April 19, 1932

LINA BASQUETTE ESCAPES DEATH IN FILM SCENE

Hollywood, April 19 (UP)
Thrown from a horse during the filming of a western motion picture scene, Lina Basquette, noted film actress and dancer, was dragged 100 feet and injured badly late today.

She was riding fast down a steep incline in Hollywood hills when a sudden lurch of the horse threw her from the saddle. Her foot caught in a stirrup and she was dragged through bushes and over rocks before other members of the company could stop the horse.

Miss Basquette was playing opposite Buck Jones in a picture involving a wild chase. She was taken to her home. Physicians said she will be confined to her bed for a day or two.




CHANCELLOR, ACTRESS, NOT TO WED, CLAIM

Santa Barbara, Cal., April 18 (UP)
Rumors that Pola Negri, film star, is engaged to Phillip M. Chancellor, a young multi-millionaire, were definitely quashed today by the youth’s father, Dr. Phillip Chancellor.

“Phillip is over in Berlin at present,” the doctor said, “doing some archeological work. I doubt if he ever met Miss Negri. Besides, Phillip is only 24, and when he marries I am confident he will select somebody nearer his own age.




HELEN TWELVETREES IS EXPECTING STORK

Hollywood, April 19 (AP)

Helen Twelvetrees, motion picture actress, is expecting the birth of a baby in October, she has announced. She is the wife of Frank Woody, real estate man.




DENIES MISS GARBO LOST MUCH

Budapest, April 18
Rumors that Greta Garbo, motion picture actress, had lost heavily in the Kreuger collapse were disposed of by an interview with Hjalman Sodblud, general auditor of the Kreuger concern, published in the newspaper Magyarorszag today.

Mr. Sodblud asserted that as soon [illegible] …ferred to Miss Garbo as his one true friend in America. Kreuger was her business adviser, he said but despite this she only owned a small number of Kreuger shares.




DOROTHY LEE, FILM STAR, GOES TO N.Y.

Hollywood, April 19 (INS)
Dorothy Lee, screen star, was on the high seas today bound for New York and romance. Before she sailed Miss Lee did not deny she would marry Fred Waring, New York musical director.

Her friends said she would marry Waring as soon as her divorce from James Fidler, Hollywood publicist, becomes final in July.




WIFE WINS DIVORCE FROM POOR LOSER

Los Angeles, April 19 (AP)
A divorce from Gunther R. Lessing, who recently sued Dolores Del Rio, film actress, and won a judgment from her for salary due as her attorney, was granted today to Mrs. Lolla Lessing, who accused Lessing of being a poor loser at bridge.

She testified Lessing threw a glass of ice cold water in her face while they were entertaining some bridge guests and on another occasion seized her by the ear and led her through a room filled with guests playing cards.

“He was angry just because he was losing,” Mrs. Lessing testified. A property settlement was affected out of court.

Miss Del Rio has appealed the judgment granted Lessing.




THELMA TODD SIGNS WITH FOY STUDIO

Paramount Actress Will Be In “And God Smiled”

By Chester B. Bahn

Last minute Rialto news –

Thelma Todd, seen in “This Is the Night,” has been signed by Brian Foy productions for the femme lead in “And God Smiled.”




His contract renewed by Universal, Slim Summerville is expected to play his old “All Quiet” role of Tjaden in “The Road Back.”




Warners have a new addition to the legal cycle in “Lawyer Man,” which will serve either William Powell or Edward G. Robinson.




Hollywood gossips that a Jack Dempsey-Estelle Taylor reconciliation is possible.


Alexander Kirkland will be opposite Elissa Landi in “Burnt Offering.”

“After All” has been rechristened “New Morals for Old” and the Jackie Cooper-Chic Sale “Limpy,” is now “When a Feller Needs a Friend.”

I hear that –

Clara Bow is ready to return to the sound-screen, but insists upon a story that will not portray her as a bad girl.




Richard Barthelmess docked in New York from abroad yesterday. Anna Sten, Samuel Goldwyn’s newest “find” was also an arrival.


Jack Oakie, rather than Lee Tracy, replaces James Cagney in “Blessed Event.”




While retaining the title, “You Said a Mouthful,” Joe E. Brown’s next vehicle will undergo radical changes in plot; the six-day bicycle race background will go by the boards.




George Bancroft has started work on his new picture, “The Challenger,” in which Wynne Gibson and Randolph Scott will have supporting roles.




