 Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood. Many times I have wondered, and no doubt you have also, just why some actors and actresses get ahead faster in pictures than others do. Why it is that if perhaps two persons who show great promise, one rises to the height while another falls to comparative obscurity. What do you think about this, Nathan? Well, many things enter into the making of a successful career in motion pictures. Sometimes it's an intangible something in his or her personality that makes a star click. More often it's sheer ability, hard work and a willingness to learn and to keep on learning, and of course appearance plays no small part in making a star material. Yes, I was particularly impressed with the combination of these things not long ago when I was on the set of Archeo's forthcoming production, The Spanish Main. That's being filmed entirely in Technicolor, isn't it? And she'd make a grand vehicle for lovely Maureen O'Hara. I agree with you there, Nathan, for I had an opportunity to study this young lady's beauty and charms never before as I was standing on the high platform directly back of the huge Technicolor camera as they were shooting a close-up of her in The Spanish Main. She stood there at the rail of the great sailing vessel, patiently rehearsing and re-enacting a scene. Her beauty silhouetted against the cloudless sky of studio painted blue that would defy detection from nature's own. Her hair gently tossed in the breeze and her large vivid blue eyes sparkling with a rare charm the Technicolor camera will record in all its natural beauty. Well, there was one answer. Rare combination of charm and beauty coupled with a willingness to accept hard work under the intense heat of the studio lights, the countless rehearsals and necessary retakes. I mentioned a moment ago that a gentle breeze tossed her hair. It is interesting to note how this breeze in just the right degree of pressure is brought on to the great sound stage, at just the right angle to toss a lock of hair in just the right direction, at just the right instant to give just the right effect. I understand that the old use of great bladed fans is taboo on the sound stages except for hurricanes and the like because they make too much noise and would interfere with the sound recording and that an ingenious method of bringing wind onto the stage has been devised. That's right. The air is brought onto the set under control pressure in huge canvas pipes from great fan houses outside the building and directed, not unlike fire hose, to buy crews especially assigned to the task and trained in their use to fill the sails of a great ship or to gently toss a curl. Yes, Bidwell, and your mention of fire hose brings to mind how scenes from a motion picture are being used as a fire warden in some 3,000 British factories to impress the workers with the perils of careless cigarette smoking. The British Ministry of Supply arranged through David Griffith, International Picture Representative in London, for a special trailer of Gary Cooper pointing out the danger of careless cigarette handling. They used actual scenes tied in from Casanova Brown in which he co-stars with Theresa Wright. A script was cabled to New York's International Office which transmitted its contents by wire to the Hollywood studio. Sequences were shot under personal direction of William Getz, President of International Pictures, and air expressed back to New York for a transshipment by way of special train to London. The British Ministry of Information will supply the special Gary Cooper trailer on Casanova Brown to some 3,000 factories throughout the United Kingdom. And notwithstanding the fact that Britain's already fire conscious from actual experience, it will be exhibited as an object lesson on fire hazards. And now a word from your local announcer. And here now are a few production briefs from behind the scenes in Hollywood, presented by Nathan Hale and Manna Ray Ewell. Dr. Paul Papineau, psychologist and director of the American Institute of Family Relations, has been retained by producer Samuel Goldwyn to give aptitude tests to beauties applying to become Goldwyn girls. Now the purpose of the test is to distinguish between genuine career girls, potential stars worthy of a Hollywood build-up, and those who may possibly be insincere. Dr. Papineau has devised a written and oral test of 150 questions. Their purpose is to expose a girl's mind in about the same proportions as a musical comedy costume does her figure. Successful candidates will go into the wonder man, as Goldwyn girls, out of whose ranks in past years, emerged Paulette Goddard, Virginia Mayo, Virginia Bruce, Jinx Falconberg, Betty Grable and others. Picking cinematic long shots who unerringly romped to stardom is no trick for director George Sidney. He knows they are literally best by test. In his half dozen years as a film director, Mr. Sidney has supervised more than a thousand screen tests. Those little publicized showcases which can win or lose a movie contract. By piloting able newcomers through the reefs of these tests, he has launched numberless Hollywood careers, of which Esther Williams is a recent example. Although she is yet to be seen on the screen, Audrey Young of the Broadway musical comedy stage has been borrowed by RKO from Paramount for one of the leading roles in George White's scandals of 1945. Miss Young recently completed her first screen role in Paramounts out of this world with Eddie Bracken, Veronica Lake and Diana Lin. Her singing and dancing talents will get full scope in scandals, which co-stars Joan Davis and Jack Haley. According to Dr. Jeffrey Grace, medical advisor to the Master Hair Dressers Association of Southern California, a head of perfect hair occurs only about once in three million humans. And screen star Virginia Mayo is the possessor of this unusual distinction. Drew Pearson, syndicate writer and radio commentator, will make his film debut in the picture Betrayal from the East. He appears in the prologue and does the narration. Lee Tracy and Nancy Kelly are co-starred in the picture, which is based on Alan Hine's novel. Thirty recordings of Latin American folk songs will be used as background music for The Magnificent Tramp, the