The Times News

HOLLYWOOD FILM SHOP

HOLLYWOOD, (UP)—It was during that lull period when the set was being changed for another scene in "Everybody Was Very Nice" that the I-Knew-Him-When crowd started talking about Wayne Morris.

"I knew him," said an extra, "when he was a voice behind a beard at the Community Playhouse in Pasadena. He was always sneezing off his whiskers because they tickled his nose."

"When I was in the Citizens' Military Training Camp at Monterey," added Bill Kissel, property man, "Morris was a 'major.' I think he came out with a lieutenant's commission in the reserve. He was 17 or 18 then."

"I have a cousin in Phoenix, Ariz.," the little script clerk said, "and he wrote me that Wayne who was called 'Bert' then, was a Boy Scout in his troop some years ago. He says that Wayne never did learn to start a fire without matches in less than two hours."

"When I went to Hollywood high school," added Gordon Oliver, another young actor-graduate of that school, "Wayne was a freshman there. His grin used to unnerve his teachers."

"It unnerves me now," said the script clerk.

"I knew a couple who made a trip to Australia a few years ago when Wayne was waiting on tables on the boat," said Martha, the hairdresser. "They liked him, but he always was dropping knives and forks."

"Bill Bennett, a friend of mine," said the assistant cameraman, "was in the forestry service the summer that Wayne was stationed on a mountain top back of Mt. Wilson. He had one day off a month and he stayed there three months."

An electrician then joined the group and volunteered: "We picked apples together up near Watsonville a few summers ago. As an apple picker, Wayne was a good actor."

"He used to deliver ice to my house," said the wardrobe woman. "He always left tracks on the kitchen floor, but he always was so sorry that I couldn't report him."