Hollywood News

                                             by Gene Handsaker

HOLLYWOOD - Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray have embarked upon new dramatice perils together - the first radio series for either of them. Irene led me hold her hand a minute to see how nervous transcribing just one half-hour adventure had made her. The hand was icy.

 Fred's nervousness shows up more in fluffs. He stumbled repeatedly over the line, "just that right spot behind the ear." (He's telling in the script, how he has just slugged a lion into unconsciousness.)

 "Don't know how I ever got to be an actor," Fred confided later, speaking of mike fright. As for ad-libbing in front of strange audiences: "I still can't get up in front of anybody."

 Irene and Fred will profit well from her cold hands and his verbal stumbling. And industry source says each should gross $300.000 from their "Bright Star" comedy series. She plays a newspaper editor, and MacMurray is her star reporter.

 We went to lunch after this recording session, and talked shop - their shop. MacMurray said he had risen at 4 a.m. on his ranch, driven to San Fransisco and taken an airliner here. They'd knock-off another half-hour program that afternoon and another two the next day. They plan to record four programs a week on their initial commitment of 52. There'd be a month's interruption while Miss Dunne went to Italy for the Venice Film Festival.

 The program is the type known in the trade as open-end, meaning there's room at the start and finish for local commercial announcements. This leads to numerous taboos.

 "We can't have a line like 'Will you have a cup of coffee?'" Fred said. "There might be a tea sponsor in some town. For the same reason we can't say 'Have a cup of tea?' - it might be a coffee sponsor - or mention any brand of automobile."

 Dunne and MacMurray have made two movies together, "Never A Dull Moment" and "Invitation To Happiness". For some reason, they agreed, there's an impression around that they have co-starred more often.

 As we shook hands in saying goodbye, Miss Dunne's were still chilly. They probably wouldn't have been when she was younger. Youth is more sure of itself, she remarked, as maturity.

(The Progress, Clearfield, PA. Monday, September 17. 1951)

The dates for the premiere of "Bright Star" vary a lot depending on the source for the log. The aforementioned $300.000 were part of a ten year contract, but Irene and Fred MacMurray opted out of their contracts after 52 recorded programs.