Leslie Howard is going to have another fling at the movies and then return to New York to appear in “Romeo and Juliet,” possibly with Celia Johnson opposite him. At the moment he is playing “The Animal Kingdom” in New York.




From Luella O. Parsons:

2 HEMINWAY NOVELS NOW FILMS

While Paramount executives have been making up their several minds all these weary days and months to produce “A Farewell to Arms,” Ernest Hemingway’s play and novel, Radio has been considering “The Sun Also Rises.” Unless the latter Hemingway novel can be put on the screen so that it is acceptable to the Hays office and at the same time without ruining the text of the story, “The Sun Also Rises” will not be purchased. If the writer, now at work on the treatment, turns out a satisfactory script, David Selznick will buy it for Constance Bennett. The character of the girl to be played by Connie is particularly colorful and interesting.




Clara Bow is returning to the screen. The girl of the flaming locks, who has refused to even make a test for “The Red-Headed Woman, and who has turned down offers by the dozen, will come back from Rex Bell’s ranch in Nevada to make a picture for the Fox company. Clara said she wouldn’t play in “The Red-Headed Woman” because she didn’t want to play the part of a girl who isn’t good. But she will make a picture for Fox if she can play a girl who is not the type that seeks the easiest way.

Sam Rork has made the arrangements. I wasn’t able to get anything more than an admission from the Fox company that Clara would make a picture there. No plans have yet been made for her first story, but I think it’s a great piece of news because only a week ago she told me that she was through with the movies and was going to write poetry.




The biggest sensation that has hit Hollywood in months is Colleen Moore. The little comedienne, with the long bangs and rather indifferent grooming, has come out of her cocoon and developed into a radiant butterfly. More than a mere physical change is Colleen’s breathtaking performance in “The Church Mouse.” She is so finished, so perfect in her annunciation, and she has such grace, that those in the film industry hastened to prophecy a new and brilliant screen career. Irving Thalberg was so delighted with Colleen that he made an engagement for her to come to the studio to talk pictures. The chances are she will do a picture for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but she must go on with her stage work for she has a future that promises more than any other stage star.




Where they are playing and why:

Warner Oland, expert portrayer of orientals, is at Fox in “Burnt Offering,” emoting opposite Elissa Landi.

Don Alvarado, who can win a cup in a tango contest any day, will play a gigolo in “Fancy Free,” also on the Fox lot.

Reporting on the United Artists lot this week and last Lucy Beaumont, DeWitt Jennings, Harold Goodwin and Mary Doran. Mary will be seen as the vamp in Harold Lloyd’s picture “Movie Crazy,” and Miss Beaumont as his ma, with DeWitt Jennings playing the part of the father.

Maitland Rice, with much theatrical experience back of him, rates the job of music department boss at the Fox company. He has been with Fox for some years and his promotion is a deserved one. Ben Jackson, former head of the music department, has been made assistant general superintendent, and his promotion is also well deserved.




There is a red wig ready and waiting for Jean Harlow at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. That means that in all probability the lady with the platinum locks will play the lead after all in “The Red-Headed Woman.” Jean and her mama return from the East Tuesday and whether there is an eleventh hour switch or not Miss Harlow will sign an M-G-M contract. I doubt if Irving Thalberg would put the platinum girl in this role if he had anyone with red hair available for the part. After searching for months there is still no red-head of the right type in the offing. I still hope something can be done to soothe the ruffled feelings of the dear public who want realism.




Snapshots of Hollywood:
Jack Dempsey, escorted by Ginger Rogers and Mervyn Le Roy, at the opening of the Colleen Moore play. A few seats back, Estelle Taylor with Ernst Lubitsch. Al Scott, Colleen’s new husband, sat in a front seat and was an interested onlooker at the royal reception given his bride. Everyone at the premier, Norma Shearer, Irving Thalberg, Bebe Daniels, Ben Lyon, William Haines with Alice Grazier. Mrs. B. P. Schulberg was hostess at a buffet supper for Colleen. The Harold Grieves (Jetta Goudal) also entertained for her. Colleen divided her time between both places. Zeppo Marx and his pretty wife, Marion, at the Grieve party. Raoul Walsh and the missus seated next to the guest of honor.

April 18, 1932

OLIVE BORDEN QUITS HUSBAND

New York, April 18 (AP)
Olive Borden, returning to the stage in a vaudeville act tonight, indicated today that her action marks a friendly separation between her husband, Theodore Stewart, and herself.

