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By ROBBIN COONS LFCLEPWOORe- the command ing officer of an Army post up north was presented to the visiting players from Hollywood, just before the show. He came to a slim, blonde girl with smiling blue eyes and a retrousse nose, and he said: “Oh, I know you, Grace McDonald. You've been here before.” The line could be spoken with truth by any number of com manding officers, near and far from here. Grace McDonald of the twinkling feet and roguish smile does get around—her camp appearances numbered 65 before she lost count—and I wouldn't be surprised if she'd been seen by more service men in this country than any other girl in town. “It’s the ham in me,” she laughs, “I just love to perform.” HE does. Right now she’s per forming in the biggest role of her career, in the multi-starred story of a JU.S.O. overseas tour, “Three Cheers for the Boys.” The picture rings in the talents of a glittery crew — Orson Welles, Dietrich, Jeanette MacDonald, Sophie Tucker, Dinah Shore, to name a few—besides the acting cast of Grace, George Raft, Vera Zorina, Charles Grapewin. Grace has been “loving to per form” since she was a little girl of eight, back in Boston. She studied ballet, drama, voice—so hard she had to spend nearly two years in bed, part of the time fearful she might never walk again. _ Her brother Ray, a year her junior, used to practice tap rou tines in her bedroom, “and that,” says Grace who is now auburn haired, “did it. I would try, slow ly at first, to imitate him, and little by little I made it.” It was 15, and Ray 14, when they teamed up in vaudeville as a song and dance act. Their father was a movie trade paper man, their strongest booster and heartiest critic. Grace came to Hollywood from a dancing role in Broadway's “Babes in Arms.” Ray had pre ceded her, was making good headway at M-G-M when the Air Forces called him. Grace's first picture, “Dancing on a Dime,” was her last for a while. She likes to forget it. She hurried back to Broadway and more shows, and this time when she came to Hollywood she took care to learn something about camera technique. She clicked. But what she really wants to do, after the war, is to team up with brother Ray in a dance act again.
Newspaper Details
Warren Times Mirror
Warren, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Dec 02, 1943
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Jeff D.
