FILM WEEKLY ILLUSTRATOR

Just today a friend gave me a slightly battered copy of the magazine, FILM WEEKLY from August 31, 1934.

i was immediately struck by the cover picture of Greta Garbo in QUEEN CHRISTINA. It wasn’t a still from the film, but a beautiful drawing by a Canadian artist, GRANT MACDONALD (1909-1987).

In the magazine Mr. MacDonald is described as “just over from America where he has sketched many of the leading stars. He has drawn a splendid series of star portraits specially for a Film Weekly.”

Sadly, I have been unable to find any other star drawings by Grant MacDonald. His career included work in Canada, Britain and America. His theatrical portraits appeared in the Herald Tribune and Theatre Arts and many of his portraits of actors were used in theatre programs in London and New York.

Film Weekly began in 1928 and eventually merged with Picturegoer magazine in 1939.

Also spotted in this issue was this ad for FLYING DOWN TO RIO, indicating that Dolores Del Rio was the name above the title though the public were about to discover the talents of Astaire and Rogers. And was this the only time Ginger’s name appeared above Fred’s ?

Among the “News Snapshots” in the magazine was a little item:

After spending £5,000 on the story and treatment, MGM have been forced to give up the idea of filming THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE owing to ‘anti-dirt’ agitation “ !

(MGM finally made the film in 1946.}