“Ted wanted me to quit the stage, but I simply can not do it,” the actress said. “I have been in the profession quite a while, and I love it. We could not agree on the subject, so we decided the only thing to do was to separate.”

Stewart, an investment broker, is on the Pacific Coast.




HOOT GIBSON CALLED ON ALIMONY CHARGE

Los Angeles, April 18
A summons to appear in court and explain why he is alleged to be $1,250 behind in his alimony payments to Mrs. Helen Gibson, was served today on Hoot Gibson, film cowboy. Mrs. Gibson said she is destitute and has not received the $230 monthly alimony awarded her when she divorced Gibson.




NOONAN IN COURT

Los Angeles, April 18 (AP)
Jack Noonan, brother of Sally O’Neill and Molly O’Day, film actresses, was arraigned in municipal court today on a charge of escaping from a county road camp last November.




BEERY AND GABLE FOR SLAV TALE

Five Year Plan Serves as Inspiration for New Talkie

By Chester B. Bahn

Last minute Rialto news –

Wally Beery and Clark Gable are going Russian; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will co-star them in an untitled Russian picture stating in a fortnight, with George Hill at the megaphone. The story, it is said, was suggested by the Five-Year Plan of the Soviets.




Lee Tracy will replace James Cagney in “Blessed Event,” if the latter persists in his “strike” for another salary increase.




The Claudette Colbert-Clive Brook talkie thus far known as “Bride of the Enemy,” becomes “The Woman of Flame.”




“Shanghai Express,” Marlene Dietrich’s starring vehicle, was largely filmed on locations at San Bernardino and Chatsworth, California. Few pictures have used as many or more varied types as extras, more than a thousand persons having been used in some of the scenes. More than 15,000 people watched the action on some of the days work was in progress.




Knocked out by Tom Moore in a fight scene for “Society Girl,” James Dunn is in the hospital for repairs.




Some of the lighter moments in “Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” Ruth Chatterton’s starring picture, are provided by Harold Minjir, former New York stage actor, who was seen in “The Beloved Bachelor” and “Monkey Business.” He plays the part of Paul Lukas’ secretary in this picture.


No gangster subjects treated seriously will be included in the Fox program for 1932-33.




Long rehearsals, usually necessary before a talking picture goes into production, was dispensed with entirely in the case of “Tonight or Never.” This was possible because most of the members of the cast, with the exception of the star, Gloria Swanson, had already played their roles in the New York stage production.




From Luella O. Parsons:

You will see David Selznick making pictures this year in his own way. “Symphony of Six Million” and “States Attorney” rated him that privilege from the bosses in New York and now David was put at the head of Radio; young, full of ideas, but for the first time completely on his own. Had he made two flops instead of two successes perhaps he would not have been permitted all this lee-way.

But – he has thus far proceeded carefully, buying stories for the most part from recognized authors. Crossroads, Martin Flavin’s novel and play of flaming youth, is his latest buy.



Pretty little Arlene Judge and Eric Linden, associated in other Radio pictures, will be co-featured. Don’t put the name Crossroads down in your book. The title will be changed to “Fraternity House.”




“Blessed Event” won’t be held up five minutes by Warner Brothers for James Cagney. He has had his big chance to take it or leave it and, having decided to stay in New York and pout, Jack Oakie has been borrowed from Paramount to take his place. What a chance for Oakie, who will be featured, to benefit from all the publicity given the play.

Production starts Thursday with Mary Brian in the chief femme role.

Lee Tracy, who was under consideration for the Cagney role, is needed in another Warner opus.

It’s a promising year for little Mary Brian, who returns from a successful vaudeville tour with a grand array of movie jobs waiting for her.




Possibly if Astrid Allwyn hadn’t arrived on the wave of the Garbo popularity she would have been more in the foreground than she is today. She arrived in Hollywood three years ago, just when the Garbo vogue was at its height, and she has remained, playing small parts in many pictures.

No Swedish actress, curiously enough, has benefitted from Garbo’s success. Although Swedish by ancestry, Miss Allwyn was not born in Sweden. She is an American, having first seen the light of day in Springfield, Massachusetts.

I. E. Chadwick, independent producer, believes that he can now build her into a star without mentioning the Garbo angle. He has bought Charles A. Logue’s story, “Smart Sister,” which will go into production with Richard Boleslavsky directing. In case it means anything to you, “Smart Sister” will be made at the Monogram studios and it will be presented by Trem Carr.




