 Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. Time was when studio tours were commonplace. In the early days of Hollywood development, platforms were built around the spot where scenes were to be shot, and onlookers were charged a quarter to watch the pictures being made. But all that's changed now, and we even get all a lot in Hollywood. You have to just about be one of the performers or the director. Well, not quite that bad, but that does call to mind a theater owner that I once knew who had given such strict instructions against passing anyone in that he actually had to buy a ticket to get into his own theater. Well, that was carrying it a little too far, but I guess this ban on sightseers is important and very necessary. It certainly is. Just imagine how costly it would be today if production was interrupted because someone inadvertently coughed or sneezed on the set or a child cried or someone distracted the performer's attention. Leave it to Butch Jenkins to hand Hollywood another surprise. Now the seven-year-old actor with the dollar-sized freckles is taking piano lessons, and he asks for them himself. American naval officers rescued by rangers in the daring raid on the Cabanatouan prison camp on Luzon will be seen in the scenes of the Invisible Army. One of the highlights of the film will be a reenactment of the sensational raid on the prison camp. The magnificent tramp is RKO's first Hollywood vehicle for the noted Mexican comedian Cantin Plus. Al Herman will serve as art director. Carol Clark will design settings for bar of music, Frank Sinatra's next starring film. Walter Keller will be art director on Riverboat Rhythm. And here's a personality close-up that will interest you. Betty Grable. Betty Grable is a Hollywood success because she planned it that way. She began planning almost as soon as she could total and she hasn't stopped for a moment since. At the age of four, Betty already was hoofing it with the best of them in dancing school and manhandling a saxophone when she wasn't busy plucking discords on the ukulele. In short, she was an infant prodigy and already was praddling off things theatrical and entertaining. Talents such as Betty's in those tender years doesn't go unrecognized for long. At the age of seven, Betty made her professional debut by public demand in spite of the objections of her parents who felt she was much too young. She went on the air and appeared with such notables in the entertainment world as Frank Fay, Ed Lowry, Jack Haley and others. In between times, she was attending the Mary Institute, an exclusive school for girls at St. Louis where she absorbed education in liberal dosages. It had been the habit of the Grable family to take extended vacations every summer far from home. It had been in Maine and in Florida, in Minnesota and in Canada. In 1929, they decided that Southern California might be well worth visiting. They came that summer and the dye, as far as Betty was concerned, was cast. Betty, it seemed, had a good deal to do with their decision to come to Los Angeles and Hollywood. As usual, she was planning. Her first film stint was a specialty number in Let's Go Places made in 1930. Betty Grable is a blue-eyed, golden-haired blonde of the peaches and cream variety. She weighs 112 pounds when she isn't working and when she is, between 112 and 117. The harder she works, the more weight she gains. At one time, while rehearsing day and night, her weight jumped to 122. She never diets and prefers steaks on her menu, although she'll eat anything and everything. She's one of the most adept dancers in Hollywood and one of the best horsewomen. She also bowls very well and plays a good game of tennis. At one time, she took up ice skating in a serious way and kept at it for a year. And now, your local announcer. Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. When a prominent producer and a well-known director will go out of their way to seek new talent for the leading roles in an important production, instead of using big-name stars with established box office drawing power, they must have something very special in mind. Yes, and I understand that's what Frank Ross, the producer and director Mervyn Leroy are doing in the matter of casting their forthcoming Technicolor production, The Roe. Exactly. And they have gone about it in a big way, too. And in a manner befitting a production such as the one this promises to be. Judging from a look at the very attractive packet, which came to my attention recently. A packet? Just what do you mean? Well, a brochure, a booklet, a printed folder. I hardly know just what you'd call it. But it is very attractive and different indeed. It is not designed to sell anything, but rather to buy something. It is a bid for new talent and is addressed to artists' representatives. The brochure is made in the form of a large, filing envelope of excellent quality heavy paper and handsomely lithographed. Within and printed on separate cards of about six by nine inches in size is first a statement by producer Ross of the talent he is seeking. Unknown faces to portray the leading and minor roles in the picturization of Lloyd Douglas' widely read book The Role. And following this is a brief but enlightening description of each characterization to be portrayed. What their part will be and how each should look. This folder was apparently sent to all leading artist representatives or agents throughout the country. As it is also stated, that the screen tests will be held in Hollywood and New York. Well, that's going after what you want in a big way. But isn't that the way Hollywood usually does things? Whatever it is, it's in a big way. Colonel Robert L. Scott of the Flying Tigers is in the public eye again. His famous autobiography, God is My Copilot, has been dramatized