The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-03-04
Copyright. 1923, by North American Newspaper Alliance for The
 Birmingham Age-Herald)

Newspaper Alliance for The
 Birmingham Age-HeraldD
 LOS ANGELES. Cal. March 3.-"If you'll not use my name I'll talk frankly and explain to you why we cannot break what I call the vicious circle of gambling on dangerous stars"
 It was the head of one of the Dig five" among the motion picture pro- ducers who was talking to me in his private office in the executive suite of sof the largest lots in Hollywood. His plea was made after I had asked him why he did not make motion picture producing a business instead of continuing 1t as a gamble.
 "A gamble? What do you mean ?" he asked.
 T mean why do you continue to risk money by producing costly films, starring this and that person. when you know that in their cases fright ful scandals are likely to break any day, scandals which would put their films forever on the shelves, as Ar buckles last three films were shelved."
 There are only a couple of scan dals threatening my lot" he parried.
 "I know of eight" I retorted.
 He looked scared. "Eight?"
 "I know of only four, what are the other four?"
 It was then he explained what l called gambling" and what he called the vicious circle"
 Take the case of a man or woman star whom we may have under a five-year contract. Say we have literally. made this or that star fla nous by careful direction and costly exploitation. After two or three years we find out that his or her private life is of such a charac CT that divorce suit. an alienation of affections suit, or a breach of prom ise suit, may be filed any day-a suit of kind that would delight the yellow press and make the reformers clamor to have the star in question barred from the screen. "In nearly every case we have two or three finished pictures on hand by each star awaiting release, and we are usually at work on still an other with much cash involved. What can we do? If we cancel the contract on the morality clause, some
 
 on the chances of flushing up the threatened expose will probably sign our star and make hints of money on the exploitation we have done. Then again the threatened suits may never be filed. or they may be with out merit-mere- tales made up for black mailing purposes. In the latter case we could not with justice cancel the contract with the star. All we can do is to keep on investing money in more films by the same star trusting to luck or providence that the scandal will never become known to the public.
 Mind you, in nearly every case of this kind the finished films will rep resent from $300,000 to more than s5OO,000. We are simply forced by the weight of this money to go on taking chances"
 And when you multiply these fig ures by eight" I reminded him.
 He. paled and began to talk about will Hays
 Powers of Hays.
 This gave me the opportunity I | wanted-an excuse for asking what part Hays would or could play in |. cases of the kind we had been dis cussing.
 Hollywood is full of rumors," I | told him, which are injuring Mr. Hays position. For instance, it is said that in the | case of--and--M Hays re- | ceived a letter from the woman star l declaring that if the man star did l not marry her she would "startle nfruD xtyif m- | ise suit. Rumor has it that the man married the woman under pressure l that their. married life has been 2 failure and that now, though each one wants a divorce, because of wish to marry some one else-divorce proceedings are forbidden under pen alty of being barred from the screen. Another harmful rumor has 1t that | the wife of man well known in film circles wrote to Hays saying she would sue for divorce and "bloiy the lid off unless 1t was arranged that when her husband was work | ing in the east certain woman star must be working in the west and vice versa.
 I seemed to be on dangerous ground. The producer flushed, shifted uneasiiy In his chair. and gazed frowningly out at the .alms and pepper trees instead of meeting my eyes.
 ridiculous" he said at last. If ; letters of this kind ever have been 1 sent to Hays l know he took no action. He could not take any ac- tion-has no power to act in such cases. If he has ever received such letters (and l do not admit he has) | all he could or would do would be to mail them to the producers for l whom the stars are working under l contract. They would have to act as they deemed best in each indi- vidual case"
 O O O Screen ChUnges.
 Meanwhile the business of signing stars, near stars and directors Under new contract goes merrily on and 1 some astonishing shifts in connec- l tions are being made. One of the most surprising new alignments of the week has been the signing of | Frank Mayo for years a Universal star. by. the Goldwyn Pictures cor ! poration.