Chatter in Hollywood:

Helen Twelvetrees will shortly test the oft tried experiment of whether motherhood helps or hinders a young actress’s career. The long-legged bird, we hear, is flapping his wings over the Jack Woody’s home. That means that little Twelvetrees will retire until the birth of her baby. In most cases motherhood has only interrupted temporarily a screen star’s career.




Garbo has confided to one of her friends she is not leaving pictures through any dissatisfaction with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios. She wants to travel and play. She was never outside of Sweden for more than a few days when she was in Europe, and she longs to visit Paris. She believes she can live there without being stared at and treated as a curiosity.




Note of Optimism:

Mary Pickford writing that she had to stand in line at the Paramount Theater in New York. Jack Warner, looking as if his European trip agreed with him, is home again. Also Mrs. Jack and Margaret Ettinger.




Marion Burns, widely touted beauty, reaches Hollywood this week.




TARZAN APE-MAN HAS JUVENILES DRAMA APPEAL

Fantastic Film Has Logical, If Fabulous Story, With Very Capable Acting Cast

By Wood Soanes
The movies have neglected the children so long in their output that it was as startling as it was deafening to have the air rent at the Fox theater with Juvenile huzzahs as the herd of elephants started to aid the heroic ape-man, Tarzan, at the Saturday premier.

Time was when the” chase sequence” in every melodramatic picture was a signal for juvenile uproar, whether it was the good old leathernecks landing, the cavalry mounting their steeds, the tanks going into action, the pardon getting under way, or the hero breaking his chains and starting a footrace.

Parlor drama has rather edged this old formula off the platform, however, except in rare instances and “Tarzan the Ape Man” is an outstanding example. It has not one chase episode but a dozen and it abounds in thrilling sequences, contains a sufficient modicum of human nature, a dash of romance and an occasional comedy chapter.

W. S. Van Dyke has really accomplished an excellent job in translating these Edgar Rice Burroughs stories into a workmanlike film. It is fantastic, of course, and it was made for the most part on the lots in Hollywood, but it rarely gets out of focus and remains as logical a fable as the author intended it to be.

“Tarzan the Ape Man,” as prepared for the screen, is the story of an ivory hunting adventure participated in by an old hunter, his young partner and his attractive young daughter, who imposes herself on the party. In the jungle they cross paths with a white man who has been reared by the apes but who is civilized enough to be a gentleman if necessary.

Tarzan is attracted by the girl’s beauty and annoyed by the bullets of her male escort, so in an opportune moment, he seizes her and carries her off to the tree tops. After several days of this life, she develops an affection for her captor and he begins to comprehend enough to be willing to return her to her people.

And then after a fond and affectionate farewell, the white hunters find that they need Tarzan much more than he needs them. They are captured by a vicious tribe of pygmies and face certain death when Tarzan, aided by a monkey who has most of the comedy in the picture, calls upon his faithful elephant herd to get busy in a big way.

There are times when “Tarzan” threatens to go in a little too heavily for the new horror school of melodrama, but in the main it is an exciting melodrama with a synthetic jungle atmosphere that appears authentic, a variety of dramatic scenes and a well-sustained story. The acting cast is limited in size and well chosen.

Johnny Weismuller, the swimmer, makes his movie bow as Tarzan and both looks and acts the part of the handsome wild man, also doing a bit of swimming in addition to his tree top acrobatics; Maureen O’Sullivan is attractive bait for the taming of the man-simian; and C. Aubrey Smith and Neil Hamilton comfort themselves competently as the explorers.

The short subjects are varied, including a travelogue, a comedy and the usual cartoon, as well as the news reel.

FLASHES FROM STUDIOS

April 17, 1932

Two pictures with out-of-the-way locations, one Greenland and the other the Malay Peninsula, will be made this year by Universal. The first of these, to be called tentatively “Iceberg,” calls for a special expedition, to be headed by Dr. Arnold Franck, explorer and motion picture director. Carl Laemmle is arranging for the fitting out of an Arctic vessel in a Copenhagen shipyard, and he has announced that the expedition has secured the approval and scientific backing of the Danish government. Dr. Franck is at present in Hollywood, where he consulted with Mr. Laemmle and with Paul Kohner, who will act as associate producer. It is anticipated that the expedition will be fully equipped by May 20. The personnel will consist of Universal players, technicians and photographers, mountain climbers, aviators and guides. The expedition will land at Godthaab and work inland.