working title for the Hollywood film to star Mexico's idol, Canteen Glass. It was brought back to the film capital by Constantine Bakalainikov, head of the studio's music department, who spent a month of research for this picture in Mexico City. William Powell, the only actor who has portrayed the late great Florence Ziegfeld on the screen, will again be seen in the role of the mighty showmen. This time, in Metra Golden Mayors star-studded technical or musical review, Ziegfeld follows. Powell played Ziegfeld in the Academy Award winner, The Great Ziegfeld, also made by MGM a few years back. In addition to Powell, the pictures lineup now includes Fred Astaire, Edward Arnold, Lucille Ball, Jimmy Durante, Judy Garland, Red Skelton, Esther Williams, and many others, including the glorified Ziegfeld girls. Metra Golden Mayor announced recently that Anne Southern, following her role in The Harvey Girls, will be back in her favorite characterization of the hard-boiled Brooklyn blonde in a new Maisie picture, Up Goes Maisie, to be produced by George Haight. Folks, would you like to have a postcard picture of a movie star's home? Well, just drop a card asking for it to Bidwell McCormick in care of this station, and now a word from your local announcer. We have a couple of personality close-ups of famous stars for today's broadcast of behind-the-scenes in Hollywood. If one had to describe Dick Powell in a single word, I think the best word to use would be friendly. He's genuinely friendly, not ostentatiously democratic. He never backslaps or deliberately courts the humbler members of a movie troupe, but he does show a definite interest in him, their work, and their problems. For 12 years, Hollywood cast him in juvenile singing roles, until he got so sick of them, he took himself off the screen for two years and devoted himself to business, and very successfully, too. He dreamed of getting good dramatic tough roles, something he could get his teeth into, and for which he's physically well equipped, having a fiercely sprouting beard which he has to shave twice a day, a nose which has been broken, and cheekbones thickened from much boxing and football. His part in RKO Radio's Murder, My Sweet, in which he's co-starred with Claire Trevour and Anne Shirley, is just what he's been looking for. He plays a very tough, though human private detective, and for the first time in his career, he wears no makeup. He has a good earthy sense of humor, but hates puns. He has a fund of good stories and is an accomplished raconteur, but he backs away from off-color stuff. He sings snatches of songs as he goes about his daily chores, but won't do any real singing unless it's demanded of him. He and John Charles Thomas are good friends and have jam sessions in which he teaches Thomas to swing it, and Thomas tries to initiate Dick into the mysteries of grand opera. The servant shortage hasn't dismayed him as much as some people. He's really a very versatile fellow, this Dick Powell. He can do anything there is to be done about the house. He's an expert furniture repair and polisher, and both he can make anything from a boat to a pair of shoes, including skinning the critter and tanning the leather. He repairs his own automobiles and won't let anyone else do any house repairs. Any friends who drop in during the weekend are put to work doing something useful, and a certain big executive could have been seen recently digging holes for rose bushes. He's religious in an unobtrusive sort of way, and credits his whole career to his start as a singer in Little Rock, Arkansas, church choirs. He's a big booster for his home state and also for California, and he has some praise left over for Louisville, Kentucky, where he started his professional singing career, and Pittsburgh, where fame is a radio singer and master of ceremonies caught up with him. That's the story of Dick Powell. And now, Manaree, you tell us about Claire Trevor. Well, Hollywood people, including some famous directors, have called Claire Trevor one of the truly great actresses on the screen today, and are given to wonder why she hasn't attained even greater fame. Claire's replies do the effect that she's lazy. However, her friends know better. When she's working at her job, she gives all she has, but it is true that she hasn't that fierce concentration on her career that marks some stars. Whenever her career is likely to interfere with her married life, with Lieutenant Silas Williams Dunmore, it's her career that has to take a back seat. She turned down one of her most important roles to go honeymooning. The trite way to publicize a screened tough guy is to paint him as a gentle soul who can't bear to swat a fly and to paint a screened bad girl as a sweet little homebody in real life. Claire is a stickler for facts, so at the risk of being thought trite, she admits that she's a good housekeeper, lives in a cottage, and enjoys looking after her home. Most of the bad girls she plays have hearts of gold, but in RKO Radio's Murder My Sweet, in which she is co-starred with Dick Powell and Dan Shirley, it's doubtful if she has any heart at all, and she hasn't any redeeming feature, but it's a colorful role, and there's never a dull moment in any of her scenes. Claire is fond of tennis, golf, and swimming. She reads everything from classical novels to paperback mysteries. She collects perfumes and dressed in china, and has a strong partiality for lobster nuburg and hot order. She will have nothing to do with spinach, puddings, or squash. She would like to be a good cook and tries hard, but she just hasn't got the knack for it. One of the joys of her life is a black cocker named Little Joel. Seeing her own pictures, even the best of them, depresses her. She sees so many spots where she thinks she could have done better. However, she's an avid moviegoer and closely studies the work of other stars. She's easy to get along with, and on first meeting, she manages to get a warmth and do a greeting, which convinces the recipient that she is genuinely delighted to meet him. Claire Trevor lives in Beverly Hills, where much of her time has taken up in bringing up six months old Charles Dunsmore. Listen in again next week when Bidwell McCormick takes you behind the scenes in Hollywood.