- Anne Gwynne, Babes On Swing Street, 1943. “During my first week in Hollywood, I got to meet and have dinner with Greta Garbo!” All went downhill from there – from Perry Mason to Abbott and Costello. Following their Song of Idaho teaming, Vincent and Kirby Grant were to be twogether again but… “For reasons I cannot recall, I was taken out and Anne Gwynne put in. Anne even wore the gown Vera West designed for me.” Shame!
- Grace McDonald, Destiny, 1944. Originally called The Fugitive, it was to be the fourth sketch in French realisateur Julien Duvivier’s Hollywood debut, Flesh and Fantasy, 1943, but it was then re-jigged into semi-feature length by Austrian-born director Reginald Le Borg with Duvivier’s blind heroine changing from Martha O’Driscoll to Jane to ex-dancer McDonald.
- Brenda Joyce, Little Giant, 1945. The cliché comment is “not the usual Abbott & Costello farce.” Of course not. They were only talking to each other in font of the camera, Bud was not seen until 20 minutes into the piece, and Lou, usually busy nicking any props he fancied, was trying to nick Chaplin’s pathos. Joyce had better fortune in the other jungle – Tarzan’s. She was thrice Johnny Weismuller’s Jane – and once Lex Barker’s in her 27th and final film.
Birth year: 1920Death year: 2008Other name: Casting Calls: 3