The other picture, “Pagan River,” will be adapted from a novel by Wong Wellesley.




Four Ducks, “actors” in Harold Lloyd’s new comedy, “Movie Crazy,” have been insured for the duration of the production for a total of $10,000. Other ducks, which had been trained for their “roles” were stolen, and protective measures were deemed necessary.




Among those in the cast of “The Old Dark House,” to be produced by Universal, is John Dudgeon, 102 year old English actor.




Fox Films announces a new leading part for Adolphe Menjou in “Fancy Free,” a screen adaptation from a play by James Forbes. Joan Marsh will have a featured part.




“Tiger Shark” is a production which Howard Hawks is to direct for First National. Shortly after completing “The Crowd Roars” for Warner Brothers, Mr. Hawks sailed for Honolulu, where he prepared the script for the picture. It will deal with fishermen along the Californian and Mexican coasts.




Three English stage and screen players will appear with Ann Harding in RKO-Pathe’s “Westward Passage.” They are Juliette Compton, Lucy Dorane and Laurence Olivier.




Miriam Hopkins, who has been hard at work since her first film success a year ago with Maurice Chevalier and Claudette Colbert in “The Smiling Lieutenant,” is on a two months’ leave of absence. She is going to England. Miss Hopkins acts the leading feminine part in “The World and the Flesh.”




Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse animated cartoons, will move his bizarre animals from Columbia lots to those of United Artists some time in the middle of July.




Among the cast in “Love Me Tonight,” Maurice Chevalier’s next picture, will be Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles, Charles E. Butterworth, Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Blanche Friderici, Elizabeth Patterson and Ethel Griffies.




Wallace Ford, Myrna Loy and Kane Richmond have been signed to new contracts, and Willard Keefe and Milton Raison have been added to the roster of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City.




Zasu Pitts, Robert McQuade and Gloria Stuart have been assigned roles in Fannie Hurst’s “Back Street.” The featured parts in this Universal picture are taken by Irene Dunne and John Boles.


Ten thousand prints of feature-length motion pictures are produced annually at Paramount’s Hollywood Studio laboratory, according to a report by H. N. Ensign, head of the laboratory. An average of two hundred prints is made on the first order for all of the productions of the Paramount studios, making a total of approximately 10,400 release prints.

HOLLYWOOD PRESSES PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN FOR PRINCELY FILM SALARIES

Stars, Studio Press Agents, Coast Writers, All Join in Defense

By Chester B. Bahn
April 17, 1932

It may be that I am unduly suspicious, but it seems to me that Hollywood at this writing is industriously engaged in an organized, or if not that, then an unorganized movement to uphold the sizeable stipends which a free-spending Fourth Industry pays its studio aristocracy.

When Conrad Nagel, filmland’s charming ambassador to American fandom, assures that “headline salaries” actually reward but 23 out of 25,000 screen players; when studio press departments release stories purporting to show where the movie dollar goes; when Coast chatter writers are induced to dwell upon the fact that many film stars are broke despite their “telephone number” paychecks; when publicity men insist that still more cinema luminaries have exchanged those onyx sunken baths for cottage plumbing, what else can one think?

Cinemactors and cinemactresses, of course, are well within their rights when they strive to maintain salary levels, and inasmuch as producers have tacitly admitted that “names” are the most potent box office quantity, there would seem to be some justice in their contention that the economic pruning knife pass them by.

My quarrel, if any, is not with the movement, but with its propaganda, whether the latter professes to be factual or argumentative. For instance, Mr. Nagel’s emphasis upon the comparatively few players who are paid “headline salaries.” Hollywood’s envoy was exceedingly careful not to interpret the phrase in terms of dollars and cents; that was something he left for his auditors. But he did manage to convey the thought that the incomes of even the highest paid players were paltry indeed when compared with those enjoyed by leaders in commerce, industry and finance.

What, then, actually constitutes a “headline salary?” One thousand, two thousand, or five thousand dollars a week? Certainly it must be more than two thousand, for it would not be very difficult to list 23 whose weekly earning reach that figure; and if five thousand should be Mr. Nagel’s measuring rod, what about those stars who receive $10,000, more or less? Are their paychecks to be listed as “super-headline salaries?”

It all depends, of course, on the point of view.



