Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-28
The Snoring Picture cAlbum
By Robert E. Sherwood
N electrical engineer once looked
\ upon Niagara Falls, shook his
j head sadly and remarked, It's
f6n 81 n

A N electrical engineer once looked
~ upon Niagara Falls, shook his
"A head sadly and remarked, IT'S
4 the most gorgeous waste of op-
portunity known to man."
He was wrong. Niagara Falls may
be the second most gorgeous waste,
but the first and foremost is to be
found in Hollywood. In the citadel of
the cinema money and talent are
squandered with a profligacy that Is
astounding and awesome and horrifying.
Recently Veritable tempest was pro-
voked by that mild and gentle Briton,
P. G. Wodehouse, who confessed in prirt
that within the past year he had drawn
S104.000 in salary from Goldwyn-
Mayer and hid provide in return not
one scrap OF disable material This
statement was considered a brutal
breach of good taste, for the Hollywood
ethical code dictates that it Is permis-
sible, even admirable, for one to get the
graft. but that one must never brag
about it, Mr. Wodehouse, it is felt,
should rave Endorsed and deposited the
checks and kept his mouth shut. BY
broadcasting the news OF his fantastic
earnings he has only made 1t more diff
cult for his brother authors to get away
with the profitable idleness that has
made Hollywood both notorious and
popular.
However, in my opinion, Mr.. Wode-
houses chief crime is that he didn't
tell the whole truth. He should have
added that he is an extraordinarily in
dustriouS and conscientious worker, and
that he has taken his obligations seri-
ously while under contract to Metro
Goldwyn- Mayer. He has done phe-
nomenal amount of work. turning out
one story after another, laboring ear
nestly to earn his wages. Presumably
his employer, the benevolent Mr.. Mayer,
has inspected the Wodehouse compost
tions and decided that they fall short
of the high standard required in Metro
Goldwyn- Mayer productions--the stand
ard established By Ursula Parrot in
The Divorce" and Strangers May
Kiss
For those Of us who know Mr.. Wode-
houses works and who recognize him as
master of comic characterizations and
dialogue it is rather hard to believe
that he could have written dozens of
manuscripts containing no disable mate
rial. Indeed, shall go so far as to
express the opinion that Mr. Mayer and
his fellow executives should be sent to
a reform school and taught to read.
The loss of S104 900 is no cause for
lamentation, even though it is going
"
ing thought that P. G. Wodehouse
should have spent year of his valu-
able life casting pearls before the Metro
Goldwyn lion.
X
ONE can name innumerable depress-
~ ing instances of the wastage that
goes on forever in Hollywood-thousands
upon thousands of manuscripts, bought
and paid for and now repoSing hope
lessly on shelves. and millions of feet of
film, produced at vast expense and (be-
cause somebody blundered) never re-
leased to the public. But the most
grievous wastes of all are those that
aren't SO easily tabulated or reckoned
In terms Of dollars and cents.
For instance, there is Erich Won
S!roheim, one Of the lamentably few
figures m movie history who might be
labeled with that misused term,
genius" Don Herold once defined