for the screen by Warner Brothers and is soon to be released with Dennis Morgan in the title role. There is a possibility that Gladys Cooper, Metregold and Mayor Actress who is only a British star, may return to the stage. She is now talking play possibilities with a noted playwright, John Van Druten. Joan Loring featured in Warner Brothers' Three Strangers is by way of becoming a linguist. She is studying French and already speaks Russian and Spanish. Her great ambition is to be able to read fan letters from all over the world, including China. And now Gertrude, will you give us the personality close-up of that all-time favorite, Jack Haley? Fighting his way up from Vodaville turns in movie houses, small stage roles, small screen roles, featured roles in stage musicals and featured roles in stage productions that somehow did not seem to lead into prominence on the screen. His first big break came some five years ago when he practically stole stellar honors and wake up and live. Haley is a Boston Irishman. Off the screen, he isn't at all the frozen-faced gent he seems. That's his comedy style. In real life, he is very animated. He's a fast and aggressive talker. Before an audience, he can ad-lib with anyone. But if he has time, he prepares his own speeches, Vodaville skits for radio and USO use. He writes well, also contributes funny gags to the pictures in which he appears. He has an Irish temper, Irish generosity, and a tendency to forgive readily. He's superstitious, happy most of the time, but sometimes as melancholy as a dain. He will bore anyone to listen to the antidotes about his children. He adores his wife and brags about his home in Beverly Hills, which he remodeled into New England style, like the homes of rich glutes he used to envy in his native Boston, Massachusetts. And now, a word from our announcer. Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. Bidwell, what do you know about motion picture press agents? Now that, Nathan, is quite a question. I have a number of very good friends, both in the studio and on the road for the motion picture companies. There's a specialized and highly skilled profession. Today the press agent is a very important man to his company, since he is the only contact between his firm and the press and radio. He must combine the skills of a diplomat, the vision of a soothsayer, and the stamina of a plough horse, I guess. You're just about right there. And the present day press representative, our studio publicity man, is a far cry from the press agent on days when one man advanced the show. That is, went ahead of the stage play and wrote and placed all the publicity. They go ahead for many other important motion pictures today, but they are backed up with an almost inexhaustible supply of photographic art, advance in current newspaper stories, prepared advertisements, and numberless suggestions for publicity stunts prepared by the studio and home office publicity staffs. A photo of photographers, publicity writers, and so forth, numbering from two to three in the small companies to several hundred in the larger one. With all that backing up, why does the contact press representative of a motion picture company have to be so thoroughly trained or experienced? Well, to see the reams of photograph stories, the scores of still pictures and the many letters and telegrams he received from his superiors, one wouldn't think that he would need a thing, but very often he does. In his role, this material is prepared for national circulation and often has to be adapted to locals' situation. Besides, as I said before, the press agent is the front man for the industry and of his company in particular, and an inexperienced or shabby mannered press representative would be like a merchant displaying his wares through a soiled plate glass window. Greer Garson definitely set to romance with Clark Gable in this strange adventure, and if you're wondering what's going to happen to Walter Pigeon while Greer makes with Gable, he's going to star in The Silver King, a Dury Lane melodrama for Metro. Someone asked Robert Young, MGM star and father of three young daughters if he kept a scrapbook of stills from his pictures, news about himself and so forth. What, he replied? And have my young daughters a few years from now using it to paste in over my stuff, pictures of some new Frank Sinatra? And now for today's personality close-up. We have lovely Theresa Wright. She early dreamed of becoming an actress. Usually daughters with theatrical ambitions meet with parental disapproval. But with Theresa it was different. Fortunately her family sympathized with her hopes and financed two summers of professional tuition at Provincetown. This led to her understudying the leading feminine role in our town on Broadway and then to playing that role in a road company that toured New England. Next she joined another summer group in New Hampshire and got some needed training. She returned to New York that fall to snatch the acting plumb of the year. The role of the young girl in Life with Father. From her triumph success in this part she received many film offers but turned them all down because she didn't want to spend a year doing nothing but posing for bathing art in Hollywood. However she capitulated when Samuel Goldwyn tendered her the part of Betty Davis' daughter in The Little Foxes. And although she went back to the Life with Father cast as soon as the picture was completed she has since completed many successful motion picture roles in Hollywood. Five feet two inches tall and weighing 110 pounds Theresa Wright has wavy brown hair and greenish blue eyes. Looks like the typical American girl healthy and full of fun doesn't care for nightclubs a great admirer of Miss Davis and Helen Hayes and now a word from your station announcer.