To the non-professional whose total depression salary for the year 1932 will be less than one-half the sum Greta Garbo earns in six working days, even one thousand a week must appear a “super-headline salary.” And yet it was to them, if you please, that Mr. Nagel’s remarks were addressed on tour. Naturally their interpretation was one thing; Mr. Nagel’s, if given, would be another. Perhaps now you can understand some of the fan reaction which has seemed so curious.

I fear that Conrad did the Hollywood salary cause more harm than good by his references to the limited number of “headline paychecks” without defining his standard. To the “90 per cent” accustomed to regarding $52,000 a year as fabulous, the assertion that only 23 film players are richly rewarded had the ring of a lead half dollar.



Returning for a paragraph or two to the subject of “headline salaries,” I should say that these reputed paychecks would so qualify:

Marion Davies, $12,500; John Gilbert, $10,000; Maurice Chevalier, $10,000; George Arliss, $10,000; Four Marx Brothers, $10,000; Richard Barthelmess, $9,000; Norma Shearer, $9,000; Ruth Chatterton, $9,000; Constance Bennett, $9,000; Eddie Cantor, $8,800; Barbara Stanwyck, $8,500; Jackie Cooper, $7,500; Ann Harding, $7,000; Greta Garbo, $7,000; Joe E. Brown, $6,250; Edward G. Robinson, $5,500; Olsen and Johnson, $5,000; Pola Negri, $5,000; Lilyan Tashman, $5,000; Wallace Beery, $5,000; Ramon Novarro, $5,000; Tom Mix, $5,000; George Bancroft, $5,000; Richard Dix, $5,000; Lowell Sherman, $5,000; Ronald Colman, $5,000; Buster Keaton, $5,000; Gloria Swanson, $5,000; Billie Dove, $4,500; Dorothy Mackaill, $4,000; Ken Murray, $4,000; Warner Baxter, $3,500; Esther Ralston, $3,500; Chic Sale, $3,500; Estelle Taylor, $3,000; El Brendel, $2,500; Mitzi Green, $2,500; Alice White, $2,500.



Include $2,000 salaries in the summary and you have these additional names:

Benny Rubin, Mary Astor, Lois Moran, Edward Everett Horton, Gary Cooper, Nancy Carroll, Bert Wheeler, Janet Gaynor, Clark Gable, Edmund Lowe, Lupe Velez, Clive Brook, Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Robert Montgomery, Richard Arlen and Spencer Tracy.



I accept no personal responsibility for the authenticity of these figures; they come from various respectable sources, including Variety, the Detroit Free Press and others. Re-reading the lists I notice the absence of such names as Will Rogers and Tallulah Bankhead; the former is paid $30,000 a week for 15 weeks by Fox; Miss Bankhead, I understand, receives $125,000 a picture.



And surely the stipends received by Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Marie Dressler, Lawrence Tibbett, Lionel and John Barrymore, William Powell, William Haines, Polly Moran and innumerable others whose names may suggest themselves to you are not exactly “chicken feed.”

If fairness it should be said that the salaries in specific instances may represent the sums paid for stage appearances between pictures; I very much doubt, for instance, if Jackie Cooper receives $7,500 each week from M-G-M.



I suppose that this statement will brand me an iconoclast, but I am of the opinion that Hollywood has been too apologetic all along when paychecks, real or fancied, are under discussion. I do not say that the year’s gross artistic labors of John Gilbert are worth a sum five times that annually paid the president of these United States for guiding the ship of State – that’s something else again – but I believe that Mr. Gilbert’s service at $10,000 a week netted a neat profit to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at the time the contract was negotiated. That the talkies were to come along and wreck the studio’s investment does not enter into the case at all.

Instead of beating about the bush, hemming and hawing, and then finally stammering out lame excuses, Hollywood, when the subject of salaries is brought up, should speak right out. Player’s contracts reflect the box-office drawing power. If $10,000 is paid a particular actor or actress, it is because that money will be returned, with interest, by fandom. In the last analysis, salaries are dictated, not by studios, but by moviegoers. The princely paychecks [illegible line] … business standpoint, they are unassailable.

Critics of filmdom, it seems to me, would be on firmer ground were they to concentrate their fire upon studio wastage; certainly there is a fertile field for criticism when studios confess that expenditures of $200,000 and $300,000 have been necessary to salvage a given production.

It would seem, of course, that even the cinemactor forced to be content with $1000 a week could save a pretty penny for the approaching rainy day, but that is not so, if you will accept the propaganda flowing eastward by wire and mail these mid-April days.

