Hollywood Personality Parade was a 15-minute radio program syndicated by Selznick Productions. It was hosted by Gayne Whitman. A show was produced for the Carole Lombard-Jimmy Stewart film, Made for Each Other. The film was released in the U.S. on February 10, 1939, so this program would have aired about that same time. No newspaper listings for the program have as yet been located.
Although we don’t own a copy of this program, we have had the opportunity to listen to it. The show begins with Whitman delivering this information about the film and its stars:
Jimmy Stewart is the first motion picture star to cooperate with the U.S. government’s new plan to train 20,000 civilian airplane pilots per year as an arm of our country’s national defense. Jimmy won his pilot’s license only a few months ago and is now practicing advanced flying so he can join the Reserve Air Corps. That patriotic stance should win many new friends for Stewart, who already is one of the screen’s most popular stars.
One of the most unusual occupations in Hollywood is that of the fog salesman, who actually sells fog to the studios for use in motion pictures. His name is W.S. Shilliam, who represents a large oil company, and he sells a special type of oil, which when shot out of a vaporizer under high pressure remains suspended in the air like actual fog. Fifty drums of such material were used in the David O. Selznick picture, Made for Each Other, starring Carole Lombard and James Stewart.
Speaking of Carole Lombard reminds me of a peculiar problem that arose on the set during the shooting of her latest picture. If you’d happened to be on the set at the time, you’d have seen Carole, Jimmy Stewart and director John Cromwell gathered in a huddle talking it over. “I’ll tell you,” said Cromwell, “You’ve got to fold them like this.” Carole and Jimmy watched him, then Carole moved in and said, “No, John, that’s all wrong. You’ve got to fold them pear-shaped, like this; wider at the top than at the bottom.” Jimmy scratched his head for a moment and then said in his drawing manner, “Well, I don’t pose as an expert on the subject, but I hear you fold them in triangles, let me try it once.” As you may have guessed, the wheels of motion picture production were being held up while two stars and a director argued about the correct way to fold a baby’s diaper. The baby, only 10 days old, appears in the Lombard picture and his costume, by the way, is pear-shaped. Carole Lombard has jumped the track and surprised everyone. Hollywood is buzzing with the question, why has she forsaken comedy, in which she scored so heavily, to go in for serious dramatics? Out of the guesses, the theories, the hypotheses, comes Carole’s own answer given to your reporter just an hour ago. She told us why she goes serious in the hit production, Made for Each Other. “It isn’t a question of being typed in comedy,” Carole told us, “for I don’t think one can be typed in anything so broad. But, I seriously believe the best pictures of the next two years will be those with human qualities that touch a responsive chord in us all.”
Whitman introduces the next segment with, “Our preview at this time is the David O. Selznick film, Made for Each Other, starring Carole Lombard and James Stewart. As a special treat, we have the stars with us to play for you scenes from the picture itself…”
Scene #1: Johnny Mason (Stewart) has just returned home from a class reunion. He feels he is not as successful as some of his classmates. He’s still struggling to make a future for himself as a lawyer. He has not achieved material success. His wife Jane (Lombard) tries to tell him how to get ahead in his job.
Scene #2: Johnny, dejected once again, returns home early in the morning. Jane tells him that she ran into his boss, Judge Doolittle (Charles Colburn), that day and that she knows that he didn’t get the promotion or the raise that he had hoped he would receive.
Scene #3: Jane has taken all the insults she can handle from her mother-in-law, Harriet Mason (Lucile Watson), and tells her so. Johnny tries to calm them both down.
Scene #4: Johnny is at his wits’ end and goes to plead with Judge Doolittle for the $5,000 he needs to have special medicine flown through stormy weather to save his infant son. We hear reports as the plane flies across the country and a doctor trying to calm Jane.
