Evening star., 1938-07-19

eIiliihiiS VI WORKING up 10 fortune
(or possibly merely enough to pay the
hospital bilD in films, may be chosen
on one OF two bases-natural prefer
ence, or the amount of money it may
bring in. OF the former, we can only
say that 1t is coo individual, personal
for discussion here, but with regard
TO stunts based upon salary, we have
become what amounts to an authority
F. 1T is money alone, at rather long
odds, that the ambitious girl de-
sires, the trick to learn is transferring
from airplane to airplane in midair.
Under the new scale of prices pay,
or whatever the term may be. this is
the highest-paid stunt in the entire
field. 1t nets $3.50 per day, by far
the most profitable trick a girl can
master, the margin of profit, of course,
predicated on the degree of danger
involved. Commercial aviation people
who possibly may resent the implica-
ton that changing planes in midair
remains as difficult as all that can
take up the matter with movie
organization knows as the Riding and
Stunt Girls Association. That is the
outfit which fixed the pay scale. We
are merely writing about it-and
taking no sides.
Next most profitable in the line of
tricks to practice for a while before
going to Hollywood-where there may
be 5000 other girls more proficient,
we warn you-is called officially tar
get standing" THAT is a lot more
than William Tells son got Tor the
same thing, and he was being shot at
with merely an arrow, but the younger
Tell lived long before the cinema was
spawned by the genius of man. The
Sl00 is minimum for being target
standing for the salary scale speci-
fies when it is necessary to use a
girl as live target actually fired at,
the price is by agreement. There is
no fixed price. 1t starts usually at
$780, And, if the Riding and Stunt
Girls Association does not mind
comment based upon observation of
the nerves and craftsmanship of some
of HollyWood's target users, it seems
worth at least that much
Car turnoverS, piquant little item
in the list of stunts which the auto
mobile industry may want to challenge
in view of the sturdineSs of recent
models, are worth SlO0 each (mini-
NUM-. That minimum" may have
significance not perceptible to the un-
practiced eye, but it exists strangely
enough as a parenthesis behind every
automobile stunt. regardless of pay or
character. Automobile crashes are $50
| (mlnimum) and skids. which ought to
convey warning to those who think
they might be fun, are SIS (mini-
NUM-.
WILD animals, judging wild animals
by the price scale, are infinitely
| more the friends of humans than any
of the things mentioned above, air.
planes. guns or automobiles. In fact
they sound practically amiable. Ham
ding wild animals nets merely S35
day under the latest scale, the same
as underwater work, trick riding. rid
ing bucking horses and pick-ups and
| plck-offS from horses. Net falls and
/ being suspended by wire are two other
tricks you can master if, as an ambi-
tiouS girl stunter in the movies, you
ere content with none of the other
S35-a-day neck riskings.
If any one has been encouraged to
contemplate a future as a stunter in
, Hollywood as a result of the prices
paid for the various aspects of the art,
let her try to remember any movie
in which she has seen any of the
stunts performed. Let her, even more
| to the point, remember that there
probably are hundreds of candidates
for every job of the kind which bobs
up in a movie script. The chances
of any kind of stunting work, Holly
wood is the first and loudest to admit,
are very slim.
So, in spite of any inducement that
may be implied in the price scale, it
is better perhaps to avoid all the tricks
and live normally long life which
probably would not be nearly so dull as
waiting in vain for an opportunity to
change planes in midair for $3.50. Such
an opportunity hardly ever arises!
X X X X
EIRST person on the phone yester-
day was Dan Terrell. Mr.. Terrell
wanted to tell the ex-Miss O'Hara
mentioned in yesterdays column
that Warner Bros have just completed
a comedy starring Rosalind Russell.
And that they are using her in another
in which she steals Enroll Flynn from
Olivia De Havilland in the battle for
the leading mans love Port of
Seven Seas" starring Wallace Beery,
will be screened today. 1t is next at
Loew's Capitol. Loew'S Capitol, Of
course, is the theater where Diane
Christenberry, featured with Phil
Lampkin, is stopping the show with
her soprano solos. Stopping it rather
regularly. too.
AUA