Bob Cummings Used An English Accent To Achieve First Success On Stage

Some day an alert Hollywood producer is going to cash in the amazing life story of Robert Cummings, and make himself a pretty sensational motion picture. Cummings’ career, in and out of films, has been as hectic as any yet recorded in the annals of Hollywood.

Currently Bob can be seen in the Triangle film, “Sleep, My Love”, in which he is co-starred with Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche. Mary Pickford, Charles Buddy Rogers and Ralph Cohn produced it, with United Artists releasing. It is coming to the King’s Theatre.

Bob was born in Joplin, Missouri, the son of a doctor. Although aviation was his first love, he decided that the stage was the place where he wanted to earn his living. At the beginning he found making the Broadway grade tough sledding. At this period British actors were greatly in demand, so Bob went over to England where he took a bicycle trip through the countryside acquiring a clipped British accent as he went.

Upon his return to the States, Bob not only sported a broad “a” but a new name also- Blade Stanhope Conway. It didn ’t take long for this bogus English actor to get a part in Galsworthy’s play, “The Roof”. A succession of roles followed, climaxed by a part in the Ziegfield Follies.

The old yearning for new fields to conquer again cropped up, and when Bob heard that King Vidor was searching for a real Texan for “So Red the Rose”, Blade Stanhope Conway suddenly became Brice Hutchins, from deep in the heart of Texas. Before he knew what was happening, King Vidor had a new leading man. After a series of pictures with Paramount, the Brice Hutchins character exploded and Bob once more assumed his own identity.

When he played in “Three Smart Girls Grow Up”, starring Deanna Durbin, Cummings was launched on an entirely new career- that of a romantic hero. Universal signed him to a contract and he was cast in such hits as “The Devil and Miss Jones” “Saboteur” and “Forever and a Day.” Other outstanding films in which he has appeared are “King’s Row” “Princess O’Roukie” “The Chase” and “Heaven Only Knows.”

During the war Bob became a flyer, and towards the end he was a flight instructor. Ha was given a leave of absence from his duties as flight instructor so that he might accept the lead in a picture concerning flyers- “You Came Along”.

For the vital statistics record: Cummings is 6 feet, one inch tall, weighs 179 pounds, has blue eyes and brown hair. He is married to the former Mary Elliot, and they have a small son.

Buddy Rogers writes new song for “Sleep, My Love.

Buddy Robers and Rudy Schrager have collaborated in the writing of a new song, “Sleep, My Love” which has been used as the theme song of the picture of that title which Rogers produced in collaboration with his wife, Mary Pickford, and Ralph Cohn.

“Sleep, My Love” co-stars Claudette Colbert, Robert Cummings and Don Ameche. It is coming to the King's Theatre through United Artists release.

Stand-in gets chance to act with Claudette Colbert meets herself coming and going in her latest film, “Sleep My Love,” which is coming to the King’s Theatre through United Artists release. Miss Colbert’s stand-in, Carol Deane, plays one scene with the star, the first screen role she playyed in their seven years' association. They play together in an airliner sequence, with Claudette as the passenger and Carol as the passenger and Carol as an air hostess who engages her in conversation.