Relman Morin, Coast writer, solemnly assures (via a Los Angeles daily) that “it’s a losing proposition to be a movie star,” and that “the average man, making $50 a week, can save more than the average actor, making $1,500.” And Dan Thomas, who “covers” filmdom for the NEA, spotlights “Hollywood paupers,” a species of humanity who are “by-products of the motion picture industry only.”



Mr. Morin, detailing the sad plight of the $1,000 a week laborer in Elder Hays’ vineyard, says:

“Take a $1000-a-week player. That might not have been terrific in the old days, but it’s highly substantial now. He gets $4,000 a month.

“HOME. Very few of them own their own homes. They rent, usually in Beverly Hills. The average bungalow in that district nicks ‘em from $500 to $1,000 a month to rent.

“AGENT. An agent’s fee is 10 per cent of the total salary. I don’t know anyone except Maurice Chevalier who struggles along without a business manager. There goes another $400.

“INCOME TAX. Under the new law, it runs nearly 20 per cent. Bang, another $800 shot. (We’ve now ruined at least $2,000 of that $4,000.)

“FOOD AND DRINK (particularly drink). Counting parties, this item will hover around the $500-a-month mark. You could list ‘entertainment’ as a separate item, and average $200 a month.

“CLOTHES. For an actress it will run at least $1,000 a month. The average actor spends from $500 to $700 a month. (Barometer says $3,000 or more is in other people’s pockets.)

“BEAUTY. Once again, you can count the man down. But the actress, with a masseur, a hair-dresser, a manicurist, et al., is doing well if she gets out for $200 a month.

“SCATTERED ITEMS. Such as servants, maintenance of the house, maintenance of a car, personal publicity, maintenance of a family (relatives,) charities and a couple dozen others. My manager-friend tells me the victim is lucky if he gets out for less than $1,000 a month on all of these.

“The grand total, in case you’ve lost count, is about $4,500.”

Mr. Morin, of course, expects you to shed an honest tear or two for the actor or actress who pays $500 to $1,000 a month rent and whose “food and drink (particularly drink)” expenditures hit $500 or better, and who must “keep up appearances” – servants, cars, etc. – at a cost of $1,000.

Here again, however, I fear Hollywood employs the wrong tactics. Oh, yes, I know that familiar argument which runs “If I fail to put on a ‘front,’ I am doomed; giving parties, driving expensive motors and all the rest are essential if I am to stay in the swim.”



Perhaps there are instances, too, where it holds true. Gloria Swanson is a case in point. There have been no end to stories regarding Gloria’s financial status. Many will tell you that she is, or at least was practically “broke.” Yet Gloria never has given up her beautiful Beverly Hills mansion, her imported limousine or her servants. From outside appearances there never has been a time when Rockefeller had a thing on her.

Had it not been for that continued display of wealth, many contend Gloria probably would not be in the picture business today. Swanson wearing the latest Paris creation and riding in a Rolls Royce has become almost a tradition in Hollywood.

But Swanson in a cheap ready-made suit, riding in a battered flivver, wouldn’t get past the studio gateman! She found that out once because she tried it for a lark. She dressed in cheap, poorly-fitting clothes, changed her hairdress and went calling on casting directors in search of work – using a fictitious name of course. None of them could be bothered.



On the other hand, lavish expenditures failed to bolster the careers of either Francis X. Bushman or Charles Ray. The former at one time had a fortune of $7,000,000; he spent them and today is a self-confessed pauper. His stellar career also has long since ended. Yet Bushman clings to “front” although it failed dismally to protect his film prestige; when he left the courtroom where he testified in his bankruptcy case, an expensive car and chauffeur were waiting at the curb.



Ray was another who falsely trusted “appearance for appearances sake.” A few years ago when Charles met with financial reverses he kept up the show to the very last minute. Before anyone dreamed of the condition of his failing bank account, he staged a party which seldom has been equaled for lavishness. Nothing was omitted – orchestras, entertainers, champagne and a lavish dinner being provided for the entertainment of his guests. Dancing continued until almost daybreak. And the next day newspaper headlines told those guests that Charles was bankrupt! He could have lived modestly for at least a year with what he spent on that one party, which presumably was designed to attract offers from those he entertained.

The bland assurance that, after all, player salaries represent but a small fraction of each dollar expended in movie making comes from the Fox Film Corporation. Sixteen coppers represent the actor’s split, covering not only the star paychecks but those handed feature players and extra players as well.