie the gentle frost of her regal beauty. Her hands are long and slim and pliable like those of a musician, but she can hit a golf ball as far as the average male player. She was born on a December 20th in Louisville, Kentucky. Ms. Dunn went to Chicago Musical College to be graduated with honors at a Diamond Award for Singing Excellence, then to New York, and in a short time the youthful graduate became the star of clinging vines, sweetheart time, and many other shows. The glamorous Broadway career progressed to the Zekeville production of showboat, and she received the inevitable contract in motion pictures. Irene Dunn appeared in a tiny part of the production, present arms, and rocked the fans throughout the world in her next role. In the immortal production of Simeron, she became a full-fledged star with a picture, and has proceeded to consolidate her position with every picture since that time. Her happy marriage with Dr. Francis Griffin of New York took place July 16, 1927. She's reasonably interested in politics, and adores cookies and milk in a between-meal snack. Chicken Alla King is her favorite dish. Irene Dunn is fond of cooking and dares anyone to prove that she can't compete with the best of them. Now a word from your local announcer. Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. What happened over on the Columbia lot recently while director Charles Viter was rehearsing Irene Dunn and Alexander Knox for a scene in over 21? Well, Viter asked producer Sidney Bushman to help out by reading a few offstage speeches, and Bushman, who had adapted the screenplay from Ruth Gordon's Broadway hit, was more than pleased with the chance. He went through the lines with great theatrical adieu. Then jubilant over his performance, I suppose Bushman looked to Viter for professional approval. That's right, but with tongue and cheek, the director proved a severe critic. He said in a voice loud enough for all the cast to hear. No, no, no. You don't seem to get the meaning that the writer had in mind. Having written those lines himself, that must have been a letdown. Amidst a jumble of dust-laden manuscripts, books, file cabinets, bric-a-brac, portraits, and dozens of dusty old paintings, director Vincent Minnelli is rehearsing a scene between Lucille Bremer and Mildred Natwick for Yolanda and the Thief, Metro Golden Mayor Technicolor Fantasy. Fred Astaire, standing by watching the scene with obvious enjoyment, tells producer Arthur Freed that the set should be labeled organized chaos. Oh no, Freed corrected. This has been erased with great exactitude. Why, when Minnelli came on the set today, he ordered a pile of books rearranged. He didn't think they looked sloppy enough. Gloria Dehaven, Metro Golden Mayor actress, is in receipt of an air medal sent her by a staff sergeant of a bomber squadrons attached to the Eighth Air Force, who won it only after a series of flights and fights over Germany. Declared the sergeant at his letter, I guess I did sweat a bit to earn it, but it's of no consequence. It would hurt me more if you did not accept it. Gloria felt that she shouldn't keep the airman's medal, and on the other hand, didn't want to hurt his feelings by returning it to him. However, Gloria wrote the sergeant a thank you letter and explained that she would retain the medal at his request and would return it at the end of the war, possibly in person. Joan Blondell, who began a long-term contract at 20th Century Fox with the role of the provocative Aunt Sissy in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, was the only member of the cast who could claim a Brooklyn background. Up to the time she was seven, Joan celebrated each of her birthdays in a different country. Then until she was 22, she celebrated each birthday in a different city. She's toured England and the continent, Canada, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, not to mention every city in the United States that had a vaudeville theater before vaudeville died. Then she headed for Hollywood to enter films, and she made her 287th trip across the United States. Broadway was quick to appraise her saucé blonde beauty and eloquent curves, and she became a folly's girl. But a season of pulchritude in this prancing was enough for Joan. She wanted to be dramatic and convinced producers that she could be. She blazed forth in supporting roles in Tarnish and the Trial of Mary Dugan, and then in the feminine lead of Penny Arcade, opposite an up-and-coming actor also an ex-vaudevillian named James Cagney. Warners bought the film rights of the play and brought both players to Hollywood for the screen version titled Sinner's Holiday. Both repeated their stage success, and both won long-term contracts. That was in 1930. With her variety of talent, she was a candidate for a variety of pictures, including musicals. But she found it increasingly difficult to escape roles that were on the breezy amusing side. She averaged four or five pictures a year. With her mother and her two children, Joan lives in a quiet Hollywood residential section, off the path of the sightseeing tours, in an English brick house that is spacious but not palatial. Joan Blondell is five feet three and weighs 115 glamorously distributed pounds. She enjoys eating. Her hair is honey blonde and her eyes frequently mislabeled blue are hazel. Now a word from your local announcer. Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. Imagine an entire waterfront going up in smoke and the fire department doing nothing about it, just standing by and smiling. Well, there was a reason for that. It was for a scene. One of the most exciting sequences in Warner Brothers they were expendable. Oh, that was the burning and bombing of Cavite, the historic Philippine naval base raised by the Jap invaders, which MGM recreated for devastation in a realistic enactment of the incident. Although the sets were constructed of cheap non-priority materials, Commander John Ford, who directed the drama, is confident the scene will actually duplicate the destruction of the great naval base. Robert Montgomery and John Wayne co-star in the picture, much of which is being filmed in and around Miami, Florida. Clark Gable is getting the required suntan for his role as the tough merchant mariner in this strange adventure behind a plow on his San Fernando, California ranch. Jimmy Durante, who has one of the biggest collections of autographed photographs in Hollywood, claims that this mania for surrounding himself with photos of fellow celebrities began when he first started life as a photo engraver. Marjorie Mayne has been officially picked as the official pin-up girl of a signal service battalion. The news of her appointment comes via a letter from a fellow screen player Sergeant Billy Hallop, formerly of the Dead End Kids. It was as a full-fledged star that Dorothy McGuire made her screen debut in Claudia for 20th Century Fox, but Dorothy, young as she is, can truly be said to have earned her stardom the hard way. She has five working years in the professional theater behind her, a period during which she has been an understudy, played in the musical in the vast center theater, been a member of the cast of at least two flop plays, and has toured the country with the late John Barrymore, as well as the star of Claudia. Although her professional career began in 1938, Dorothy has been an actress from her childhood. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Dorothy burst upon the public awareness when she was 13. She was a member of the Omaha Community Playhouse, an organization of which Dorothy still speaks in the highest terms. The group was giving a kiss for Cinderella, and the leading male part was being assayed by another Omahaan who had returned to the hometown after getting his very first part on Broadway. Returning hero's name was Henry Fonda. But Dorothy's early success in the community theater did not keep her from a regular academic education. She went to a convent school in Indianapolis, Indiana, and then took a college course at Pinehurst, Wellsea, Massachusetts. Upon graduation, she headed for New York and her theatrical career. After the usual period of hanging around the haunts of aspiring actors and actresses on Broadway, and the usual period of discouragement, she landed a job. Later, Dorothy got a job as understudy in another play whose life flickered briefly and went out. And then she went to see Jed Harris. He was doing Our Town and had already cast Martha Scott as Emily, but he needed an understudy for the role, and Dorothy got the job. The play, of course, was a financial and artistic hit. Everyone came to see it. But Miss Scott's health was fine. She didn't even have a cough in six months. It looked as though Dorothy McGuire were going to be part of a hit play, but escaped completely unnoticed. Then Martha Scott succumbed to the golden lure of Hollywood and Jed Harris gave her role to the understudy, Dorothy McGuire. A few critics made a repeat trip to see Our Town and to see the new girl, and they came away singing her praises. Now a word from your local announcer.